Event Report

Alright, I'll admit it--I thought the event was going to be a bust. At least, I thought that at first. But that was before I actually started inviting people and getting excited about the things we were going to be talking about. I think I was just feeling stubborn. Anyway once I let myself feel a little more invested in the event, and once I started to put in a real effort to invite people, I got pretty excited. I definitely think that excitement paid off because the event was awesome! We had a pretty good turn out- both physical and online, and I thought all of the presentations were interesting, engaging, and thought provoking. So hats off to everyone!

As for my contribution to our audience, here's the report:

Word of Mouth/ Flyers

Not surprisingly, I started by inviting my parents. They showed interest both in the business presentations (biased I guess) and the science presentation, so they said they would tune in online. Next, I invited my Sara Plater, who is currently studying biology and may switch over to biological education, so she was interested in the science and education groups. She came to the event and thought it was great. I then invited David Gabrielsen, a biochemistry major who has actually shown interest in taking the class in the future. He wasn't able to attend in person, but he said he would check it out online. Next, I invited Davi Johnson and her brother Dalton Johnson, both of whom love TED talks. Davi caught the end of the event and her brother saw the webcast. Finally, I invited my co-worker, Alicia Pixton, a bioinformatics major, and my employer, Dr. Jessica Purcell, a professor in the math department. Alicia was unable to attend, but Dr. Purcell said she and her husband would try to check it out. 

Facebook Event

I invited most of my Provo area friends to attend the event. This wasn't particularly successful, as the only people the RSVP'd were in the class, and the only other person that responded at all declined immediately. 

Email... to friends

Marty, Jeanette, and Rachel Brooks, a family from my home ward recently moved out to Utah, so I invited them to attend the event in person. They have a thriving business and they expressed interest in some of the ideas that we would be talking talking about in our presentation. Unfortunately they had family in town and weren't able to attend, but they said they would watch the live stream. Next, I emailed each of the five people that I interviewed for our chapter - Chris Harris, Ken Clark, Kim Lake, Mimi Knudsen, and Maggie Wirtanen - and sent them both a draft of our chapter asking for feedback and an invitation to watch the event online. I haven't heard back from all of them yet, but those who have responded expressed interest in watching the event and said they would check out the chapter.

Email... to big shots

After hearing the many social proof success stories, I decided to try my hand at it. Well, I am here to tell you it doesn't always work. That's ok though, it was worth a shot. I emailed two of the thought leaders/ authors we listed at the end of our chapter. Vijay Govindarajan, a professor at Dartmouth and the 3rd most prominent thinker in the business industry right now (according Thinkers50), did actually respond to my email, which was pretty cool. Unfortunately though, he responded only by pointing me toward another one of his books. It's fine though. Scott Anthony, author of The Silver Lining: an Innovation Playbook for Uncertain Times, didn't respond. That's fine too I suppose, it still felt pretty liberating to try. 

During the event, I sat in mortal terror until I presented. Haha I'm sort of kidding, but mostly serious when I say that I was too nervous to distract myself with twitter. Lame? Probably, but I feel like running through the presentation in my head for an hour should probably count as some sort of participation. 

In all, I'm very happy with the turnout and with the execution of the event. I think it's really amazing that we pulled something like that off, and I hope I'll be able to have more authentic learning experiences in the future.