21 ways to boost your event Inspire, engage and wake up your audience

@CyrielKortleven

#1 Do the shortest networking exercise ever

This exercise will take 33 seconds and really helps to create an open and informal atmosphere. Ask your audience to shout their name, email and phone-number at the count of three. Everybody ready ... 1... 2... 3 and shout.

#2 Stimulate networking by using a good name badge

Make sure that people can read the first name easily from a distance and write the name at the front and back of the name badge (if you use a lanyard). And if

you want to stimulate networking, ask a funny (or theme-related) question and let participants write their answer to the name badge.

#3 Decorate the location with inspiring quotes and pics

It’s quite easy to lookup and print some inspiring quotes and pictures. Hang them at several (unexpected - toilet?) places in the conference location. Or even better: ask the participants to bring their favorite quote or picture.

#4 Harvest/visualize the insights

There are a lot of good people out there who are able to visualize the most important insights and learnings from keynotes and discussions. In that way, these insights aren’t lost and can be used afterwards to refresh the content.(www.visualharvesting.com)

#5 Organize business blind dates

Form random subgroups of 4 participants when they enter the event and ask them to share insights at 3 pre-determined moments during the conference.

#6 Use a wordcloud to introduce speakers

Ask the speakers in advance to send you 21 words that would describe the speaker (professional an personal information). Use these words to

introduce the speaker instead of reading out a boring CV.

#7 Show a funny youtube movie

Select 3 or 4 youtube movies that are connected to your theme

and show them as short distraction in your program.

#8 Use innovative Large Scale Interventions

A lot of people think that it’s impossible to work in an interactive way with large groups. But it is possible! It’s called an unconference (= participant-

driven event). Methods like worldcafe, open space, barcamps, ... are perfect to let your participants interact and learn from each other.

#9 Create an idea or action wall

Create a big wall where participants can contribute their ideas or actions about a challenge in their domain. Also great to use in your communication afterwards.

#10 Organize a book (present) sharing moment

Invite the participants to bring a book or other present to the conference. They have to attach a personal note to the present. Collect all the presents when

participants arrive and distribute the presents randomly at the end of the event.

#11 Hire the ideaDJ

Inspire the audience by supporting the keynotes with tailormade images, words, twitter-feeds and animations. The ideaDJ uses realtime and spot-on images and movies to support the content on a second screen.(www.ideaDJ.com)

#12 Organize your event at a non-conventional place

Avoid the classical conference rooms and do your conference in a museum, in a park, in a swimming pool, in a train station, ...

#13 Let participants mingle with people

they don’t know

On most conferences, people only talk to their colleagues or

meet 2 or 3 new people. By stimulating random networking

moments, it’s a lot easier for participants to connect with

‘strangers’. Eg let them talk with a person in front or at the back

of them (when sitting in an auditorium) instead of the

person next to them - chance is quite big that they already

know each other.

#14 Prepare your follow-up moments

The event itself is one of the pillars of a conference but not the only moment to interact with your audience. There are already a lot of opportunities in advance but also afterwards. Think about your follow-up moments in advance!

#15 Invite some speakers at the borders of your theme

In every business, you will have the ‘usual’ experts who come and give their opinion about the theme. Dare to invite some speakers who are not experts in the theme but can make a connection from their expertise to your topic.

#16 Avoid Q&A

Q&A sessions are a lot of time abused by a few

people who want to share their opinion with

the rest of the audience. There are a

lot of better ways to let participants interact

with a speaker: by asking questions in

advance or using social media, you can make a

selection of questions; integrate some of the

unconference methods to create interaction.

# 17 Let your audience move

The attention spam of the audience is quite short so make sure that you move people every 90 minutes: changing seats, getting up and move their arms, lt them do a short walk but let them DO something.

# 17 Do something unexpected

Surprise the participants by doing something that’s not done at a ‘normal‘ conference. Work with actors; give everybody a pine-apple; ask them to walk backwards for 10 meter; ... You will immediately get their full attention. It’s important to connect the unexpected element with the theme at a later stage during the event.

#18 Adjust food and drinks to the theme

A lot of money is spent to have some good food and drinks for your event. Make arrangements with the catering that there’s a connection with the food and drinks and the theme of the event (Eg special shapes, colors, energy boost, ...).

#19 Allow ‘slack‘ moments to reflect

Participants have to be attentive for a long time during a conference. Invite people to have a 1 minute of ‘slack’ moments between to presentations where

they can reflect/share insights/just wander off for a moment.

#20 Close the event with everybody

End the event with an exercise or activity where all the participants can contribute in one way or another because this action is going to last the longest. The ‘One Clap’ is an example of an exercise where everybody has to stand up and clap exactly at the same moment - without making agreements about the moment.

# 21 Work with a professional Master of Interaction

You want to go for top-quality so you invest time and money in a good location, good food and great keynote speakers. So why shouldn’t you invest in a professional who can inspire, engage and wake up your audience to turn your ‘good’ event into a ‘great’ event. (www.masterofinteraction.com)

Cyriel Kortleven

International speaker, Master of Interaction,

21Lobsterstreet, Knight of NOW, inspirator,

author, human being, brainstormsessions,

large groups, creativity, improvisation, interaction,

timespiration, present

Stay updated and receive max 6 times an inspirational newsletter from Cyriel + free ‘boost‘ with movies, poster ideakillers, quotes, exercises, ...

Subscribe onwww.cyrielkortleven.com