Beyond Q&A: How to Activate an Audience
How do you want people to talk about your event after it's over?
If you've put in the work to this point, activating your audience should be relatively simple. You know who they are, and you know why they've chosen to attend your event. Now you need to figure out how to apply everything you've learned so far.
Remember that everyone in your audience is a VIP in their own way, so make sure to highlight them throughout your event. Thank them for being there. Honor their commitment to your cause. Emphasize that they could be choosing to do anything else with their time and you're so very grateful that they chose to spend their time at your event.
Highlighting Your Audience
Here are several ways to spotlight your VIP audience members:
Incorporate contests, raffles or competitions.
Spotlight individual audience members for achievements related to your theme, their financial contributions or unique perspectives.
Learn as many of their names as you can and use them. (Don't forget to pronounce them correctly!)
Shout out your volunteers or anyone else in the room who went above and beyond to show their commitment to your cause.
Encourage your speakers to include audience participation throughout their talks. They might consider things like live coaching or using some of their time for Q&A.
Pat Miller, founder of the Small Business Owners Community facilitates something called an "Idea Slam" as part of his signature talk, and it never fails to engage an audience. The "Idea Slam" is a massive group brainstorming session designed to help small business owners solve a business problem right there on the spot. It gets everyone in the room involved and showcases individuals and their businesses with a spirit of encouragement and collaboration.
Engagement Strategies
Whether you're intentionally planning audience engagement activities or you need some ideas to keep on hand in case the need arises, here's a quick list of some tried and true engagement strategies:
Speed networking or table talk prompts
Sponsor interview or Q&A (if they're open to it)
Share a relevant article summary, song lyrics or story
Dance break
Silly interactive games like 20 Questions, MadLibs, Would You Rather or 2 Truths & A Lie
Ask the audience quirky or thought-provoking questions
Let the audience ask you questions
Simple meditation or visualization exercises
Chair yoga or other stretching
Use your imagination! Remember, if you're having fun, the audience will be having fun, even if you're using these techniques because something's gone wrong behind the scenes.
Digital Engagement Tools
There is an endless amount of technology available that most speakers have yet to leverage for enhanced audience engagement. When applied strategically and effectively, some of these digital tools can blow everyone's minds and encourage them to connect on a whole new level.
My personal go-to when it comes to digital engagement is how I offer collaborative photo albums to my clients. I create custom albums for their event including storage that doesn't require an ongoing subscription or compromising their rights to their own images. When made public, anyone in attendance at the event can contribute photos to these albums.
I've seen several speakers incorporate live polling tools to gather relevant, real-time data during their presentations, which personalizes the information for the audience and reinforces the content's impact.
QR codes are great for any call-to-action that's included in the program. LinkedIn also has integrated QR codes to facilitate easy connections on the platform during live networking.
One of my favorite audience engagement activities is a "Selfie Scavenger Hunt," where each table is provided with a list of poses, places or people to include in their selfies. They're then instructed to post on Facebook or Instagram using the unique event hashtag. Whichever table completes their selfies first gets a prize.
The Power of Going Off-Script
As I stood on the stage after the final speaker at the Warrior Unchained women's business and empowerment conference in 2023, I could feel the weight of the weekend in the room like a collective held breath. The next item on the schedule was a panel with the full lineup of event speakers.
I spoke some words to reinforce the previous speaker's message, and I was about to introduce the panel when I paused. I noticed and felt the energy of the room, recognized a need for a shift in the programming and decided to take a risk.
Instead of moving immediately into the next item on the agenda, I invited the audience to take a breath with me and soak in all of the learning and connections that they'd experienced over the past two days. I could feel their need to express and share some of those experiences, so I stepped off the stage and into the audience.
I invited the audience members to share one thought or comment about the weekend. One person raised her hand and spoke. Then another one. Followed by someone else. We laughed, we cried and we connected. They encouraged each other, and they participated in a way they didn't think they would when they first bought their tickets to attend.
To this day, the event host still talks about how this was her favorite moment of the conference.
No matter which audience engagement strategies you include in your event, the main focus is always on connection. It can be easy to rely on technology for the illusion of engagement, but if you're not personally present with your people, the distance can cause damage. Check out the tech, narrow it down to your favorites and go with what fits best with your unique event and audience members. Trust your gut, keep it simple and don't forget to have fun! Your audiences will appreciate your efforts to include them.
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