You're not alone.
Meetings are the most hated thing about work for the typical office worker. They take up time for deep work and annoy the people who attend.
Fact: Most meetings can be replaced with well-thought writing.
- Status updates.
- Ideas.
- Pitches.
These can all be written memos or emails. (That's why we work asynchronously at Daily CMO)
When 5 people go into a room for an hour, it isn't just 1 hour. It's 5 hours.
We hate meetings. But we love conversations.
Yesterday, I had an in-person meeting with another 2 people. We had a meeting agenda and stuck to it.
But it struck me that what we actually had, was a conversation.
In a conversation, you first have to listen to the other person. Because you won't know what to say if you don't listen.
And after you speak your part, you'll listen attentively to the other person.
Conversations. Not just gathering around.
When I ran the first-ever Underdog Con event, to my surprise, attendees enjoyed it. They tell me things like, "Nice event, great crowd". "You have lots of good, high-quality attendees". "I've never been to such a conference before".
At first – I didn't know why it was that way.
I mean, I just organized it – invited a few speakers, invited people. Ran some ads. I didn't do anything different in the event to encourage networking.
But I see it now.
If you attend a conference and the organizer says, "OK, everyone introduce yourself to the others around the room!", you know you are in for an hour of boredom – because everyone's trying to introduce themselves, and nobody is listening.
Nobody is having a conversation.
A conversation requires both sides to talk and listen. It requires openness and access.
And this is why Underdog Con is different.
No made-up networking games. No forcing attendees to high-5 one another. Just a safe, comfortable space (and vibe) for genuine conversations to happen.
I didn't mean to turn today's newsletter into a pitch to attend Underdog Influence Con. But if you value genuine conversations and want to meet really great people, I'd recommend joining the event.
