Producers vs. Presenters: Taming the Presentation Deadline Beast

There is an eternal struggle between the event production team and the presenters (internal and, less frequently, external) to get presentation content in the hands of the production team well before an event.

This needs to happen for several reasons.

• All parties need to know the content of the presentations so that presenters do not overlap, contradict, or conflict with each other
• Presentations need to be coherent and valuable for the audience
• Timing needs to be taken into account for realistic agendas
• Slides need to be checked for clarity/mistakes
• Media needs to be tested and procured in advance
• It helps ensure that the event goes smoothly

This doesn't happen for several reasons.

• Presenters are busy
• The event isn't a priority because they have more important/critical/time-sensitive things to do in their day-to-day jobs
• Presenters have turned in presentations last-minute before and everything has worked out
• Content changes may occur on time-sensitive presentations (i.e. first quarter results are announced, acquisitions happen, etc.)
• Presenters are waiting for other co-presenters/key players to contribute
• There is an established culture of "putting together the presentation on the plane", etc. 

In our minds, this will be an ongoing struggle, because the reasons for this needing to happen and the reasons why it doesn't happen are both pretty legitimate and need to be balanced in a diplomatic manner.

However, based on our experiences working with clients and other production teams there are certain things you should NOT do.

DO NOT:

Create artificial deadlines: Don't be the event producer who cries wolf. A presenter knows that it's unnecessary to have a finished presentation two months before an event occurs. We once worked with a presentation team that wanted locked-in teleprompter copy (with no changes on-site) MORE THAN ONE MONTH before the event. It was unrealistic and it made it easy for every single presenter to completely disregard the legitimacy of other (more crucial) deadlines.

Ignore deadlines and hope for the best: Presenters should have a good outline of when things are expected of them. Some production companies set the final deadline as "When the presentation is being presented on stage" with no other milestone/check-in points. Deadlines *do* need to be managed, and timetables help set everyone's expectations.

Mismanage the presenters: Think of this like Goldilocks and the Three Event Producers: One micromanages too much, the other isn't attentive enough...and one is just right. Don't be the presentation task-master without a healthy dose of flexibility and diplomacy. We worked with an event producer who was incredibly harsh about presenters getting their stuff in by exact deadlines. Not only did the presenters resent the event producer, but they started to actively ignore their requests because they weren't presented in a reasonable way...and the presenters were the *client*.

Cut off changes completely: You can say that changes at the last minute are not ideal, but to cut off changes completely at an event because presenters didn't meet the deadline is not going to benefit the event overall. Be prepared for changes to happen because events are a dynamic animal, subject to interjections from the world, from the audience, from the company, from the event itself. A presenter wanting to add in a slide in the morning because they heard a concern over and over again at the networking reception the night before is something that can and should happen.

DO: 

Here are some things that have worked for us:

Use peer pressure: We worked with a client who used a peer-review session deadline; a week before the event, every presenter would get together in a room and present their content for the event to each other. They would then get presentation feedback. This forced presenters to get the content done--they didn't want to be the only one who hadn't done their part, or let down their other peers. Even having an updated list of who has/hasn't turned in their presentation can apply a bit of peer pressure to help move deadlines along.

Utilize rehearsals: The previous example not only utilized peer pressure, but it also included another component: rehearsals. Often times we like to do a "dry run" of an event a week before--even if it's over the phone. Scheduling ample rehearsal time on-site (and clearing a presenter's schedule of on-site obligations so they can attend) will also minimize VERY last minute changes.

Provide Incentives: In a particular company, presenters got $50 if they turned in their presentations on time. It's not that $50 was so much money, but it provided a tangible incentive to be on-time--and everyone in the procrastination-prone company turned everything in on time. One can also take the stick approach--meet deadlines or get time taken away--but the carrot is more diplomatic.

Shape the event and give talking points: Having a very concise theme (we're not talking "A year to win" or similar event themes, but rather a content throughline) and talking points that you'd like each presenter to hit can help them get a head start on their presentation. It gives them something to react to instead of having to generate a presentation from scratch (which can frequently hold up initial deadlines).

An example of this might be (roughly):
Theme: Everything about this event is geared toward helping the sales force get their "swagger" back after a tough few years.

Direction for presenter: How will the marketing strategy for this year help the audience feel like they have swagger? What specific things are you doing to support them?

Frame the value: Face to face events are a huge opportunity for a presenter to get in front of their audience. They are also a huge opportunity for a company to give the attendees a unified message. The importance and impact are so great that a last-minute presentation is most likely not going to cut it. Events are an investment. Framing the value of the event to presenters may seem like common sense or something that they already know (or should know), but often times no one frames it like this. Letting presenters know that this is their time to shine and step up, and communicating what it means to them and the company can help them to be more thoughtful about their presentation and attendant timelines.

--

Good event production teams are flexible and pros at making last-minute changes look effortless and flawless. That doesn't mean they *are* effortless.

Good production teams may be able to get presenters to turn in their content well before an event, but they are also equipped to handle situations in which this does not happen. This may mean extra on-site staffing, people dedicated to working exclusively with particular presenters, etc. If a production team has worked with a company before and it's been an issue at previous events, building in extra staff in the contract and citing past experience is in the client's best interest and in the interest of the sanity of the production team as well.

Everything I need to know about an audience I learned from my 4 month old baby.

This is Nadia:

I've spent a lot of time with her since she was born in January. As I went about my days on maternity leave, it occurred to me how many similarities she shares with the average event audience*.

Not that adults aren't in possession of more complex systems--they are--but there are some basic brain concepts that don't change as we age. We just tend to forget about them because we feel like adults should be able to willfully manage their states--while we forgive babies for getting fussy when they're overly tired or hungry or need to see something new.

However, the baby who wiggles in their chair when not entertained will become the adult who takes their brain out for a walk during an event or presentation. You can't see them disengage--but that doesn't mean it isn't happening.

Here are 5 things that Nadia has in common with an event audience:

1. Attention span

The attention span of a baby is fairly short. Guess what? So is an adult's attention span. Unless you change the way information is presented every 5-7 minutes--people tune out. Nadia may love-love-love her stuffed musical caterpillar (and your audience may love-love-love the new product roll out) but she doesn't want to play with it for minutes on end.

Your audience can't sustain attention for 45 minutes...an hour...without additional stimulation.

2. Novelty rules

If there is something new in the room, the baby's attention snaps-to and holds. It's pretty amazing (and sometimes frustrating when trying to get her to focus on a necessary task). Adults are the same way. Something new, novel, interesting, different, etc. will captivate our attention.

This is why adding a little WEIRDNESS into your presentation is really memorable. This is why disruptions that don't support your message can be REALLY distracting.

3. Change the pattern

Along the same lines--when Nadia is very upset about something she needs a pattern interrupt before she can be calmed down. Whistling while she's crying, for instance, will cause her to stop and re-focus. Your audience probably won't be crying (on the outside, anyway), but sometimes they can be righteously angry about something (layoffs, perceived ineffectiveness, a change in policy, etc.).

They can carry that anger with them; totally ignoring the Very Important Message you're trying to get across. Interrupt the pattern before launching into the new plan. You need to stop the fussing before they can be effective listeners again.

4. Energy is continually exhausted without intervention

No matter how many hours of sleep she got the night before, by the end of the day Nadia is a ball of fuss. She just cannot process any more information. I've seen audiences like this too. The event planner jams the schedule so full that you get a tired, cranky audience.

Naps can help a baby, but what does an audience need? Time to process information. To recharge. Maybe make that networking dinner end VERY early after a full day of general sessions and workshops. Give breaks in between presenters and let the audience write down their key takeaways.

5. Basic needs cannot be neglected

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is pretty straightforward with a baby. They first want food and sleep and shelter and safety. Your audience also wants these things. This seems like a really obvious point, but basic needs aren't always met at an event in favor of saving a few dollars (let's make this a stretch break and not a snack break) or even due to unforeseen circumstances.  Feed your audience. Let them get full nights of sleep. Give them breaks. Make sure they can see the screens and stage. Make sure they're comfortable.

Use of pacifiers is optional.


*Adorableness of your audience may vary.

How creativity rules when an event goes wrong.

Stuff happens. 

Life happens. Nothing goes exactly according to plan ALL the time (and if you're reading this and saying, "It does at MY event," then 1. I don't believe you, and 2. Blessed are you among event producers, for you are nothing short of a miracle and shall be sainted by event producers everywhere.)

Lucky for, well, everyone--no one knows EXACTLY how the event is supposed to go save for you. Chances are that an overwhelming majority of the time the audience won't know that something didn't go as planned.

But sometimes BIG things happen. You can't know what will go wrong, but the best thing you can do is remain creatively agile. Have a backup plan in mind. We're not talking about moving the lunch inside when you're blessed with an epic tropical storm during your soiree, here. We're talking about content not going over, technical issues that stop the show, and things that just flat-out didn't play.

1. Have a contingency plan.
When you have many years of experience in events, you have a couple of activities or strategies in your back pocket that you can seamlessly insert into an event. It's good to have these planned out ahead of time. They can either be backup presenters (uh oh, if the CEO gets the flu, who is going to deliver her message the day-of?), backup activities (the team competition is incredibly skewed, how can you insert an activity that might balance the event), or other (we've gone 1 hour over time--what can be swapped out for something else or moved around).

Look at each place in your agenda and think, "What if?" We're not saying to start thinking like things ARE going to go wrong--just have a few tricks up your sleeve just in case. Sometimes plan b ends up going over better than plan a anyway.


2. Get a Character assist.
We realize that this is unique to our offerings in a way, but having an AniMate* to right the course can be an incredibly valuable tool at an event. One of the main issues with executing plan changes at an event is communicating the what, when and WHY. An AniMate can do this in the voice of the audience, make sure everyone is on the same page, and host additional activities or events without having to get an internal presenter up to speed on the fly.


3. Engage low-tech solutions for high-tech problems.
We've all had technology crash and burn (um, sometimes quite literally) at an event. You run the PowerPoints 100 times and the projector bulb goes out. You triple-check the video sound and someone unplugs and re-plugs a cable without running it one more time. The amazing event laptop AND backup system is wiped in the middle of the night by Event Goblins. Whatever. Technology is ubiquitous and can be flawed. The good news is that the low-tech solution can be a welcomed novelty when the high-tech plan fails.

Having a presenter sketch out their points on a flip-chart when the powerpoint goes down can be compelling and even force the presenter to speak more spontaneously and engagingly. Narrating a soundless video on the fly can be an exercise in improvisation with fantastic (and often humorous) results. Phone polling that ceases to function because ballrooms get notoriously poor reception can be replaced by a simple raising of hands...or an even more interactive standing up to respond.


The key with any event issue is agility and creativity. The best producers we've known have kept their head in times of uncertainty and chaos, taken a deep breath, and put forward several alternate solutions. They don't have to be perfect to work, and the audience doesn't know the difference most of the time anyway.


*An AniMate is a live, 3-D animated character who interacts with the emcee and presenters to communicate messaging, be the voice of the audience, add humor, and/or host the event.

How to: Kill your event with a Q&A session.

Recently we partnered with a client to re-design their one-day event. They had many goals; team building, building product knowledge, demonstrating different vertical markets, etc.

They also wanted to add a q&a (question and answer) session at the end of the day.

We advised against this. Strongly. But in the end, they were persistent and there was a half-hour q&a session at the end of the day. We watched the (up-until-then) fantastic, engaging, uplifting meeting spiral down into a pit of suck*.

*technical term

Now we're not opposed to q&a sessions. There are many reasons to do them--and many of those reasons are great:

• They promote transparency
• They allow executives or upper-level management to hear from "the people"
• You can craft your content around more-relevant topics as you hear common questions
• It's important for people to feel heard

However, so often q&a sessions are BAD.

• They drag on too long
• They're unmoderated and awkward
• They take the event or content in a direction that is undesired
• Worse, they take the event or content in a direction that is irrelevant or overly-specific
• They turn into gripe sessions
• They are uninteresting for anyone who is not asking a particular question

So mix a half-hour of q&a into a previously-lively, on-track event and BANG. You've killed the momentum.  So how can you still have a q&a session and leave your event alive and kicking?

Don't: Put your q&a session in a huge block of time at the end of the day.
People who have already been through a large amount of content are brain-tired and less receptive to answers, less likely to pay attention, and less likely to leave the event on a positive note.

Having a q&a session at the end of the day also eliminates your ability to respond to concerns or content shifts brought up in the q&a

• Instead: Sprinkle your q&a in short chunks throughout the day.

Don't: Leave questions up to random chance.
People ask what interests them. Often times, questions are irrelevant to a large majority of the audience, or deal with an extremely specific situation. Questions can also become a forum for "bitch sessions" where people air more grievances than on Festivus.

Non-anonymous questions can also lead to "safe" questions only or a lack of participation.

• Instead: Have question boxes in the meeting room where people can submit questions at any time. Ask these in your q&a time instead. This is a method to filter questions for the q&a session--but it isn't censoring the questions. All questions may be answered, just not immediately at the event. 

Don't: Have an unmoderated q&a session.
Both executives AND question-askers can lead a session WAY off track or make it drag on too long. You don't want attendees to be sitting with a sense of "when is this going to be OVER with, already" anticipation.

• Instead: Have a panel and limit answers to a particular time. This keeps the q&a session moving along and provides a bit of lively levity.

We're not against q&a sessions--it's just that they so often become the Achilles heel of the event...and they don't HAVE to with a little restructuring and thought.

How tightly should you pack your event agenda?

How much information should you pack into your event, and how full should your event agenda actually be?

For a lot of our clients the thinking is: Well, we have everyone here and it was expensive to bring everyone here...so we're going to use every minute of our time!

One can see the (sort-of) logic in that. But utilizing every minute can actually be a WASTE of time (and money). 

Not only does it leave the attendees exhausted and frustrated, but it also interrupts business and attendees can't possibly be expected to actually remember all the content in so intense a time-frame. It's just too much (and often times this is concurrent with bad learning design).

One of the biggest complaints we hear is that attendees don't have enough time on their own--or time to decompress (they go from general session to breakouts to team building to some orchestrated team dinner and networking session, etc.). When presentations run over-time, organizers shorten and sacrifice breaks and lunches and discussions. It's kind of crazy--and most certainly wrong--that a jam-packed event (that is supposed to be inspirational or kick off a great year ahead) can leave attendees more stressed out than motivated.

Why people pack agendas:

• Having everyone at the same place at the same time is a great opportunity to communicate a consistent message. 
• They want to get the most "bang for the buck"; as long as people are there, they want to communicate as many messages as possible. 
• They feel that downtime is wasted time. 
• They feel that, left to their own devices, their audience might be bored or even organize their own non-sanctioned networking (i.e. drinking), and that it will distract from the event as a whole. 

Why people shouldn't pack the agenda:

• Having the audience leave exhausted is no way to inspire them in the coming year.
• People simply cannot absorb the volume of information in a compressed period of time--especially without consistent reinforcement of the few most important messages.
• People need to take "brain breaks" to process and assimilate information. They need time to synthesize and make personal meaning from the messages they're hearing. 
• People need to hear the same information and deal with it in many different ways--whether it's being creative with a message, having a little playtime or downtime to present their own interpretation, or simply going off to work on their own on a project. 
• The audience still needs to conduct business--personal and professional.
• Some people simply cannot handle the constant pressure to be "on" at an event with their colleagues, and need some time to recover before the next day or session.

What you should do instead:

• Breaks are sacred: Don't shorten or sacrifice breaks for over-long presentations.
• Focus on a core set of messages/outcomes that you want to get out of an event, and have each presenter speak to those in some way.  
• Include time for discussion and reflection: Attendees should get to talk about, deal with, and absorb the information they hear before being forced to move on to the next thing. 
• Include creativity: the brain needs to play to interpret information. Having attendees participate with the messaging in a creative, fun way (like a team competition, game show, role play, etc.) gives the brain an "information dump" break and allows them to retain more information.

Tips for Writing Multiple Choice Questions

--> Hosting a game show in a large event is a great way to keep everyone engaged, review information, and add emotional impact with a bit of competition. When playing to a large audience most game shows are going to feature multiple choice questions. This way, everyone can play along using keypads, the game play moves fairly quickly, and participants get an extra shot of information from your presentations and sessions. 

Here are some tips to keep in mind as you create questions for your multiple choice game in your large event:

Make sure the content is neither too difficult, nor too easy.

Neither type of question—too difficult or too easy—leads to a competitive game. A too-difficult game has very low scores and quickly becomes discouraging.

A too-easy game has very high scores across the board, which is not very competitive.

If a question is going to be one or the other, it’s best to err on the side of easy, which will still engage the participants and can be useful for review.

There are multiple tricks you can employ to make a question more difficult without making it convoluted. These include:

• Asking for specific or precise recall (i.e. specific budget numbers) with similar distractors
• Going deeper into the content by asking follow-up questions (start out with an easier question and increase the level of difficulty)
• Having very good distractors (more on this later, but essentially: having good alternate answer options aside from the correct answer can provide more challenge)

Not every answer has to be the same level of difficulty. It’s okay—and, in fact, sometimes preferable—to have your questions start out at a more basic or novice level and progress in difficulty as the game goes on and the points increase.

Make questions clear.

Don’t seek to increase difficulty by making your question a tongue-twister or a mind-bender. This is particularly important with an international audience but, also, you don’t want your contestants to have to think too hard about parsing the question in relation to the actual answer.

Avoid using negative questions unless they’re clearly and simply stated without additional negatives. For instance, “Which of the following is NOT a benefit of our new HR program?” can be a good question if the answer options are also clear and not-confusing. This, for instance, would be a nightmare question to process as a contestant:

Which of the following is NOT a benefit of our new HR program?

a)    Not getting under 3 weeks off

b)    Having to apply for benefits annually

c)    Not getting to apply for benefits on a monthly basis

d)    Neither having to complete the diversity course nor the culture compliance course if you’ve not done them in the last 6 months

e)    Huh?

Make your questions specific. 
For instance, asking “Who is the current president of the United States?” is a better question than “Who is the president?” This is not usually as much of an issue in multiple choice questions, where the answer options will often guide a contestant to a correct context—but if answer options are also somewhat ambiguous it can cause confusion.

Make the question short/concise.

Billy may have taken a train to a city and you want to identify that city, but your question should never look like this:

Billy gets on a train going from Orlando to Minneapolis; the train now contains 42 people. On the way, two passengers get off in Little Rock and 4 more get on. If, in St. Louis, thirteen get off and half the sum of the original passengers plus the number of passengers that got on in Little Rock get on, what is the name of the city Billy is going to?

Questions should be as clear and concise as possible—containing only the information necessary to ask the question and find an appropriate answer.

Instead of asking something like:

You’ve run into a person who you think is having a heart attack, what are the three most common signs to determine if this is actually the case?

Ask:

What are the three most common symptoms of a heart attack?

But keep in mind when paring down your questions: don’t use your answers to convey information that the question needs to ask. While you should strive to be direct in your questions, you shouldn’t leave out so much information that it has to be revealed in the answers. For example, instead of asking a question like this:

John Smith is:

a)    The Vice President of Operations for the Eastern Branch

b)    The Vice President of Operations for the Western Branch

c)    The Vice President of Operations for the Southern Branch

Ask:

John Smith is the Vice President of Operations for which branch?

a)    Eastern

b)    Western

c)    Southern

In a scenario where you want to use a longer question—i.e. you have a more complex case study to analyze—you can:

• Include information before the question is asked, either through a presentation, information screen, or verbal description
• Break the question into smaller pieces and have multiple questions around the same topic/area of interest

Have only one correct answer.

You may know exactly what answer you’re looking for, but if the question is unclear, or could be thought of in a different way--could someone come up with another answer? Could someone simply thinking outside the box come up with a different, but valid and correct response?

If there are two technically valid answers, either try grouping answer options together, or go with the A) answer a, B) answer b, C) answer a & b, D) none of the above route. HOWEVER…

Avoid all-of-the-above answer options to increase difficulty.

Let’s be honest, when there’s an all-of-the-above option the answer is always all-of-the-above… unless the question is deliberately designed to trick someone. Either way, you end up with a too-easy or too-difficult (by means of trickery and not content--which is frustrating) question.

A few all-of-the-above answer questions can be fine within a game—either to warm the audience up as an easier question, or as a question that leads to a more difficult, specific set of questions. However, they should be avoided in a game designed to be challenging throughout.

Use plausible distractors.

The distractors are the answer options you give that aren’t the real, correct answer. This can be one of the easiest ways to modify the difficulty level within your game show and they make a huge impact on the flow of the question.

In a four-option multiple choice question, at least 3 of the 4 answer options should be plausible, one of THOSE should be correct, and you can either have an additional plausible distractor, or incorporate something off-base or humorous.

To get good plausible distractors:

• All answers should have roughly the same length and level of detail. i.e. When most people design answer options, the longest is usually the correct one because it’s stuffed with information that needed to be in the explanation before the question. Don’t do that.
• All numerical answer options should be relatively close.
• Answer options should skew (plausibly) toward your content. I.e. if you want to make a price seem like a good deal, the distractor options should be greater than the answer.

This:

How much is the NEW price for our X345 Widget?

a)    $145

b)    $165

c)    $195

d)    $250

…sounds much cheaper than this:

How much is the NEW price for our X345 Widget?

a)    $65

b)    $99

c)    $115

d)    $145

Be mindful of your question order

Don’t give anything away in one question that is going to appear in another question.

Proof your questions and answers

This may seem obvious, but when you’re the only one looking at content over and over again, things may slip by you that other people will catch (and could potentially make a difference in the correctness of one answer over another). Have someone proof-read your answers not just for correctness and simple mistakes, but also for difficulty and content.

Watch out for brand standards to avoid having to make last-minute changes. If your company colloquially refers to something by a shortened name, but the Brand Standard doesn’t reflect that, you may end up having to make revisions down the line. For instance, we worked for a credit card company that always referred to their clients as Card Members (capitalization, always) in branded pieces, so questions had to be revised to reflect that standard.

Fixing Your Panel of Peril

In the last blog entry we pointed out the ways in which panels so often fail. They start out as good ideas--a way to add more variety and interaction into a presentation or topic--but they are perilous if done incorrectly.

That's not to say that you *shouldn't* have panels. Panels *can* be a good solution--they just need to be thought-out and treated very conscientiously.

Here are some ways that you can "fix" a panel, or ensure that your panel isn't just another way to make your audience "check out":

1. Have a Great Moderator.
A panel without a moderator is like a ship without a rudder; the panelists can wander aimlessly or go off in the wrong direction, have unequal time or unequal focus on a subject.
A panel with a bad moderator adds nothing to the topic.
However, a lively, interactive moderator with a working knowledge of the subject matter can steer a panel away from tediousness or focusing too long on a subject. They can sense when the audience is getting restless and switch to a different panelist, change the tone of the discussion, or even wrap up. A great moderator can also inject humor and interaction in a skilled way.

2. Establish strict rules and structured content/outcomes.
We are amazed how frequently people design panels with no outcomes. Like any presentation, a panel should have a focused result in mind; at the end of the panel, what will the audience think, know, and do differently as a result of what they've heard?
Likewise, a panel should have structure and--dare we say it--some rules. The participants should know what to expect and what is expected of them. Too many times companies bring on guest panelists and therefore feel that they have no say over what the panelists choose to do. However, it is imperative to control the panel for the sake of content clarity and audience interest.
Rules sound imposing, but consider something like--say--the presidential debates. A debate isn't exactly the same thing, but imagine how different (long/one-sided/unfocused) they would be if the candidates didn't have firm time limits on their segments.

3. Solicit audience questions ahead of time.
Audience interaction and personalization is a wonderful thing. However, audience questions during a panel so often go astray; audience members ask questions that are only relevant to them, feel shy about asking "real" questions, or just ask questions for the sake of getting face-time.
We wouldn't suggest cutting out audience interaction, but soliciting audience questions ahead of time allows for a number of things:

• You get to sort through the questions to select the most broadly relevant topics.
• You can pre-prepare the panelists so they have relevant/good/thorough answers.
• You can make sure that you get the quality and caliber of questions that you need to make an interesting segment. 
• You can steer away from or toward controversy as desired--and you don't get caught up in the mire of a sore subject.

The panelists can still interact with the audience; i.e. asking if there is a follow-up question to one they answered, or soliciting feedback from that answer.

4. Take a cue from late night talk shows--pre-interview panelists to get stories.
Late night talk show guests almost always seem witty, charming, funny and engaging on the show. This isn't because they all *are* witty, charming, funny and engaging (though some may very well be) it's because they have a skilled interviewer (similar to a skilled moderator) and they have been pre-interviewed to get stories.
Stories are one of the most powerful engagement tools a presenter can use. Our brains are naturally attracted to a story; we want to know what happens, brain wave activity increases, we enter active listening mode. A late night talk show guest will have a list of stories prepared that the interviewer can draw from to make the guest seem innately interesting. A panelist should do the same thing; have a reference list of relevant stories and examples prepared around the content at hand.

5. Find points of disagreement/controversy/interest and bring it out. 
In pre-panel interviews, find the elements of the topic that will make panelists disagree or--to put it a more diplomatic way--offer differing perspectives. That's not to say that there should be a panel of negativity or fighting--but panels where the only thing a panelist has to contribute to another's opinion is agreement and elaboration get stale fairly quickly. Panelists should be able to talk about a topic from different, diverse angles and bring their unique spin, perspective and opinion to the table in a way that intrigues the audience and inspires them to hear more. Even if there are only one or two points of disagreement or controversy, sprinkle them into the panel to add interest.

How to Acknowledge Sponsors...in a Song.

We come across this issue frequently--especially in forums, associations, or events with a showcase/tradeshow component: How does one give sponsors appropriate face time in the main event?

We've seen logos on the wall, in PowerPoints...we've had emcees and presenters thank them, we've had sponsor signs in break tables, etc. All of these things are good, but in addition to those we like to thank sponsors...in a song.

Not only is a parody song funny and engaging, but it ensures that every attendee is paying complete attention when the sponsor is getting their name-check. Sponsors are often very important and they deserve a little fanfare.

The video in this blog is Neighthan the Horse, thanking the sponsors to the tune of "My Favorite Things" at an event. Not only do they get a name check, but they also have a line about what they do--elevating the sponsor shout-out above a slide with logos and a round of applause.

The Anti-PowerPoint Movement

It's rather popular to openly, vocally dislike PowerPoint. It's almost cliche to groan when thinking about a presenter with slide after slide after slide of information. By now, most people have heard the expression "Death by PowerPoint" and have seen PowerPoint presentations that make getting a root canal seem like it'd be a grand way to spend a few hours.

It's a bit unfair; PowerPoint is a tool and is not directly responsible for its misuse. However, when the misuse is so rampant and there seems to--generally--be little interest or ability to create different, fresh and truly effective PPT presentations, it's natural that people would grasp on to available alternatives.

But...are we throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

We saw this article on Yahoo! News and we have thoughts. Our commentary is in bold-italic.

10 Things to Do Instead of PowerPoint

The bad news: there are thousands of presentations every day, everywhere around the world. Most of them use PowerPoint, badly, as speaker notes, with more words or numbers on each slide than anyone can read.

The results are predictably boring – no, excruciating -- for their hapless audiences. That’s human misery on a massive scale.

The good news: in an effort to make the world a better place, here are 10 things to do instead of PowerPoint. Ways to make your points without the sleep-apnea-inducing effects of boring slides. Ways to pep up your presentations without much additional effort. Your audiences will thank me.

1. Use props. For most workers, in a cubicle world, it’s sensory deprivation from 9 – 5. The whirr of computers and the A/C. The hum of colleagues chattering away. The beige walls of the cube farm. The fluorescent lighting. It’s amazing anyone stays awake. Offer the audience, then, something physical. Instead of describing that new product on a slide, show them a prototype. Pass it around. Let the audience get physical.

Workers can also be out in the field every day and absolutely unaccustomed to sitting still in a presentation for x hours. There are people who learn by seeing and hearing, but there are also those who learn exclusively by doing. Many people would prefer to DO instead of SEE: Think of someone who doesn't read directions before trying to put together a piece of furniture...even if they don't get the best results.

2. Use music. We have an emotional response to music which is much more powerful than we do to most words. Especially words like “3rd Q results” and “product optimization.” So add a soundtrack to your presentation. It will bring it to life. Do obey copyright and licensing laws, please.

Music can, in our experience, be a tricky thing within a presentation--simply because evoking that emotional response should be done with care. Choose the wrong piece of music and it's discordant. Ahhem. Also make sure that the music is unobtrusive--or you'll get a jam session instead of a content session.

Music should also be used throughout an event--not just in a presentation.

3. Use video. Video –good video -- has all the life in it that static slides lack. A good clip can enchant, move, and thrill and audience in 60 seconds. You can create the right emotional atmosphere to begin or end a speech – or to pick it up in the middle.

Or use a bad video. Not a boring video, but a low-quality, as-seen-on-YouTube video that entertains and delights. Use video to tell your story. Use video to evoke an emotional response. Use video to demonstrate a product. The key is to entertain with the video (humor is very effective) and to keep the video short.

4. Use a flip chart. Create any visuals you need right there in front of the audience. No need for technology. Just a magic marker and your arm. The act of creation draws the audience in where a slide doesn’t.

Your results may vary. We've had mixed experiences with flip chart presentations. While some supplement is very effective; your short-hand is not always the short-hand of the audience, flip charts can be hard to read, and presenters vary greatly in artistic/calligraphic ability.

5. Ask the audience. Of course, the best way to draw the audience in is to draw them in. Ask them to tell you their stories – as they relate to the topic at hand. Ask the whole audience or just selected volunteers.

Pre-screen these first. WARN someone that they'll be asked to tell an anecdote if you can--or you better know your audience very well. Never put anyone on the spot unprepared, and make sure that the selected audience member has a concise, cohesive, relevant-to-everybody story to share. We've seen audience anecdotes that were more dull than a bad presenter.

Beware the crickets chirping. It may take away from the spontaneity of the interaction, but be sure that you have someone who IS ready to share.

6. Ask the audience – 2. Break the audience up into small groups and get them to respond to a challenge that you set, a question that you ask, or a problem that you pose. Then have them to report back to the whole group.

This is a great idea. Discussion groups allow people to make information personally relevant and sharing with peers reinforces content. Set acoustic conversation music in the background and allow tables to discuss for several minutes. Designate a team leader who will be charged with collecting responses and reporting back.

7. Ask the audience – 3. Play a game with the audience – relevant to the topic. Award prizes. Audiences love to compete. Just don’t make the questions too difficult or the prizes too expensive – or too cheap. Only Oprah gets to give away cars.

We couldn't have said it better ourselves. Games are a fantastic way to engage the audience. Have a game that runs throughout the session, opens the session, or reviews content at the end. Put the audience onto teams and keep them in teams.

8. Ask the audience – 4. Get the audience to design something – new products, plans, or ideas. Give them plenty of paper, sticky notes, ipads, or whatever you have on hand that they can play with.

Adults want to play, too. Giving the audience a chance to exercise their creativity allows their brain a natural "break" to absorb and synthesize previously covered information. Content-related creativity can be extremely fun and actually inspiring.

9. Ask the audience – 5. Have the audience create video responses to what you’re talking about. Hand out a dozen flip cams and get them in groups. Give them a limited amount of time – 10 minutes, perhaps. Then show some of the video to the whole group on the big IMEG screen.

This is a wonderful idea in theory. In practice we've learned that most people aren't even amateur videographers. While the act of creation is fun, it's tough to get everyone involved, tougher to shoot something that is engaging to watch, and toughest still to organize it in a brief amount of time. That's not to say it can't be done--and we have seen some incredible audience-created video pieces--but use with caution.

10. Combine any 3 of these to create huge audience buzz. Stop thinking of a presentation as a static activity where you show slides to a catatonic group of fellow humans. You passive, them active. Instead, treat them as co-conspirators in something exciting, educational, and fun.

People learn best when they can make the information relevant to them. This includes synthesizing it in a variety of ways; quiet reflection, group discussion, personal practice, hands-on activities and even creative, fun exercises. The enemy here is not PowerPoint, it's a lack of consideration for an audience that wants to actually INTERACT instead of be talked to for hours in a way that is disrespectful to the workings of the brain.

3 Things Companies Say That Guarantee a Stagnant Event

"We don't want this to be the same old event!"

We hear this a lot from clients--especially lately. A lot of companies are returning to events and they want something different and fresh. It's more difficult to justify a large, in-person event--so it can't be the same-ol'-same-ol'.

And yet, companies still fall into the trap of producing stagnant, stale, unengaging events. The following three phrases are red flags that signal business as usual (and not in a good way):

"We've always done it this way."

There's an old anecdote about making a pot roast. Before he makes a pot roast in the oven, John always cuts the meat in half and cooks the two pieces separately. He has his mother over for dinner, and she sees him cutting the roast. She asks him why he cooks it this way. He responds that it was the way that SHE always cooked it. "Oh," his mother replies with a smile, "I only did that because I never had a big enough pan for the whole roast."

We recently asked a client why they scheduled a certain speaker at a certain time in their agenda. There response was: because they had always done it that way. Never mind that it wasn't the most strategic place to put that speaker.

Be wary of the trap of doing things as we've always done them for the sake of comfort or because it's kinda-sorta worked in the past. Unless events are re-imagined, they become traps for mediocrity.

The biggest culprit here tends to be the structure of the agenda. Before consulting on a 3 day event, we can almost lay money down on the proposed agenda: Cocktail hour the first night. First day: Corporate speakers the first morning. Breakouts in the afternoon. Second day: Motivational speaker in the morning. Breakouts or general session info. Team building in the afternoon. Third day: Panel discussion in the morning. Regional breakouts. . . The problem with routines like this is that attendees go into autopilot and their experience is automatically passive instead of active. It then takes work to get them into an interactive, engaged state.

There's nothing wrong with repeating an element or structure from year to year--but it should have a distinct purpose outside of "how it's always done". Thought should be put into constructing every element of the event to make it the most effective experience for the attendees.

"Our president needs 90 minutes to speak... The VP of marketing must present after him..."

There is a certain amount of political sensitivity that creeps into an event. X position speaker should go before Y position speaker. Z speaker needs at least 45 minutes, lest they feel slighted. While we understand the need to be sensitive to corporate culture and politics, arranging event elements based on politics instead of necessary content is doing a disservice to the audience.

From the perspective of the audience--and being in thousands of corporate events--there's nothing that lowers the expectations of an event more than seeing a whole day lineup of corporate speakers...one after another... Sometimes it's best to space these corporate presentations out over the days and in between other content--not only to add variety, but to give the audience a better chance to absorb the messaging.

Sometimes the number of corporate speakers can be reduced. Often times A, B and C department all get to present because D department is speaking and we can't leave out the others. However, sometimes A, B and C departments don't have anything new or relevant to present at that time. It's not respectful of an audience to have a speaker present just for the sake of having an equal presence onstage. If it's exposure that is needed, there are more creative ways to go about this throughout an event.

And finally: If you give a speaker 10 minutes of time, they will talk for 10 minutes (and sometimes go a bit over or under, as non-professional speakers are wont to do). If you give that same speaker with the same content 60 minutes, they will talk for 60 minutes. People will, generally, fill the time that they are given with *something*--whether that information is relevant or not. Ask people about their content first--and then determine their speaking time--instead of the other way around.

"We don't have much time, so we want to get the most out of it..."

This isn't a bad thing in and of itself. The issue here is that "getting the most" out of an event typically means putting as much information as possible into an event. Oftentimes, the opposite of what is intended is what ends up happening. Cramming a lot of information into a little amount of time is a recipe for learning disaster. By having too much content--instead of a key points being remembered, there is a far greater chance that nothing will be remembered. The brain becomes saturated and cannot process new information without first digesting the old information and working with it in some practical way. To use an old metaphor--it's like "drinking from a fire hose".

This is certainly NOT getting the most out of an event.

Does this mean that events cannot be meaningful experiences with effective learning moments? Not at all. The key is to be selective and strategic. Build in time for brain-breaks, interaction and activities. Be very selective; separating what's nice to know from what attendees NEED to know--and only bringing the latter to the event.

What do you do with all that extra content you wanted to cover? The event isn't just the three days everyone is together. Have additional resources before and after the event, continue following up with participants, and give them the ability to discover and work with additional information long after they fly home to keep the momentum of the successful event going.

What's On Your Attendees' Agenda?

"They're freaking out because no one has gotten an agenda... this definitely isn't going to be a meeting as usual."

--Our client, about his attendees.

We frequently don't publish a detailed agenda in any of the event materials given to the attendees. If we do, it ends up being no more detailed than a start time and rough break/lunch times (and perhaps a rough end time).

Not having an agenda does several things:

It allows attendees to fully engage. Though it drives "Type-A" personalities a little nuts, not having an agenda allows attendees to give up control (of their time, not their responsibility/accountability), relax, and go with the event. They want to see what's next.

It takes away pre-conceived notions. If an attendee knows that finance is going to present at 11, they have all morning to think about how unengaging that presentation is going to be. (Whether or not it actually IS.) They focus on the content of the moment and it gives the presenters an opportunity to frame the conversation how THEY want.

It prevents ducking out. "Well, it's only marketing, surely I can duck out and take care of XYZ..." If you don't know what's next, you don't know if what you're going to miss might be vitally important. At a previous event, attendees wanted agendas so they could schedule time with their families (some had come along for a post-event vacation) during the general session. Good for the family? Sure. Good for the content? No.

It inhibits clock-watching. Presenters finish early or, more often, run over time. Not having an agenda gets rid of the toe-tapping, "He's 3 minutes-and-counting over his allotted time," "When will she be DONE already," sentiments out in the audience--decreasing impatience and increasing attention. Likewise, if a presenter goes "short", the audience isn't left wondering why they didn't take up their full 40 minutes.

It allows for on-the-fly changes. During the middle of an event, we sometimes need to switch a presenter or change the direction of the content based on what is happening in real time. Without published agendas, we're able to do this seamlessly--and the audience is none-the-wiser. Do they know that Presenter X failed to prepare and so we had to substitute Presenter Y? Nope. Do they know that because XYZ happened earlier, we chose to invite the keynote speaker from yesterday back? Nope. Do they know that we're throwing in extra activities because the energy seems low? Nope. They're going with the flow, and we're able to better do our jobs.


Not publishing an agenda may not work for all events--and often a minimal level of detail (when people go to breakouts, when the day begins, etc.) is needed in written form. But when one has the option, don't have a minute-by-minute breakdown of the event available to the public audience.

Driving Clients Crazy: Set in Stone vs. Flexible Events

Right now, we're ramping up for a good half-dozen January events. As we put together show flows, presenter scripts, emcee guides, etc. We're driving a few of our clients a bit crazy.

This certainly isn't on purpose, but some people need everything to be set in stone weeks before an event. We simply don't operate that way.

That doesn't mean that every single element isn't meticulously thought out--it is. What it *does* mean is that an event is a living, breathing creature. Without flexibility it won't necessarily suffocate in its own box, but it can be a fraction of its potential.

Here are the advantages of a flexible event:

• Not having everything set allows you to adjust your presentations/flow to the mood of the audience.
• Sometimes spontaneous activities need to be inserted to increase the energy level of the room.
  
• Things happen at an event. You want to be able to comment on them, script them in, etc.
  
• Flexible content allows you to adjust to the knowledge base of the audience. If things are too difficult to understand or too easy the audience is going to check out.
• Sometimes the best ideas come out at the last minute. You don't want to reject something that could be exactly what the event needs just because it wasn't planned weeks in advance.
  
• Mistakes happen. You need to be able to correct them seamlessly.

This is also, sometimes, why we don't publish a minute-by-minute, bullet-by-bullet agenda or content summary. If the audience has an exact road map of what's coming, they are utterly unforgiving when things have to be changed (and things, very often, DO change during an event whether things are supposed to be set in stone or not).