The primary component of an event must be to know what its purpose is. After the event, if everybody had fun and would go again, but nobody learned anything new or met any new people, would the event be considered a success? The referenced “RINGKNOCKER” events would not be, since they had other explicit goals. The event must be designed to be fun to attend while maximizing the actual goal of the event.

Far too many people seem to believe that the goal of any and all events is simply “fun”, and leave it at that.