Audience Engagement

Tainted by an experience I witnessed recently, I am prompted to think about how we can manage events better.

Last week I had a briefing for a 1.5 hour leadership event, where usually there would be 20-25 attendees. But for this event the client wanted to get as many people involved as possible and on hearing there would be 90+ participants, I immediately changed gears to make sure I could get the attention of this bevy of mostly finance-focused males. And it will work!

After decades of speaking to audiences all over the world, I know it’s a hard enough task to engage 20, let alone 90, and it expands exponentially with 900.

So, why would you bother trying?

Well, there are at least three good reasons. Firstly, we are not there for a joke. People are there for a purpose and it if doesn’t meet that purpose, the opportunity is lost.

Secondly, there is a waste of human time and potential if people are forced to sit through something that doesn’t capture their attention and costs the company a fortune in salaries for the attendees, venues and food, let alone me.

Thirdly, of course, is a personal impetus. I want to win them over and feel good about doing so. And I want them to leave with a sense of achievement.

When it goes wrong, signs of disengagement start with faces switching off. Then people begin to find distraction. This can mean going to their phones or eating the food in front of them. Some take off to the bathroom and then, lastly, they talk and laugh amongst themselves over the top of the person speaking on stage.

You may say this is rude and in the 1970s it may have been, but today the gauge has moved. Especially the younger generation do not abide by the old rules. They do not necessarily bow to positional power.

So, you have to ask yourself, what can I do differently and here are a few thoughts I do to make sure this never happens.

Before an event, ask the usual:

• Numbers
• Genders
• Ages
• Table set up
• Stage set up

Then ask:

• What is their motivation to be there? What do they want to get out of it? – You are going to have to focus on that objective.
• Are they drinking? (very important)

At a larger event:

• Unless you have professional speakers, make the engagements as short as is polite.
• Manage the energy. For instance, do you need them to buy raffle tickets? This needs to be in a high-energy part of the evening, not at the end.
• Have movement on the stage.
• Place important information on the table.
• I was once advised to never let an audience go more than three minutes without some form of engagement. This doesn’t have to be an activity. It can be a rhetorical question. Just don’t talk ‘at’ people.

During the event,
     If you lose the audience, someone has to do one of two things:

1. stop the show or
2. do something to regain the audience’s attention

This takes skill and may mean you need a professional Emcee who can take control. Honestly, the cost of this is minimal compared to the results you can achieve.

One of my coaching clients is a CEO who had just such a challenge. At their annual conference, one of the speakers began to argue with a specific audience member from the stage. It was getting ugly and she had my voice in her ear to ‘do something!’. It took guts, it took permission to act and it took skills.

One of those skills was to take the spatial position of power and begin by praising everyone for their passion before describing the situation, saying how it was affecting her, giving a reason and offering a solution to change what was going on. Her board told her the investment in her training was worth every cent right there at that moment.

Here is what it may have sounded like:

       “Oh, this is so fabulous that we have so many passionate people here today with the generosity to share their thoughts for our industry. On the other hand, when we are getting into a singular discussion, I feel concerned, because we have a big agenda to get through today. If it is OK with everyone, let’s move on and see what else comes up in our day.”

Let me know what your advice is to make sure every event is a roaring, captivating success.