Big Events – When They Work and When They Don’t

by Matt Mattson

Our regular readers know that Seth Godin (click on pic to the left to go to his blog) is one of our favorite authors and thinkers.  His books have changed our lives, and his philosophy on marketing is one we love.

We read his blog EVERY DAY, and the last two days have been eerily familiar messages which seem to be speaking directly to us and to our fraternity/sorority audiences.  Their titles: “No More Big Events,” and “The Best Reason for a Big Event.”

While these blog posts from Mr. Godin are really targeted toward businesses, I thought I’d take a moment and draw some lessons that apply to fraternity sorority life.

First, it is no secret that Phired Up has some specific thoughts on “Big Events” in the  fraternity/sorority world.  See here, here, here, here, and here among a whole bunch of other posts.  By “Big Events,” we mean giant rush events — expensive, overcomplicated, giant meat markets that many organizations think are attractive to potential members, but to the vast majority of students (especially the best students) just look stupid.

In Seth’s blog from yesterday titled, “No More Big Events,” he says about big events for businesses, “They don’t work because big events leave little room for iteration, for trial and error, for earning rapport. And the biggest reason: frequent cheap communication is easier than ever, and if you use it, you’ll discover that the process creates far more gains than events ever can.”  I agree.  Plus, for Greeks, they leave little room for genuine conversation, relationship building, meaningful dialogue.  They are a fun celebration, but if you want to get results (in our case, recruitment results), focus on small, interpersonal, every day interactions and communications. 

Now, in today’s blog post titled, “The Best Reason for a Big Event,” he argues that the only way a big event can make a difference for an organization is if it is REMARKABLE.  In his words, “The best reason for a big event… is being big. Nah, HUGE. Ordinary big isn’t good enough any more.”  He continues later on, “If you’re going to have an event, better make it big. Or even bigger than that. It needs to be awe-inspiring, frightening, on deadline and worth losing sleep over.”

At Phired Up we make fun of fraternity/sorority Big Events for three reasons, 1) They’re overcomplicated and expensive – you could get better results from just inviting people to lunch for a week, 2) Big fraternity/sorority events look like giant used car sales that cheapen the experience of making a lifelong commitment to Greek life, and 3) They’re lame.  Most fraternity/sorority big events are either childish/silly (think balloon arches and/or matching T-shirts), boring for potential members (while fun for members), offensive (fraternity men with strippers, I’m talking to you), or utterly expected — there is no surprise, no meaning, no pizzazz, no grandeur. 

So, to take Seth Godin’s lesson from today’s blog post to Greek Life… If you’re going to do a big event to draw attention to yourself, DO IT HUGE!  I’m not talking 25 kegger-kind-of huge.  I’m talking do something meaningful, remarkable, inspirational, wild, bold, powerful, ginormous!  I’m talking about something that people will tell stories about for years to come.  I’m talking about something that represents the best version of who your organization is.  I’m talking about something that people are shocked about (in a positive way).  I’m talking about something that redefines the expectations of Greeks and students as a whole on your campus. 

So… Big Events… ignore them unless you have one that can’t be ignored.