I'm an Apprentice Armchair-Executive. Last night's episode was the final task to determine which of the two finalists gets the nod from the Donald. And - same as last season - the task selected to determine who demonstrates the greatest leadership and management skills was: Event Planning.
In truth, the candidates come in WAY too late to have much impact on the events as part of the task, and their involvement doesn't give them any opportunity at all to affect anything strategic. Rebecca, for example, didn't have to select a comedian to emcee her event - Joe Piscopo was already lined up. Nor did she have to create sponsorship inventory and sell it - Yahoo! was already on board. Randal didn't have to choose the type of event to use as a fundraiser, find the venue, market to prospective attendees or create any on-site collateral. He spent most of the episode shopping at Party City.
I would argue that a truer task of who should be the Apprentice would be to develop and manage an entire event over the 12 weeks the show is taped, instead of a 24-hour events immersion that only tests organizational skills, diplomacy, and micro-decision-making. But that wouldn't have much more audience reach than this blog, which is sponsored not by Wenda Harris Millard of Yahoo!, but by some less senior folks at Google.
The show did, however, highlight a key challenge we face in our industry as well. At one point, Rebecca finds the objective of the show producer in conflict with the objectives of the principal sponsor. The event is a fund-raiser for The Susan Glaser Pediatrics AIDS Foundation. Yahoo!, as the event sponsor, wants to host an event that portrays them as well as possible, and makes the decision that the event's fund-raising call to action will be more of a whisper. Instead of asking openly for donations, an envelope will go into each guests' gift-bag.
Sponsor concessions like this in our industry result in unqualified speakers on stage, inappropriate content, too dense an agenda without enough networking time, and the diversion of resources away from the show's objectives, and towards a sponsor's.
I worked in restaurants from when I was 14 up until I was 24. In the restaurant industry, Mother's Day is the most dreaded holiday. Why? Because people who only go out to restaurants once a year go out on Mother's Day. I always believed that people shouldn't be allowed to eat in a restaurant until they had worked in one. Well, I also believe that someone shouldn't be allowed to sponsor an event until they've produced one. If every sponsor shared an event producer's objective to produce a lasting franchise that satisfies attendees first, and sponsors second, there would be less sponsor ultimatums and compromised content. But in today's environment, it's inescapable - with so many events to choose from, sponsors can afford to negotiate hard, even if it means churning-and-burning some shows along the way.
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