Insights and Strategies for Successful Conferences with Chris Dzurich

Happy Monday and welcome back to another episode of Party Talk, where we Empower leaders in youth drug prevention. I’m your host, Jake White from Vive 18. And today, we are talking about putting on conferences and large scale events. Now, I’m so excited about this episode, because Chris Dzurich is a professional. He puts on Statewide leadership conferences for students in middle school and high school all across the country. I even has done some work with Missouri SADD, Students Against Destructive Decisions during their Statewide Leadership Conference. So not a better person to talk to you than this. Please enjoy this amazing episode of the Party Talk Podcast. Chris, welcome to the Party Talk Podcast. Glad to have you on board today.

Yeah, appreciate the opportunity.

Of course. So tell me a little bit about what you do in the event planning split, event planning space, and then also just the drug prevention world, kind of how you’re connected?

Get to Know Chris Dzurich 

Yeah, absolutely. So my name is Chris Dzurich and I have worked in the area of youth prevention, youth programming youth services, for about the last 10 years, primarily looking at how we can engage with youth to create change, whether it’s societal change, educational change within their selves career guidance. So been working in that space planning events as small as a dozen people around a table doing programming all the way up to conferences of about 5500 students. And so living in that event space and youth programming space, certainly been an awesome opportunity to shape young minds.

Revolutionizing Conferences: Engaging Youth, Breaking Tradition, and Redefining Event Experiences

Absolutely. And you were talking a little bit about the Act program out in Missouri, that you’re involved in a little bit too. Can you just share a little bit about that as well?

Absolutely. So I am a contractor for an organization called act, Missouri, which has been around since 1991, in Missouri, and we work to help individuals make healthy choices across a variety of different programs and opportunities. So we work with different coalition’s all across the state of Missouri, and providing services, whether that be opportunities in traffic safety through a grant, we operate through the Missouri Department of Transportation, we’re also the office for drug endangered children for Missouri, we of course offer plenty of services in mental health, for youth, drug,  alcohol use substance use prevention programming. So we offer a wide variety of programs across across pretty much everything that can come to help make young minds make healthy choices.

Yes, and so for our audience, you’re a great guy to know, especially if you’re in Missouri. But for anybody listening, if you are in the state of Missouri and don’t know Chris yet, Lowe will give you a chance to get connected with him at the end, if y’all can do some great work together. But I would love to chat today specifically about conferences, because you are just a wealth of knowledge on putting together these meetings and making it a great experience. And so I would love to get your opinion on what are some of the things that you’ve seen? Maybe you went to a conference and you’re like, oh, this actually wasn’t that great. What are the common mistakes that people might make when they’re trying to put on this thing? And they’re just going at it for the first time or something?

Yeah, absolutely. The entire conference space and event space has really changed over the last, well, basically three years into how you know, going into four years. So we’ve really had to shift our mindset quite a bit when it comes to programming, especially with youth. And so as I kind of think about conferences, and what makes them engaging, what makes it exciting to go to conferences, I think the number one thing that we’ve learned, especially in this era of zoom fatigue, and students coming back out into conferences and really engaging is that we cannot let them sit down, it seems kind of silly to say like, well, we should just not have tables and chairs, tried that at a conference actually didn’t work too bad. But it’s really this concept that youth want to be engaging with each other. They want to be up and moving. So anytime that we are working on building up programming and building events, we always focus on this idea that over half of our time should be spent up and moving. And when we say that we don’t necessarily mean that they’re physically running around the room or around a conference center, what we just mean is that they are up in maybe small groups doing an activity or we get them up away from their tables, and we send them outside in small groups to be able to maybe plan that element of our programming that they’re doing. But the idea that they just don’t want to be sitting, they don’t want to be looking at a PowerPoint. And that leads kind of into another trend is this idea of getting away from that traditional PowerPoint style of a workshop. No youth and probably no adult frankly listening to this. Have you ever get super excited walking into a room and seeing a lectern at the front with a projector? And going, oh, boy, it’s going to be one of those sitting gifts for 45 minutes. And that is absolutely not the trend today. Even as adults, we want to be up and moving. Anytime we see that style of workshop, we think, Well, I could have done that via zoom at my house in my pajamas. Why on earth would I want to be able to? Why am I paying to go to a conference to engage in the same way that I’ve been able to do at home for years now. And so this idea with youth as well is that we’re taking away that element of the technology. And we’re actually putting it into the hands of of youth. And so one of the greatest trends that we can do is let their device that they’re already going to be on anyway, frankly, there’s no way we can stop it, let that be their screen, let that be how they engage with our programming. And so putting that kind of power in their actual hands and encouraging them to use their device, encouraging them to post on social media, engaged through surveys engaged through websites, while part of the conference is a far more kind of superior option than that traditional PowerPoint.

Wow, okay, so already, is not sitting down, which that’s huge. I love the way that you put it in removing all the tables and chairs.

We did it, I promise it works. I wouldn’t do it for a cold day, they might, they might get a little antsy there. But it’s okay, if you’re especially a workshop rotation, right, give them that opportunity to just get up every once in a while and not go into that traditional room. 

Yes, and even if you are looking at our room set up is if it’s 500 chairs, facing the stage, there’s literally no room for that or very little room, or creativity that can be done to facilitate that experience. Whereas if you see a room that has spacing between the chairs or options on the side, and then a stage, they opens up the opportunity for you to do more of those things. And I know when I’m working with events, doing keynotes or workshops, leadership sessions, is I always ask for the roads to be that way. Because it’s not them looking at you. And receiving information that, like you said, will be the most boring thing they’ve had. And I love what you said they can get that at home. It’s not just a an opportunity for them to learn. But you’re saying what can you do here that I can’t do at home? I love that framework, or that like question in someone’s mind when they’re putting together content that’s really, really helpful. And then finally letting them use technology as their friend, and is something that lets you engage with them further throughout the presentation, or the interaction that you have with them, whether it’s a workshop or something like that. So wow, that’s, that’s super interesting to see that three of how things might have changed over the last, you know, five years or so.

“Dynamic Room Design: Enhancing Youth Conference Engagement Through Creative Spaces and Adaptive Seating”

Absolutely. It’s a whole new world out there, post COVID. And we’re seeing that return. I mean, we’re seeing numbers tick back up at our conferences in programming. And we’re seeing a desire for more of that. And so we’ve got to just adapt to the times and accept that that old model of breaking up a ballroom into workshops isn’t going to work anymore. And so we have to get creative. One of the things we’ve even toyed with at events is something that you kind of just mentioned, like giving a keynote, how can you set up a room differently that allows for people to be much more interactive. And so we’ve looked at this concept of a bowl, and creating theater seats that frame the stage, and then rounds that encompass that. And then in the back bar top tables, you know, those high top tables where people can stand, because some people just want to sit, some people want to sit at a table and they want to take notes. And then we have the antsy teens who want to be up and moving and that freedom to walk around. And so creating a room that’s more dynamic is going to create a much more engaging opportunity for that speaker. And ultimately, it’s going to lead to higher engagement with your youth.

Yes. And I think that the fear in someone’s mind when they hear that is like, Oh, we’re catering all these things to every different person. And they’re just going to be running around like wild. But what I’ve seen is that the students will tell you what they need. They know themselves and they’re smarter than you think. And so if you’re able to match what you want, when they want, you’re going to create a very powerful experience. But if you just think, Oh no, I just need to have them sit down, behave and listen and get the information. None of that is probably going to happen because you’re fighting everything in their nature to do it, so it sounds good in your mind. But when it comes to actually pulling that off, it’s actually more feasible to pull that off if you asked to partner with them, and to figure out how to use their strengths. You know what mode they learn with and setting up a room to accommodate it. Because I know the students that I have them in my sessions, and I think that they didn’t listen the whole time because they’re fidgeting or they’re drawing. And then they’re the ones who come up. And they quote back things that I said, Right? When I was like, I could have sworn you were not paying attention but they are.

You’re just meeting them where they are. And truly, unless your objective is to just check a box that you did something, you’ve got to meet them where they are. And if that does mean, coloring sheets at those round tables, and letting the kids at the back at those high top tables run around, that’s fine. Because if they just need that opportunity to absorb, I mean, if you looked at my desk right now, there’s a fidget toy setting here. Because sometimes that’s what I need, just to get through a zoom is a way to distract my mind, but still stay focused and engaged.

“Reimagining Conference Models: Adapting to Shorter Formats and Clarifying Objectives for Enhanced Impact”

That’s good. That’s good. So what are, what are some of the things that you have seen, maybe one or two of you can think of any, that you thought, oh, that doesn’t, that’s not working, or it’s not part of the way that things are, should be running right now, you know, post pandemic, and in this new age that we are in, has there any been any cringy things that you’re like, hey, if you’re listening, just please don’t do this.

I’m not sure that I can say that there’s anything that necessarily cringy that we’ve seen, it’s you know, people are, are all trying to learn, or we’re all trying to adapt to this new world. But you know, there are some things that I think have changed that some people aren’t necessarily willing to adapt to. One of the biggest things that we’ve seen in the market is a desire for our programming to be much more condensed into this kind of one day model, we just ran a series of events back in October, we had doubled the participation at the event that was only six hours long, as we did with the event that was overnight. And so we’re really starting to see organizations, or I guess, student desire, parental desire, school desire, whatever it is, get into this idea of, I want to load my kids up on the bus at 7am. And we want to be back at three o’clock. And that’s allowing students to still participate in sports or other activities. Some students don’t have the transportation means and they rely on that bus. And so when we’re creating content that is much more condensed in a one day format, we’re seeing a much higher level of participation. Now that comes with its own challenges, of course, because six hours worth of content versus a day and a half worth of content, you can’t get as much done. But ultimately, we are seeing more students get exposed, and then they’re reaching out, and then they’re wanting to engage further, maybe it is via zoom, but they’re wanting to participate more. And as long as we can hit that exposure, we can get them that basic information, we’re finding that we can engage with them further, in different means that don’t necessarily require them to be with us in person.

That’s a good point to bring out. Because I think then it challenges us to think with more clarity on what is the purpose of our conference or event? Is it the exposure? Is it the training? Is it the engagement? And how can we use that six hours of programming to accomplish that to the best of our abilities, and then what happens after because like you said, maybe we want to get them engaged more on Zoom, or in a group or in a leadership model, anything like that, you can then develop a plan to have the events serve its unique purpose, instead of maybe thinking, Oh, I can do everything in six hours, because we can’t, we’ll, we’ll always be limited by time. 

Well, and it’s, you know, you bring up a good point there, it’s the idea that you really need to define objectives, which kind of actually is the I think other point that I would like to make in here is that so many people maybe step into these roles as a program coordinator, or even an executive director that’s executing these kinds of events. And they’re just saying, we have a youth conference every fall? What is that conference? What are your true objectives? And sometimes we need to step back and think, what do we really want to accomplish in this so that we can create a learning model that fits what we have. And maybe it can be only one day with continued zoom learning afterwards. But we have to be willing to step back and think what do we truly want to accomplish? And when we do that, we sometimes have to figure out that our real model is micro learning. You know, so traditional of a conference is the 45 or 50 minute workshop, 10 minute break, then you go into the next one, and you just keep rotating, I dread seeing the word breakout session on any sort of workshop agenda, because I know what that means. And so we’ve also looked at how do we create these 20 or 25 minute kind of mini learning lessons that are far more engaging, and they’re meeting students that about their attention span, right that like 17 to 22 minutes sweet spot. And so if you can provide content like that, that’s meeting your objectives still, you can keep students up and moving you can get through a lot of content in about your six hour time block, and you can still have an amazing conference. But you just have to be willing to take that step back and kind of challenge the old norms or maybe those long standing contracts you have, how can you do it better?

“Navigating School Resistance: Strategies for Gaining Support and Alignment in Youth Event Planning”

That’s good. That’s really good. How can we help people? So we think of the event as three separate buckets, maybe there’s the initial, maybe the initial planning, then there’s the promotion. And then there’s the execution? Is if you’re thinking in, in those kinds of buckets, we’ve kind of talked about planning a little bit up to this point. What are some tips you might have for people on promotion? For for stuff like this, and how you get the word out and keep students interested? Or maybe the whatever stakeholders are signing up their students?

Yeah, yeah, promotion of events is, is always a challenge. Because in especially in the world, if we’re talking about youth, in particular, and trying to get in touch with students, you don’t generally just directly cold call students, you don’t yell at blast out to students, because most school networks are, are closed down to that kind of stuff. So we don’t have that direct contact with them. So we have to rely on some form of, of another stakeholder. And that’s usually an educator in the school building, or maybe it is a school counselor, but you have to kind of figure out who are those key individuals that you can reach out to. One of the great things, at least in Missouri, and I would imagine it’s very true for most other states is things like school contact information for educators, or school administrators, is generally publicly available. And so that’s an easy touch point that you can grab is that you can find email, phone number, and mailings for just about any key administrator within a school. And odds are probably most school teachers as well. And so you can grab a hold of those contacts, and you can reach out directly. And that is a great way to at least start some level of engagement and start building some connections. You can also do that with just about any other government entity. So we always said everything to our local health departments, which often have a youth programming arm. And so we’re always reaching out to those individuals, as well. But finding who those people are, is really key. And when you can get in the door with one, you can often find ways to get in the door with others. And so one of the things that we just saw this past September, we did an event in a rural community, one that is high on our target list for providing programming in this case was regarding traffic safety. And we had been struggling so hard to get in this community. But we went through one of those key stakeholders, we got in touch with them the school administration. And before that event was even over, we had neighboring school districts suddenly reaching out and saying, we want to do this too. And all it took was finding who is that one person and it got us back into this entire region of the state that ultimately we had kind of lost during COVID. And we were seeing numbers tick up. And so now we’re back in business. So you’ve really got to find who are those key people? And how can you get in, and then you can start promoting through that. And that’s how you’re going to get to the students, it’s not going to be directly, they might engage with you a little on social media, but you’ve got to go kind of through that third party.

Wow, that’s so smart. Because there’s a there’s probably a champion waiting for you saying, hey, I want to champion this cause for you, I want to help, I’m in touch with this department, or I’m working with all the schools already. And we’re wanting to do this work, or we care about this topic too. And so if you’re able to get that person on board, then that’s going to help you tremendously. I, I don’t remember where I got fed this piece of information, but it was like, it takes the same amount of effort to sell, you know, a computer than it does a Twinkie and a computer that a higher price point. So why not learn how to sell the computer instead of the low dollar tweaky. And I think the same thing applies for like building relationships. And what you had mentioned was going straight to the health department, you know, start from that person who’s really, really connected. Fight for that relationship or, you know, show up to that office with a gift or just to say hello.

Is that it’s, it’s the same idea. Like you just mentioned with selling, you have the early adopters. And that’s really who you’re targeting at the very beginning as you’re trying to get these events off the ground. Eventually that bell curve, you’re going to start to get everybody but who are those first buyers that you’re going to get? And that’s the people that you really want to find first. They’re going to talk about it people are going to see it. Next thing you know you’re on the other end of the bell curve just trying to pull in the laggards who aren’t there yet.

Yes. Wow. And what are we Moving to kind of maybe some specifics for people that I work with, you know, they put on conferences, and they’re they’re listening to this probably right now saying, hey, it sounds cool, so that I can do that. And then it comes to this, this question that gets offered up a lot. We don’t want to give up class times, it comes with the school saying we don’t want to give up class times. How, if you if you face this issue as well, or maybe someone on your team might, do you have to do any sort of like convincing for the school? Or make them in an ally in your mission? First? And how do you go about doing that? If you if you do need to?

Yeah, like most everybody, you probably have a core group of of schools or coalition’s that are going to participate no matter what, and they are always great. You’ve got that great core group. But how do you kind of snag those other people who do have those concerns, and it’s something that we face all the time, you know, I work in the youth prevention space, but also in many other youth organizations. And we’re constantly battling this idea that youth don’t need to be out of class. And that we also are battling not only the administration saying that, but you’re also battling it from parents and the students themselves saying, I don’t want to miss AP Calculus, or why dual enrollment, you know, biology course. And so you’re constantly struggling from both sides of individuals not wanting to be out of class. And the best way that you can combat that is having those objectives of your event defined and having that programming defined at a really, really early stage, it is perfectly fine to send to save the date back in August for our big annual event, we send a save the date. And that’s great. It’s blocked on calendars. But we’re already going to have our programming out for this event that still three months down the road. We’re going to be working on that this weekend. And we’ll have that tentative schedule out. People are going to see what are we going to talk about, what are the objectives that we’re going to cover and what are you going to leave with, you have to have that at a really, really early stage so that people can prepare, one of the biggest mistakes that we see is people sending that tentative schedule like three days before the event. Well, who wants to spend money who wants to do maybe fundraising and get a school bus when they don’t even really know what they’re going to get out of the event. And so you have to hit them early with that. And one of the other best things that you can do is figure out where you are offering programming that is in line with what the school is doing. And so every single program is operating on standards, whether this is a state that’s local control, or it’s got state level standards, it doesn’t matter. There is some level of education standards that is being taught in the classroom. And if you can try to figure out what are those standards, and how am I going to be able to teach those same standards in the programming that we are offering, you can show that what you’re doing is not just an extra conference, but it is co curricular. And so it’s meeting those very same needs that are happening in the classroom. And so if you can do that level of cross walking, and it does take time, it might take finding a champion at a school, maybe a school counselor or somebody who could help you with that. But if you can do that level of crosswalk, you can show direct value. And a school can easily say, this makes sense. Even though my students are leaving, we’re knocking out one or two more standards, or maybe we’re knocking out something with that our school board has designated we need to do or the state has designated we need to do, you need to try to figure out those crosswalks. Jumping back to that school that got us in contact with other schools in the area. It was knocking out something that them as a collective had agreed that they needed to do in programming. And so when we finally got into one, they were all going oh, wait a second, we can all be checking that box. Now, if we just do this. So that crosswalk really is key. And you’ve got to get that out early as well. Maybe not as early as the tentative. But at some point, you’ve got to get that out within at least 3045 days. So people know. Wow.

So a save the day. And then also the itinerary and then aligning it to their objectives, standards, competencies, whatever that might be their goals. And I love how you said it too. There could be somebody on the inside who can help draw that up for you. That’s good. That’s really helpful.

“The Key to Engaging and Successful Events”

And it’s it’s similar. I mean, think as an as an adult, if you want to go get, you know, go to a conference and you’re going to get some renewal credit, maybe for your licensure, or you’re going to get some you know, grad credit that you can utilize to advance up the pay scale. You want to know all of those things before you sign up. You don’t sign up and go, Oh, this is a great perk, you sign up because that perk exists. And so you’ve got to do the same thing with students, show them or with schools, show them exactly what they’re going to get out of it before they sign up.

Yes because then you’re not asking them to do any extra work, you’re you’re saving them work, you’re saving them effort, and you’re partnering with them to achieve their objectives they already have. So that’s yeah, that’s not a barrier in their mind anymore. It’s like, No, you’re doing this for me. Of course, I’m gonna bring students. Okay. So good. So let’s move to a little bit talking about the event. So we’ve got an event planned, we’ve got it marketed, what are a couple tips that you could give us to make sure that we have an event that actually does engage young people, and maybe a specific example or two, that have gone pretty well for you? 

Yeah, I think the number one takeaway from this entire podcast that I would want you to leave with is this idea of pure education, it is so vitally important that we allow our youth, our youth leaders to be the individuals who are really leading the conversation. I do not remember this statistic off the top of my head, I’m not going to try to quote it. But I think everybody knows, in general, the idea that youth are far more likely to listen to each other than they are to listen to an adult, especially outside of the school. And so we really need to focus on this idea of pure education, which means our youth are leading our youth in these kinds of conversations, because they’re going to engage more, they’re going to get a lot more out of it. And we’re also building up a new generation of provincial leaders in the process, by allowing our youth to actually be the ones who are leading the conversation, I think back to an event that we just ran a couple of weeks ago, and we had six different modules that students were rotating through. And these were shorter than they weren’t those 45 minutes. So we already had done that. But we had every single module led by our student leaders, so they were the ones who had the packets, they had the facilitation guide, and they ran each and every activity. And because we were able to do that we received just rave reviews. People loved it, our youth were so much happier, because it was not frankly, a person like me, standing up in the front, and telling them something that I say you need to know this, it was youth saying I recognize the value of this. And I want you to do so as well, I think one of the best things when you follow that peer education model is you’re also helping to kind of close that feedback loop a little bit, because you’re hearing us already use your target audience that you have attending the event, speaking directly with youth and vice versa. And so you’re starting to do so much learning along the way. And we picked up a ton of feedback, what can we do better? What did we miss? What were the activities that were great, and which ones were not? All that information was starting to happen? And we didn’t have to send out a post conference survey that said on a scale of one to 10. How enjoyable was activity three? We just heard it live it and do they are leaders came out every single time between every single workshop, guess what happened, or I need this or I could do this better if I just had more tape. I mean, it was the weirdest things. But they got excited because the youth were giving them direct feedback. So we’ve really got to focus on this peer education model. I think it’s absolutely key. I’m not saying you can’t have adults, there are certain topics that obviously probably need to be adult led, or maybe co LED. But the more you can put youth in charge, the better off you’re going to be.

Yes, that’s good. And that’s, that’s something as we build this Southwest Prevention Fest that we’re doing in Arizona, as we’ve listened to the skills from the students, we’re asking to do the peer led movements and saying, What do you need from us say like, Okay, well, we need public speaking skills, we need social media skills. So then we know as the adults, awesome, we can provide the training for them. So they can go out and do the education to their peers, and they can facilitate it next time. So I’m, I’m with you 100% Spot on, I think you’re, you’re absolutely correct. And I love how you’ve instilled that in your events out in Missouri. And that, like all the amazing feedback that comes from that, to really validate the idea, you know, the research that we hear that peer led is the way to go. And then when you actually see it with your own eyes, and realize, wow, these students are learning through experience, they’re leading, and they’re influencing their friends, to become that person as well to get the information and then make it’s more sustainable, because it’s not us. We might move a job or something like that, but they’ve got a lifetime to use these skills and and transfer them to other people.

Absolutely. And I think you know, as an event planner, as well, it’s, it’s flipping your normal model. Normally you do most of your work as an event planner, when you’re probably on site or in the couple of weeks leading up to it. This is inverting that whole model, and now you’re working with the youth and you’re building those facilitation guides. And then when you get on site, you’re just supporting the event. You are not suddenly the one running around because they have ownership of what they’re doing. And so it totally flips the model. And even this event that we just did the end of October, there were times that we felt like we were doing something wrong, because everything was going right. And we were so used to running around, go fix that projector, go and make sure that the speaker has showed up, oh, they’re late, what are we going to do, you don’t have to worry about it anymore. You’re using had their room, they had ownership, and they just took care of everything. And so it really does flip the model. So as an event planner, if you’re thinking, Gosh, I hate all of this stuff, I can’t this is the most stressful. When I go to a conference, I’m up at 5am, I met bed at 11. That drives you crazy, change up your model a little bit, because you can make your life a little bit easier as well, when you’re on site.

“Connect with Chris and Explore Comprehensive Event and Association Services”

That’s good. Well, this has been super valuable, Chris, how can people stay in touch with you. And I also just want to do like a quick plug, because I know that you, you specifically help organizations like the ones listening in here with their events, you even have for I guess any association, you have services. So we just kind of tell us a little bit about that. And then how we can get in touch with you if we want to know more. 

Absolutely. So I co-own a company called Chris and Trevor strategies. So we offer start to finish 

services for not only events, but for associations that are in need of programming services, management services, anything really that an association would need. And so we come with about 20 years of experience in different associations, supporting them again, all the way from, I’m gonna help you start a little bitty event if you just need to get a board meeting going. Or we can go all the way up to running an association. Uh, you know, 16 20,000 individuals who need those services. And so we’d be happy to help anybody, whether it is in prevention or youth education, that we can meet you and facilitate that kind of conversation, happy to do so. And so you can always get in touch with me. And I’m sure there’s a way we can get my email to everybody there. But definitely a great opportunity for anybody who might need those kinds of services, particularly in the nonprofit field.

Hey, that sounds great. I’ll put any links in our descriptions so they can get in touch with you. And yeah, thank you so much for your generosity on the show, Chris. I know it’s really beneficial for me, and I’m sure for people listening. So for all of you out there driving on Monday to work needing a boost for your prevention work. Just again, thank you for the amazing job that you do, keeping students safe and investing in this next generation. We’ll see you next Monday for another episode of Party talk.