Meetings Blog Feb 24, 2020
The quotations that become famous do so for a reason, often providing us with deeper insight, inspiration or another emotional link. In our series we reflect on various famous quotes and how they can be used to feed the demands of meeting and event planners. Today: Larry Page.
Always deliver more than expected
In 1998, two Stanford University friends launched what was the result of their research project, which had an objective of organizing the colossal volume of information available on the World Wide Web. Their search engine was created to provide users with a list of pages where the most popular and, by assumption, most useful pages were itemized first. That website is more than a household name now – it is even used as a verb for searching online – one that was inspired by the mathematical term ‘googol’, which refers to the number 1 to the power 100. Those two young men were Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Google was born.
As a regular member of Forbes’ richest and most powerful people since the start of the new century, Page’s quotes took hold as he introduced new management styles and structures with a focus on engineering, teamwork and efficiency. The line above was one of those uttered by the self-made billionaire, and one that gives us a good insight into the objectives that he set for himself as well as for those around him. Everyone has expectations of you. Clients and customers will have their impression of what they will receive, whether a product or a service. Your job, articulates the Google founder, is to go beyond that, and by doing so you will stay ahead of the competition, and make a name for yourself in the industry.
For event planners the idea of over-delivering for your attendees is especially pertinent, with numerous examples. Everyone will expect your social media interaction, so what can you include to surprise and catch their attention? Acceptable technology solutions are par for the course these days, but is there a cutting-edge option that you can deploy? There could be a preconceived sense that the presentation will be passive, so how about turning it into an active debate? Sustenance, of course, is a certainty at the meeting breaks, so consider how you can truly tantalize the taste buds. And then there’s the challenge of finding a venue that not only ticks the boxes for a successful event but that wows your guests in terms of location, green standards, facilities and everything else imaginable.
By delivering more than what is expected, you can be sure that your event is going to get the reaction you want. First, your objectives are more than likely to be met. Then there’s the strong word of mouth that will follow – these days of the online variety – and a positive desire to be part of any related future meetings you undertake. Always remember the advice of Larry Page and see just how far you can exceed expectations. You’ll maybe find yourself higher up the Google search pages too.
