Was The “Accountability” Conference Full?

A major client contracted us to organize a conference for 1,500 people. Part of the job involved building a website and a booking platform, but the client was adamant that we use a particular third-party ticketing company that had never catered such a large, complex event before.

Concerned that the system wasn’t capable or flexible enough to meet the client’s needs, we sent numerous emails highlighting the system’s shortcomings. Each time, our concerns were dismissed. In frustration, we put together a detailed report highlighting the problems we were likely to face, but we were told in no uncertain terms that we had to use the supplier anyway.

When only a handful of tickets were sold several months into a major marketing campaign, there was an emergency meeting between the teams involved, up to and including the CEO of the company.

When the subject of ticketing came up, our client company angrily asked us why were they getting so much negative feedback from people trying to buy tickets. We politely pointed out that all the issues buyers were experiencing had been mentioned in our report and that we had said that using that supplier wasn’t a good idea. The CEO’s response?

Client: “How could you let us make that mistake?”

Oh, and the theme for the conference was “Leadership”.