After the Final Rose

Ahem (clears throat…shuffles nervously) my name is Judy and I am a reality show junkie. I have watched: American Idol (but generally just the audition stage), The Celebrity Apprentice, The Amazing Race, Top Chef, Top Chef Canada, Top Chef Just Desserts, Project Runway, Project Runway All Stars, America’s Next Top Model, Britain’s Next Top Model, Australia’s Next Top Model and Canada’s Next Top Model.

Weekly, I may tune in to watch those zany Kardashians as they take New York, L.A. and Miami and I will admit to watching Kim marry Whatshisname. I cry when they Say Yes to the Dress in New York and Atlanta and I root for my favourite nuptials during Four Weddings and Four Weddings Canada. I love watching Tabatha take over a salon each week and last but not least…..I have sat in judgement of The Bachelor and Bachelorette wherein a teeny, weeny part of me hoped upon a rainbow that the Bachelor franchise would head north (and yes, wishes do come true).

It can safely and accurately be established that I watch a myriad of reality shows, but would like it to be known that I draw the line at the Jersey Shore, have lost interest in Survivor and refuse to watch Hoarders, Intervention and anything else that involves creepy obsessions lest I begin identifying mine.

56% of my PVR is filled with reality television programming that I haven't enough time to watch. Frankly....there aren't enough hours in a day/week/year.

Don’t judge me.

I am pretty sure that I love reality television for the same reason that I love planning meetings and events. Anything can happen!

Why did I tell you any of the above? Well….unlike some of my colleagues who do fancy, schmancy research for their blog posts or perhaps....book learnin'…I prefer to fall back on what I am familiar.

Reality Television.....yup, that old chestnut.

I know reality television. So…sit back and relax because I am going to take the giant leap of comparing post project wrap up with the “After the Final Rose” ceremony on The Bachelor. I lean on my strengths people…I lean on my strengths.

“After the Final Rose” ceremony is the part of the Bachelor show where Host, Chris Harrison sits down with all the gals who were unsuccessful in luring/baiting/manipulating the Bachelor. Now…..any reality television producer will tell you that they don’t go into these without having a pretty good idea of what might happen, what might be said...they have a goal. In fact, I think they cast for these shows in such a way that they have a pretty good idea what will work aka “what conflicts” will develop.

Event planners and producers also go into each project with goals and objectives. They plan their events in such a way that they have a pretty good idea what will work and the conflicts that they will avoid. Decisions are made early on to ensure that different aspects can be measured post-event. They are banking on this.

You can’t create an event or produce the event and then go back and say, “I would like to measure the impact of this or that”….unless you have a time machine (which would be pretty darn cool), you simply cannot do that.

Last year I was fortunate enough to team up with Shawna McKinley from MeetGreen (Shawna also has a great personal blog here) as well as the group from QuickMobile to design and create a sustainability game called Get Your Green On [GYGO] which would then be embedded into the Event Camp Vancouver mobile app. (Event Camp Vancouver was the brainchild of Tahira Endean, a Dreamer/Doer extraordinaire).

Going forward, both Shawna and I knew that we wouldn’t be satisfied with just creating the game and then walking away afterward. We both love data too much…eek! Luckily, we were working with an amazing team from QuickMobile who completely understood what we wanted….what we needed.

Recently we were asked, “when did you start working on the Get Your Green On wrap up?” I replied, “before the event began”.

From the very first meeting, and as we proceeded to design the game challenges, we considered the possible outcomes. For example: Check in Codes could be tracked back and tallied according to sponsors, vegetarian meals could be calculated, we could measure how much water was conserved by our attendees through their use and documentation of how many minutes they showered each day (we provided shower timers).

We didn’t waste an opportunity….we didn’t waste a game challenge.

Which brings me to today and not unlike the “After the Final Rose” ceremony, we have gone back and looked over the game carefully, trying our level best to document our experience in such a way that you may find it enlightening and inspiring.

If you are interested in downloading a copy of the Get Your Green On White Paper – I should probably ask…..

Will you accept this rose?

Judy