It’s not enough to just create a great event anymore. Now you need an event experience that will leave attendees raving about it for months to come. You need to create an event that’s not just interactive but memorable and rewarding for attendees in a variety of different ways.
Interactive events app
Presentations are here to stay but their format should definitely improve. For example, TEDÂ has brought storytelling at the conferences to the masses. Instead of talking about one topic for 60 minutes, TEDÂ organizers capped the time to 18 minutes. Which is more than enough time to deliver and get the idea.
Stop forcing your speakers to spend 45-60 min at the stage. They might need only 15 to 20 minutes to talk about their ideas. Rather fill in the remaining minutes with Q&A and let your presenters respond to questions that the audience actually wants to hear.
For instance, the TalTech Vision is a great example where sessions were short and comprehensive enough to keep the audience focused. The balance between speech and Q&A was kept at the 50/50 level. Or skip the speech altogether and crowdsource the interest totally from the audience. It was done at the same event with 15 experts at the stage and the audience sending in their interest by an interaction app Worksup.
Worksup interaction app
Empowered audience
A few decades ago people did not have many opportunities to interact with speakers or event organizers directly. There were no digital screens or smartphones helping out with the audience engagement. Today conferences are no longer about one-way content broadcast and by the year 2021, it probably feels outdated format without any technology.
Second screen
Second screen technologies enable organizers to take audience engagement to a completely new level. With an event app Worksup you can use the second screen for visual results like word clouds, charts, and diagrams. However, while event tech can have a transformative power on events, no tech solution can save a long presentation or a boring event on its own. Â Before you decide to use any tech solution, make sure to identify event objectives. Only then select the technology that will help you to achieve those goals.
Q&A questions on two screens with Worksup
Who you know matters – all-hands meetingÂ
Practically every feedback from the conferences we have organized, reveals two main reasons why people attend conferences – attendees want to learn new things and network with other like-minded guests.
Usually, a large portion of time is dedicated to delivering stimulating content. But a lot less attention is devoted to helping attendees to meet each other. While looking for interactive events apps make sure that they also have networking functionality.
With the networking function in the event app Worksup, participants can openly discuss topics that are relevant to them and create social ties in the process. These sessions can be then seamlessly bridged into the networking breaks without disrupting the ongoing conversations.
Networking app view
Working together
You can take networking even further and give groups of attendees tasks that they can work on together. This enables them to share their views and get to know each other even better than traditional speed dating at the events. It is easy to approach interesting people afterward if you have been in the same works group at the conference.
Conclusion
This article presented ways of how traditional conferences are fading versus how event managers should think by the year 2021. It also outlined a few ideas how, in order to make interactive events, redesign the outdated format and bring the change that the audience is actually craving for. There is a reason why TEDx events are popular, so why not learn from the best.