Event Speakers for a Successful Interactive Session

In the event’s industry, the primary objective of every organizer’s mind during an event is the need to maintain and maximize audience or attendee engagement. And while attendee engagement makes your event more fun and interactive, it also simultaneously enhances the brand’s awareness and development, as well as improve the brand’s engagement with its current audience of consumers. Interactive events are becoming a matter of importance when assuring a brand’s success, especially when in the case where our entire world is becoming digital; there arises a greater need for face-to-face engagement.

But what’s important to know is that attendee engagement is not a phenomenon that only happens once the event starts. It begins and continues long before and after the event itself. That’s why we at webMOBI have collated a comprehensive list of steps and pointers that event speakers and organizers can use to optimize their interactive events.

Before The Event:

Success begins at the venue
Planning out the room design can be the keystone to successful attendee engagement. Strategically arranging the room or venue, and deciding audience and event speaker placements can help maximize audience interaction and cognitive engagement.

Know your attendees
It’s critical to understand and know your audience demographics. This knowledge allows you to prepare and execute the content in relation to the attendee based data, thereby giving you an even higher opportunity to increase attendee engagement.

Social media hype
Promote your event via social media and the internet. In this digital age, utilize your online resources to attract and interact with attendees even before the event. Promote your conferences by blogging about it, by giving audiences a behind-the-scenes sneak peak through photos and videos on Instagram or Facebook or through creative and innovative Twitter hashtags.

At The Event:

Multiple studies have claimed that the average concentration of time for a human cannot last more than 20-30 minutes. So no matter how unique the speech or conference is, it’s impossible for any crowd to focus for a few hours. So here are some steps for you to follow to ensure that your event speakers are well prepared for any session:

The format matters
Event speakers can choose an interesting and interactive format of delivery to ensure audience interaction and engagement. It’s important that they prepare for the most suitable form of content execution in order help increase attendee engagement. They can incorporate panel discussions, TED-style talks, keynote presentations, workshops, demonstrations, panel discussions and even speed networking.

A briefing before the conference
A before-the-conference briefing should include all the event speakers, presenters, moderators and as well as people working behind the scenes and should contain all and any information regarding the run-through of the event program, and any rules and regulations for the event. By doing so, you go over all the necessary steps to ensure that you provide the best experience for your attendees and moderators.

Pointers for the show
A good speaker can champion any audience with a handful of implementations and qualities, such as:
-facilitating questions and discussion
– collecting, reciprocating and responding to audience questions
– listening to all the delegates and audience members
– delivering the content as calmly and confidently as possible

Q&A time
One of the most effective and easiest methods of improving interaction between the speaker and the audience is to assign a specific amount of time for a Q and A session or by collecting questions throughout the event. This is engaging activity helps multiply the context of the material delivered and can allow an audience to truly invest themselves in the event. There are even many Q&A and live polling tools that can easily allow any event speaker or moderator to crowd-source their questions directly from the audience such official event apps with live feedback features. This way, audience members can provide their questions and opinions immediately via their mobiles in real time and conjure up an informative session.

Incorporate a game
Integrating incentives, competitions, or games is an efficient method to increase audience engagement. Gamification like scavenger hunts and virtual or simulated competitions can facilitate audiences to engage with the content delivered in a way that will truly stick with them. Additionally, gamification in small groups further allows for attendees to not only interact with their peers but also with the speakers and moderators.

After The Event:

Keep the ball rolling
A unique yet effective way of keeping an audience energized even after the event ends is by hosting an after-party. Not only does it increase audience engagement but it ends up creating a great platform for promoting your brand and any future events, in an exciting and enjoyable manner.

Surveys and emails

Sending out post-event surveys and “thank you” emails can help continue dialogue after an event concludes. By doing so, a speaker can also receive valuable information regarding various aspects of the event or conference – like the content delivery, audience interaction, and satisfaction, session informativeness, etc., – that can be incorporated in the future conferences and events.

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