Post by Órla Mulligan

I made a massive mistake two weeks ago. Like seriously massive. The kind of mistake that could have completely derailed my entire event (and as an event manager, well, that ain't a great look.) 🫠 At the end of April, we brought our exec dinner series, The Table, to Berlin. I was expecting 10 to 15 senior executives for an evening of good food, great company and even better conversations about AI. That Wednesday morning, I flew from Dublin to Berlin, dropped my bags at the hotel and settled into a little sushi spot to get some work done before check-in. 🍣🥢 Between wrapping up our Amsterdam and Milan events, I was checking in with the venue to make sure everything was ready. Then I got an email saying, “We’re excited to host you tomorrow.” Turns out, during a busy period with a lot of moving parts, the Berlin date had been changed internally and completely slipped through the cracks. I’d never shared the updated date with the venue. Entirely my fault. 🙃 Thankfully, I work with an incredible venue finder, Colm O'Cuinneain from Let's Plan It, who had already found a solution before even telling me there was a problem. What could have been a total disaster ended up being surprisingly manageable. It reminded me of a few things. 💡 First, relationships matter. No matter how much we lean into AI, good people will save you when things go wrong. Being kind, flexible and easy to work with genuinely matters. Second, surround yourself with great people. Colm was three steps ahead all day, and the team at Verōnika Berlin couldn’t have been better. Moving an event forward by a day with less than 12 hours notice is no small ask, but they handled it with complete professionalism. 👏 And finally, if you make a mistake, own it. I decided early in my career that if something was my fault, I’d say so. Every single time, that approach has served me better than trying to dodge responsibility ever would. We’re all going to mess something up at some point. What matters is how you deal with it, and who’s around you when you do. 🫶 ✨