As many of you know, I had a big hand in co-creating the Engaging for Growth conference earlier this year. I came up with the name, wrote nearly all the online content, compiled a special newspaper for the event, convinced all (bar one) of our great speakers to join us, and convinced the good people at TED to let us show Dan Pink’s Science of Motivation video (as far as I know this was a world first). And though I say so myself, the event was largely successful. It was good fun, we created a buzz, a sense of community. We got lots of lovely feedback about how we’d managed to make the day a little different from the normal, run of the mill event. Most importantly we met lots of great new people.

But still I was disappointed. I don’t think we delivered to our full potential and though I learned a lot from the event management company I worked with, too often I made compromises to suit a rather staid formula. You know, the kind of formula that results in event fatigue. People feeling, it was OK, at best. We did much better than that but still not good enough. I don’t blame the event management company. I’m responsible. I should have had the courage to stand up fully for what I believe in. So today, I’m closing the Engaging for Growth chapter.

Tomorrow I will write about the next stage. Engaging Leadership 2010. This time there will be no event management company. Just me and my associate Ian Price, and a whole bunch of friends and genuine experts in support. This time we will dare to be different. And I can hardly wait for tomorrow to tell you more about it.