Engagement Unlimited is a new type of company, one that helps clients to maximize participant engagement at meetings and events through new approaches in speaking, entertainment, and team building. We combine theatricality with education and always encourage participation. We don’t plan your meeting, we provide the experiential products that make it awesome.

6 easy steps to make meetings and events more playful

1. Embrace the philosophy

2. Hire a professional emcee

3. Include “Team building disguised as fun” into your programming

4. Embrace the idea of ‘surprise and delight’

5. Try interactive entertainment instead of static entertainment

6. Hire and train the right speakers

Step #1 - Embrace the philosophy

Without engagement, it’s just a bunch of people sitting next to each other. With engagement, magic happens.

“You can learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation”

- Plato

Step #2 - Hire an professional emcee

OLD NEW

Our favourite analogy is The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. His ratings went up 41% within a year of taking over the show.

A Jimmy Fallon-esq host is positive, playful, incorporates music and stories, and brings out the best in people. Most importantly he ensures the best possible experience for the audience.

Shameless Plug!

Roger Haskett (owner of Engagement Unlimited) not only educates others on meeting design and the power of play, he is an event and conference emcee. Roger travels North America speaking and facilitating. Contact us for a quote.

• We recommend opening remarks that motivate people to get engaged while setting the tone for an energetic and playful dynamic.

• Include several unexpected 5-10 minute vignettes throughout the event where the emcee reinforces your content in a creative way.

• Have your emcee facilitate Q&As and group discussion - allow your emcee to improvise and inject humour.

• Your emcee should also be your content weaver. He or she would ideally also have an education background in additional to being a fabulous communicator and engaging speaker.

Click here for Roger’s Rules of Engagement

• Look for products and companies that can customize their content to reflect your specific business objectives. For example, reinforce learning with fun trivia games or use brand values as inspiration for themes/activations/content.

• Create an activity that is layered on top of what would otherwise be an awkward networking function

• You don’t need to carve out an expensive half-day off-site team building event that everyone dreads. A less expensive 1 hour, high energy group activity while also eating and drinking is a great alternative.

• Incorporate opportunities for capturing compelling images and encourage social sharing

Shameless Plug #2!

We offer products like Pub Trivia, Family Feud, and Capture U. Each one is a combination of learning, networking, and fun. We also always customize the structure and content to ensure our clients event objectives are delivered and to maximize their ROI.

Step #3 - Include “Team building disguised as fun” into your programming

Additional Inspiration:

Improv Everywhere

Punk’d

Some examples of what we have done in the past include:

• Undercover waiters • Changing the lyrics of hit songs to reflect the organization’s brand and objectives (see video) • Conference emcee conducts a stretching break as a comedic 80s aerobic instructor • 24 hours undercover as a meeting planner during a fam (see blog post) • Hotel site inspection’s worst nightmare….a ‘celebrity’ guest comes out of the bathroom! But in

fact is an actor who is super eager to tell clients all about the fabulous room amenities

Step #4 - Embrace the idea of “surprise and delight”

• Prank-based comedy is super on-trend right now. We call it ‘retroactive entertainment’ because people don’t know they are being entertained and then POW! it all comes together.

• Do something unexpected. People will immediately pay attention.

• Don’t be afraid to take calculated risks, but be sure you work with professionals to pull it off.

• Use performers, speakers, facilitators that are multi-talented and can move effortlessly between style and delivery.

Step #5- Try interactive entertainment instead of static entertainment

• Incorporate pop-up performances, satellite stages, and roving performers.

• Create a story arc for your event and draw people in to create a more experiential feel

• Hire improv actors who bring your theme to life and have them provide a welcome experience that breaks the ice and then have them ‘work the room’ to inject energy where needed and interact with guests in a playful way

• Create activation zones where guests have something fun to do, but make sure you have a facilitator who encourages people to get involved

How we deliver:

We work with a roster of performers who all have training as improv actors and are comfortable breaking down the 4th wall. We direct them to fully embrace our philosophy that “the more fun you have, the more fun they have.” We give each performer a back story and talking points that compliment our client’s brand and theme.

Step #6 - Hire and train the right speakers

• Book professional speakers with an informal, interactive style. This will often lead to the playful approach you are looking.

• Read the speaker’s social proof (testimonials etc) to understand what past clients remember most about them. Look for words like energy, positivity, fun, and entertaining.

• Give content speakers resources about presentation styles that you know allow for a more playful learning style (which you know also encourages networking), and ask them to keep that in mind when designing their sessions.

• Give speakers a room set up that is optimal for informal interactions. Clusters of furniture that allow people to gather is groups of about 5 to foster small group discussions is best.

Our solution to training content speakers:

Roger Haskett will often come to the conference a day early and host a workshop with content speakers giving them the tools and confidence to deliver a more interactive and fun educational session. He uses tips and tricks he used as a theatre director to help speakers be the biggest best versions of themselves they can be. More info…

Your next steps…..

If you like the idea of hiring us to help create a more playful and engaging event, but are worried about travel costs, be assured that much of what we do can be accomplished by Roger alone or 1-2 additional team members.

Ask for a virtual meeting to review our products in further detail and get suggestions for ideas that would be a great fit for your events. Email Heather to set up a meeting.

Request a Product Catalogue.

Learn more about our company and our team

If you can’t hire us directly, below are a few tips for sourcing suppliers that can achieve your goal of creating a more playful and experiential meeting or event that achieves more.

1. Anybody with an improv acting background is usually really good at embodying an energized, humorous, and interactive style that delivers what you are looking for.

2. Communicate clearly what your objectives are and give you suppliers clear parameters. With tight guidelines you often find the most creative solutions.

3. Think about ways to accomplish many goals at once. Your day doesn’t have to be educational sessions during the day, a networking session in the afternoon, and a party at night. Learning, networking, and fun can happen all at once. Don’t limit yourself!

4. Open your mind to new ways to deliver opportunities for play. This doesn’t have to be the obvious: outdoor activities, team building, and parties. It can simply be in the tone you set for the day and the level of interaction you allow. This may mean that you source talent instead of companies.

5. Be wary about your initial reaction of: “well I can get someone internal to do that.” This may well be so, but the talent needed to truly engage a group of diverse individuals and creative a platform for playful interaction is way beyond the skill set of most people.