21 ways to boost your
eventInspire, engage and wake up your audience @CyrielKortleven

#1 Do the shortest networking
exercise everThis exercise will take 33 seconds and really helps to create an open andinformal atmosphere. Ask your audience to shout their name, email andphone-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 ifyou 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 picsIt’s quite easy to lookup and print some inspiring quotes and pictures. Hang them atseveral (unexpected - toilet?) places in the conference location. Or even better: askthe participants to bring their favorite quote or picture.

#4 Harvest/visualize the insightsThere are
a lot of good people out there who are able to visualize the mostimportant insights and learnings from keynotes and discussions. In that way, theseinsights aren’t lost and can be used afterwards to refresh the content.(www.visualharvesting.com)

#5 Organize business blind datesForm
random subgroups of 4 participants when they enter the event and askthem to share insights at 3 pre-determined moments during the conference.

#6 Use a wordcloud to
introduce speakersAsk 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
movieSelect 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
InterventionsA lot of people think that it’s impossible to work in an interactive way withlarge 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 wallCreate a big wall where participants can contribute their ideas or actions abouta 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 whenparticipants arrive and distribute the presents randomly at the end of the event.

#11 Hire the ideaDJInspire 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 Organizeyour event ata non-conventionalplaceAvoid
the classicalconference roomsand do yourconference in amuseum, 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 theperson next to them - chance is quite big that they already know each other.

#14 Prepare your follow-up momentsThe
event itself is one of the pillars of a conference but not the only moment tointeract with your audience. There are already a lot of opportunities in advancebut also afterwards. Think about your follow-up moments in advance!

#15 Invite somespeakers at theborders
of yourthemeIn every business, youwill have the ‘usual’experts who come andgive their opinion aboutthe theme. Dare toinvite some speakerswho are not experts inthe theme but canmake a connectionfrom their expertise toyour topic.

#16 Avoid Q&A Q&A sessions
are a lotof 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 inadvance or using socialmedia, you can make a selection of questions; integrate some of the unconference methods to create interaction.

# 17 Let your audience
moveThe attention spam of the audience is quite short so make sure that you movepeople every 90 minutes: changing seats, getting up and move their arms, ltthem do a short walk but let them DO something.

# 17 Do somethingunexpectedSurprise the
participants by doing somethingthat’s not done at a ‘normal‘ conference.Work with actors; give everybody a pine-apple; ask them to walk backwards for 10meter; ... You will immediately get their fullattention. It’s important to connect theunexpected element with the theme at alater stage during the event.

#18 Adjust food and drinks
to the themeA lot of money is spent to have some good food and drinks for your event. Makearrangements with the catering that there’s a connection with the food anddrinks 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. Invitepeople 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 eventwith everybodyEnd
the event with an exercise oractivity where all the participantscan contribute in one way oranother because this action isgoing to last the longest. The‘One Clap’ is an example of anexercise where everybody has tostand up and clap exactly at thesame moment - without makingagreements about the moment.

# 21 Work with a
professional Master of InteractionYou want to go for top-quality so you invest time and money in a goodlocation, good food and great keynote speakers. So why shouldn’t you investin a professional who can inspire, engage and wake up your audience to turnyour ‘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

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