Recognize the following Symptoms of Audience-Fatigue?
So you’re planning an event. You have a great venue and a solid programme, built around a topic that is exciting for the participants. This should be enough to keep your audience inspired, engaged and awake, and make your event memorable, shouldn’t it?
And yet. Experience has shown that this sum doesn’t always add up. Events often suffer from one or more of the following symptoms:
- An audience that doesn’t really engage, except for some hotheads and the usual suspects. And this despite all efforts of keynote speakers to involve them or the participative methods you use.
- An audience that doesn’t seem to be inspired. The participants remain on the receiving end of the spectrum, seemingly not really exploiting the potential of all the fabulous input you’ve prepared for them.
- An audience that networks in safe mode, mingling only with the people they know.
I can imagine you want to turn this around. Not by making a big show out of your event or forcing your audience in any way. You want integrity. You want your audience to be really inspired by the theme, to see the potential, the solutions…
And this is possible. Because really, there’s no such thing as a bad audience. All the potential is right there. Consider this for a minute:
Your audience has invested in your event, not only money, but something far more precious: their time. They want to be there. The theme does interest them. They have come to engage.
So what is the key to tapping into the Inspiration, Creativity and Engagement of your Audience? How can you wake that up in them?
Think about yourself in a conference. What do you need to be really engaged? A topic that appeals to you. Check. The right people in the room. Check. Good conditions. Check. And here comes the crux:
As a participant you also need a safe and open climate to interact, so that you can access your creativity and express your ideas without any pressure whatsoever.
In other words, you want your audience to experience:
√ Freedom of expression.
√ An open atmosphere, allowing people to interact easily and freely with each other.
√ A boost of creativity and inspiration, breaking old patterns that are no longer useful and functional.
√ A real connection with the theme, not only by receiving information but also by sharing information.
So that the participants go home saying: “This was an amazing event, I’ll be back next year and I’ll recommend it to my peers.”
What does your audience need? Tell me your story and I’ll happily advice you for free.
A breath of fresh Air
I truly love seeing what happens when an audience, whether it be 25 people or 2500, relaxes and starts to really enjoy being there, in that room, with these people, open to new connections, possibilities and inspiration.
As a Keynote Speaker and/or Master of Interaction, I’ve seen that happening many times over the last couple of years. From this experience I have gathered great tools and inspiring content that I happily share with you, because it is my passion to help you to create a safe and open climate that makes the difference between an ordinary Event and an amazing Event.
My message and methods are simple but effective, tailor-made to waking up your audience to your theme. To say it with the words of Peter, an event organisor, who engaged me as a Keynote Speaker.
“Cyriel has jump-started our project management conference with a very creative, entertaining yet also very to-the-point presentation. He received an 8 (which is VERY high for this audience!!). He really provided a brilliant atmosphere for our very successful IPMA-NL 2011 Conference.” (Read more testimonials)
And this is how Amanda sees it, a participant in an event where I was the Master of Interaction:
“I had the joy of experiencing Cyriel’s facilitation capability first hand at an international event in Australia. He was the creative, entertaining and catalyctic glue that held the conference together in between sessions. What an amazing talent! He had 81 Organisational Development practitioners from all over the world in the palm of his hand. Laughing, Participating, Learning and Growing – an amazing talent.” (Read more testimonials)
Do you want to get a taste of what this could mean for your Event? These videos and pictures give you a pretty good idea.