Live Spark 7 Truths about Events
- Give breaks in between presentations for the audience to reflect on content and absorb the information.
- Focus on what the audience NEEDS to know and remove irrelevent information. Ideally, you should have 3 key points per presentation - no more.
- Reinforce key points at the beginning (preframing), middle (informing) and end (reviewing) of the presentation.
- Use stories to emphasize key points. Stories engage the audience at an emotional level and offer a welcomed break from dry facts.
- Vary the presentation format every 5-7 minutes - use relevant video (movie clips, for instance), group discussion, and humor to re-engage your audience.
- Get clean from your PowerPoint addiction—use PowerPoint to enhance what you’re saying—not as speaking notes.
- Acknowledge outstanding issues. It doesn’t need to turn into a griping session, but briefly recognize problems and then give solutions or plans for improvement.
- Play to all persuasion styles: data evidence, social proof, personal guarantees of success and relevance to achieving their goals.
- Don’t assume that your audience will be persuaded in the way that you are—do a persuasion assessment before the presentation.
- Use the opening to lay out the key points you want the audience to remember and reinforce them during the middle part of the presentation.
- Summarize key take-aways at the close of your presentation.
- Reinforce key points by using different presentation elements; stories, jokes, anecdotes, videos—throughout the presentation.
- Create consensus among the key stakeholders and refine the outcomes into a shortlist of achievable objectives.
- Have each speaker align their presentation to one or more of the outcomes. If they can’t, then either eliminate the presentation or change the outcomes.
- Align every aspect of event to the outcomes: The theme, the agenda, the collateral, the speakers, the followup correspondance, etc.
- Intersperse learning games in between the presentations to serve as a mental “pallete cleanser” while reinforcing key content.
- Place the audience into teams and utilize challenges to stoke their competitive spirit and keep them focused and engaged.
- Start the event by clearly outlining the event’s outcomes and connecting them to how they’re relevant to the audience.
- Have the audience set their own objectives for the event.
- Preframe every presentation with the “What’s in it for you?” message.
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These seven truths are fundamental.
They will negatively impact the quality and effectiveness of every event you'll have--until you learn how to mitigate against them.
In this presentation you'll find the results of over 20 years of research and experience, along with real-world solutions to transform your event.
They will negatively impact the quality and effectiveness of every event you'll have--until you learn how to mitigate against them.
In this presentation you'll find the results of over 20 years of research and experience, along with real-world solutions to transform your event.
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Fact: 95% of what is delivered in a typical meeting environment is forgotten 24 hours later.
As if that weren’t bad enough -- you’re not sure WHICH 5% is remembered.
As if that weren’t bad enough -- you’re not sure WHICH 5% is remembered.
Utilizing brain-based learning strategies can make more of your content stick.
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The attention span of the average adult is between 5 and 7 minutes.
Unless your information is delivered in new, compelling ways at this interval, your audience will tune out. Blame it on the brain.
Unless your information is delivered in new, compelling ways at this interval, your audience will tune out. Blame it on the brain.
There are a variety of tactics you can employ to maintain engagement throughout a presentation:
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The thing that convinces you isn’t necessarily the thing that convinces someone else.
Everybody is persuaded differently.
Some people want facts and figures, others want to see evidence that a plan has worked before, still others want to know that it’s what their peers are doing.
Everybody is persuaded differently.
Some people want facts and figures, others want to see evidence that a plan has worked before, still others want to know that it’s what their peers are doing.
Get the buy-in you need:
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Remember Jan Brady from The Brady Bunch? As the middle child of her TV family, she felt ignored. Most of the attention fell to her younger and older sisters. How does this relate to your event?
Studies have shown that people generally only remember the opening and closing parts of any given presentation.
If you think about most presentations—the important information is generally put in the middle (where it is henceforth forgotten).
Studies have shown that people generally only remember the opening and closing parts of any given presentation.
If you think about most presentations—the important information is generally put in the middle (where it is henceforth forgotten).
Presentations need to be structured so that the most important things are placed where they’re most likely to be remembered.
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If you don’t set explicit objectives for your event and then align every aspect towards achieving them, your messages may be disparate and lost – and even downright confusing.
Your audience may walk away with the message, “These guys don’t know how to put on an event.”
Your audience may walk away with the message, “These guys don’t know how to put on an event.”
Start by asking, “By the end of this event, what do I want my audience to know, believe, and do?” And then:
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People want to play and, more importantly, the brain NEEDS to play to absorb information.
It doesn’t want to sit in a room for hours on end with PowerPoint as its only stimulus (it will signal the muscles in the arm to reach for the Blackberry under the table).
It doesn’t want to sit in a room for hours on end with PowerPoint as its only stimulus (it will signal the muscles in the arm to reach for the Blackberry under the table).
Games and activities can be integrated into an event to feed the brain’s need for competition, stimulation and play while staying on task and on point at the event.
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This is no big secret; people want to know what’s in it for them. If a topic isn’t relevant, the brain doesn’t retain it.
An audience needs to see a clear connection between a speaker’s message and their own personal objectives. Without that connection, content retention is unlikely.
An audience needs to see a clear connection between a speaker’s message and their own personal objectives. Without that connection, content retention is unlikely.
An audience needs to see a clear connection between a speaker’s message and their own personal objectives. Without that connection, content retention is unlikely.
