What are effective strategies for organizing and facilitating collaborative thought leadership events?

Events should have a clear purpose, like educating or inspiring. But what about taking a contrarian twist? Why not aspire to confuse? Or to shock? Aim to leave attendees scratching their heads in delightful bewilderment. Unpredictability can be the spice that keeps them coming back for more.

In my experience, the key to a successful collaborative thought leadership event lies in having a clear vision. It's vital to know whether the goal is to educate, inspire, or persuade, and to understand the specific audience you want to reach. This clarity shapes the event's content and direction, whether it's aimed at a particular niche or industry, or focuses on showcasing your brand or co-creating value. Effective planning and a well-defined purpose are the cornerstones of impactful events.

I think it all starts with having a strong purpose as to why you want to do an event in the first place. Ensuring you are completely clear about what outcomes you want to achieve will help you develop clarity in your deliverables. And sometimes the impact is when you make them feel uncomfortable. I always begin by revealing some facts that would help the audience realise that it is somewhat of a wake-up call for them. It does take time but the core focus must be to see what value you plan to deliver that will stick.

Before planning a thought leadership event, please define clear goals (such as raising awareness, education, and inspiration) and identify your target audience (specific niche, industry, sector) to make sure it's relevant and impactful.

My 2 cents on this: Create clear event objectives, ensuring they align with thought leadership goals. Curate a diverse panel of experts and thought leaders. Employ interactive formats like Q&A sessions and workshops to engage participants. Leverage virtual or physical platforms for inclusivity. Promote the event across channels and encourage pre-event discussions. Provide resources for ongoing learning, such as post-event summaries or additional readings. Foster networking through breakout sessions or online forums. Gather feedback for continuous improvement and maintain a follow-up plan for sustained collaboration.

Selecting the format and platform for your thought leadership event hinges on your specific objectives and the audience you aim to engage. Consider diverse options like webinars for educational content, podcasts for in-depth discussions, panel talks for diverse viewpoints, workshops for interactive learning, or roundtables for collaborative dialogue. Choose a platform that suits your format: live streaming for real-time engagement, video conferencing for interactive sessions, social media for broader reach, or a specialized website for a curated experience. Balance the benefits, technical needs, and costs of each option, ensuring they cater to your audience's accessibility and interaction preferences.

Some major issues that arise when leaders sit down to discuss leadership, is that they assume they all speak the same language, apply the same definitions to the words they use, and fail to identify a specific process, and time frame for their work. Each of these issues needs to be addressed in order to establish a meaningful environment for achieving the best outcomes. Thus, a comprehensive response would require delving into each of these topics separately, which is not possible here. However, one very strong tool is to use the " Ben Franklin" approach to problem solving. That is divide a whiteboard, or platform, viewed simultaneously, placing one topic at a time on the board, then identify the pros and cons of that topic.

In my experience, the success of a thought leadership event hinges on the right format and platform choice. Options like webinars, podcasts, or workshops should align with goals and audience needs. Considerations include the pros and cons of live streaming, video conferencing, or social media, alongside technical requirements and costs. Ensuring accessibility and interactivity for participants is essential for impactful engagement.

Your choice of platform is quite important. Be sure to consider the involved collaborators, your audience & the topic at hand. Bear in mind as well, that the platform that you select will often also impact how a message resonate. A good rule of thumb that I would always recommend is to keep things simple & straight forward.

Well thought post event activities, will foster a sense of community and thus encourage meaningful connections. Post event could be a digital/virtual space for ongoing collaboration bringing all back for a fun/recreational activity &/or regular virtual networking events.

In my experience, transforming thought leadership events as a potential cohort of industry voices will keep the dialogue going even after the event and have leaders keep coming back to it. It’s essential to translate them into an experience of meaningful conversations for the participants.

Finding people that you trust is gonna be the key when looking for collaborators for your thought leadership. This also helps you with networking and building relationships because your network wants to contribute to your articles. I frequently send a survey to my contacts asking them to contribute with some thoughts. This helps me stay top of mind with them but also builds a relationship.

In my experience, successful collaborative thought leadership events hinge on strategic partner selection. It's crucial to identify collaborators who align with your vision, values, and audience. Diverse perspectives enrich the event, but shared goals ensure coherence. Effective communication is key: provide clear guidelines and regular updates to maintain engagement and clarity. Providing adequate support and information to your partners facilitates smooth collaboration and a more impactful event.

Encouraging input is key! Build a culture that values everyone’s ideas and encourages collaborators to freely share perspectives. When you combine thoughtful invitations, clear expectations, and enough support, you create a collaborative environment that maximizes everyone’s contributions.

To ensure the success of a collaborative thought leadership event, a multifaceted promotion strategy is essential. Utilize channels like email, social media, blogs, podcasts, and media outreach to attract and engage your target audience. Create content that highlights the event's theme, agenda, and speakers, emphasizing its value. Encourage audience interaction through registration prompts, Q&A sessions, feedback opportunities, and avenues for connecting with speakers. This approach not only boosts attendance but also fosters active participation and networking.

On the event day, professionalism and enthusiasm are key. Ensure smooth execution and engaging presentations. As a moderator, facilitate meaningful discussions and interactions. Acknowledging and thanking participants is crucial. Post-event, follow up with attendees and collaborators, providing them with recordings, slides, and additional resources. This not only extends the event's impact but also fosters ongoing engagement and strengthens relationships for future collaborations. It's a vital step in building a sustained community around your thought leadership initiatives.

Without proper Follow-Up full success is virtually impossible. Proper Follow-Up gives you an opportunity to do service recovery when required and to reinforce your messages. Additionally, Proper Follow-Up helps to develop relationships that are mutually beneficial and longer lasting.

Choose your collaborators well. Invite them for their strengths and collective wisdom that can contribute to enrich partnership and thought leadership. Let minds meet first before collaborating. This ensures collective ideas have the strength and potency to achieve results quicker and accurately.

Couldn’t agree more ! Collaborative thought leadership would either involve thought leaders from a single fraternity discussing a common topic or thought leaders from different walks collaborating to create value for the event. In my opinion, in either case, when thought leaders meet, their overall ideologies on the subject should not be clashing, else it would hijack the main purpose of collaboration & turn into a debate. Hence, establishing the fundamental thought process & voice of the thought leaders is essential before bringing them together on a forum.

Overall, Events should be considered a TOOL in your tool box. They are not to be used for just one end goal. You can literally design an event to achieve any goal you are looking to achieve...i.e. Raise Money, Sell Product, Engage Employees, Increase Sales, Generate Brand Alignment, Generate PR, Create Content, etc. etc. The List is truly limitless. By knowing where you want to go at the end of the event, you are able to design an event that will get you there.