Part 1: Is your "trend" worthy?

Before incorporating something "hot" and "trendy" into your event, it's worthwhile to weigh the benefits of the trend against its potential harm.

Harm? Well, we're not talking about any deep, lasting effects on your attendees, but sometimes doing something trendy for the sake of trend can have a negative effect on your event overall--especially if it's not thought out.

Some examples of trends that we've seen that have obvious benefits, but that also have drawbacks that are worth measuring against the actual impact they might have at an event. Often times, the difference that they make is minimal compared to the amount of hassle or time one has to spend encouraging attendees to get on board with the application/trend.

Here are a few trends at recent events that have had some great benefits, but also some obvious drawbacks.  This list isn't comprehensive, of course--and any time you choose to incorporate technology (especially bring-your-own-device) it comes with its own set of issues: privacy concerns, a social vs. professional tension, and basic logistics--like phones running out of charge or being unable to transmit in a no-reception ballroom:

Hashtags: distraction or discussion?
Creating an event hashtag and using it to start discussion, recap presentations, and engage attendees in the ever-so-trendy social media world seems to be riding a wave of popularity. In some events, however, we've already seen this trend come and go; a brand-new thing one year that doesn't quite pan out. The fizzle puts it on the do-not-repeat list for the next event, because the hassle is often not worth the payoff.

Pros: 
  • We've seen some truly unique interactions come out of the Twitter hashtag--participants can engage personally with a keynote speaker and get questions answered that wouldn't normally come up at the event. 
  • Attendees can engage with each other in a less formal, peer-to-peer way.
  • Twitter feeds at the event can give a real-time pulse of what's going on, and can help solve attendee problems/answer questions at-moment.
  • The hashtag feed gives you an opportunity to make the event encompass the entirety of the time together--not just the general session or breakouts.

Cons: 
  • Adoption has generally been low; people either don't have a Twitter account to engage, or don't want to use their own personal account for a business event (and don't want to create a new account for the sole purpose of the event, either. 
  • The few people who *do* end up participating in the Twitter feed tend to be heavy users (there isn't a lot of moderate participation), and have their own cliquish event discussion apart from non-using peers. This also leads to nose-in-the-phone syndrome during event time.
  • Generating enough use for the hashtag/feed is continual work; presenters, materials and staff are continually "marketing" the hashtag--or it doesn't get used.

Apps: True value or phone clutter?
Many companies have invested in making their own smart-device "apps" for an event. This seems to be particularly common in events where the audience is external (like association meetings), though we've also seen internal event application.

Pros: 
  • Logistics--like agendas, housekeeping, where-to-meet, when to check out, etc. can be updated in real-time and paperlessly.
  • Allows for internal, somewhat-more-secure networking between attendees and things like quick attendee profile access, access to speaker bios, etc. 
  • Enables branded access to the event in a way that extends beyond breakouts and general sessions.

Cons: 
  • Requires a dedicated app manager and, also, dedicated staff to assist in download and instruction for attendees.
  • Many apps we've seen have had various complexity and functionality issues; i.e. loading and navigating the app was slow enough to make it virtually useless.
  • Compliance and adoption tends to be low: company devices often restrict the download of external apps, many attendees don't want an additional program on their personal phones, some will neglect or forget to download the app before the event, etc.

Vine/Instagram: Privacy versus people.
Remember when a lot of events had Facebook Pages, trying to incorporate social media almost in a for-its-own-sake social media push? That trend fizzled quickly with concerns over personal and professional privacy. However, some companies are encouraging the use of other up-and-coming social media darlings in a more piecemeal, personal way with Vine and Instagram.

Pros: 
  • Human element: Little Vine videos and Instagram pictures really capture the *people* that are at your event in a way that your event photographer might not be able to do. These can be great mementos and reminders of the event post-show.
  • Capture cool moments: Inevitably there are many little "viral" moments at an event that become running jokes or themes. Capturing and displaying them gets your audience involved and actively participating in the event.
  • People are already utilizing/familiar with these technologies. There is a potential for wider exposure of your event through your attendees' existing networks.

Cons: 
  • On the other hand, there is potential for wider exposure of your event through your attendees' existing networks.  The public nature of these mediums makes it an uncontrolled element, and attendees may not want to mix professional and personal personas.
  • Incrimination. If your VP has a few too many cocktails at a networking reception and lets a bit of proprietary information slip...now you have it on record. Sure, an after-hours karaoke meet-up for attendees is a fun idea--especially if they've had a full, productive day in working sessions--but out of the context of the event...in a public space...in the hands of the media...will it look like a boondoggle?
Sensational moments: Budget-blowing distraction or Millennial attraction?
Recently we were at a presentation geared toward making events attractive to the Millennial generation. The presenters suggested creating sharable moments--big, sensational elements in an event that attendees couldn't resist telling their friends about. This isn't something that's new for this generation--companies have been doing big event openers for ages--but what goes around comes around, and the sensational moment is trending yet again.

Pros: 
  • Sharable: Attendees want to talk about a great big-name comedian, a personal fireworks show, a giant character from their favorite show, a cool meal presentation, etc. Having a sharable moment can generate buzz for your event.
  • Thoughtfully crafted, a sensational moment can fit with the brand or theme of your event.
  • A big opening sets the tone and expectation at an event.

Cons: 
  • Hard to live up to. If your first moment of an event is a huge gospel choir leading everyone into the room, having your extra-dry VP give a finance update is going to seem especially painful. You don't want there to be too much up-and-down at your event; the energy level should increase not crash and burn.
  • Often times, these sensational moments don't further the message. So the impact is superficial, and not sustainable. 
  • To make a true impact, budget is often needed--and often lots of it. We had a client that wanted to make a huge deal of raising a ship's flag on stage: multiple people, lights, sound, everything. In reality, however, the flag was about 6' total and took about 4 seconds to raise--so it looked ridiculous. Is the budget worth the moment of impact is a question that needs to be considered very carefully--especially if the moment isn't going to have an impact throughout (or after) your event.
I'm sure we're missing a few trends (flash mobs still haven't died out entirely), so if you have any other suggestions feel free to share them.

Trends aren't bad--they're trends for a reason--but before you incorporate that hot new trend that every event is doing, consider:
  • Does it add value?
  • Is it "worth it" to your attendees?
  • Is the extra effort giving you a big enough payoff?
Because if it doesn't do ANY of those things, then incorporating a trend doesn't make your event fresh--it just adds a cumbersome element. 

Click to see all parts of this 8-part series.
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Tips for Writing Multiple Choice Questions

--> Hosting a game show in a large event is a great way to keep everyone engaged, review information, and add emotional impact with a bit of competition. When playing to a large audience most game shows are going to feature multiple choice questions. This way, everyone can play along using keypads, the game play moves fairly quickly, and participants get an extra shot of information from your presentations and sessions. 

Here are some tips to keep in mind as you create questions for your multiple choice game in your large event:

Make sure the content is neither too difficult, nor too easy.
Neither type of question—too difficult or too easy—leads to a competitive game. A too-difficult game has very low scores and quickly becomes discouraging.

A too-easy game has very high scores across the board, which is not very competitive.

If a question is going to be one or the other, it’s best to err on the side of easy, which will still engage the participants and can be useful for review.

There are multiple tricks you can employ to make a question more difficult without making it convoluted. These include:
  • Asking for specific or precise recall (i.e. specific budget numbers) with similar distractors
  • Going deeper into the content by asking follow-up questions (start out with an easier question and increase the level of difficulty)
  • Having very good distractors (more on this later, but essentially: having good alternate answer options aside from the correct answer can provide more challenge)
Not every answer has to be the same level of difficulty. It’s okay—and, in fact, sometimes preferable—to have your questions start out at a more basic or novice level and progress in difficulty as the game goes on and the points increase.


Make questions clear.
Don’t seek to increase difficulty by making your question a tongue-twister or a mind-bender. This is particularly important with an international audience but, also, you don’t want your contestants to have to think too hard about parsing the question in relation to the actual answer.

Avoid using negative questions unless they’re clearly and simply stated without additional negatives. For instance, “Which of the following is NOT a benefit of our new HR program?” can be a good question if the answer options are also clear and not-confusing. This, for instance, would be a nightmare question to process as a contestant:

Which of the following is NOT a benefit of our new HR program?
a)    Not getting under 3 weeks off
b)    Having to apply for benefits annually
c)    Not getting to apply for benefits on a monthly basis
d)    Neither having to complete the diversity course nor the culture compliance course if you’ve not done them in the last 6 months
e)    Huh?

Make your questions specific
For instance, asking “Who is the current president of the United States?” is a better question than “Who is the president?” This is not usually as much of an issue in multiple choice questions, where the answer options will often guide a contestant to a correct context—but if answer options are also somewhat ambiguous it can cause confusion.

Make the question short/concise.
Billy may have taken a train to a city and you want to identify that city, but your question should never look like this:

Billy gets on a train going from Orlando to Minneapolis; the train now contains 42 people. On the way, two passengers get off in Little Rock and 4 more get on. If, in St. Louis, thirteen get off and half the sum of the original passengers plus the number of passengers that got on in Little Rock get on, what is the name of the city Billy is going to?

Questions should be as clear and concise as possible—containing only the information necessary to ask the question and find an appropriate answer.

Instead of asking something like:

You’ve run into a person who you think is having a heart attack, what are the three most common signs to determine if this is actually the case?

Ask:

What are the three most common symptoms of a heart attack?


But keep in mind when paring down your questions: don’t use your answers to convey information that the question needs to ask. While you should strive to be direct in your questions, you shouldn’t leave out so much information that it has to be revealed in the answers. For example, instead of asking a question like this:

John Smith is:
a)    The Vice President of Operations for the Eastern Branch
b)    The Vice President of Operations for the Western Branch
c)    The Vice President of Operations for the Southern Branch

Ask:

John Smith is the Vice President of Operations for which branch?
a)    Eastern
b)    Western
c)    Southern


In a scenario where you want to use a longer question—i.e. you have a more complex case study to analyze—you can:
  • Include information before the question is asked, either through a presentation, information screen, or verbal description
  • Break the question into smaller pieces and have multiple questions around the same topic/area of interest
Have only one correct answer.
You may know exactly what answer you’re looking for, but if the question is unclear, or could be thought of in a different way--could someone come up with another answer? Could someone simply thinking outside the box come up with a different, but valid and correct response?

If there are two technically valid answers, either try grouping answer options together, or go with the A) answer a, B) answer b, C) answer a & b, D) none of the above route. HOWEVER…

Avoid all-of-the-above answer options to increase difficulty.
Let’s be honest, when there’s an all-of-the-above option the answer is always all-of-the-above… unless the question is deliberately designed to trick someone. Either way, you end up with a too-easy or too-difficult (by means of trickery and not content--which is frustrating) question.

A few all-of-the-above answer questions can be fine within a game—either to warm the audience up as an easier question, or as a question that leads to a more difficult, specific set of questions. However, they should be avoided in a game designed to be challenging throughout.

Use plausible distractors.
The distractors are the answer options you give that aren’t the real, correct answer. This can be one of the easiest ways to modify the difficulty level within your game show and they make a huge impact on the flow of the question.

In a four-option multiple choice question, at least 3 of the 4 answer options should be plausible, one of THOSE should be correct, and you can either have an additional plausible distractor, or incorporate something off-base or humorous.

To get good plausible distractors:

  • All answers should have roughly the same length and level of detail. i.e. When most people design answer options, the longest is usually the correct one because it’s stuffed with information that needed to be in the explanation before the question. Don’t do that.
  • All numerical answer options should be relatively close.
  • Answer options should skew (plausibly) toward your content. I.e. if you want to make a price seem like a good deal, the distractor options should be greater than the answer.
This:

How much is the NEW price for our X345 Widget?
a)    $145
b)    $165
c)    $195
d)    $250


…sounds much cheaper than this:

How much is the NEW price for our X345 Widget?
a)    $65
b)    $99
c)    $115
d)    $145

Be mindful of your question order
Don’t give anything away in one question that is going to appear in another question.

Proof your questions and answers
This may seem obvious, but when you’re the only one looking at content over and over again, things may slip by you that other people will catch (and could potentially make a difference in the correctness of one answer over another). Have someone proof-read your answers not just for correctness and simple mistakes, but also for difficulty and content.

Watch out for brand standards to avoid having to make last-minute changes. If your company colloquially refers to something by a shortened name, but the Brand Standard doesn’t reflect that, you may end up having to make revisions down the line. For instance, we worked for a credit card company that always referred to their clients as Card Members (capitalization, always) in branded pieces, so questions had to be revised to reflect that standard.
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Balancing "New" with "Tried and True"

We find that clients generally fall into two equally frustrating camps of thought:

1. We want to do something new NO MATTER WHAT.
2. We ONLY want to do what we've done before because it works.

Any event consultant has faced this challenge. You're stuck between the proverbial rock and the tremendously dull place. Your goal is to give your client the best possible solution for their event. The best design. The thing that engages their attendees and really has an impact beyond the event. That thing might be something that they've done before and has been wildly successful, or it might be something that's completely new.

With the first client--the client in scenario one--they they desire ONLY what is new. It doesn't matter if something was well-received the year before, is incredibly effective, and is a fresh, repeatable, or universal idea. If it's been done before--if it's been seen before (and sometimes just by them)--it's out.

With the second client--the client in scenario two--they ONLY want to do what's been done before. It doesn't matter if their event is stale, if their technique or idea isn't serving them well, or if it just flat-out isn't working--if it's been done before with some level of success (nothing in the event blew up), they'll do it again and stubbornly refuse suggestions to do otherwise.

Obviously a lot of clients are in between the categories "Must have New" and "Stuck in a Rut"--and a lot of people have elements of each. But for those that fall into one camp or another, well, they can be frustrating to deal with. Not only that, but they can be making a lot more work for themselves, or falling short of the event's potential simply because of their event philosophy.

We're not saying either way is bad or wrong, of course, but in most cases a little bit of compromise toward the middle (either a fresher approach, or keeping traditional staples that strengthen the heritage of an event) produces a more captivating, powerful event.

So how do we shift our clients...and how do we shift ourselves if we fall into one of those camps?

This topic is also not one with a simple one-part-blog-entry solution.
So we're starting a series dealing with different aspects of this topic. Look for the tag: 8 Trend and Tradition Event-Changers.

1. Is your "trend"...worthy?: Considering new event trends with a critical eye before adoption.
2. Persuasion for Rut-dwellers: Convincing the higher-ups to try something new utilizing the 4 levels of persuasion.
3. Babysteps for big impact: Implementing new ideas in stages for gradual change, and changing stale ideas for fresher traditions.
4. Here today, gone tomorrow: Slow adoption and why the event industry is months and years behind popular culture
5. Newness perspective check: Judging your experience against the audience.
6. Event Classics: A list of event concepts and ideas that stand the test of time.
7. Trend vs. Tradition: The value in ritual.
8. Crowd Sourcing: How the staple of Millennial interaction can energize your event every time. 
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Creating a Character: Porter the Penguin

Porter the Penguin: Close to final.
Getting a peek behind the scenes can sometimes be a let-down. Think Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. You find out that the Great and Powerful Oz is just a man once the curtain has been pulled back.

But sometimes, it only serves to further satiate one's appetite. I find myself thinking of watching hours of "behind the scenes" footage on DVDs for my favorite movies (in fact, this is maybe one of the only reasons to buy DVDs anymore...as an aside).

We're going to meet somewhere in the middle here, as we take you behind the scenes in the process of creating a character--but without spoiling any of the fun (in case you happen to be an audience member).

The process of creating a character pretty much goes like this:

A mid-course correction to illustrate eye shape.
1. Pick a character
2. Sketch the character
3. Animate-test the character
4. Put the character into their 3D environment
5. Refine the character
6. Refine the character
7. Refine the character... (And then refine, refine and refine.)
8. Get the final product.

Our latest character is Porter the Penguin. He's the coolest bird on either side of the equator, and he's showing up to help emcee the e4 event in Phoenix. We can make anything into an AniMate--a company logo, a person, a mascot, a spokesanimal, an abstract design, a talking product...anything.

We ended up settling on the Penguin because the event was titled "The Cool Wave" and, well, penguins are some of the coolest--and coldest--birds around.

We then did quite a bit of research (which entailed watching quite a few penguin videos) on different types of penguins and decided on general species that we wanted to emulate. Our first penguin animation was, well, a lot different than our final result. Observe: 
  
The emperor penguin's new clothes?
 
Original Porter was quite realistic--and modeled the most closely after a real penguin species--but he was, shall we say, a bit...evil looking? This was the kind of sharp-beaked creature that would play a villain opposite Batman in a movie. Not quite what we were going for when we wanted a friendly emcee personality.

We settled on doing a more cartoon-based look. The feathers and body and such would still retain realism, but we would then exaggerate some features; the eyes and the beak, chiefly. What we got was still recognizably Penguin--but was also a lot friendlier looking.




We liked this little guy quite a bit...but the shape of the eyes was off. We decided to change to a more horseshoe shaped form...and also started to experiment with eye color.




We also loved this Porter, but thought he looked a little, well, perpetually sad. Also a bit juvenile. We course-corrected by changing the size of the eyes...





Well, changing the eye size didn't achieve the effect that we wanted. Sometimes you don't know how a character is going to animate until you do it. It's funny, but as we're developing our characters, we get a good sense of the situation and context of the event, and then start to form their personality. At this stage in the game, we knew that this wasn't our Porter. It just didn't look like him. 
We switched his eyes back to brown, angled the outer corners down (instead of the inner corners, like in the larger blue-eyed sample), and increased the size of the eyes.

This is very close to the final result.


Feet-in-progress in the animation program.

It's always an iterative process. Along the way we got plenty of client feedback. The character develops physically right along with the script, so it always feels like the "right" words are coming out of the character, and, conversely, that the character has the right look for the script. It's a highly customized process and it's always a joy to have a new AniMated character to interact live during events. Porter's name may change if future clients want to use this penguin for their events, but we'll never forget how he was born. Happy Birthday, Porter the Penguin!
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7 ways to find your presentation story.

Presenters should change the format of their presentation every 5-7 minutes to maintain audience engagement. One of the most compelling ways to change it up is to tell a good story.

Stories engage the brain and make a message more relatable. As you tell your story the audience naturally pictures the events in their mind, creating rich detail and making memories.

It isn't always clear to a presenter, however, what story they should tell or how to find a story that's compelling. A story supplementing a presentation should be:
  • On-topic: It should somehow support the message at-hand, if only tangentially.
  • Engaging and relatable: It should have universal appeal to your audience. Even if it involves something they may not have experienced, the theme of the story should be something everyone can relate to.
  • Evocative and emotional: The story should captivate the audience and resonate on an emotional level.
  • Short and concise: Just the facts ma'am. Leave the long tangents and embellishments to Uncle Joe at Thanksgiving. Don't take too long to get to the point.
  • No inside jokes (unless ALL the audience is in on the joke): There shouldn't be anything missing from the story that needs to be there. If a stranger wouldn't "get it", assume your audience wouldn't either.
  • True...or not: A story doesn't have to be *completely* true, it just has to have the ring of truth. Obviously you shouldn't make up facts/figures, but adding a little embellishment is no presentation sin.
But...what if you don't have any stories? You've lived a sedate life. You've never climbed to the top of Mount Everest and had that funny thing with the sherpa happen to you...

There is always a compelling story *somewhere*. Here are a few ways to discover stories for your own presentation.

1. Your life:
So you haven't climbed Mount Everest. That doesn't mean that you don't have compelling anecdotes from your life.

Visit your childhood experiences. Were you ever on a team? Do you have siblings? Did you go on family vacations? What about your own kids (if you have them) or friend's kids? Have you traveled? What about college? Did you have a wedding? Think of the significant emotional events in your life, and there are bound to be one or two nuggets that can be tied into your message.

2. The process of creating the presentation:
Creating a presentation can be a story in and of itself, as long as it doesn't get too navel-gazey. Did you expect to have to do this presentation? Was it difficult to put together? Did you discover any surprising things along the way?

Assembling your PowerPoint slides on the airplane on the way to the conference isn't much of a story, but it can be a jumping-off point to more insightful commentary. "As I was sitting there on the plane, wondering what the heck I was going to talk about and trying to ignore the thin trail of drool on my shoulder coming from the stranger in the middle seat, I realized..."

3. From pictures:
If you're stuck for inspiration try looking at pictures--from your life, from past events, or from the great wide world. A story doesn't *have* to be true--some of the best stories are fables. Speculating as to what's going on in a compelling picture, or creating a metaphor based on an image and tying it back to your message is a good shortcut to a story.

Perhaps a picture of the company's founders will inspire an origin story that dovetails nicely with the current goals of the coming year. Vintage photos, kids, animals, evocative imagery--all of these things can be good jumping-off points.

4. An origin story:
A story is basically who-what-when-where-why-how. We had a client revealing their new marketing plan to their retail sales managers. Instead of just giving the plan, they told the story of how it came to be; how they were inspired by visiting the factory and that informed the direction of the plan. Not only was it engaging, but it gave a richer picture of the marketing materials at-hand.

How did a new product come to be? What trials and tribulations were overcome? How did you develop the new sales plan? What informed the decision? What happened last year that is making what you're saying this year relevant?

5. Plum the sports world:
Sporting events and personalities have natural arcs of triumph and trial, success and downfall, drama and delivery. Sports anecdotes are very popular in presentations, but there's a reason for that; they're naturally evocative.

Not all people can relate to sports (or a particular sport), but most can relate to a struggle against overwhelming adversity, not giving up during harsh conditions, or beating the competition against all odds.

6. Famous figures:
Like sports figures, famous writers, personalities, actors, musicians etc. often have strange and compelling stories because they are often thrust into strange and worldly situations that create anecdotes. Picking familiar figures and tying in their story/anecdote to your point can create a moment of humor and engagement.

One speaker we heard tied the company's message of teamwork and making risky decisions to the origin of The Beatles, for instance.
Why doesn't that third Beatle look familiar?
7. Internet story:
When all else fails, the internet is a practical repository of stories. Anecdotes, metaphors and experiences abound and are shared freely. It's not difficult to find an interesting story online after searching some keywords that relate to your message.

Here's where you do have to measure the truth, however. Not everything on the internet is factual (gasp!) and while it's fine to use fables, don't present a false story as the truth--always fact-check! Snopes.com is a good place to start if an internet story seems just a bit too convenient and fantastic to be true and you want to sniff out its authenticity.
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4 Brain-Based Event Facts

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Engage: 8 Ways to Recapture Your Audience

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How do you convey fireworks?

If the only experience we had with fireworks were pictures and descriptions (or even video clips) then no one would care about fireworks. No one would be motivated to go watch them live because they just wouldn't seem all that great.

No matter how descriptive you are--how much you try to convey the excitement of the colors bursting in the night sky, the boom and explosion, the oohs-and-aaahs, the moment of waiting; that delicious anticipation between individual fireworks--it's something that can never be captured accurately without being there.

That's sort of how a high-energy live event is, too. You can talk about how amazing and motivating and emotional the experience was, you can show pictures of the staging and the team building and the networking, but you can't quite capture the essence of the event. Even if you do, people will default to their previous experiences and work your description into that picture in their mind.

It's one of the reasons why face-to-face events are here to stay; there's really nothing that compares to physically getting people together in the same space. It's powerful and not easily replaced (even though virtual-and-hybrid events tried to make a go of it for a while and are still seen occasionally).

It's also a reason why it can be hard to get a revolutionary event-industry idea to spread. Sometimes you just have to SEE it.

We hear this frustration with fellow event producers all the time; how do I let a client know what the fireworks are going to be like if they've never seen a firework before? How can I convey how amazing and transformative and delightful the experience is going to be?

We're still trying to figure this out ourselves. Here are a few things we've seen work to the benefit of both potential clients and the future event:

1. Invite prospects to events. This gives a client some familiarity with the concept, idea or event process that you're proposing. This is also good for clients who are literal/logistical thinkers and need to see something to nail down what it looks like in their own process.

This can also be difficult to do both because it takes time and effort to travel to a location for a prospective client, and because a current client may be dealing with proprietary information at the event that they can't let out of their inner circle. There's also nothing quite like participation--so observing an event can provide a completely different experience.

2. Testimonials. How do you know which movie to see on the weekend if you haven't seen any of the previews? Probably by looking at the reviews. Or a combination of looking at things you like and matching them with the experiences/reviews of others. You'll go if the reviews are good, you'll go if it's a genre you like and your friends gave it praise. This is why testimonials from clients who have been there and experienced that can be so powerful. They still may not be able to describe the fireworks, but they can generate enough interest and trust so that the prospective client is willing to try seeing them.

3. Building trust. Some people, above all, crave certainty. Introducing seemingly-radical elements into an event is only possible once you've already established a level of trust. With one client, we kept pushing their comfort zone and pushing their comfort zone--but after the experience of the event they said, "We'll never NOT trust you again." Having a history of providing great solutions can go a long way in getting a client to follow your vision or in getting your client to see what a shared vision might look like.

4. Videos/samples/pictures. If you have a concept that is at all visual, try to have as many (good) visuals as possible. This does, however, fall into the firework trap; a video/picture of fireworks just doesn't convey the energy of fireworks. Be careful that poor media doesn't backfire and zap any building excitement you had with underwhelming visuals.
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The elephants showed up to your event too.

Companies have elephants. The metaphorical kind, of course, not usually the zoo-kind.

Rarely is everything exactly perfect in company-land going into an event and sometimes there are major, major issues.

It may seem like getting on a plane and traveling to a 3-day conference/meeting/event would be enough to at least shrink those elephants a bit; but the elephants travel with the audience.

The bottom line? If there's a Big Company Issue, it's going to be hanging out in the event room--in the brain space of each and every attendee--until it's addressed. You can't ignore the elephant, and attendees can't move on with the mindset of tackling the future until the past is brought to light.

We're not saying that every concern or complaint or issue has to be addressed head on--especially if they're minor--but large issues (pending mergers, layoffs, product quality issues, delivery issues, management shakeups, etc.) have to be addressed.

Attendees can't move forward until you've addressed the past.  

Getting everyone pumped up about the coming year and ready to tackle the goals set for the next few quarters is a huge task. It's even harder when morale is low from the previous year. Maybe results were sub-par or maybe the attendees feel they didn't--and still don't--have the tools to be successful. No matter how great the goal looks and how wonderful it will be for all of them to achieve it, if they have the same doubts from the year before plaguing them in the future...you get the same results.

Attendees won't accept promises in the face of unacknowledged shortcomings. 

We know of NO company that always delivers everything on time or as promised. It's the business of companies to be agile and deal with things as they come. Sometimes this means that a new product isn't ready in time or a new training program that was rolled out has to be scrapped. Acknowledge these shortcomings, provide a brief reason (not excuse) for the shortcomings, and the audience will be more likely to accept that the next deadline is going to be met (if it actually IS--companies also have to be realistic in their goals) or that the next training program really IS going to stick around.

Attendees will disregard beneficial information until their worries have been directly dealt with. 

You may be giving the attendees the key to the castle, but if they are stuck back at the moat--what good is a key? You have an amazing new product that will increase their sales, but your attendees are worried that a new manager is going to clean house? Their primary concern isn't going to be the features and benefits of that product until the other issue has been addressed.

Attendees will turn an elephant into a mountain if it isn't managed.  

Occasionally when we bring up getting elephant-type issues out in the open, a client will interject: "But we don't want this to turn into a gripe session!" We don't either. An issue in the general session, however, is much easier to manage than an issue that runs wild (and possibly inaccurately) around the rumor mill/gripe-enabler social hours and networking sessions.

Attendees respect a company that knows where they're coming from--even if they don't agree with the issue. 

Showing the attendees that you actually know what's going on with them; that you know what their life is like and that it's hard having to deal with a particular issue can go a long way. You may still have to enact the measure, but at least the attendees can get closer to understanding why--and that they were taken into account when the decision was made.

Events are a great opportunity to address Elephant-type issues in a controlled way; you have everyone together, you can carefully pre-frame and support new messaging over a number of days, and you can leave with a team more united and on-board than when they left for the event. Don't miss the opportunity by letting the big things hang out in the corner of the room.
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Do you have a case of Zombie Audience?

They stumble out of the general session, bleary and dazed. They have all the hallmarks of classic Zombie Audience; their bodies are there, but their brains? That’s not so certain. They just had 2-3 hours of Very Important Information wash completely over them. But wait? What’s this?

Coffee. Ahead. At the break station.

Hallelujah. Thank goodness for small miracles.


There are three barriers that can turn the audience from an energized, excited and engaged audience into a Zombie Audience.  Overcome these barriers and the audience leaves the event WITH that Very Important Information in their brains. 

The number one barrier? They stop listening. Not on purpose, mind you, but the average person disengages in 6-8 minutes. That is, UNLESS the information is presented in a new, creative, engaging way. 6-8 minutes! That’s less time than it takes to get your morning latte at the coffee drive-through.

The second barrier? They don’t remember the information presented (even if they are listening). Fact: 95% of what is delivered is forgotten 24 hours later without intervention. The really scary part? You don’t know WHICH 5% is sticking. Now that’s a statistic straight out of a horror flick.

The third barrier? They don’t buy in to your message. The thing that convinces you, isn’t necessarily the thing that convinces someone else. 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.

The point is, the way people learn is the opposite way in which information is usually presented. Break down these barriers and you’ll have a real, live audience who gets your message—not a bunch of b-movie extras.
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