{"id":53,"date":"2012-04-25T16:40:03","date_gmt":"2012-04-25T16:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janusdialogs.com\/?p=53"},"modified":"2014-03-06T16:19:12","modified_gmt":"2014-03-07T00:19:12","slug":"of-gods-and-janitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.janusdialogs.com\/?p=53","title":{"rendered":"Of Gods and Janitors"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

The familiar quote from Isaac Asimov says, \u201cthe only constant is change.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it goes on to say \u201c\u2026continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

This state of constant change was recognized by the Romans years before and entrusted to the god Janus<\/em>. Janus (depicted with two faces, one looking towards the past and the other the future) is the god of beginnings and transitions, and for whom the month January (the beginning of a new\u00a0year) is named.<\/p>\n

Doors, bridges, arch\"\"<\/a>ways, and gates \u2013 as places where one transitions from one place to another \u2013 are the domain of Janus. And these places were cared for by \u201cJanitors\u201d, directly relating to the god Janus. Janitors being much more than simply cleaners, they were caretakers of the god\u2019s domains.<\/p>\n

Recognizing a \u201cJanus Moment<\/a>\u201d (as I call it) when a new norm arises, is essential to ensuring successful marketing in general, and events specifically.<\/p>\n

These Janus Moments can be personal, cultural, organizational, etc. They can occur in social, technical, economic, or political realms<\/a>. They can be predicted or come on suddenly; thus the need to remain focused and attentive.<\/p>\n

The unique nature of events comes from the shared experiences in a moment in time<\/em> by the participants. With the pressure at events to deliver the experience in real-time, and without the opportunity to \u201cre-do\u201d it, the alignment of norms to your participants\u2019 expectations becomes essential to both ensuring the experience is not \u201cout of sync\u201d, and reaching the objectives of the program. You don\u2019t get a second chance to make a first impression.<\/p>\n

The science is in the \u201calignment of norms to your participants\u2019 expectations\u201d. A new norm for one is a new cutting edge experience for another or worse, \u201cpass\u00e9\u201d for a third. If you are responsible for the experience at a shared moment in time, you are its janitor, it\u2019s caretaker.<\/p>\n

The Janus Dialogs are designed to be a forum for discussions on new norms \u2013 those just beginning, establishing, or suddenly appearing. Dialog is encouraged as are submission of entries and articles for inclusion from anyone. Since each caretaker will need to make their own determination of the alignment to the participants\u2019 expectations, we will not look for conclusive direction, but insightful exposure and exchange.<\/p>\n

Welcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The familiar quote from Isaac Asimov says, \u201cthe only constant is change.\u201d But it goes on to say \u201c\u2026continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-all","category-new-to-janus-dialogs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.janusdialogs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/COIN-Janus-heads.jpg?fit=540%2C540","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2huoI-R","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janusdialogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janusdialogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janusdialogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janusdialogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janusdialogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/www.janusdialogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":927,"href":"http:\/\/www.janusdialogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions\/927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janusdialogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janusdialogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janusdialogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janusdialogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}