Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Once again I delve into the question, but what was the objective?

I find myself planning events more than previously. At least I find myself involved in planning events. And, as I have written before, I tend to ask some variation of, “What is the objective?”

I have been involved with many events where the after-event review concluded with the title of this post. People were happy they attended the event. That is a good thing as happiness is a good thing (at least I believe so).

But, and yes I must introduce a “but,” did you accomplish your objective of the event? If the objective was happiness, the event was a success. If the objective was learning, the event was a failure. I can replace “learning” in the previous sentence with a few dozen other words that would lead me to the same conclusion.

Allow me to emphasize this:

A great time had by me does not make an event a success.

I can think of a lot of ways to have a great time. Most are far less costly than an event that consumes a lot of resources from a lot of persons.