Event planners spend most of their time trying to engage people, both before and during the events they create. But in this digitally enabled age, where content can be created and captured at our events, and then published online at the press of a button with increasing simplicity, shouldn’t we be spending more time tailoring our events for exploitation after the doors have closed?
Eventagist founder Stefania Conti-Vecchi is an expert in the hybridisation of events. She claims it is crucial that modern events are created with a mind to disseminating the content online afterwards, and generating a reputation for events that transcends the live element.
Conti-Vecchi spoke on the subject of curating captivating content for impactful engagement, at this year’s PCMA event Convening Leaders in Vancouver. Her purpose with the session was to provide inspiration on how to capture content at your event and use it to engage a larger audience, in real-time during the event and after the event is over.
Because, for today’s event planners, when it comes to exploiting the content afterward, solutions exist to make the best of the content you already have planned.
“If you have good speakers, then you have good content,” says Conti-Vecchi. The trick is to create and use the content created before, during and even after the conference.
Before the event
The responsiveness of audiences at events is likely to vary depending on profile, but interaction and enabling those characters that lead to memorable exchanges is an important part of every conference.
“If people are shy, it does not mean that they should not be heard,” she explains.
The variety of technology solutions that you make available to your audience is therefore very important. A prudent meeting planner must cater for the people who do not raise their hands or stand up. Invite the audience to post questions to the session moderator via Twitter or suchlike.
“In America they really interact, they stop you mid-flow,” says Conti-Vecchi. “By contrast in Liverpool in England I gave a two-hour session, and they were quiet. At the end I asked ‘How come nobody stopped me?’ and they said they were afraid to interrupt me. You must take this into consideration.”
But while the practice of queuing is something of a national institution for the British, and the prospect of shy Liverpudlians surprising, it needn’t mean your conference sessions go off without a bang. Careful preparation of your audience can take place before they are anywhere near taking their seats.
“At events you have people coming from all over the world. We know how to engage people, and it’s very important to create the environment,” says Conti-Vecchi. “Before the event you must have already provided and explained the engagement solutions.”
In the case of Conti-Vecchi’s presentation in Liverpool, advising the audience that interaction is integral to the session would have increased the likelihood of it happening.
In Vancouver, Conti-Vecchi’s session featured an app that collected the mood of delegates, literally in terms ofthem selecting either a happy or sad face.
“I can have a second screen and see what’s happening. Are they learning? I can change things according to the needs of the audience. And with the same tool I can also collect questions from the audience.
“Prepare the speakers. If they are well prepared, their knowledge is right. But suggest to them how to interact with the audience, and if you find solutions, such as an app or something where they can collect questions, then use it.”
Simply getting the speaker to explain how the session will progress ahead of time, is one way to ensure people are prepared for the type of session to which they’re committing their time.
Presenting your event as a hybrid of offline and online content, for both a present and remote audience, is the reality today. Conti-Vecchi advises thinking about your event in terms of a live audience at a TV show; the remote audience should have the same experience as the onsite audience, and both interacting.
“If you have an online and a live audience, you must create a good environment for both. Therefore, you should inform them how to use the tools and the solutions for interacting with the speakers. You need to coach them.”
And be aware of the pitfalls of using such technology. “If there is live video interaction then you may have a latency, a delay. So they should ask a question and wait for the right time to answer. The speaker should look into the camera and respond to the remote audience member in the same way they do a live audience member,” she says.
It seems you can not be simply a live event specialist these days. With all the content being captured and exchanged, it’s a waste of energy if you’re not using it online.
Making the most of it
So what are the limitations of streaming a session? Well you now have to plan beyond the plenary room. A 60-minute session online might not be nearly as effective as a 15-minute piece to camera, optimised for an online audience. Have a clear strategy, know the software that is available, and the extent to which this is necessary. People can spend too much time on social media when perhaps they should be making the content as accessible as possible.
Of course this may require you to pay the speakers more, and it requires additional resource, but it may help give your event an impact beyond the walls of the congress hall.
