TrueStory Biz
Your team learns to tell a true story in six minutes, and tells it to colleagues that evening. The next day people talk to each other differently.
Event Lab for the day your company talks to itself
The January convention, the managers’ retreat, the evening with your team, the client event that comes back every year. We design them with you around what has to change afterwards, produce them with our partners, and you keep a written format you can run again next year without starting from scratch.
What changes at your company
What you see happening before, during and after.
The event has a written purpose
What has to be different at your company a month later, decided before the venue and the programme.
Speakers have something to say
And they’ve prepared it for weeks: a speech of their own, in their own words, with no slides to read out.
People really talk to each other
Colleagues telling a true story, teams that mix departments, clients with a role and not just a seat.
The follow-up is already in the diary
Who does what in the four weeks after, and what gets checked thirty days later.
The format runs again without starting from scratch
Running order, roles and pace are written down: your team opens the document and changes the theme.
Start from the step you need
Every step leaves you with something, even if you stop there. Looking for a team-building day people come back from with something they built? That’s Workshop and Full Immersion, in the Learn Lab.
B2CEO
In four weeks, whoever goes on stage prepares a sixteen-minute keynote of their own, and gives it to a room of peers.
Custom Format
The convention goes back to being the day your company talks to itself, and you keep a format you run again every year.
If you’ve tried before
You organised the convention with a good speaker and good catering, and a week later nobody was talking about it. You ran the team-building day again at the same villa as the year before.
It happens when you start from the venue and the programme, and nobody has decided beforehand what should happen afterwards. That’s where you start: the purpose in one sentence, who speaks and with what, a written format for next year.
The 12 solutions, three per Lab
If what you need sits in another Lab, start here.
Frequently asked questions
Does it work with a team in conflict?
Yes, and that’s one of the cases where it helps most. On the TrueStory Biz stage the rules are the same for whoever runs the company and whoever has just joined, and in mixed teams people who usually avoid each other work together. The conflict doesn’t disappear in one evening, but the next day people talk.
For how many people?
It depends on the format. A TrueStory Biz evening works from about ten people upwards, and with large groups it’s split into several rounds. A convention or a client event has no limit: the production changes, the method stays the same.
The owner has to speak at the convention and isn’t a natural speaker: who prepares them?
We do, in the weeks before, as in B2CEO: a speech of their own, sixteen minutes, with no slides to read out. Someone talking about what they’ve actually done holds the stage.
Do you also take care of venue, technical setup and catering?
Yes, in the Custom Format: we handle production with our partners, and it’s a separate line in the quote. You can also take the design alone and produce the event with your own suppliers.
Before you book the venue: ten checks for a convention that leaves something behind. Email it to me
The convention that produces something: the checklist_
Ten checks to run before booking the venue. Tick the ones you can already answer.
Where should we send the checklist?
It appears below, and we email it to you too, so you can find it when you’re planning.
Here it is
We’ve emailed it to you as well.
The email didn’t go out: the checklist is below, save it or print it.
Your details didn’t reach us, and we won’t pretend they did: if you’d like us to get back to you, write to info@updatelabs.it.
- 01
You know what people should be talking about the week after.
If you don’t decide it beforehand, the catering decides it.
- 02
The event has a purpose written in one sentence.
“Spending time together” isn’t a purpose, it’s an effect. The purpose says what changes afterwards.
- 03
Whoever goes on stage was chosen for what they have to say.
A director reading slides empties the room in ten minutes.
- 04
Speakers have at least four weeks to prepare, with someone helping them.
A good sixteen-minute speech is built over weeks.
- 05
There’s something to build during the day, in teams.
People remember what they did, not what they heard.
- 06
Teams mix departments.
If sales sits with sales, the company hasn’t talked to itself.
- 07
Clients, if present, have a role and not just a seat.
A client explaining how they use your product is worth more than an outside speaker.
- 08
You know what to measure thirty days later.
The mood on the night doesn’t count; what’s left a month later does.
- 09
The follow-up is already in the diary: who does what in the four weeks after.
Without follow-up, the convention is a break from work and nothing more.
- 10
The format is written down, with running order, pace and roles, and next year it runs again.
Starting from scratch every year costs more than writing the format down once.
If more than three boxes are empty, take the Update Check: it tells you whether the problem is the event or what surrounds it.