Why Live is Often Dead

Seth Godin's blog post today suggests "Why we prefer live."

• It's magical to be surrounded by "fellow travelers."
• The chance something could go wrong in a live performance adds excitement.
• The chance something could go amazingly right adds even more excitement.

Regrettably, most people in the "'live' business" (such as restaurateurs, hoteliers and speakers) "work hard to avoid getting anywhere near any of the three," Godin writes.

Why do most producers of tradeshows and professional meetings work so hard to avoid these preferences?

I spoke last evening about this very topic with event designer Bob Hughes. We concluded:

• Most producers don't really understand their audiences.
• Most don't design their events from end to end; they merely "organize" them.
• Most don't report to executives who care whether the audiences have a satifactory experience.  (The execs merely want to extract money from the audiences.)

Sound right to you?