Tag: criticism

Common Mistakes in Organizing Events

I’m an “outgoing introvert”. I may be ok with not being around or talking to people, but my long list of interests and hobbies make me attend a lot of events. And no, these aren’t your usual concerts or sporting events that are linked to extroverted people; they’re such a crazy mix of events that the term “event” is the only word I could use to properly classify them — meetups (sports/discussion/etc), conferences, exhibits, showings, seminars, volunteer drives… the list goes on.

I’ve spent over a decade in participating in these events, and I’ve taken up all of the roles (attendee, volunteer, guest, organizer, sponsor, etc). I can tell the chances of the event succeeding or failing within a few minutes of wandering around the venue.

And this brings us to the point of this post. I’ve noticed that event organizers tend to make the following mistakes that bring down the overall quality of their events. If it’s your first few events, it’s understandable, but I’ve seen some organizers still make the same mistakes on their 5th and later ones. (And that makes me sad.)

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How not to respond to criticism

Internet Drama: I like it for the cheap amusement and trolling opportunities it provides, but I don’t like risking getting emotionally involved to trivial matters.

Anyway, I just had to make a post about the recent gaming drama due to this quote from a halfhearted “my side of the story” article:

Hardworking people, including myself, spent thousands of hours away from family and friends working on Duke Nukem Forever. The game is what it is, but we poured our hearts into bringing the game back from video game purgatory. That single story hurt and I acted rashly, vented my frustration and I am paying for my actions, more so than you know. Shouldn’t the journalist have to pay for his? Should I continue to support him?

So you poured your heart/money/time/whatever to something and it turns out that it sucks. Then someone calls you out on it.

Asking for pity is the worst thing you can do in this situation.

For one, it’s illogical. If you worked hard for something should it automatically mean that your product is worthy of praise?

Also, if the criticism is indeed irrational and unfounded, then why the hell aren’t you taking taking it seriously? Shouldn’t you just ignore it, or just provide a clear and simple rebuttal on why it’s wrong? Why go the “victim” route?

I’ve seen this happen so many times ever since I got on the internet and it would’ve been amusing if it’s limited to deluded kids who think the traces they post to DeviantArt are the best thing since sliced bread.

But it’s not; as we see above, even a PR firm for a multimillion dollar production was stupid enough to do this.

Moral of the story: If sometime in the future I give a scathing review to you, your company, your product, your event, etc. and you respond by saying “we worked hard on this, you have no right to say that”, or worse, play the crab mentality card on me, I will seriously fuck you up.