We are a bit unconventional in most things we do, and the schedule of our networking conference is no exception. Every 9 months we reconvene the reunion otherwise known as Q4Live. This week marks the 13th such reunion.
If you’ve ever organized and hosted an event like this, you know what I mean when I say it is a labor of love. Between fighting with the venues, building the agendas, and putting butts in seats, it’s a lotta freakin’ hard work. But it is SO worth it!
Why do we do this to ourselves?
That's a great question. Admittedly, it never fails, at some point during the organization, we ask ourselves, “Why in the world do we keep doing this?” And, without fail, as soon as the event gets underway, we find ourselves saying, “We should do this more often!”
These are some of the most important events that industry professionals participate in during the year. And, I’m not talking specifically about our events. NEVER, has it been more important for industry professionals to get together for the primary purpose of professional growth.
I am often wrong about many things, but I’ll stake everything I have on this:
If you don’t embrace a role within the larger industry community, you won’t survive.
Some of the fuel to this session’s fire
Here is some of the feedback, we received after our last Q4Live.
- “The speakers, format, content, and professionalism of attendees was exceptional.”
- “It was without question the best event I’ve attended in years, perhaps ever.”
- “You could not have put on a better event. It was so energizing and spot on, my mind is blown away!!”
- “It changed the trajectory of our business.”
Yeah, that is why we keep doing it.
Our world is spinning faster
If you haven’t noticed, this industry is facing unprecedented change. And while the pace of change is faster than it’s ever been before, it’s also slower than it will ever be again. Gone are the days when an agency can survive inside its safe little bubble.
Ours is not the typical conference. You won’t find an exhibit hall. You won’t find breakout sessions separating the attendees. You won’t find yourself on the receiving end of a sales pitch. You won’t find the vendors being separated from the brokers. You won’t find a bunch of hype and rhetoric.
What you will find is an event designed with one goal in mind: send everyone (advisors, vendors, speakers, EVERYONE) home more confident and better prepared for success than they were when they arrived.
Opportunity comes dressed as hard work
We are at a particularly unique moment in our industry’s history. We are seeing the opportunity for advisors to fundamentally change the way they build the benefit programs of their clients. We are hearing energizing stories of success. We are being introduced to new strategies. We are seeing the opportunity to improve the level of benefits offered to clients while reducing their spend at the same time.
But, this trend is in its infancy. Despite what some would have you believe with their online success stories, there are way more questions to be asked than have been answered to date. There are significantly more fundamental structural components to be constructed that have yet been built.
That is what we are working on this week. We are encouraging an environment that is a safe zone for our attendees to admit what they don’t know and what they don’t understand. This isn’t an event to beat our chests and pat one another on the back; it’s an event to be honest, to identify what needs to be built, and to forge relationships that will move us all forward. It’s a place to learn what must be learned and to start building what must be built.
This is an event designed to learn how to effectively execute on the ideas and strategies we keep reading about.
It takes a village
As so many of you celebrate, these strategies and plans ain’t your daddy’s BUCAH plans anymore. These new plan designs have many more moving parts. This means there are more partnerships to be explored, evaluated, developed and managed than ever before.
How many advisors ever thought they would find themselves at an industry conference sitting next to a physician or hospital CEO strategizing over how to build a more effective benefit program? It’s happening at this very moment.
We are unbelievably fortunate to have assembled some great industry minds this week. And we are even more fortunate that they are willing to selflessly share their wisdom for the greater good. Sure, new business relationships will be forged this week, but, more than anything, everyone is here to help educate an industry.
Q4Live San Diego 2018 Speaker Spotlight from Q4intelligence | An Agency Transformation Network
