Ichi Telethon | How to Fuel, Ignite, & Accelerate Takeaways from Conferences and Events

Revolutionizing the way we experience events and conferences isn't just a dream; it's a full-blown strategy, and you'll find out exactly how right here. Prepare to be captivated as I, your host, take you on a journey alongside Michael Jackson and Beth Hagenhagen from the Meeting and Event Suppliers Association to discover the thrill of interactive gatherings. We're not talking about snooze-worthy lectures here; we're diving into the 'fuel, ignite, and accelerate' approach that promises to eradicate delegate fatigue and spark an inferno of participation. If you've been longing for a way to truly connect and create moments that matter at your events, this is the playbook you've been waiting for.

As we bid a fond farewell to our UK studio for their stellar work, we can hardly contain our excitement over Mentimeter's potential to turn the tides on audience interaction. No more passive listeners—instead, envision a crowd that's hooked on every word, throwing themselves into the mix with the zest of a Meatloaf anthem. And don't touch that dial, because after a short break, we'll be back with the Age of Conversation reunion. This isn't your run-of-the-mill chit-chat; it's a chance to be part of conversations that resonate long after the mic goes off. So, stay with us, and let's make every minute count!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

I will admit to have maybe had a little too much in 2023. So I think 2024 is my year to really embrace this zero proof lifestyle, and I appreciate it. Nicole and I have been laughing that 2024 is the year of less fat, more money, and so I think that making those smart calorie choices and non-alcoholic choices are going to be a huge part of that. Well, this again is all about community, and we are so excited to have community members coming in from across the pond for our next segment. So I personally am a community junkie and I'm also part of a community called Mesa, which is the meeting and event suppliers association, and that's where I've met these two fine folks and I am super excited to welcome in the other, michael Jackson and Beth Hagenhagen. Hand cut. Hello, michael and Beth. Good morning everybody across America. I hope you're all having a fantastic time.

Speaker 1: 0:47

I've been watching a lot of you.

Speaker 2: 0:57

So far this morning and I've got to tell you I'm really intrigued by the content. Well done to you all. You've put together a really superb telethon so far. Beth, you're saying the same thing.

Speaker 3: 1:11

Pretty much. I actually want to go back to something I've missed, because there is huge value coming out of this.

Speaker 2: 1:18

I love it. I want to introduce you then, if I may, to Bev and myself. I'm a keynote presenter and conference emcee or facilitator, yeah congratulations.

Speaker 2: 1:28

I know that's my 2024 plan and what's happening ultimately is that I've worked with Bev across the planet working on some really good conversational stuff to change the face of eventing really through dialogue and engagement. Oh and, by the way, this is Charlie Sayhi, I'm going to try to give everything. So what we wanted to talk to you about this morning was effectively a little bit of an understanding of where we come from and what we do to make your events more interactive, to make them better and a lot more aesthetically and involved pleasing in a way. So ultimately, what we'd like to do is just take you through some thoughts. Let me just put Charlie down for a second, because he's getting antsy about conferencing in its own particular regard, conferencing to us Lots of people together and talking to them in large groups.

Speaker 2: 2:29

The only platform available in the 1850s was a religious one, and so what people did was they mimicked a religious gathering pile people in a darken room, somebody, a guru, from onstage or raised deck would preach from the good book, and that, in modern parlance, is exactly what we do in typical conferencing today, except it's just known as death by PowerPoint. Bev and I have sat through thousands and thousands of events where we've seen audience members fill up the back rows first, because that's the difference, by the way, in case you didn't know, between a concert and a conference. At a concert, everybody wants to be at the front, wow. So how do we bring more value into conferencing? And between Charlie Bev and myself, we try to figure out that we needed to bring more maximum impact into events before, during and after them. So we came up with a platform that we call fuel, ignite and accelerate, and basically what it's designed to do is get people excited, to break that concept of delegate fatigue, to give them more curiosity and more desire to come and participate in an event or a conference. We know that they want to come, certainly to meet their friends, to network, to have a glass of wine, to share a beer, but they begrudgingly, particularly at corporate events, sit through the boring parts of the actual presentations themselves. So we wanted to fuel excitement and participation even before delegates came to the event itself, to try and change that mindset. And then, during the events, we wanted to ignite a sense of dialogue, a sense of engagement, get people a lot more involved. And once the banners were lowered and the barbells were added up and delegates were heading home, we wanted to make sure that we could accelerate the learning value and the take home value from events by doing some things that would be a little bit different. That's what we're going to unpack for you across the next few minutes. Overall, there's a dashboard that Bev and I have worked on plenty beforehand.

Speaker 2: 4:32

Bev, before we take you into that dashboard, though, what we wanted to do was very quickly use Mentimeter to get people involved in the event itself. So is it possible that we can ask our delegates a question right now and use Mentimeter? Can I pass over to you for that? Sure, alright, we're just switching screens, sharing it. There we go.

Speaker 2: 4:58

I don't know how many of you have used Mentimeter before. What we'd like you to do now on your handheld, your smart device, is go into menticom. It's a straightforward website. There's no app to download at this level. Please just go to menticom on your website right now and then use this code when you get to that front page menticom 73190421. It's our own private digital code. This is completely anonymous in terms of what we do, and it's one of the ways that Bev and I work with delegates, quite often during conferencing as well. So if you go to menticom right now, put in that code, you should see what's up on the screen. You can also just take a very quick shot of that QR code with your camera on your device.

Speaker 2: 5:43

It'll bring up our hero meatloaf I mean Michael Jackson a meatloaf in one telethon. How much more can you ask for? Remember when meatloaf asked that really important question? I would do anything for love, but I won't do that. Just a fun question right now to get us familiar with Menti. What would you not do right now? Just get on to Menti and let's see you using it.

Speaker 2: 6:08

Let's just get you involved in bringing up some answers. You would do anything for love, but you won't do meatloaf. Well, I understand that too. I don't particularly like meatloaf myself the food that is not the singer. But let's get some more responses coming in there. What would you not do if you would do anything for love but you won't do what? You won't fail? I like that. Let's get some vibe going here. Come on, there's literally hundreds of us watching this right now. It's not hard to play on Menti. Your colleagues are doing that already.

Speaker 2: 6:37

Let's bring in some answers and see how you go. If there's time, we'll come back and pick up more answers on that question right now, but please give us your answers. Just go to menticom on your phone. Simple and straightforward. There's the code 73190421. 73190421. I wouldn't go running with anybody, let alone a partner, that's for sure. Right, we'll bring in more stuff. I wouldn't eat okra either. No, definitely not. All right, bev, I'm going to ask you to stop sharing while I share my screen, if I may, and then we're going to carry on with our overall presentation, because what we want to do is bring you some information about what's going on from MentiMeter and get you involved in this presentation in a few moments' time as well. So here's the dashboard of fuel. Ignite and accelerate the kind of things that Bev and I do, that we can all do with no extra budgetary cost, to literally make events a little bit better. Bev, do you want to take us through those?

Speaker 3: 7:35

Sure. So, Michael, I'm reminded of five. I think it was about five or six years ago when you and I first met, and I remember our burning conversation is how do we actually activate a conversation between the stage and the audience? So it isn't, as you were talking about earlier, just preaching from the book. And in the work that I do in conversational intelligence, my understanding is that when people are engaged, they feel like there's huge value.

Speaker 3: 8:06

Coming out of three to four years of what's probably been the toughest time for the industry, we have been looking at what audiences are looking for and audiences are longing to connect.

Speaker 3: 8:18

I think that came through very clear in that Google session that we had a little earlier today, and we often go and look for the next big buzz in technology instead of saying can we turn this conference event space into one where we deeply engage with each other and listen to all of the voices.

Speaker 3: 8:38

In our experience over the last few years, Mark and I'm sure you'd agree with me on this is that when people have had their voice heard, when they have felt that they've been able to make a contribution, they go away so much more engaged and they actually can say this was worth me being here, and I think it comes down to two particular elements. First of all, is there a return on investment? That's what your CEO and your finance people are looking for. Am I going to give you the budget for this time next year? But our delegates are also saying is there a return on experience? I'm giving up an hour, eight hours of my time. Are you giving me something that I am really finding of value? So I think, Michael, let's pop into the next slide and let's follow this process from fuel, ignite, accelerate before, during and after.

Speaker 2: 9:33

Because there are loads of things that we can do actually to make events better If we spread it out and think about how we get into fueling, igniting and accelerating eventing to make them a lot more interesting and credible, as Bev says. Perhaps seven major things that we can give you as takeaways today, bev. Do you want to run us through those?

Speaker 3: 9:51

Certainly and I'm just watching the time so as quickly as we can I think the first one comes down to strategy. So much of what we lose is because we don't put in the time. We were talking about participation and curiosity, but as an engagement specialist, I really looked to what is the strategy of what we're trying to achieve, not only for the event but to the business. We're also asking the question who is in the room and are we intentionally designing our engagement? So, if you've got Gen Z's and boomers and Gen X and everybody else in the room, are you speaking to them, are you meeting their experience that they are particularly asking for? And I think everybody wants to create that buzz as we go through into the event People. We want to feel that energy and the work that Michael and I do on stage and we love facilitating together, for the simple reason is that we really just get this energy bubbling in the room and when you have this kind of dialogue and this kind of engagement, using tools like Mentimeter and all of the facilitation tools that we've all come to know, it is just so amazing. There's one element of marketing that I think people are looking for all the time at the moment, and that is to personalise. People don't want to want science fits all remedy anymore. Are you speaking to them, are you allowing them to tell you what it is that they need from you and then meeting those particular needs? Because, when that happens, we start mining the wisdom from the room. People become engaged, people lean forward, and, instead of using their phones to check up Facebook, what they do is that they actually now start talking to you.

Speaker 3: 11:36

I think the accelerate process, though, is perhaps the one that is really excited me. The fuel is absolutely vital. That's where I spend most of my time in the work that we do, but it's the work that comes after you have put so much time and energy into those events. And how do we utilise technology, utilise various different techniques, to really make sure that we are creating this two-way flow of dialogue, of engagement? Are you taking your panel discussions and putting your audience as one of those people on the stage, and then we go out after the banners are down and the bubble has been paid and we then say so what? Why did we all take a day out to do what we need to do? When you draw in the data of everything that you've learnt. You have got something that you can take forward into your strategy, into your marketing communication and into your team and culture conversations. So we really see this as a strategy that you can use to build your perfect event. Michael, let me hand over to you.

Speaker 2: 12:45

I think it's really looking towards a new pinnacle, creating things a lot more interesting, a lot more dynamic and a lot more interactive. So, in summary, what we would say is, if you're going to do these things with an existing budget, refocus on everything right from the get-go, from the ground floor. Define some clear objectives and then what you need to do is design a lot more interactivity into a new style agenda. Keynotes don't need to be 45 minutes, they can be 20. Got a Netflix documentary it's 42 minutes with budgets of millions and costs of thousands. Let's get relevant and timely content together and encourage that interactivity and follow-up dialogue. We shouldn't be preaching to people from the stage and monologue. We should be engaged in conversation with them and building dialogue After events are over. What can you do with them? Post-event support you can work the data and the insights that come out of every conference or an event to keep that conversation alive and to keep it flowing. Once you get into the concept and the idea of fueling, igniting and engaging people, you're literally going to start moving forward a great deal more.

Speaker 2: 13:52

We've got one more quick Mentimeter question. I know that we've got about a minute and a half left and we want to run to time, bevel, let's just quickly run over to your Mentimeter question, if we may, because if anyone would like a summary of where we are on this, we can deliver that to you as well. So obviously we're talking about accelerated takeaways. We've got to leave you with one. There's a way on Mentimeter that you can ask for this copy of the slide deck and we'll get it to you in full infographic format. But just thinking about oh, bev, where are we looking at your other screen? We're going crazy on the wrong screen there.

Speaker 3: 14:26

Let me do that again. Okay, there we go.

Speaker 2: 14:31

Okay, if you'd like a copy of this FIA process, scan the code or go onto menticom and literally use that code, 73190421, or, as we say, use that quick response code. We genuinely believe that you can make events a great deal more dynamic than you ever thought possible. It's time, though, to drag conferencing into the 21st century. So, from Bev and myself, it's a pleasure being with you. Thank you. Charlie says thanks an awful lot. He loved his grooming earlier this morning. He got a treat especially for this, and what we always need to do with every solid event is finish on time. We're 15 seconds ahead of that right now. We've saved you a little bit of time, liz. Back to you and the team in the studio, and thanks for watching us here in the UK. Enjoy the rest of the day. We'll be with you on it as well, and we're certainly looking forward to sharing the rest of that day with you.

Speaker 1: 15:26

Thanks and good morning from us, michael and Bev. Oh, my goodness, that was so wonderful and so great to see you on. I know it's late afternoon on a Friday for you, but really appreciated and the production team said thank you because you are so professional with the timing and the slide calls and thank you so much for being part of the show. I can't wait to get ahold of actually Mentimeter. I've only used it once or twice and so getting in there and really using it to drive more engagement and to get information from your attendees in more of an interesting way than just slides and polls, I absolutely love it. So we're going to take a little break now. We'll go to a quick little break, slide and then we're going to come right back with our age of conversation reunion. Don't go anywhere or just go grab some water. We'll see you in a second.