I recently stumbled across this TED Talk from the band OK Go. You may know them from their wildly popular viral videos, such as this choreographed treadmill dance or this one shot from a drone in an abandoned parking lot in Japan.
Lead singer Damian Kulash discusses just how difficult it is to wrestle a creative idea to the ground … and the irony that doing so can also impede your more creative tendencies. In short, the logistics become so complex they kill off the creative notion that sparks our imagination in the first place.
While Kulash addressing the complexities of their music videos in his talk, I think the parallels for event planning are clear. He notes, for instance, that if you have 140 complex interactions and expect each to have a 90 percent success rate, your chances of everything working together smoothly are literally one in a million – and they show their work. I’m sure any event planner can you tell you they feel that pressure instinctively! And 140 “interactions” isn’t uncommon for a large event, like a luxury wedding or conference, so there’s plenty of insight to be gleaned here for making large events feel fresh and creative. Plus they play some music on either side of the talk. Enjoy!