Bringing Inspiration Back!
Need some event inspiration? Justin Timberlake has it covered!
Although we're not sure it involves a hidden agenda of event planning, it certainly gave us a great insight into what is needed. Lucky for you – we're happy to share!
If you're not a fan, then here's a short summary into what the video contains without watching it – It's the year 2028 and he's giving a talk at the Pan- Asian Deep Learning Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It looks as though everything from the size of the venue to style of the stage has been carefully thought out by his events team– this will be to showcase his product as best as he can.
What have we learnt?
1. Don't just stand there and talk to blank expressions, put on a show, bring props if you can.
2. You don't want to be TOO optimistic about the size of your audience and only fill half the room, you want it to be brimming with enthusiastic faces. Your speaker will feel more enthused about a full venue, whereas if the room is half empty they might not feel they've been valued to their potential – so may only give 50% rather 100%.
3. An entrance should be memorable – be confident, not cocky. Announce your arrival in a way that makes them feel like you're worth the wait. Obviously, we're not saying you must break into song like JT – well, unless you want to of course! Keep the lights dimmed and then turn the lights on and enter stage, you're the star of this show remember.
4. Do something different! People have travelled far and wide to be at your conference/event. Let them experience and see something they haven't seen before. Futuristic tech normally does the job, if not maybe get the fire-eaters out!
5. Although people are there to listen to you – they are mostly there for the product, so let that do the talking. After the intro, like JT, take a backseat. Your product might not be an all singing all dancing robot like in the video, but it is still what people have come to see. If you don't happen to be talking about a product, use audience participation. An example being we used key fobs to vote with at a conference last year. It allows your audience to feel involved.
6. It's important that you work the stage – there's no point hiring out a huge venue if you're going to stand in one spot. You need to utilise the space you have, JT knows his robot won't take up much room, so what does he do? Gets backing dancers in to keep his audience engaged. You don't have to be this extravagant, but you can have screens with content on them, banners, anything, just having something in the background is worth thinking about.
7. Make sure your stage design isn't too complex. What's the point in having something that's too complicated because then you'll only be worrying about it going wrong. Think colour and think lights for a simple yet effective stage design.
8. Don't start with the most exciting thing about your product or company. If you start with something simple, then you can build up the excitement. If you start with the best thing then you've only got to get better from there. Leave the best for the grand finale!