In conversation with the planner of the year
Lila Castellanos on slow planning, the case against checklists, and the day she stopped using email.
Lila Castellanos plans about thirty events a season. She is, by industry consensus, very good at it. We sat with her in her studio in Greenpoint to ask how she works.
On slow planning. “I plan by walking the room. Twice. Once with a notebook, once without. Anything I cannot remember from the second walk does not belong in the run of show. The brief is what survives the second walk.”
On the case against checklists. “A checklist tells you what to do. A run of show tells you when. They are not the same. Most of my industry has a checklist when what they want is a run of show.”
On the day she stopped using email. “The day I realised the vendors I like working with were also tired of email. Now we use one thread per event. The thread ends the day after the event. There is no inbox to manage afterwards. I do not miss it.”
On the future. “Slower. Fewer events. More walks of the room. Composed with care. The same thing I have always wanted, just more of it.”