I saw someone experience one of my own personal nightmares the other day.
Their event had completely flopped.
Lots of people had booked…
And no one showed up.
They’d posted about it on LinkedIn, but what struck me was that their frustration was aimed at the people who hadn’t come.
And I have to admit, I looked at it very differently…
Because I’ve had events where attendance has been disappointing.
In fact, one of our Treasury Career Corner LIVE events was probably the toughest one we’ve ever run.
Everything that could have gone wrong did.
The venue turned out to be much harder to reach than I’d realised.
It was the end of a long working day, so people were already tired.
One of my panellists had to pull out at the last minute.
It would have been very easy to blame the people who didn’t show up.
But honestly… how could I?
No one owes me their evening.
People have jobs and families. Trains get delayed. Meetings overrun. Life can get in the way.
If someone decides my event isn’t worth attending, or they simply can’t make it, that’s my problem to solve, not theirs.
So instead of getting annoyed, I asked myself a different question:
What could I do better?
And that one event has changed how we run ALL of our events today.
We make sure the location is easy to get to.
We became more selective about our speakers.
We thought far more carefully about the experience from the moment someone arrives.
And another big change came after I noticed something at another of our events…
There were several name badges left on the registration desk at the end of the evening. Most belonged to treasurers in junior roles. And that made me wonder…
Maybe the event wasn’t giving enough value to people earlier in their treasury careers?
I could’ve complained that they hadn’t turned up, but instead, we created something specifically for them.
Our new Ask the Treasurer sessions now give junior treasury professionals the opportunity to sit down with experienced Group Treasurers and ask whatever they want.
The response to Ask the Treasurer has been incredible.
People have told me how much they’ve enjoyed the sessions, but the biggest proof is that more junior treasury professionals are now turning up.
And more bums in seats tells me we created something they genuinely value.
So I don’t believe in shaming people who don’t attend your event.
Frankly, I think that’s just rude.
My job is to make the next event so good that people don’t want to miss it.
Of course, attending an event during or after a busy working day takes effort.
But it is also an investment in yourself.
An investment in your network, your knowledge and your treasury career.
And surely that’s worth making time for?
Best regards,
Mike
P.S. Our next Treasury Career Corner LIVE events are already filling up for this year! If you’d like to join us, I’d love to see you there. You can find all the upcoming events and locations here.
