Finding the Sweet Spot: Balancing emotion, engagement, & tech for successful events (with Clare Forestier)

You can’t expect your event participants to be engaged if you don’t bake the right triggers and tools within your planning and agenda.

Most event professionals spend a lot of time:

⏱️ deciding on relevant topics
⏱️ securing sponsors
⏱️ landing hotshot speakers
⏱️ booking the venue
⏱️ organzing F&B, AV, etc.

However, when it comes to engagement strategy, things fall through the cracks.

In the best-case scenario, they end up sticking up some Slido questions and calling it a day.

But the harsh truth is that’s as good as relying on luck.

Inspiring real engagement requires a well-thought-out strategy and the right tools to execute it.

That's why for this episode, Bogdan Maran and Merijn van Buuren invited Clare Forestier to talk about:

💡 Designing Interactive and Inclusive Agendas
💡 The Role of Technology in Event Engagement
💡 Simplifying Technology for your attendees

And much more!

🗓️ Weekly Rendezvous: Mark your calendar! "Ctrl+Alt+Event" will be live on LinkedIn every Tuesday at 3:00 PM GMT to answer all your burning questions.

🔄 Host Rotation: Bogdan and Merijn will alternate hosting the live event each week, so make sure to follow them both to receive notifications.

🔗 Connect with Us: Bogdan Maran, Merijn van Buuren

👥 Get more involved: reserve your spot here

🎙️ Become a guest on our show: apply here

It's not just a podcast; it's a tech-forward experience you won't want to miss!

See you next Tuesday at 3:00 PM GMT! 🎉✨

Chapters

• 0:08 Introduction
• 3:46 Clare's perspective on technology and engagement
• 11:16 Designing interactive and inclusive event agendas
• 18:00 Enhancing Business Events Through Technology
• 26:20 How to simplify event tech and make it more accessible
• 33:00 Examples of successful and interactive event tech
• 38:27 Enhancing Event Experience With Technology
• 44:05 Closing

Transcript

0:08

Hello and welcome to Ctrl Alt Event. Let me introduce my co-host because I forgot my words and I've got a lovely day that everything goes wrong. So let's see what's happening today. It's Merijn van Buuren, who is the founder at Event Mender. He has worked with hundreds of both event professionals and with event technology. He's your guy when it comes to integrations, to anything about platforms. All the little, little details that you need to know and the big details. And yeah, just hand it to you and shut up for just half the rest of the half an hour. I think. Don't worry at all. Thank you so much, Bogdan and thank you all for joining Ctrl Alt Event, the show where we navigate the future of events with practical insights and real solutions. And I'm obviously joined by an amazing individual. Whether he makes mistakes or not aka our masterful data storyteller. He has an amazing track record of integrating and building bespoke platforms, captivating data visualizations and much more. He's the founder of Visual Hive, an AI driven marketing engine tailored for marketers and event professionals. And if you're seeking expertise in video and data strategy, personalized solutions or anything related to AI look no further because it’s Bogdan. Thank you so much for joining us. And obviously let us know where you're joining in from today. We have a very entertaining session that is about everything from emotion to engagement, technology and the sweet spot in between. We have an amazing guest for you. So don't wait all the way to the end. We only have these 30 to maybe 40 minutes if we run out a little bit. So make sure to already drop your comments, drop your questions in the chat and we'll make sure to address them during the session. Well, who is the amazing guest that we have for today? You might be wondering, but if you have seen the picture of this event, you know, it's no one less than Clare Forestier. Well, if you are not familiar with who Clare is, she says her goal is to look after the audience at events and make even the most complex, complex and driest subjects accessible to everyone. She also uses the skills picked up in her previous career as a BBC journalist to help others improve their presentation skills. Talk to the media. She is described by her clients as a charismatic, non, no nonsense and lots of fun. Clare admits she is a little bit obsessed with prioritizing the attendee experience, which is a very good thing, and that's exactly why she is the perfect match for this session. Balancing emotion, engagement and technology for successful events. Thank you so much for joining us today, Clare. Lovely to be here. Thank you, guys. I'm not touching the tech today. It's totally you. Because even though I love the idea of technology, we were just saying I'm not so good at applying it. And that's exactly why it's a good match for today, because we're finding that sweet spot and it's good to have someone completely on the engagement and personal side and also some insights from a tech perspective and figuring out where is that sweet spot? Do you always need technology? Probably not. But in which cases do you need and how can you implement it? And in general, what strategies do people need in order to create an engaging event? So today we'll talk a little bit about the role of technology and events, engagement, designing, interactive and inclusive agendas, simplifying technology for everyone, and the long term value of tech integration where it is needed and where you can benefit from it. Clare I would love to start with your perspective in terms of your experiences as an emcee, as a moderator, do you use technology? Where do you use it? Where do you not use it? What's kind of your perspective on today's topic? Well, I think of it like, you know, my perspective is if I find the emcee of an event, I have been hired to look after the audience. So to help the organizers is the client to deliver the emotions that we want the attendee to experience so that then we can deliver on the objective behind the event. So I'm interested in technology in as far as it does that. That's the simplest point of it. So it is not, you know, maybe like you guys tech, for tech sake because you just love tech is literally the tech has to deliver the thing. It is not the thing for me. And that's where I kind of actually that's where I go in life. But it's also where I go in events. So people go to events because they want community, they want to be heard, they want to share, they want to learn, and then those things are going to make them happy and excited and inspired, and then they're going to go off and do whatever it is that we want them to do. When they came to the event, the reason that we got them there buy, invest, partner or go off and evangelize about the company. So what I want the attendee to do, whatever emotion I want them to do, that I'm going to invest in technology that would help me to do that. I'm going to tell my client to invest in the technology to help them do that. So any kind of technology that's around engagement and connection is is going to be something that would be considered. But then I also struggle when I see people think, Oh yeah, I've got to get engagement, so we'll get this app, we we'll get this piece of tech because that does it, but it's actually not necessarily always needed, as you said, you know, is that going to get the attendee to do what we want them to do? And I think sometimes people are we've got to do this. It's like a shopping list. That's what everybody else is doing. We've got to do it. You know, the obsession over an app that might be smaller, that doesn't actually need an app, and you spend so much time on that and not actually get an attendee that's even going to use it or like it. And I feel really bad because I know people's industries and lives, but I've got to the point where sometimes I don't even download the app because I've got so P’ed off with them at previous events, which is terrible because of course the technology's moving on and the, and the, and the app might actually be really good now, but last year it was terrible, so I don’t want it this year. That's kind of my mentality. So it's very different. I always thinking, how is the attendee going to get benefit from it? You know, it's just like again, people go, Well, we must have a polling app, we must have a questions and a chat app. And again, if you've got an audience you actually never needed that. Do you need to give it to them? That kind of thing. So really making sure that the tech is super intentional and actually valid for that specific event is is kind of the really big thing for me. And I think in that regards the tech is can be an enabler. But as you mentioned, if you don't have the idea of why you need to use it in the first place, because some just struggle to understand what it is they want to bring to the audience. I think you bring it up in your LinkedIn posts as well quite often, where organizers sometimes just miss the first step in terms of understanding what do I want to have enabled with, what do I want to enable in my audience? What kind of emotion do I want to provoke? What kind of what do I want them to take with them? How do I want them to feel after the event? And if you don't know those things, then it's very hard. And indeed, many people just resort to Oh, I heard the other organizer is adding a Q&A. We have to have a tool like that. But I think indeed, as you mentioned, taking that step first back and see what you really need to do is is more important than just getting a quick technology fix that may or may not be a good match for what you want to achieve. Yeah, I mean, I always remember someone saying to me, Oh, you know what? What's the tech out there that you've seen that's really going to wow our audience? And I was like, Oh, that's that's where it's been completely missed because it isn't the tech that's going to wow them. It's the the thing that is delivered that's going to wow them. So the tech could be really kind of unexciting, actually can be sometimes the least exciting piece of technology is going to create the wow because it's going to give them a chance to talk or to share or to. I don't I think of a word, you know, I mean, even sometimes if there's word clouds, that can be the one. I've seen people go, oh, wow, You know, and that's like a really simple piece of tech. But it's what did you want in that moment, the tech to do or the event. And then that's the Wow. But it's it gets lost in the you know, in there. Everything else has got to happen. I've got to do this. Got to add this, some things become a little checklist, don't they? As opposed to taking it back all the time to the objective for the attendee. Very true. Bogdan, is there anything you would like to add to? I'm scared I'm going to destroy everything now, but you're absolutely right about the enablement, and I think as geeky as we are and as good as we as much as we love tech and we try to apply that because it's kind of our day job, technically speaking, it's we tend to work with clients to tell them not to use everything, or at least to use the simple things because they are very efficient. And the the funny conversation is when they don't want to and then they blame the technology for something that is not working when they, for example, especially around engagement, they want everybody to use their phones, but they're not they don't have any Wi-Fi. I'm not talking about actually the audience not wanting to engage with the phone at all in some aspects, but they don't have anything like that. And the other way around where when you would need something more than just you, when you have 10,000 people and you want them to ask questions or you want to see what their opinion is, you cannot do that physically regardless how good you are as an emcee, or whoever is on that stage to facilitate this conversation, they won't be able to do that. So you would need that tech to enable you to hit your goals to a certain degree. Absolutely. And then that's it. That's when it's fantastic, when it's a really big audience and one is an audience in lots of different places. But again, I don't know, 50 people in the room do you need to be faffing about with an app? And actually if you've got a small event and it's very the whole point, was it to be very collaborative and very people have come to physically meet people, do you want them on their phones or not? It is just applying it intelligently to the specific event. And I think the problem is, you know, we know you invest in a piece of technology. You kind of almost want to rinse it. Don't you want to get your money's worth? So you're like, I'll just jump into every event I do. And it just might not be relevant for this particular event. And again, if if it is an audience that really doesn't need an engagement tool, then you don't need to give it to them. If it is one that that does, then absolutely go full bore. We know that this particular audience isn't terribly happy about raising their hands, so let's give them another forum where they can be heard that is awkward for them. It is literally every time who is my attendee? What do they want to feel? What do I want them to do? And does this technology enable that? And if it doesn't, and then don’t buy it. I love I can tell where the ws are coming from from because I I've spent some time in the, in, as a journalists, photojournalists, to be honest, not necessarily speaking or writing, but those ws always fit within everything, including technology. And I'm surprised when people come up with, did you come up with this idea and they should be like the back bench of anything you do. Have you asked those questions? Why do you do this? How do you do this? When do you do this to whom do you address this? And so on and so on and so on. And so. Yeah. Who, why, where, when. Yes, Yes. And I think that also ties in perfectly to actually the designing of interactive and exclusive agendas. I think that's the first step. Maybe. Clare, I know you always help the people you work with your clients in terms of when you act as an emcee and a moderator to actively help them and guide them into designing that interactive and inclusive agenda. And as far as what I try to try, yeah, what would you like to give our audience as in how can they start with designing an interactive and inclusive agenda to make sure that you know those whys and when they are captivated by the agenda? Well, obviously, you know, that key thing we've just been banging about for about 10 minutes with your objective, what are you trying to do if you clearly know what you want them to do at the back of it, then it's almost like a little part. It's like that's how we're going to get there, you know, working backwards, but also being a little bit brave and saying just because we've always done it this way, you know, the same as last year principle that seems to apply very helpfully with an event, which is we've done it this way, we'll do it that way. And I can see that's why people end up with tech that they don't need because you've gone. This is last year's agenda. I'm going to replicate that. Plenairy here, this here that there exactly the same. Oh, they didn't like or they didn’t ask any questions about that one. It was super awkward. Okay, let's chuck in an engagement tool. It's almost like that's what they're doing. They're like fixing things that might not have been quite right, but without actually going, is thatt going to get the attendee to do it? Is that going to work? It's almost we have so much information now, like there's all the data, which is probably kind of sounds really sad, but it's maybe the sexiest side of tech is the data that you get that that you can then change with accept nobody thing, nobody does. Look, a lot of people don't seem to be doing that like they're getting all this technology data technology sorry data from the tech and then they're not doing anything with it. So that's my kind of point is I've lost my point and I feel like I'm like digging up the data and I go to data agog. I apart from that, is absolutely fine. Everything is okay. Yeah. I go, who do I think I am? Shut up, Clare, talking about data. But no, I don't even know how to read the data to do that. But I know it is giving you that stuff so that you don't need to go. Well, do we? And it should then be saying, do we even need a plenary session that did that? Was that what we needed? Was that what the issue was so you can change it? So my thing to people is to start querying all that, go back into everything you've done and query. Is that needed based on what we now know about our attendee and do we still need to do exactly the same way that we did last year? And actually also, you don't even have to be looking at your own data. There's enough out there now to say that the attendee needs much more than just the same old, same old, because we now understand human beings, we now understand psychology better. There are people specializing in events, psychology, so listen to them and say, Does that get the result we want by doing it the same way we've always done it? I mean, isn't it the definition of the definition of failure or no whatever, to keep doing the same old thing and expect the same and then expect a different result? That's the word. That's something I quoted my husband all the time, but I've forgotten the quote. I know I've been quoted quite a few times By definition of insanity. Yes, the definition of insanity is to be trying to get a new results. Is something better from your from your event, because every year we've got to get the bums on seats as more and more competition. Yes, there's lots of events that that struggle to get people to commit the sort of flakiness of attendees. And generally in life, society seems to be more flaky. We commit to things, we say yes to things, and then we don't commit. So you've got that harder job now of getting people to come to your events and to commit to it and to maybe even when they sign up to then follow all the way through and actually turn up. So you've got to work harder. So you can't just keep applying the same old stuff. So the first thing I would say with the design is strip it all back and go, Do I need all this stuff? Do they do these terms? What does this kind of system work, You know, and they've gone keynotes are too long and boring, so we'll make them shorter. That seems to have got through. But you know, for some people that feels like that's about as groundbreaking as they're going to get. They've shortened their keynote so it's stripping it back. I'm starting to ask questions and get in. Does does this make sense? Just because we've always done it is probably my first hit with design, so it took me a very long time to get there. One tiny point that you said at the beginning that you don't know how to read that data I think is not about reading the data. It's about interpreting that data and having stakeholders like yourself who has a specific experience or having a pool of stakeholders with different experiences, you being one of them that looks at a data. And so keep from this perspective, from my perspective of designing an agenda, we should do this because this works better. And that's, for example, my job as a geeky data guy is to put that data in a format that you can interpret. Yeah, and reach a conclusion, because I don't have your experience, I don't have your context, I don't have the years of journalism. I don't have the hours and hours sitting on a stage and actually going through that, searching that emotion in the public, in the audience. So data, yes, is fascinating, but it's about the interpretation. So that's where I disagree. I think you should be when you're good at your job, that that just helps you a little bit more just to give you that extra nudge. When I'm working with a client at the moment who I've done events with them for, I did win an event with them last year and we're doing another one and I love that they've really like with me straight after the event last year, they will straight soon after we looked at what was found, where we'd gone, where they want to change, and then we sort of thought about it. And so when we met up again a few months later, we had some ideas and they came to me and they were the quite a traditional group of people. They've done the similar event for a long time, but they were saying, So we want to change the wording because people say they don't want, but we don't just want to change the wording. We need to make something different happen in it. And that's exactly what I'm talking about. They know that people are put off by networking event, but they know that people in another part of the survey said we want to meet the right people. So they realized that, you know, they weren't going to re label it. Got it. And what did we come up with collaborate and whatever the word was, they were going to have to change it within and do it. So that's that's what I'm talking about. It's just those little things. And then you can go, Do we need tech to do that? So if we get staying on the day, Yes, we do, actually, because one of the things that could make it more fun is to give them all something to find out about each other. And we could do that with a pole or we could do that with this app or, you know, that's when it starts to become, oh, you can see levels threaded it together to get to the right point Very true. And I think Lewin is pretty much asking exactly this. Like he believes a lot of the excitement was lost during the whole P/C word situation that we had and have endured and is asking like, how do we build back to total excitement and confidence in live events you already touched upon a little bit, but maybe you on a direct well, maybe I might be a bit controversial. It might be a bit controversial, but I think a lot of these events didn't even have it before COVID, to be honest. I mean, I came into this industry, I was in totally different industry, and I came in and started going to business events, Oh they’re a bit bad, really, they're a bit rubbish because they're just the same old, same old. And I'm running around and I'm exhausted and I haven't got the benefit out of this expensive event that I should have that I could have done if they'd just not put so much in and made it different. And, you know, all the other stuff we took about or where I rant about for hours on LinkedIn. And so I was thinking, what post-COVID? Everyone's learned so much now will come back in and it will be better. And I've been shocked by how same Samey it is. You know, we're four years post Covid now, which freaks me out when you think about it, because we just kind of like to blame everything we are for years and some of the events are still exactly the same. They just chucked a bit of apping, apping, a bit of an app in there or a bit of a polling platform and they've made this system the sessions shorter and they've made Quest Q&A a bit longer. Otherwise they are still very similar and I'm sure you would agree with me because we go to some of the same events, they don't seem that different. Sorry, Lewin. No, no, they don't seem that different. And it's I think me coming from a different industry as well before the pandemic, just before the pandemic and going and saying we can do better. Right. I've seen these examples in various other industries, including the event industry. If you look like, for example, if you look at engagement and you look at the E-Sports events, where you the logic of it just baffles my mind. And I'm a gamer by definition because like I play more than 80 minutes a day a game, regardless of what the game is, you go there and you go in a stage to watch some people play on screens literally do that, and it's not that it's crazy and everybody is excited. The amount of engagement and the use of technology because not everybody is on their phones, but they have phones because usually you're not you don't have any 70 plus year olds going there in terms of major audience. But the way they engage with the audience, the way they engage with the audience positive and the way they engage you, they before the events, the way they enabled them to share content, the way not just content, but the emotion that they feel there haven't really seen any business events. And yes, I don't expect big screens, firecrackers and probably some horses running around at any point, but they are the examples of engagement and sharing. The emotion are quite good and they are quite nice. And my point, which was very long winded, was that I think events are crucial. But before the pandemic or the C-word, we didn't have any other option. There was no other option that we have to go to. I, you know, Confex and that's it, because that's in London and we have to go there. We have to go to wherever we need to go within our industries. But now we are we are actually just looking for looking for the value more than just being there. Yeah, I'm and that is exactly right to use the points that sports industry in the gaming industry broadcast industry was doing this long before, you know literally it was so important. I worked in news. That's my background. And you know, now it's got to the point where literally the news is almost decided by what everybody's liking on Twitter. Kind of it feels like that which, you know, a traditionalist like could be like, well, you know, that's that means that the audience, the general public is deciding what's interesting. And that's why you'll see a depletion in the amount of foreign news and potentially useful information that people might need. You might say they should know this. It's not necessarily being reported because they're not as interested in it. So you end up in this vicious circle where we live in the echo chamber. So there's a there's a problem there. But that idea of getting user generated content and the idea of getting people to respond and phone ins and call ins and all that kind of stuff was that's been going on for so much longer than it has been in events. And that is where I think we're really behind. And now the tech is there. Now it needs to be being used. Now you've got both the tech and the data to prove it historical as well. If you want to go for that. The TV thing very true. And I think in the gaming example specifically, it's very tailored to that audience. They're very tech enabled. So it's tech focus all the way in a post that, you know, Tamar Beck, actually, for those of you who know her also posted where she asks kind of the same, like what's what's the reason why people going screaming to a Taylor Swift concert, but they're not screaming, running to, yeah, a business corporate event and I believe it's a lot about first understanding your audience, but also understanding what kind of experience they want. Because the reason why people go to a Taylor Swift is because this is an amazing experience. They are a fan. They can finally see their idol, they are live that amazing experience. So that's all tailored to that particular audience. But in a business setting, it's a lot more about the kind of basics where it's not, Wow, I'm super excited to go there. Maybe there's one person that I really like to see or, you know, catching up with my friends and that that's amazing. But there is a lot more experience we can add to it. So Lewin, I think we dove quite deep into your topic, but I think there's a lot of points where we as an industry, we have some track record that we have to prove we can do it a lot better. And to the points that have been mentioned, that's a lot about tailoring that experience to what people expect and making sure it is a real experience rather than quote unquote, a flat event. Well, we go to business events sometimes because we should We know we should. We should. We're going to meet people. I should go there and should network. I should. I should, which is never you know, when you the sitting in life is just so boring, isn't it? You want to go because you like I'm a Bruce Springsteen fan. I want to go. Even though I seen him loads of times. I want to go because I experience trying to get to the front. Hanging out with your friends, the whole everything, the whole, the whole hours of days of queuing and all, you know, it's it gives you that amazing book and actually more of you saying, I shouldn't go because it's expensive, it's wasting time, whatever. But it's, it's exciting. And I want my business events to be like that and I want to get the maximum from it. And I want to know that if I didn't see something at that business event, when I go home, I can watch it again. I can get all that element from it and then it feels really valuable and that's when the technology is there to help you. And it's also someone mentions there, it's so much more inclusive, it's so much more inclusive. Can I just add quickly, first of all. Yes, yes. To Bruce Springsteen. But we are going to a concert. So you're choosing the concert. You're going because I wouldn't never go to a Taylor Swift concert but I will go to Springsteen, for example. I know Red Hot Chili Peppers or something to that degree. That makes me happy. But that's the keyword. It makes me happy. So it gives some value back is not something that I have to do because my kid cannot go there. She's 14 and they went to some very weird concerts where a lot of teenagers screaming for about two and a half hours I had to do, otherwise she wouldn't go there. So I love her. But I. I want to say that I found that, for example, with Event Tech Live. I get the same emotional experience because I go there apart from education. Because it’s your church. Yes, I go there because it's it brings me joy and it brings me it gives me the energy to go on for another few months and to think of ideas and to bring that on into it takes you out of the house a little bit. You go to the Fox now, not into Shoreditch, but that's kind of the thing. But it fills you with energy. And I cannot say I found that in other shows, industry specific, no. Well, I actually think some of the events in the events industry are probably the worst events, which is ironic irony that Let's not shame too many people here. But I do agree there's quite a few things that can be improved in general in terms of running events and addressing that particular issue when we're talking about technology and that being something that can help where it is, it fits. Something that actually came up in one of our first episodes where someone was said like, great, all that technology. But my audience, for instance, is all 60 plus. They, they they have no clue how to use technology. And I think there it's also you can use technology, but if it's if it's right for the goal, but it's not right for the audience, it will still not be a good match. And that's something that kind of Bob mentioned in his question. He says, Yeah, our event takes really include event apps, really inclusive, for example, design colors, layout for visual impairments. But in general, technology can be overwhelming. And there it's very important to also simplify that technology. Any tips and tricks that you know, like we we would be able to show you but it may not. I mean, I am that sort of person that I do some volunteering when I go out volunteering, they it's it's a different kind of phone. You know, I've got an apple and they use it. I know another android and I literally in my work for about 10 minutes trying to get it to work and it's there for an emergency and I think, well, if there's an emergency, I'm never going to use that because it would take me about 10 minutes to work out how to turn on, let alone dial nine, nine, nine. Now, okay, I well, I might be generic. A lot of people go to events. I mean, I'm as technical, more technical than somebody less technical than others. That interface. It doesn't look like anything I understand really annoys me and waste my time if I'm busy at an event and I'm trying to use an app and I don't even understand the interface, well then I see the whirligig for about 5 hours. I'm like, No, not going to do it. And then and then I'm pissed off P’d off, well I could swear it's not like I’m on tellie, and then I'm annoyed because I can't see who's coming and I want to find someone and I wants to message them and I'm just generally frustrated and then I'm angry and then I'm not actually in the right mind to take in stuff. So it is really important to get that right. You can't make it look like how everybody wants everything to look. You're never going to make everyone happy. But why is there not a sort of like, I'm sure it's a little bit of a standard on what things look like and where things are. It's like you get in a car if you're driving in the UK, you know what side the good luck of. Listen to me, the time of day, the hand break. I really hope you know, which side it is because it happens from time to time. Yeah, but if it's on another side you're like, what? Or if you get an electric car you like, if the key doesn't turn, I'm supposed to type something and it freaks you out. And obviously with the car, you've got to spend time getting out, but you're just going to go, No, you can't do it. And then you're going to be disengaged from the element of the event. So it is super important to keep things a little bit standardized in the sense of where things are going to expect them to be. You know, expect the key to be that you it's it's like when you go into somebody else's kitchen and you're like, why are they keeping their knives and forks over there? It's ridiculous. And that's why me, that's what I'm meaning to do. So but you're right, it should be an enabler and it should be designed not for those who know how to use technology, but for those who need to use it, or that enables them to use it. Because I would get around maybe not for 2 minutes, but I mean, to take me a little bit to remember how to use the iPhone because I'm an Android, but I'm a geek and I'll sort things out. I've also made free apps in between and that's it. But that's apps shouldn't be designed for me or any, you know, and that's the thing with that mindset because it's that's not that's not the point of the whole conversation. Yeah. As much to make it for the people who are going to use it and if they don't know how to use it, make sure they can be trained on how to use it or they can get helped using it. You know, internal conferences got great. You know, you can make them. They work for you. You can give them that training so that they've understood it. You can help them understand it, and you can still do that to a certain degree within any event, you know, if you're going to be using a piece of tech and you explain to people this is going to make this event so important and helpful and useful to you, could you spend 10 minutes doing it? It generally people might be more inclined to do it if they understand the value to them by doing so. So communication, basically the communication way better communication. Yes, on all aspects. But that's all that's so important to be communicating with your attendee long before they come. Anyway, it's all just another, another part of the community building which, you know, is is not so much for this conversation, but we know that's really valuable. And you you can then get that they can be getting involved because you're asking them to do stuff before the event, to share and to contribute. That's helping them become familiar with the technology you're going to be using so that when they arrive they feel, Oh yeah, I'm part of all this and part of the community. I get what's going on. It's all also helps. Yes. Can I just add that sending an email with the link does not mean that you explain how technology works just for nobody opens it anyway. Very good point. And I think like when you start to craft that inclusive agenda, it's good to have kind of a small group of representatives of your ideal attendee profile to to test things with and to to try things out. And this is something where you can also then do a very smart, small test run, say like, Hey, this is the event app. What? You know, I want you to connect with a fellow peer, go ahead and see how they interact and see where the mistakes are so you can maybe improve the interface, delete a certain feature that no one understands from that group. What what it is for. It doesn't seem to have a purpose. Understand that questions turned out into a frequently asked questions page where on the day of the event you can educate everyone who will probably have the more or less similar problems to also go through that. And that's where it doesn't have to be. With the whole event. You can do it. Maybe there's a small event or you have a small experience or you just do a testing group. You can already get your answers in terms of where people will run into and make sure you, you know, troubleshoot that before the event even starts. And I think that also, yeah, I'm not a big role type person that needs asking like if she can do it, anyone can do it. Like let's make sure we get we get a Clare, you know, young woman who can't remember words after 3:00 and just get them to see if they can use it. Exactly. That is so important. Everybody needs a Clare. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's another. Okay. I think we are obviously flying through time, as always, which is amazing because there's a lot of insights here and a lot of things people can learn. One of the things that I was very curious about is in terms of your own experience, what type of technologies or experience where technology was involved do you feel have been very successful full and do you think maybe more event professionals could consider or think about if it's the right match for the audience? Yeah, I mean, again, it's always going to be the ones for me that will encourage people who might not otherwise have taken part to take part that that's when it's really been incredible. You know, you have seen events where there wasn't a lot of interaction and that isn't because people don't want to interact. It's because almost people are institutionalized into thinking they don't. Because I think events for a long time have been like school in the sense that I went to, you know, I'm all the way older than you guys. And I went to very traditional school and it was so like the olden days, you know, practically like Tom Brown's school days, you know, with wooden chairs and desks and all of that and teachers just lecturing the same old stuff that they did for years and years. And no real contribution. Untitled from you, apart from your homework and no collaborative and no like lovely Now with all the collaborative whiteboards and everything so old fashioned school is what a lot of events were. So people didn't necessarily get involved and be interactive because they weren't expected to. And sometimes when you try and do that in an event, they look at you horrified when you do that. You know, even just to ask the audience question, they're like, are you kidding me?

It's 9: 34:27

00 in the morning. I'm drinking coffee. I'm not talking to you. You know, and it's not that they don't want to because we know human beings want to. It's just that they've been used to that not happening at an event. So then I see I only see the event organizers going to know we have to do that. We have to get we have to get interaction and we have to get all of that that the audience that I can't they're really shy. They don't know. They're not shy. And the none of those things, they're just not used to it. And so then you having the technology that helps them come out of the shell a bit and what can ask a question? No one's looking at me. I don't have to stand up for this. But then I think there's become an overreliance on that technology in some events. So we have to get this balance right that that's so I love interactive technology for events where it's polling and platforms and all of that kind of stuff and platforms, what's the word quizzes and you know, the ones I mean, you don't use any names, but those kind of things because they really help. You've just got to get the balance right because the last thing you want now is we've got a little bit of interest. Is everyone going on their phone now and then get distracted get another notification and then I'm like, What are they talking about? And well, let's just move on. I've forgotten and then I'm no longer involved. And then that poor speaker is up there feeling like such a spanner. So that's those tech. That tech is great. But again, it's going to be used, wielded with some sense of the power. It can it can have love it. And as Bogdan mentioned in the comments, if you have any questions about any of this, we still have about two or three, maybe 5 minutes left. Let's see where we. So make sure to drop them in. Obviously, you can also just drop them in and then Clare can always, after the event, come back to your question. If we didn't have the time to jump into it or if you have a question for me and Bogdan, feel free to drop them as well. But we highly encourage you to facilitate in the engagement experience how it is to be inclusive part of an event, because we believe that our audience loves to be involved and we have seen quite a lot of questions already, so make sure to use it. We're live here so happy to answer any questions. And Salima, thank you very much for adding another nice tip in terms of making tech more accessible. Adding a quick video, just visualizing what is actually happening is indeed also a very good way to make it more accessible so people know what to expect and know where to break or the steering wheel is going to be like and where they can put the key. Yeah. And if if it's a short video, actually a short video on the same I don't know how to do something. So I type into Google, how do I do this? And if I get a hit that's like 30 minute video and I'm not even bother watching that. If it's like a one minute video, I'll think, Yeah, I could get it, explained it to me then, then, then. That's exactly. Yeah. And if you can bother to make that time for your attendee, say look we are using a bit of technology is going to be there to help you. Here's how you do it. Not everybody will have looked at it, but it's certainly a good chunk of people will the geeks will have done that and loved it with you guys. Are you surprised you'll be absolutely surprise? You know what? Everybody does. Look at it. But then you can it's the option. It's then that for you to look at and to understand, you know, we get on an airplane. Now, I don't know if you've been on an airplane recently. I don't go on them that often. But I went on one. It was a long haul and I hadn't been on British Airways long haul for years. And the video was so good, the production standards were so good and it was so entertaining that I watched it. I would never normally watch those videos I might start and then I kind of doze off, will switch off because they're boring doing it that way with a little bit of production values and making it funny and interesting got me watching. And you could do something funny and use your emcee you're paying for them to make your video. Hi everybody. I'm going to be your emcee. This is how we use the kit. This is this. Listen, this all makes you again, it's that community thing. We all feel part of it. You're getting your money's worth. But also the person coming knows that. Oh, someone's explained it to me in layman's terms, and it's just all helped me go, I'm not scared of the tech. I want to use the tech. The biggest thing that annoys me in events is when there is this tech going to be used, but it's not shared with all the people who are going to be contributing. So half the contributors don't even know how to use it. They didn't even know it was going to be there. They didn't know people were going to be using that tech. The event host maybe is not understood. It. There are various AVs that's not been told that's needed to be done and they need to be able to sort of maybe integrate into their systems. That's when it goes wrong because people have gone got that bit of tech, but it's not relevant to them. So I don't need to show it to them. I don't know why they think that. And then you haven't got your whole team being part of that investment and that integration of tech. Bogdan? Speechless. Speechless. Absolutely. Always speechless. When I talk to you. I know, I know. I get flustered. Very quite. I think what you're going through there and I would just like to add that. But picture can do much better than a video. There are just for my geekyness, as I mentioned, specifically geeks that don't watch instruction videos because they think they know it, don't know. Of course I've done this, so many times, like turning on the computer and plugging in mic or making the camera work 5 minutes before the show. I've done this so many times. Why should I watch a video from that perspective? A picture is usually good, and one of the things that I've seen, again, we're looking at data and how interactive is when you're going to use software. I don't if you notice that you have you have to go through a kind of an onboarding. You can skip the second time, but it says press here for networking, press here for this, press here for this, save this button. Save this button. It usually takes about 30 seconds. You usually have a next button and everybody goes next, next. But it walks you through the app platform, whatever that is relatively quickly. It gives you enough insights so you know where to go as next steps because not everything looks like and it's quite useful as well from my perspective. Yeah, and there's so many things to do, isn't it? Yes. The piece I loved is one of those giant events recently when they had like a like the city map perversion of getting around the site and actually didn't. And it actually took you on the outside, which probably would have really annoyed all the suppliers. But if you needed to get somewhere in a hurry and you were a contributor or you're someone who's speaking, you could you could actually find it. Because I dread to think how many people don't turn up at their speaking engagements because they couldn't find their way there. Like, something like IBTM or somewhere. How would you find your way around? So having that on the app was really valuable. But then again, you don't need that on every you only need it on the big events. So. Very true, and I love that Miguel Neves actually shared a post about someone who created the these are my favorite spots to eat and hang around around the venue and you know that adds a whole other layer to it. And yeah, of course you prefer to have people in the venue, but for those that want get out or after the event, want to get something to drink, if you can support them there as well, it makes it even a better experience for them. It all kind of adds up, but this is this is it. It's no, I think so long events have been about how to make the event planners life easier, which is great. Obviously, what we care that there are clients, but actually we just got to take you back to how to make the attendees life better, because if the attendees are happier and their life is easier and everything's more enjoyable for them, then they are much more likely to do what you wanted them to do as a result of coming to the event. And then ultimately everybody's life is easier who's been involved. It is kind of that's where I'm about. So again, any tech that helps the attendee have a better time is going to help me. Ultimately, it's going to help everyone involved in the event love it. I was kind of going to ask you for a key takeaway, but I think this is it. Like Say No More. I think this is something where people that people can take with them. And indeed, if your attendees are at the center of things, then they will also come back next year, which helps you because you're only as good as your last event, right? Yeah, absolutely. All right. Speaking.

We can do this in four words: 42:39

So it's emotion, engagement, communication. And then everybody needs a Clare, correct. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's a good thing my husband left the room and he'd make such a rude comment then. But yes, make that point I just raised. I just raise that because I am starting a podcast called Not the Same as last year, and I was trying to explain the pithy, intelligent way why I'm obsessed by this attendee kind of focus attendee First I'm calling it I'm that's not me labeling it. That's a term that's been used. But why it literally is if you do that, everything kind of works very true. We are looking forward to that 15th of April. 15th of April. I can't even tell you where to go because there's nowhere to go yet. But yeah, listen out for that on the 15th of April in all the podcast places. All right, Awesome. I still see Sabrina. Always have a VIP coordinator to keep track of speakers. Very good point as well. And Bob also mentioning, as events get bigger and bigger, interactive floor maps are essential. Some good tips from the audience. Thank you all for pitching in. I see we've flown through time, so it's a good kind of way to end things. I think there were a lot of insights that people can take with them, if you like. Share your favorite takeaway in the comments or ask some additional questions so we can come back to them later. Clare, I want to give you a huge thank thank you and a virtual hug in that regards for for being here. It was such a pleasure having your insights and knowledge and we couldn't be more excited to have you on today. I think it was a very good session, if I say so myself. I might be a little bit biased. I love that. I love chatting to you boys. You know. I do. So I look forward to seeing you both in person as soon as possible, and obviously it'll probably be in the Fox. So. Yes, please. And thank you. Yes. And for those of you who would like to get in touch with Clare, with all her knowledge, she shares an awful lot of very insightful posts around this topic on LinkedIn. So make sure to share or to follow her, connect with her on LinkedIn, watch her YouTube videos. She is also they're very insightful. I always very much enjoyed them. Visit their website. Get ready to follow her podcast, as she just mentioned, Not the same as last year. I am very excited about it because I'm done with all the events that are exactly the same as last year, so keep your eyes out. This launch is the 15th of April, so if you follow her, you'll probably get a notification. We’ll drop her LinkedIn URL in the comments here. But for those who are listening to the recording, you'll find them in the show notes below this episode, kind of in the description of this podcast or YouTube video as well, so you can make sure to follow and connect with Clare. Obviously, if you need and an emcee for your next event as well. She is also the person to go to. You always need an emcee at your event. What do you mean you? I mean, if you don't have one yet already, that makes to get Clare because she's going to blow away your audience and make sure they actually feel seen, feel part of the event and want to come back next year. And as you've seen, she's more than happy to jump in and help you out on the strategy side as well. All right. I think besides an announcement for next week because we're going to do another tech assessment and we actually have another expert on board. Bogdan? Yeah it’s somebody that I really I I'm fascinated because I've worked with him quite a lot. I was I almost said Adam Parry, but I'm fascinated by him as well. It's Adam Price, who is the growth architect. It's so, so much fun to talk to him. I'd be looking forward to hearing his his thoughts. He's a magician when it comes to CRM, points of data, integrations and lucid charts, which is something fantastic. If you haven't tried it. It's like an infinite data thing. The way you can put things on a whiteboard. It's slightly almost as good as Miro boards. But anyway, you will be here next week at 3 p.m. with Adam. You can find this episode on YouTube and wherever you find your podcast or listen to your podcast. If you do, if you don't start doing, that's just because Clare is going to launch one, not because of us. And so do the accounts bits and we shall see you next week. Thank you very much. Clare. It was absolutely fantastic and amazing Thank you. Take care, See you at the next one, great happy days, everyone.