A good friend of mine recently shared a story with me about how a person was writing a letter and at the end said “I apologize that the letter is so long I just didn’t have time”. How ironic but true. Our ideas and thoughts are so often brought to life in a flurry of energy that present us with countless options and opportunities on how to proceed. Only through iteration and a lot of grace are we able to refine our inspiration into something that simply can resonate on its own.
The creation of Happngs are too often met with this flurry of options. Creative energy when combined with a greater community can be an overwhelming and explosive process. I think back to when I first started working in the Happngs business, I would find myself in meetings, whether it was for an anniversary celebration, for American Express for 10,000 people or a marriage anniversary for two, I remember feeling totally overwhelmed as the initial ideas started to fly around the room. There seemed to be infinite ways the Happng could go.
When designing a Happng tradition always plays a role in setting the framework for what can be expected. However Happngs are a combination of tradition and expressions of the present and often too many traditional components can make Happngs predictable and conversely too many expressions of the present can ask too much of the audience. Both cases render the audience un-engaged.
Overtime I have become more comfortable with the process and now find it enjoyable. It is good to be bombarded with first ideas and thoughts for options. I embrace and gather them as quickly as possible to keep them in what I like to call the potential ideas bin. After that I like to look at tradition, what has been done, what has worked well and how can we fuse a past proven plan with all the new and exciting options to come up with something that is truly an expression of relevance.
At first it might seem daunting, but in actuality it’s quite simple, as you plug the ideas into your plan, the ideas that work will fit seamlessly and beautifully into the big picture whereas the ideas that cause struggle and alteration to the main plan are the ones that are best to put back into the idea bin for the next time. Interestingly enough there have been ideas that have come to the table years ago and were not a fit and all of the sudden a project comes along and they are a perfect match, so no idea is a bad idea, it just needs to wait for its right time.
Different than receiving a lengthy letter from a friend a Happng is a live occurrence without the opportunity to explain you simply didn’t have the time to refine. Embrace and explore all ideas and put them into a plan keeping in mind that one thing delivered beautifully is so much better than many things delivered poorly. Hone your vision down to the core and you too will reap the benefits of less is more!
Experience Life Present,
Tom
