Andy Eltzroth on conferences as conversation leadership.

Publishing thought leadership content is fine. It’s best practice. In fact, many experts feel it’s mandatory. But it’s not enough.

Simply pushing your own thoughts out there is insufficient in a world where nearly two and a half million new blog posts are published daily. And it’s particularly lacking when you’re a strategic design firm like Multiple, Inc., which describes its modus operandi less as strict process and more as dynamic conversation.

Their solution?  Create the mega-conversation that is the Cusp Conference. I had the chance to sit down with one of the Multiple principals recently, Andy Eltzroth, and explore the reasons for and results behind their conference about “the design of everything.” This video will give you a brief overview of our talk — I encourage you to read the full Q&A that follows, to get the complete picture.

Chuck Kent: You’ve got a lot going on in terms of your own marketing. You’ve got a blog, you’ve got all the regular content and case studies. So, why a conference on top of that — and why a conference about the design of everything?

Andy Eltzroth: We really saw it as a need. We look for inspiration in a variety of places and a lot of the experiences we were having weren’t really doing it for us. We were looking to create something that was thought provoking, that could broaden the idea of what design means — and we believe that design is a big part of what you do to solve problems. We wanted to elevate the idea of design, to create a conference that inspired individuals with a lot of different types of information from a wide variety of speakers and among a wide variety of attendees.

Chuck: Variety is to me a mild word for what you got going on here. You’ve got a presenter that bills himself as a peace geek, you’ve got the CEO of an energy company…What do you hope for people to get out of that level of eclecticism?

Andy: Again, I believe that we are all in some way shape or form designers. We wake up and we design what we’re going to wear for the day. We decide we have a problem and design is a way you go about solving that problem.

In many cases, when we reach out to these presenters, they don’t see themselves as designers. But when you’re in this environment every year, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and you’re exposed to all these different ideas and different ways of thinking, you realize that, yes, design is a bigger idea. That’s why we talk about ‘the design of everything.”

We’ve had a sword swallower, an entrepreneur, a photographer…There are so many different types. We’ve have individuals from the healthcare industry who say, “I need to do something different. This industry has to change.” What are they trying to do? They’re trying to redesign what the future looks like. They’re designers as well, even though they might be in a corporate environment that you wouldn’t assume is full of “designers.” But they’re trying to solve problems —  and that intentionally eclectic mix of people, it really messes with your head as an attendee, in the best way.

They’re trying to redesign what the future looks like.

Chuck: Could it just as well bear the moniker of “the problem solving of everything,” as well as the design of everything?

Andy: To a certain degree. Presenters are not all overtly solving a specific problem, but in many cases they are and they’re doing it in very unique ways.

A lot of presenters are simply going to speak on what they’re passionate about. And we don’t know exactly what they’re going to say — in fact, in a typical year several presenters will follow up with us and say, “Do you want to see my presentation before Cusp?” When we say no, they’ll ask, “Why not?” and our reply is simply, “Well, that’s part of it — the unknown.”

We tell them, “Talk about what keeps you up at night and what gets you up in the morning. If you stick with that it will be great.” And nine times out of ten it is. Again, you take those people who are really passionate, they’ve got a lot of energy towards what they’re doing and what they believe in, and you put them in a room and you hear 25 of them in two days…it’s hard not to be inspired.

Chuck:  You hear them — but do you get to talk to them too? Is there that level of conversation as well?

Andy:  Sure. We generally group three to four presenters in a row, one right after another, and then what will happen next is a variety of breaks where we encourage conversations. Go talk to the presenters. Most of our presenters are people you’ve probably never heard of. They’re not being taken away in a limo or taken into a green room. (Well, we do have a green room but they’re not being hidden.)

Chuck:  So they’re not your industry standard, best practice presenters?

Andy: No, no. They’re very different, and we like that. And I think that the presenters are as interested in having those conversations as are the attendees.

The presenters are as interested in having those conversations as are the attendees.

Chuck:  So what kind of conversations have you had, or perhaps overheard, at Cusp that have surprised you?

Andy: A handful of years ago, a sponsor who’d purchased a block of tickets invited one of their clients, and told them, “You need to go to this.” This particular attendee — who was from the nutraceutical industry — said he had no idea of what he was signing up for and was reluctant to even go.

But he ended up attending Cusp, and followed up with us after the conference saying, “You know, I took something from every single presentation. One in particular that I never would’ve anticipated really learning much from was that theater company out of Canada.  They were talking about working within constraints. They’ve got budget constraints, stage constraints, a lot of things working against them. What they decided to do was embrace those limits…to the point where, instead of props, they just used an overhead projector. They completely flipped their “limitations” around and produced something totally amazing — which they even demonstrated with a couple of live scenes. So I went back to my team and I said, ‘Let’s stop fighting against our constraints — let’s embrace them.'”

Isn’t it amazing how someone from his particular industry could see a theater designer and take away a really transformative inspiration? It’s not exactly what you’ll get from your typical industry conference.

Chuck: So does the conference engender business conversations, too?

Andy: You know what? It really builds on this idea of thinking differently. That’s how we’ve always wanted the position ourselves — we think a little bit differently, we don’t want to fall into a pattern. It’s why we don’t focus on a particular sector. We like to bring a range of ideas and thoughts and experiences to the table that allows us to help clients look at themselves a little bit differently. Having those conversations with presenters and attendees is great because it puts us in the light that we want people to see us in.

Having those conversations with presenters and attendees is great because it puts us in the light that we want people to see us in.

Chuck:  So the way you operate — what you feel sets you apart — becomes self-evident, rather than something you have to “sell” to prospects?

Andy: I think so. We’re very proud of the Cusp brand because we know inevitably that that brand reflects upon Multiple.

Chuck: What I observe as one of the greatest powers of conversation is that in these face-to-face and person-to-person intersections, people get a chance to appreciate you on your own, for themselves, versus you simply making a marketing claim about yourselves.

Andy: Absolutely. When you’re at Cusp, you’re talking about 1,001 different things because of what you’ve been exposed to over those two days. Where that leads you won’t always know, but it results in wide variety of wonderful conversations, which is really fulfilling.

Chuck:  So you’re ten years into Cusp. What’s next?

Andy: We don’t know for sure. I think that’s a little bit of the magic of Cusp — that you don’t always know what to expect from our presenters or from year to year. We’ve talked about a variety of things, taking it to other cities, maybe doing some smaller quarterly events around a particular topic because, again, Cusp covers such a broad range of topics. So we might want to specifically focus on, say, innovation or leadership, and expose Cusp to a different group of people.

Chuck: A different group of people…so who comes to Cusp now, and who do you think should be coming who isn’t?

Andy: Because of our terminology — the design of everything — there’s this assumption it’s for designers. Actually, only a very small percentage of attendees or presenters would categorize themselves as designers.

For instance, there’s a non-profit leader here in Chicago who’s attended over the last several years. I asked her, “Why do you keep attending? You’re busy, you’ve got a lot of things going on.” She talked about this idea of “filling her cup.” A lot of people take from her, given that she’s the leader of an organization and is expected to give and give. So she said, “This is my opportunity to sit in a room, fill my cup and be inspired — to see how other people lead.”

When I hear things like that, well, it’s really exciting. That’s a reason we you want to continue to put on Cusp.  So, to answer your question, yes, it’s a varied group of presenters, and it’s an incredibly eclectic group of attendees.

Chuck: Sounds like a spa day for your conceptual spirit.

Andy: Absolutely. It’s funny, because one of the things that non-profit leader mentioned doing for herself is to get a massage — and that Cusp is also something she feels she absolutely has to do to take care of herself as a leader, to help her keep inspiring others.

Chuck: I believe one of the things that’s coming next is where we’re sitting now. This isn’t actually your office — we’re right below the Multiple offices. So is the intent with this new space to import a little bit of the magic of Cusp on a more daily basis?

Cusp is really meant to get you out of your space and thinking differently.

Andy: Yes. We’ve referred to it as the physical manifestation of Cusp, even as we’ve talked about it in a variety of ways. Again, Cusp is really meant to get you out of your space and thinking differently.  We believe that this is the type of space that can help you do that, so people again can get in a room, have the tough conversations, and inevitably establish a vision and a process for their next steps.

Chuck: Okay, you’re making space for inspiring conversations with Cusp and you’ve created a literal space for tough conversations here.

Andy:  Correct.

Chuck: We’ll look forward to seeing what the next conversation leadership format is that you introduce for us.

Andy: As will we — thank you.

For more examples of how on thought leadership and conversation leadership work together, please see our recent blog posts.

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About the Author
Chuck Kent, the Chief Conversation Officer at Lead the Conversation, is a writer, brand strategist, content creator and expert interviewer. He is also a Contributing Editor for Branding Magazine, where he created and moderates the monthly Branding Roundtable (which keeps him in constant conversation with business leaders from around the world).  If you’d like to discuss how you, too, can lead your industry’s conversation, please contact him — Chuck’s always happy to talk