On September 9th, Out & Equal, in partnership with Citi, hosted Maximizing Your Delegation’s 2021 Summit Engagement, a webinar to share best practices and learn about Citi’s innovative approach to connecting with, and leveraging, their Summit experience – before, during, and after the conference! Thank you to our partners at Citi for hosting this incredibly helpful session and special thank you to our presenters, Drew Kirkbride, Joann Breaux, David De La Cruz, and Dora Rosenbaum.

Check out the webinar recording, presentation, and follow-up questions answered by Drew below.

view presentation

For brand new delegations with under 5 attendees, any advice for bringing back ALL our learnings to company mangmnt in a concise manner?

Consider developing an executive summary of your attendance (ppt, e-mail, scheduling a meeting). Share highlights from the Summit, key themes presented and include data where available, ask them what they see the  “The future of work…..” to be, testimonials from your attendees, and a offer handful of ideas you want to bring back. Be clear and concise on what you need from your management (time, resources, support, or them to proactively speak-up) along with what your plan is upon return.

Don’t try to tackle the world. Be intentional about what you want to focus on and bucket the learnings and ideas. For instance; take 1 idea that everyone can focus their energy and time on to implement, maybe 1 that can be tested out with a smaller group of individuals, and create a parking lot for the other ideas or alternatively, a roadmap of when you want to introduce each.

This is our company’s first time attending; what advice might you have for a group who hasn’t had people in attendance before?

HAVE A FABULOUS TIME! Be present and in the moment, turn on your out of office, close your e-mail, change your viewing space to a new room – chair – outside, and appreciate the offerings from wellness labs to engagement centers to celebrity plenaries. Focus more on learning and ask people to write 1 take-away from each session to share upon return. Check-in on each other during the week. Especially the first day to make sure everyone is supported and any troubleshooting is resolved. Ask people to set an intention of what they hope to learn and ensure they attend sessions that fit it.  THEN, you have a foundation to work on for the future years.

How do you balance/justify the sheer amount of time required to successfully lead and organize your participation at the conference

Out & Equal makes it easy for your effort into the Summit to be spectrum. Our key to success has been;  Engage Passionate Leaders and Delegate accordingly.  Set realistic goals and time commitments, understanding that majority of the folks have business priorities, gain support from your Manager, and harness your attendees skills and network.   Additionally, pitch supporting the conference as a ‘stretch assignment’ for someone to refine new skills that they may not be able to in their current rol.

For example:  if you have a Project Manager on your team, have them facilitate weekly status updates as it’s turnkey for them. If someone has access to funding resources, allow the tackle those discussions. If a Leader gets personal satisfaction out of developing and presenting presentations; let them take on Workshops.