This is a collaborative post
Holding an informative and engaging event can be surprisingly difficult. You need to consider a wide range of factors, many of which will change depending on the topic, audience, and even the time of day that the event is held. That being said, there are some universal concepts to keep in mind when planning. If you’ve got an event coming up, read on to learn about the art of engagement.
Cater to your audience
To make your next event as successful and engaging as possible, you need to make sure that it’s designed with the target audience in mind. For example, experts on a specific topic will likely be able to absorb more additional information on that same topic compared to a more lay audience. Your audience should be in mind from the very get-go, informing each of your decisions going forward.
Picking a great venue
How you engage with your audience also depends on the kind of space that you’re hosting them in. If you don’t have the perfect event space already, then you’ll likely want to consider specially designed event spaces like CCT Venues in Barbican.
You need to make sure that there’s enough room, but also that the audience is able to fill the space. The décor will likely need to be appropriate for the kinds of attendees, as well as being an appropriate match for your brand more generally.
Making sure that the event space you choose ticks all these boxes can be tricky, but it’s a critical aspect of engagement that many people overlook.
Don’t split attention
One of the main insights that event planners can take from the realm of psychology is the importance of not splitting attention. If you really want to engage your audience on a single topic or aspect of the event at any time, you need to make sure that this element is the centre of attention.
Even having overly complex slide shows can be a distraction, something that many of us still need to learn from behavioural psychologists and social scientists. Less is often more, and it’s important that you get the balance just right.
Leave space
Following on that general theme, it’s crucial that you don’t overwhelm your audience at any kind of event. Each presentation or key aspect should be separated by a break, so that people can rest, think about what they’ve just heard or seen, and discuss it with their peers.
Getting this ratio just right is no mean feat; it can take some trial and error, and is likely something that will change from event to event. It is however crucial that you take it seriously, as it can have a profound impact on the success – or failure – of how the process turns out.
Engagement is never something that you’ll fully achieve, but that’s ok. By treating engagement as something that you should always be working towards, you can ensure that your future events are planned with a complex, but incredibly useful, metric to determine your approach.
Disclosure: This is a collaborative post