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Background

This video was created using Apple Keynote (Apple’s version of PowerPoint). It is really a combination of ideas and statistics from these blog posts:

> 10 Ways Social Media Will Transform Events in 2010

>  Are Your Events Haunted By The Blackberry Prayer?

>  Do You Allocate Enough Time For Interaction?

The Transformation Begins

Right now the digital world and face-to-face worlds are colliding. I think this collision will create new opportunities for events. As attendees become more comfortable with these two way experiences in their own lives – they are going to start demanding similar experiences from you. Maybe they already are?

If you have experienced any interesting applications of Social Media or Event Technology during an event – please share your stories. I would love to hear what you think is working or not working in your events.

The post Social Media in Events Video from Event Camp appeared first on Interactive Meeting Technology.

Endless PowerPoint presentations and stale ham sandwiches have been making attendees comatose at meetings and events for decades now. While many event organizers recognize the need for more interaction, few know where to start.

Most leap for technology tools and new formats.

By immediately starting with technology solutions, you risk over-engineering OR under-engineering your interactive experiences.

Ask The Key Question

In my opinion, there is a better way. I prefer to start with this seemingly simple question: What are attendees supposed to do as a result of this interaction (or session)?

Here are some possible responses:

• Stay awake & not fall asleep
• Stop playing with their mobile gadgets
• Ask questions
• Answer a question
• Give their opinion
• Learn a new skill
• Embrace the organizational change
• Feel better
• Accept an invitation to meet a sales rep
• Reinforce product benefits
• Experience the brand
• Find 5 new association members
• Purchase your products
• Go change the world
• Tell 47 people that your company rocks!
• Create 25 new ideas
• Be a part of the grass roots effort to ______
• Change their way that they work

Set the Interaction Dial

I view answering the question above as setting the interaction dial, because it sets a target for your interactive experience. Also, interactions have different intensity levels. Some interactive solutions are really simple (like having attendees ask questions). While others are complex  (like brainstorming with 500 people) and require additional planning, design, session time and sophisticated tech tools. By setting the target – you make it easier to match the interactive experience to your desired outcome.

After you set the interaction dial, don’t be shy. Get your stakeholders involved in creating a solution. Ask the speakers, facilitators, meeting designers, A/V team and technology services providers to help you. These are smart people. Don’t be afraid to use them.

Bottom Line

When you are planning interactions – start by thinking through the action that you want attendees to take afterward. Then, work on matching the right processes, event formats and interactive technology to your objective.

Where will you set the interaction dial?

The post How to Set the Interaction Dial appeared first on Interactive Meeting Technology.

To me, this event demonstrated how you can tap into the energy and brainpower of the attendees to share, communicate and collaborate at events.

Here are some of the ways that the attendees used Google Wave at the EComm Conference:

• Send messages
• Share notes
• Build group summaries of the sessions.
• Provide feedback on sessions, etc.

If you are new to Google Wave – I suggest that you watch this simple video that explains the concept:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDu2A3WzQpo]

Mass Collaboration At Events

The thing that caught my attention was the use of Google Wave for mass collaboration at an event. It almost seemed like wikis+twitter on steroids. It made me consider the following scenario:

What if you brainstormed a bunch of ideas in a plenary session through Google Wave and prioritized them on the spot. Then, you could assign one or two topics to each break-out session. Ask the teams to expand on the ideas and make recommendations for next steps.

It they used Google Wave, they could end up with a summary document and action plan. In this scenario, you would avoid the flip charts, the massive amounts of handwritten notes, the situation where notes were left in the conference room, etc. Everything would already be “digitized” and ready-to-share. So, when attendees return to the office, they can maintain the momentum of the event and start making change happen.

Sounds like a good idea to me. What about you?

(Note: I know that some of you already do something similar with other technology solutions.)

A Word of Caution

Before we get too excited we probably need to keep the following four things in mind:

1. Google Wave is still on a limited release.
2. Wifi access/connectivity in many venues is still questionable.
3. If you have a room full of laptops, netbooks, etc – then you need to provide power strips and tables.
4. We still need to learn more about using the tool and how to best apply it for collaboration.

Bottom Line

I think Google Wave has demonstrated that it can be a powerful accessory to engage the audience, create interaction and enhance collaboration at events.  Once it rolls out, it may be something to consider for your events.

What do you think? Do you want your attendees doing the wave and engaging in mass collaboration?

The post Google Waves Hello to Events appeared first on Interactive Meeting Technology.

For some speakers and event organizers this can be embarrassing and frustrating. After all the content is supposedly important stuff. Based on what I am hearing and reading in discussion groups – it seems to be haunting events.

New Flash: Mobile Devices Are Here To Stay

With more than 120,000 applications available for smart phones, mobile phones are only going to grow in usage. So, you can expect the blackberry prayer to become more common at events in 2010. Here are some additional facts:

• More than 58% of Americans have a web enabled mobile phone
• In Europe, 1 in 4 households cancelled their landline and are only using their mobile
• More than 2 trillion SMS (text) messages were sent in 2008. (Yes! that is Trillion with a “T”!!)
• 1 in 4 new mobile phones sold in the US is a smart phone.

Besides dressing up as the headless horseman and throwing flaming pumpkins at attendees (which, by the way, I don’t advise) – what can you do to get attendees to look up and pay attention to the speaker?

If You Can’t Beat’em – Join‘em

You can’t prevent people from using their smart phones at your event – but you can engage them through the smart phones.  Ask attendees to use their devices to look up answers during a session. Ask them to tweet you questions or comments. Or use one of the mobile event applications that helps them keep in touch with you and the event.

If those ideas still sounds scary to you – here are 10 more ideas that will help you create interaction:

1. Increase Interaction Time & Reduce Speaker Presentation Time
2. Setup A Backchannel
3. Use Mobile Texting Tools
4. Use the Buzz Collaboration Format
5. Try the Fishbowl Technique
6. Try an Unconference
7. Use Open Space Technology
8. Try An Audience Response Team Building Game
9. Start a Flash Mob – Like Oprah
10. Try a Treasure Hunt

Bottom Line

Ghosts, Goblins and Blackberry-using-attendees do not control your event experience – you do.  When it comes to addressing the growing number of mobile devices at your events you have two choices: Trick or Treat.

Let me know if you have any alternative witches brew that might be useful here. Happy Halloween!

photo credits: jochen & oskay

Note: I discovered the term “Blackberry Prayer” in a Podcast between Jeff DeCagna & Sue Pelletier: Listen | Read

The post It’s Halloween: Are Your Events Haunted by the Blackberry Prayer? appeared first on Interactive Meeting Technology.

How are you managing communication and engagement with the four generations that are attending your events? How do you invite the spirit of co-creation? How do you get  adults with a 20 minute attention span to listen to a 60 minute presentation?

Those are a few of the questions that were tackled in the Tips to Maximize Audience Engagement Webinar organized by Best Events Magazine and IML Interactive. This interactive webinar brought together three different perspectives on audience engagement: Business Leader/Agency perspective, the technology perspective and the speaker perspective. Here were the speakers:

• Fay Beauchine, President, Events & Engagement, Carlson Marketing Group
• Ray Hansen, Director, IML Worldwide
• Dan Rose, President, Omakase Group

I thought this webinar was packed with valuable content. Below you will find a summary of the Four Drivers of Audience Engagement and some other invaluable tips that I thought you could start implementing immediately.

Driver of Engagement #1: Encourage a Great Experience

When it comes to creating experiences, events are experiential.  Fay recommends that you touch all 5 senses. Her company focuses a lot of its thinking on the emotions. She suggests that you do the same.

Equally important, Fay suggests that you make the experiences immersive AND don’t go halfway. As an example, Fay described an event where a technology company that wanted to encourage Eco-Responsibility and Global Citizenship. To make the experience complete, they distributed 2000 mobile phones that contained the agendas, conference guide, and messaging capabilities. This solution reduced the printed material by 75%. Attendees sent over 20,000 messages to each other.

Driver of Engagement #2: Encourage Participation

Carlson Marketing Group maximizes the application of technology to encourage participation. Using social technologies, they are expanding event experiences to 3-4 months in length and a maximum of 9 months. Also, by getting the attendees comfortable with engagement before the event – attendees are more comfortable with interacting onsite. Some of the tools that they are using include – webinars, surveys, videos, voting and mobile messaging.

When it comes to using technology Fay offered the following crucial advice:

• You need to empower people to opt-in and opt-out of the technology
• Focus the technology tools on content – make it central to the business so people use the tools.

Driver of Engagement #3: Target Communication

You need to explore communication and engagement strategies that are aligned against your audience demographics. Right now, there are four generations attending events. Each group wants to engage and communicate on their own terms. When you are designing your content – you need to ask yourself how will you communicate with this group? and how will you connect them? Here Fay had an excellent slide that laid out the differences in attitudes between each group. You need to consider how these different attitudes influence your event design.

Driver of Engagement #4: Provide Value

Providing value means making the event relevant to the audience and to the community at large. As programs trend smaller – make them passionate, honest and make it seem like a smart choice.  Amplify – yet simplify. As an example, Fay pointed out that team building exercises are still happening – but they are BBQs & chili cook-offs.

We have 20 Minute Minds in a 60 Minute World

In building a case for moving beyond bullet points, Ray Hansen used audience response technology to ask the audience two questions: how long is the average adult attention span? AND how long is your average conference session? The answer to the first question was 20 minutes and the answer to the 2nd question was 60 minutes. Then he asked a rhetorical question — if adults have an attention span of 20 minutes – why are we asking them to sit through 60 minute conference sessions?  Great Question – I thought this was an excellent application of ARS to help the audience arrive at the speaker’s point on their own.

Creating 60 Minute Minds

In order to expand the audience attention and retention during the session – Ray offered the following ARS tips:

• Engage the audience with an ARS question at least once every 10 15-20 minutes.
• Use discovery questions to learn about the audience and discover misconceptions at the beginning of the presentation.
• Ask verification questions to manage attention and retention during the presentation.
• Ask questions to make sure that participants get the key messages at the end of the presentation.

Building the Spirit of Co-Creation

Dan Rose took the speaker’s point of view. He suggested that the speaker can create a spirit of co-creation in the way that he/her engages the audience. Dan highlighted the following benefits of co-creation:

1. Puts part of the investment in the final results and takeaways on the audience.
2. Allows the speaker to create the presentation based on things common to the people in the room.
3. Allows the audience to prioritize the order of the discussion.

Equally important, Dan suggested that leading the audience through an exercise and having them create some artifacts on their own helps them engage in the presentation. Also, he suggests ask the attendees to compare notes from their exercises before the speaker makes the main point.

Bottom Line

There are several ways to engage the audience, put your community into motion and move them from passive listeners to active participants.  Hopefully you found one or two new ideas in this post that you can implement in your next event.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or sharing it with others.

Photo Credit: Kaptain Kobald

The post 4 Drivers of Audience Engagement and Other Invaluable Tips appeared first on Interactive Meeting Technology.

1. How Much Are Attendees Passively Listening vs Actively Contributing?

Not long ago, I came across a report by Crystal Interactive (Creating Internal Events that are Fit For Purpose) that surveyed UK corporate and internal events and found that 90% of the learning time is spent passively listening. While only 10% is spent participating in interactive activities.  I was blown away by the numbers and suggest that you read the report (see link above). The body of the report offers several suggestions for thinking through objectives, managing time and interaction in an internal corporate event.

2. What happens following the motivational keynote speech?

In the article “How Not to Use a Great Speaker”, Ed Bernacki describes a motivational keynote speech that missed its mark – because there was no time set aside for interaction and reflection with other attendees after the speech.  He suggests allocating 20-30 minutes for attendees to discuss the presentation’s key themes in small groups. This way you can get extra value from the investment in the speaker and allow attendees to build a stronger connection to the content and its message.

3. Will there be several people in the audience as knowledgeable as the speaker on the selected topic?

The line between the experts on the stage and the attendees in the audience is blurring. Attendees have access to much more research and knowledge than in the past. In some topic areas, new case studies and insights are emerging everyday. If the topic fits this profile make sure you allocate time to get the perspective of other knowledgeable participants.

4. Sooo…how much time should you allocate to interaction?

Crystal Interactive recommends that you allocate 30-50% of learning time to interactive activities. While a recent case study by Ron Springer of Espirit Productions showed that business results were achieved by increasing interaction from 26% to 58% and cutting PowerPoint Presentations in half from 50.6% of time to 24%.  (Read Case Study)

Bottom Line

You control how attendees spend their time at your events. If you want them to interact more, then consider allocating more time to interaction activities.

How much time are you allocating for interaction?

The post Do You Allocate Enough Time For Interaction? appeared first on Interactive Meeting Technology.

Here are some trends that have shaped some of my thinking:

1. The knowledge gap between the audience and the experts on stage is shrinking. Today’s delegates are more likely to have access to the same tools and information resources as the experts than 5 or 10 years ago.
2. The scientists have proven that lecturing is an inefficient delivery system for learning. Lecturing persists because it is an efficient way to deliver content to large groups.
3. Equally important, scientists have proven that passive listening (sitting in a chair twiddling your thumbs) yields less learning and retention than active listening (answering questions, participating in activities, etc).
4. Research exists in academia proving that audience response keypads and the backchannel (think: twitter) improve learning. 
5. The technology tools exist today to engage the audience in either structured or unstructured dialogue. 

When events bring together 100, 300, 500 or 2000 of our best customers, employees or association members, I see it is a perfect opportunity to tap into the ideas, expertise and opinions of the many and build a powerful community. Don’t you?

Think about your delegates as 500 Brilliant Minds that are ready to share, collaborate and build something special.

This is no easy task for events.  As the groups get larger and larger, it becomes more difficult to organize interaction and dialogue among the participants.  So, as the groups get larger we need to use different approaches for creating and managing communication with these groups.  

Today’s meeting technology tools have the power to connect audiences and engage them in structured and unstructured dialogue. However, these tools are not like the magic beans from the children’s book “Jack in the Beanstalk.” You cannot just plant them in your event and Voila! — interaction happens!  You need to think through objectives, outcomes, processes and obstacles in your planning and design stages to make these technology tools effective.

This is the challenge that we face. The tech tools exist, but we need to discuss how to evolve our planning and design processes to effectively incorporate them. 

That’s how I see it. How do you see it? What else did I miss (or forget)? Do you hear the noise? Should we have a healthy debate?  Do events need more interaction? or is it just me?

What can you do?

I need you to join the conversation. Share your feedback and experiences, challenge my points of view and offer new insights. The goal here is to get as many people as possible commenting – positive and negative – so that people considering these technology tools for their events can benefit from your insights.  I believe that together – we can create better ideas and solutions for how to use technology to create interaction at events.

The post Do you hear the noise? appeared first on Interactive Meeting Technology.