We were in the planning stages for Echo Conference, when we found out we didn’t have a place for dinner during the first night of the conference. We would have around 1000 people at the conference and we planned to provide a meal for them. Unfortunately, the church where we were hosting the event informed us that we didn’t have a room available that could seat that many people. They needed it that night.
You’ve probably been to a Chipotle, standing in line, realizing there were no available tables when you got your food. Now, picture that frustration and anxiety magnified to a group of 1000. That’s what our team felt when we got this news. And this was the first night of the conference—the first impression to many people who were experiencing this event for the first time.
After an hour or so of panic, I remembered one of the things I’d written in Created for More. It wasn’t published yet, so nobody was there to hold me accountable for what I’d written. But I decided I’d abide by the principle anyways: Limitations force creative solutions.
Well we can’t use the big room we were planning to use, so what rooms are available to us? We found out there weren’t many options, except a cluster of rooms that seated about 50-60 people. The math just worked out where we could split the people between 20 rooms.
We got the idea to turn these rooms into community rooms. You could choose a category that most represented what you did at your church, and meet like-minded people. We even placed some discussion questions in the room to help the more introverted categories start the conversation.
It was one of the coolest things, because it actually became one of my favorite things from the conference. People actually liked it. They had no idea it was a solution to an extremely limiting problem that faced us.
Who’d have thought that a sentence in my book was actually true? Limitations force creative solutions.
So now I ask you, what limitations are you faced with today? What if there was a creative solution that actually turned a problem into an opportunity for something amazing. I guarantee it’s possible if you’re willing to look for the option.