Is Your Emcee Square?

At a multi (or even single) day event, having a good emcee can make the difference between losing your audience or keeping them engaged.

We've been very lucky lately to be gifted with some truly talented internal emcees. We don't always have a choice in who we get to use ("You must use our CFO, he's great!"), and being saddled with an emcee who lacks emcee-prowess can drag down an event quickly.

A not-ideal emcee:

Doesn't know how to maintain their energy
We had an internal presenter who was vivacious and talented, but she wasn't prepared for how demanding the role of emcee can be on one's energy reserves. By the second day of a three day event, her enthusiasm was clearly waning (and the audience followed suit). By the third day she was over it AND she had lost her voice. Though she tried her best, the event ended with a whisper instead of a bang.

Just announces names/presentations
An emcee needs to be more than just an announcer (and you definitely need more than an announcer in between presentations). An emcee is a point of continuity for the audience, but is also a "refresh" button for their brain. The emcee has an opportunity to cement learning and content retention in these moments.

Only reads from the script
Sometimes having an emcee that will stay on script is very important, but an emcee also shouldn't ignore real, changing, dynamic events in favour of sticking directly to what's on the prompter. Having something occur and not commenting on it can feel like a mismatch for the audience.

There's something about an emcee that's over-rehearsed/has a script memorized that is also jarring--or, rather, feels canned. An emcee can read a script with perfection, but if it sounds like they're reading, it's not going to be an engaging experience.

Doesn't have a picture of the whole event on mind
The emcee should be the connective tissue in the event, and they should also be able to see how the pieces connect, themselves. If what one presenter said is going to relate to what they're going to cover in a workshop or the next day, the emcee should be able to have that in their head and make the connection for the audience. This means that the emcee should be intimately involved with the planning of the event content; they should not be hearing everything for the first time with the audience.

Isn't a good match for the audience
A universally-disliked manager isn't going to make a good emcee. Likewise, sometimes a peer isn't going to have the credibility they need to convey content. There is no prescriptive answer for who should be the emcee: sometimes an external emcee is the answer, sometimes the sales VP, sometimes that really charismatic person from marketing, etc.

Sometimes it's beneficial for the emcee to be well-known, sometimes it's better for them to be a stranger or an average audience-level person.

The key here is to match the emcee with your audience. Having an emcee with an adversarial audience relationship is a recipe for an ineffective event.

Isn't there
This is more to the point of: you need an emcee. A live emcee. Onstage. Reacting. Just having the "Voice of God" announcing the next presentation--one after another--gives the event nothing. It may not drain the energy for the event, but it allows the succession of presentations to be draining.

A good emcee:

Connects the dots

An ideal emcee is always making connections from one speaker to the next and illustrating relationships between content. They point out the "what's in it for me" for the audience; giving them a reason to listen to the next presentation and a bigger picture of how it relate to the previous presentation or content.

Is content-aware

To that point, and emcee with intimate knowledge of the content who can make a few comments, tell a relatable story from a different perspective, etc. is incredibly valuable. They can see where the presenter may not have connected completely with the audience and make a point to clarify the information. 

They would also know what the content is supposed to be throughout the broader meeting so they can make course-corrections or additions on the fly (i.e. "I know that X from marketing will be explaining more about the strategy behind this new product launch tomorrow afternoon.").

Is agile

Things happen in events--an emcee needs to be able to roll with the changes in a smooth way. Sometimes that means popping up on stage with no script to make a last-minute crucial announcement. Sometimes that means being handed a note and being able to assimilate the information in a coherent way for the audience. Sometimes it means someone asking the emcee to "say a few words about x" and having to come up with a bit of scripting on the fly. Sometimes it even means, "Our presenter is late, could you fill 5 minutes with audience interaction?"

Any way you look at it, an emcee who is familiar and comfortable with improvising is a huge asset.

Is able to maintain their energy

Professional emcees are trained (and train hard) to maintain their energy. It's exhausting to facilitate a multi-day event in a meaningful, engaging way. We've come across some internal emcees who are innately good at this--and it typically means that they are the first ones to duck out of the evening cocktails (networking events) to get a full night's sleep. So if your head of sales absolutely MUST be at the client event until the wee hours, they might not be the best choice for emcee even if they do have great energy.

Interacts with the audience

An event shouldn't be AT the audience, it should be WITH the audience. A great emcee is able to facilitate audience interaction--both scripted and unscripted--elicit audience input, and react on the fly. This can take place within the event on stage and during social/networking time.

Can control the room

To wit; interacting with the audience can be a tricky proposition. It's easy for things to get out of hand in, say, a raucous activity or in a room where there is some hostility or uncertainty toward the company. Q&A sessions can go awry, an audience member can end up monopolizing an activity, etc. 

A good emcee has a commanding presence, and also knows how to scale down the energy when things get too rowdy, or to deflect and re-direct when things get uncomfortable. 

Conversely, a good emcee also knows how to get the audience pumped up and engaged without seeming like they are dragging the audience along or pleading with them to participate.

Can host activities

An emcee also needs to be a variety of things: a game show host, a role play facilitator, a moderator, etc. Having someone who can assimilate rules and processes and get them consistently correct is essential for reducing confusion and having the whole activity run smoothly. It's also useful to have a host with a heaping helping of natural charisma--this goes along with controlling the room; they must also control the stage.

Is willing to rehearse
Along with willingness to rehearse the emcee should also have dedicated time to rehearse. The emcee needs to be very familiar with the technical bits and bobs that are going to crop up when they're onstage so it doesn't look like they're rehearsing AT the live event. 

Can be internal or external

We have very little bias toward external or internal emcees. Internal emcees tend to have more credibility with the audience and are able to draw on their own experience to connect the content dots. External emcees tend to have a deeper reservoir of energy and endurance (if only because they've trained for this very job...not the role of ALSO being the internal marketing guy or sales VP). As long as your emcee embodies several of the desired qualities, internal or external, they can be worked with.

Obviously we didn't cover everything here (Hint: do not choose an emcee who has severe and crippling stage fright or who isn't good with people), but selecting the right emcee can mean the difference in having an engaging event, or in having an event that flops.