Why hold a Summit?
The bulk of the summit event was an impressive feat, with a fantastic collection of young and established senior speakers sharing their insights and the social impact they were responsible for. The annual event aims to bring together the young generation of change-makers, social entrepreneurs, activists and philanthropists, to name a few, so that they can learn from each other's experiences, to connect and build relationships.
Naturally, the event and the organisation cannot exist without financial support. This comes from corporate sponsors and executive partners, some of which pay to have their young and brightest staff attend in-person or digitally. Also, there was an abundance of celebrities, returning speakers, politicians, artists, activists, and journalists, all bringing their own flavour to the series of presentations. The more popular or perhaps more controversial the lineup of speakers, the more social media attention it attracts and possibly, with it, more funding from companies.
It is the hope of the organisation and its affiliates that "delegates" come away from the four days of socialising, networking, and learning, better equipped to tackle the problems that they or others in their community are suffering from. These issues are wide-ranging, and many would deem them to be insurmountable: many delegates choose to tackle a few of the Sustainable Development Goals, and you could forgive one for questioning how a young leader could even begin to appreciate the scale of the problems they are trying to solve off the back of a four-day event (even with generous funding from the sponsors). Suffice it to say, if the event enlightens and inspires, and the delegates go on to create social impact, however small or enduring, then the success of the summit is proven. Of course, covering all the overhead expenses and turning some profit is always a good thing.
A brief of the role I had behind stage
Typically, the duties of crew staff working for the digital team include:
- Cross-referencing between in-person agenda dates/times/topics against the digital platform. The agenda topics constantly change before and during the event which has been the source of rampant miscommunication and inevitably means irritated attendees. Arguably this happens at any similar event as speakers drop out or talk for too long.
- Resolving or escalating online attendees' questions on the digital platform. Tech support at its finest: a job that few appreciate on the customer side nor want to do as a client-facing role.
- In-person registration help-desk a.k.a the gauntlet, or the firing-line. Very similar to above, but without the comfort of separation behind a screen or the time to think through questions and formulate thorough answers.
- Moderating Zoom meetings between already established activists and business leaders who have kindly donated their time to share their experiences with event attendees. Unfortunately, some of these sessions have few participants. Maybe they could not locate the meeting invite on the digital platform. Or they were delayed from other sessions. Or they forgot or couldn't be bothered. Unfortunately, without enough attendance, it leaves the host with a questionable sense of whether their time was valued or maybe a bruised ego.
- Small tasks such as collecting things for other teams, helping to setup work stations, delegating tasks with volunteers etc.
Pain-points that events like these bring
Probably the most noticeable one is how silo work culture is laid bare between teams. I can't think of a solution to stop this happening as with large staff numbers and herding 1.9k attendees to various meetings and workshops is no small feat- it makes sense to assign teams their main jobs and hold them accountable. The problem it seems is when delays to the schedule of meetings have a knock-on effect for other teams work and ultimately it's the attendee who pays for it.
It could be forward-thinking to build into the agenda some buffer time slots should delays occur. We experienced several delays mostly due to technical issues where we as a team and an organisation lost a lot of credibility with our affiliates. Perhaps with this cushion of time we would be better prepared.
The agenda setup was intense: a main presentation stage with main attraction content from 9am to 12.30, a break from 12.30 to 2pm, then continue with the main stage 2pm to around 5pm. There were three company sponsored smaller stages with more focussed content live during the break and from 5pm to 18.30 as well as in-person workshops scattered throughout the day. On top of that, there was online pre-recorded videos for both sets of attendees but digital workshops assigned to digital delegates only. Because of the tight schedule and lack of breaks, as well as a plethora of content for attendees, no doubt it would leave the delegate in a state of confusion as to where they needed to be and when and what content was available to them. It only dawned on me the state of affairs towards the end of the summit how to find the timings and locations of each type of content, I can only imagine how frustrating that must have been for guests.
Perhaps the saddest pain-point was witnessing a number of my colleagues change their behaviour under sustained stress. So far from the comfort of the office environment did I see them transform. Some resorted to name calling and arguing, unfortunately in line of sight of delegates, others were brought to tears. I think for some working back stage, it is an enjoyable experience, networking with new people, perhaps catching up with familiar faces, watching over other teams perhaps. For the lower-level employees, the story is very different with a lot of running around, doing grunt work, facing the complaints of attendees and the blame of your superiors, whilst also being paid less for it. It certainly leaves a sour taste in the mouth and it is now unsurprising why the turnover in staff is high.
Was it Worth It?
For the crew staff, that depends on how passionate they are about the mission of the organisation, how well recognised their work and their troubles are i.e are they professionally and financially compensated for their efforts.
We would have to look at the feedback for in-person and digital delegates to be sure but from passing conversations of attendees, from their body language and their engagement with presentations, we are comfortable in saying that it made a significant difference in the lives of these future leaders. Working behind the scenes, we can take comfort in that knowledge over what the cynics and pessimists believe.