I’ve been thinking lately about the difference between mistakes and failure, especially when expectations for leaders and events are high and a lot of people depend on things to go well.

Because even in well-managed projects, mistakes happen.

Personally, I wish they didn’t. As a perfectionist, I don’t ever want mistakes. Yet I know communication gets missed. Someone misunderstands expectations. A detail falls through the cracks. Sometimes the mistake is small and, yes, sometimes it leads to big consequences. Still, I don’t call these mistakes failures.
To me, failure is more deeply connected to what happens – or doesn’t happen – after the mistake.

Do we spend our energy figuring out whose fault it was?

Or do we learn from it? Do we adjust? Do we communicate honestly about what happened and what needs to change moving forward?
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That difference matters.

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.

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?

​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:

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.

At a recent networking event, somebody asked Anita what her favorite project management tools are.
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Anita’s answer: she doesn’t have any. As experienced project managers, we use the tools our clients are most comfortable with. Our clients’ favorite tools become ours.
 
The question, however, prompted us to think about our favorite things. What helps us find beauty in the world? In our work? In our lives?
 
At Reach Partners, we emphasize values and process. We celebrate the relationships we build through trust. So, you likely won’t be surprised to see that many of our favorite things are experiences and traditions, ways of connecting with others. Others are simply things that make us smile as we do our job.
 
It turns out we do have a list of favorites! Here they are:

You might know Reach Partners for one type of project—meeting facilitation or event strategy and execution. But did you know our work extends across a wide range of industries and needs?

At Reach Partners, we love helping organizations turn ideas into action. Our work varies, but our purpose remains the same: to extend the capacity of leaders and teams and guide projects from vision to completion.
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One way we showcase our work is through case studies. These real-world examples highlight how we become a trusted partner, helping clients navigate challenges, prioritize solutions, and bring their projects to life.

Reach Partners is fortunate to share office space with a voracious reader. To nobody’s surprise, none of us hesitated to start an interoffice book club when Rachel suggested we read a book together.

The three of us are now on our second book. We don’t have a hard schedule. We jointly determine how much to read for our next discussion, and I find an hour on our calendars that works well with other work obligations.
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We are reading Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert. Two of us have read it before, but reading it again is not only helpful but insightful. I find this true of so many personal development books.