I have posted this message in several pieces each designed to add value to your MGMA 2010 experience by providing you a "back stage pass" to the process behind the presentation. Brief descriptions are provided so you can pick and choose those that are most applicable to you. The entire series is attached to this first posting as well. To fill your need for acronyms I have made up my own which I hope you will enjoy as well.
OCMP: Obsessive Compulsive Meeting Planner (The DSM number is soon to be released)
Like many of you who put on events, I regularly experience conferences as a participant and a presenter, and from the perspective of a meeting planner. By far the most challenging of these roles is that of meeting planner; and by the time my "showcase" arrived my OCMP tendencies had my full attention:
1. Technical challenges had us behind schedule
2. The Friday night time slot was frightening
3. The first session's visual production, though compelling in content, had been technologically distracting
4. The immovable center stage podium was a challenge.
5. Posterior and PowerPoint thresholds for tolerance had already been exceeded.
6. It had already been a long day, long week, and an interminable 2009.
7. I had just 30 minutes to make a difference.
In short, I was experiencing exactly the kind of cascading challenges that menace every event planner and medical group in the room. Behind all the strategic objectives, benchmarking results, operational outcomes and a million other activities that fill each day, the only thing that we can truly manage is the moment we are in.
This is the single common thread that connects every Olympic medal winner. Once you have done everything you can to prepare you must let go of the outcome and be in the moment. The next half hour could have been simply an opportunity to lighten the load if even for a few short moments. For me the experience was far more important. It was an opportunity to demonstrate that in difficult times there is nothing as serious or as important as well-directed fun. I use humor because it is a positive entrance to attention, and story because it involves the audience in experiencing a renewed perspective that we all, at our core, remember as being true.