Here are some key quotes from my latest podcast with Cosimo Montagu, Editor and Organizer of the GAIM Ops event series.

• “[For] GAIM Ops Cayman, there’s 150 speakers. I like to know everybody fairly well. So it’s a question of making sure everybody’s happy. Everybody’s feeling prepped and ready, and coordinating with that many speakers.”

• “I often think of it, especially with the topics as well, as quite a jigsaw puzzle. And you don’t necessarily have the full picture or all the pieces and you’re trying to build the best jigsaw puzzle you can from that.”

• “So when I’m structuring an agenda, and when you’re looking at a conference agenda, what I really recommend doing is trying to separate out the hot topics and the ‘to do’ topics.”

• “I never get as much time to see people [at the conference] as I’d like because you know, I’m a million different places at once. Running around making sure the sessions are starting on time and the speakers are in the right places.”

• “[Speakers] who can talk about the things they did wrong, so much more valuable. And it makes the things that you do right so much more credible as well.”

• “[S]o few people really get into the conference app. And obviously, if the main value of a conference is coming together, finding your peers, seeing people. It’s the face time, etc. And the conference app actually is super helpful for that.”