Author: Ali Taghavi
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The dark side of building systems
Trading curiosity for consistency One of the most influential books I ever read was Michael E. Gerbers’s E-Myth Revised, where he introduced the concept of “Working on the business, not in the business”. This is a very powerful concept that talks about how building systems helps liberate business owners from being stuck in the hamster…
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What two decades of creating events taught me about building brands
How do I turn my event into a recognized brand? In this article, I’m sharing what 20 years of event building have taught me about creating brands.
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Answer the F***** email! How to protect your project timeline from unresponsive people
Struggling to get people to respond to your messages and meet deadlines? You’re not alone. One of the most frustrating parts of event planning is working with partners who delay or ignore important requests—especially when deadlines are looming. After 20 years of running events and coordinating with countless artists, venue owners, and service providers, I’ve…
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Your Project Buffers Are Setting You Up for Failure
The surprising truth: adding “just in case” time to every task might be doing more harm than good. Most buffers are wasted due to procrastination (Student Syndrome), inefficiencies (Parkinson’s Law), and multitasking madness. But there’s a better way. In this video, I break down how centralizing buffers at the project level can eliminate wasted time,…
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A good contract makes you robust; solving conflict without it makes you antifragile.
You’re in a major conflict with a partner… Now what? What’s a “Robust” vs. “Antifragile” strategy? IIn this video, I share key antifragile patterns I’ve learned from the event industry, including how to turn conflicts into opportunities for growth. From navigating last-minute venue cancellations to improving internal communication with policy rollouts, discover how to thrive…
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Building Robust Events – A Guide 🚀
Events are filled with “holy-s***” moments—unexpected challenges that can make or break your success. After 20+ years of organizing events, I’ve seen it all. The question isn’t whether things will go wrong but how you react, recover, and still meet your goals. In this video, I’ll share practical strategies to make your events more robust—so…
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How to Quickly Adapt to Change: Research-Backed Insights for Event Organisers
Events rarely go as planned. In this video, I share research-backed strategies to help you as an event organiser to handle uncertainty, delegate well designed packages to your team and avoid costly mistakes. We will look at what the research says about the best practice for handling resource-constraint uncertain environments.