“
The band Vanessa rocked out at last year’s festival.
media reviews, and interviews with attendees, speakers
and stakeholders, which she incorporates into the summary report and the following year’s project plan.
For example, in the summit’s first year, the educational programs were held over the course of a single
day. “The feedback showed that attendees thought the
flow of information was great, but it was so compact
they didn’t get enough time to network,” Ms. Michell
says. So the following year, her team expanded the
sessions to a multi-day forum with longer sessions,
more time for questions and more break-out periods to
engage with other attendees.
Following last year’s event, the feedback showed
many attendees wanted more access to legal, financial
and business advice. “We find that a lot of artists have
to manage more of the business of their careers on their
own, and they need guidance,” she says.
For example, in January she was working on a project that would allow employees to print documents
directly from mobile devices. The project stakeholders
were busy and relied on the elevator speech, so she
used a single-page status report highlighting potential
risks and issues with bullet points. “It was easy to read
at a glance, which is what they wanted,” she says.
On projects with more detail-oriented stakeholders, a status document dives deeper into
the project progress, risks and issues. “Every
stakeholder is different,” Ms. Armstrong says.
“It’s important to understand how much they
want to be involved so you can communicate
effectively.” PM
