As meeting practitioners, most of us have become familiar with Mr Murphy who arrives uninvited to many of our events. Miss Meet wants him banned.
An event practitioner will perceive that there are four possible ways in which something can go wrong, and circumvent these; then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop. This is thanks to Mr Murphy whose presence turns a fairly smooth run of events into an absolute panic station.
SO WHO IS THIS MR MURPHY?
Somewhat of a high-maintenance guy and to be frank, just a plain nuisance, Mr Murphy is an event manager’s worst nightmare. According to popular definitions, Murphy’s Law is a supposed law of nature, expressed in various humorous popular sayings, to the effect that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
OPEN RELATIONSHIP
In case you think Mr Murphy has a ‘thing’ only for you, don’t be flattered. I have chatted to some colleagues and apparently he is a bit of player and not a one-woman guy. He has been caught red-handed strutting his stuff before, during and after numerous events of late.
Here are just some examples of his more recent shenanigans that various event practitioners have experienced.
THE OLD MAN IS SNORING ‘It never rains in Joburg in winter – until this year when we decided to host our client’s first ever “Winter Wonderland” event on the balcony and deck of their new offices.’
BLUE-LIGHT BRIGADE ‘There is a specific government official that has a record of never being on time – in fact, he is renowned for being up to 45 minutes late on average. The morning of the event, there was a pile-up on the highway into Sandton where our event was being held. Most of our event guests were stuck in this traffic, so normally the government official’s tardiness would be a good thing… except he had an escort of vehicles leading him through the traffic, getting him to the venue on time. He delivered a tremendous opening speech but only 35% of our confirmed guest list actually got to hear him.’
FULL ATTENDANCE ‘We have always had between a 10% and 15% no-show at our events. But of course, as Murphy would have it, at an event we hosted in August there was a short-delivery of rather costly goodie bags on the day of the event. We only had a 6% no-show rate and some angry delegates.’
There are many conflicting thoughts and arguments around the theory of Murphy’s Law. Regardless of your conviction, Murphy’s Law is an effective planning tool – as long as you don’t become so focused on it that you lose all sense of reality and the positive in situations and people.
Assume that the worst is going to happen and take reasonable precautions to either prevent it from happening or start practising your response to it if it does happen. The bottom line is that good planning beats Murphy’s Law almost every time.
And if all else fails, just don’t invite Mr Murphy to the party.
