To evaluate an event, conveners focus on knowing key conference metrics. Our analytic minds seek numbers to quantify the experiences of event stakeholders. Metrics such as ticket sales, KPIs, social media mentions, booth visits, and net promoter scores create a picture of event outcomes, satisfaction levels, and areas for improvement.
But is there value in not knowing at conferences?
A poem about knowing
Mary Oliver‘s poem Snowy Night beautifully explores the tension between knowing and not knowing. She describes a snowy evening when she heard an owl:
“I couldn’t tell
which one it was –
the barred or the great-horned
ship of the air –
it was that distant.”
Instead of chasing certainty, Oliver chooses to embrace the mystery:
“But, anyway,
aren’t there moments
that are better than knowing something…”
Hearing this poem the other day reminded me of a similar tension at conferences—between the need for data and the value of embracing the intangible.
Metrics and their limits
As Oliver writes,
“I suppose
if this were someone else’s story
they would have insisted on knowing
whatever is knowable – would have hurried
over the fields
to name it – the owl, I mean.”
Metrics provide a finite “map” of what happened at a conference. They transform rich human experiences into statistics—valuable, yes, but inherently incomplete. Metrics don’t capture the intangible: the awe, learning, and life-changing connections a good conference can inspire.
As Alfred Korzybski noted, “A map is not the territory.” Metrics are useful tools, but they don’t replace the fullness of the experiences they represent.
Mary Oliver’s poem celebrates the value of wonder and being present over the need to uncover all the “knowable” facts. She writes:
“I love this world,
but not for its answers.”
Let’s keep her perspective in mind when we evaluate a conference.
Otherwise, as Alan Watts warned, we risk becoming “people eating menus instead of dinners“.
In conferences, as in life, there is value in both knowing and not knowing. By balancing data with the immeasurable, we can create richer, more meaningful events.