At Reach Partners, we’ve come to rely on speaker meetings as one of the most valuable steps in preparing for a successful event. In fact, we recommend holding speaker meetings prior to every conference.

A typical speaker meeting includes someone from the Reach Partners team, the speaker or panelists, and at least one representative from our client’s team who serves as the content expert.

Speaker Meeting Purpose
At its core, the speaker meeting is about alignment.
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First, it gives everyone a chance to meet, in person or over Zoom. This initial connection goes a long way in building comfort and collaboration before the event.

After every major event we produce, there’s one thing we schedule:  a rest day.
 
I grew up hearing my grandmother call herself “lazy bones” while maintaining an immaculate house, baking cakes (yes, plural), preparing meals, caring for others, and leaving behind more in a day than the rest of the family could accomplish in a week.
 
She would say it almost casually, as if it were true.
 
I never believed her, but I did absorb something else: the idea that rest was suspect. That no matter how much had been done, it was never quite enough to justify stopping.
 
I still feel that tension.

Growing up on a farm, I learned to measure the severity of winter weather with one simple question: Can you see the big barn?
 
If the barn across the yard remained visible, we could confidently stick to our plans. When snow, wind, or fog prevented my family from seeing the barn’s massive outline, we knew our expectations for the day had to change.
 
My brother still lives on the farmstead with his family. A few weeks ago, I texted him: “Can you see the barn?” “Not really,” he replied and attached a photo. I couldn’t see the barn in the photo, but that is because the building has been gone for years. Still, it remains a visual cue for our family. When conditions are uncertain, our plans need to evolve.
 
This is true for projects too. Leaders and teams face their own versions of whiteout conditions. Plans are made, but something threatens to knock things off track. At Reach Partners we know how to navigate threats by paying attention to cues, those signals that something needs to change.

​At a recent event, a team member walked down the hallway and found me perched on a comfy bench next to her co-worker, who happened to be our client contact.
 
“How can you two just be sitting here?” she asked. She wasn’t critical, but genuinely curious.
 
It was an honest question. Event days are usually a blur of motion filled with activities like checking rooms, overseeing the registration/check-in table, welcoming attendees with a warm smile, and smoothing out the inevitable surprises. Most people can’t imagine an event planner would ever have time to sit down.
 
This particular event was one we’ve managed for years. In this case, our sitting down was a sign that everything was working exactly as it should.

If you’ve ever had a project fall victim to shifting priorities, raise your hand.

Yep. Us, too.

We have all had projects that stall or “lose steam” along the way. Projects without hard deadlines seem particularly easy to set aside in favor of something that seems more pressing.

But non-urgent projects have value, and that’s what makes it hard. What should you do when something you are excited about has to slide to the back burner? Should you pause, continue, or abandon a project when other tasks demand attention from the team?

We've all been there – staring at a project that should be moving forward but somehow isn't. Anita and I call this feeling "spinning," and it's one of the most frustrating experiences in professional life. Whether you're physically drained, mentally stretched, or working at the edge of your expertise, being stuck on something you know has value feels awful.
 
I've kept a sticky note on my monitor with simple wisdom about how to break free from project paralysis: "What is my understanding of the task? What do deliverables look like? What are the first 3 steps?

​At Reach Partners, we spend a lot of time developing show flow documents.
 
That’s because they are one of the most powerful tools for ensuring an event’s success.
 
A show flow is more than a spreadsheet or a checklist. It’s the operational backbone of your event, the single document that holds the who, what, when, where, and how. Whether your event runs for one hour or spans several days, the show flow becomes the go-to reference that keeps every person, every detail, and every resource aligned.
 
Here are several qualities that make a show flow valuable:

Anita and I have our own language when it comes to giving directions while driving.

When Anita says, “turn right,” I'll promptly turn left. Almost every time. Meanwhile, when I announce that “We need to head north,” she will ask: “Which way is that?”

Apparently, we have complementary directional abilities. I can't tell my left from my right, but I have strong spatial awareness and can almost always point north. Anita can give clear instructions with the confidence of someone who absolutely knows where she's going, but she has no idea which way north is.

Our solution? We acknowledge these shortcomings and turn ourselves into living directional coordinates. Now Anita says “take an Anita” when she needs me to turn toward her side, and “take a Rachel” when we need to turn toward mine. Problem solved.
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In our work at Reach Partners, we’ve learned that client projects also require translation – or a new collective language. After all, communication is more than finding the right words; it’s about making sure everybody understands where we’re heading.

At Reach Partners, we talk about communication a lot. We know the value of the ideal message, the kind that’s carefully crafted, reviewed by others, and sent with intentional timing. The goal is to deliver a message that is thoughtful, clear, and polished. It’s a beautiful thing.
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And yet, we know there are situations where we don’t have time to carefully polish the messages we need to send.