How many of us have attended a conference and found them quite boring? The monotonous droned voices and boring PowerPoint slides… The struggle can be real and avoiding falling asleep becomes a great challenge. They say it takes 10 seconds to captivate your audience. If you haven’t gained the command of your stage by then the interest of your spectators is lost. It’s important to have a well-planned presentation prepared and to use significant strategies so that your delegates’ attention doesn’t fade. This article will give you a choice of key approaches to help maximise engagement; along with vital points that get forgotten.
Key Conference strategies to approach!!
#Interaction
One way to command the attention of your delegates is to have your audience join in with your presentation. Get your audience to interact with you, ask rhetorical questions. Ask questions that get your delegates to raise their hands or request a volunteer to approach the stage. This form of interaction not only helps to engage your delegates, but it makes your presentation fun. Try it out and see how successful it will be.
#Gamification
In the new era of millennials, gamification is an effective way to incorporate a gaming system into your content. This method can help to strengthen motivation, it also encourages light competition. Gamification can help your delegates to understand and digest information easier. Game-based learning can be used for educational purposes, the information can be broken down into bite-size chunks. Using this method can help delegates to retain the information easily. This strategy will become one of the leading new ways of hosting a modern conference design.
#Social Media
Social media is a useful platform to engage your delegates. Not only is it used every day it’s an easy tool to use. There are many options to choose from. Firstly, you could set up a hashtag for your event. Once you have done this you can add photos, updates. Get your delegates engaged by getting them to hashtag their pictures and posts. Another fantastic option to use is to run polls through Instagram; you can run these voting options to help build up to the event. Whilst also gaining great get ideas from the attendees. It’s a great formula to try. Don’t forget you can host competitions for more excitement leading up to the event. Remember that you can live stream the conference. This allows the delegates who are unable to attend to follow their chosen presentation. These options are available on Facebook Live, Instagram Live, and Twitter Live.
#Hosting Q&A and 1.1 Sessions
Hosting a Q&A with your speakers is another fantastic way to engage your audience. It’s very rare when attending a conference that the delegates get a chance to delve deeper into further aspects of the said topic. Having a separate stage to offer a 30-minute Q&A session with the CEO or an influential speaker helps the delegates to outline any unclear information. Another option to incorporate into your conference is 1.1 sessions. Throughout the day add these ten-minute slots throughout the duration of the conference. These sessions are there so the delegates can chat with field experts. These private and confidential discussions are there to help delegates in any way.
Key strategies that get missed…
#Meal Options
Okay, so we know it’s a full-on job organising a conference. But there is one thing that easily gets missed and that’s when it comes to the food options. For example, vegetarian and vegan dishes are typically part of the norm these days, however, there is much more to take into consideration such as food allergies, halal food choices and gluten-free options. Remember a hungry guest is an unhappy guest and this is something you would need to avoid. If you are unable to offer these special requirements, then it must be stipulated prior to your engagement. Your delegates can then make alternative plans regarding their meal options.
#Personal Greetings and name tags
Personalise your greetings and name tags. Regardless of whether you are planning a small or large conference, it’s the minor details that go a long way. It’s important to have your staff ready from the get-go. Due to technology constantly being updated, the relevant information of the guests should be there waiting upon their arrival. Having the delegates’ names and professions already printed out gives them a helping hand at making a great impression.
#Communication
Running a large or small conference can have its fair share of hiccups along the way. It’s important to have a good strategy in place to remain in constant contact with your staff members. A small incident can be defused quickly and helps to avoid it turning into a full-scale disaster. Find a system that works for you and always stay in touch with your staff.
#Host a post-event review
Ok so let’s say the events all over and it went amazingly well. Hmm and so you think you can now put up your feet and everything is fine. Well, I’m sorry to say this isn’t the case. Now it’s time to contact the delegates who attended the event and to gather feedback about your conference. All feedback is constructive whether that be positive or negative. Also, host a post-event review catchup with your staff, ask for their feedback about the event. It’s important to take on board the information provided. This will hold you in good stead for the next conference. Once you have utilized this information it will help prepare you for the next corporate event.
So, there you have some great options to take on board when you’re next planning your conference. Don’t forget to have fun along with having an amazing team to help support you along the way. Good luck…
