Participative learning, collaborative working, audience led content – events are changing, and for the better. But with this shift to more involved formats there’s a danger that we alienate a large part of the audience.

Introversion is a preference for reflective, minimally stimulating environments. Shyness is very different it’s a fear of negative judgment. And, as she points out here, there are many shy extroverts.
As conferences shout about ‘speed networking’ and ‘rocket pitches’ a growing number of people quietly decline to attend. In the world of internal communications, where attendance is often mandatory, these formats can cause real stress (I’ve heard people talk about being physically sick before having to go to an event that simply hasn’t been designed with them in mind).

Should we abandon all thoughts of participation for fear of appealing to only the most unabashed of extroverts? The answer is definitely not.

Firstly, it is a myth to suggest that introverted audiences don’t value participative formats. And, secondly, the fundamental value of people coming together at conferences isn’t in pushing information (that’s what the internet is good at) but in sharing ideas, pollinating new thinking, starting conversations – all things that are best done participative.

So how can we design participative events that don’t alienate huge swathes of our audience?

1. Event Communications

   Avoid shouty terminology that leaves your audience uncertain as to what the event will involve – no one knows what a collaboration zone will entail. Be clear about how the participative elements will be run and how they’ll add value. Encourage people to start building relationships with one another prior to the event and contributing to the content at their own pace.

2. Format

   Use research from past events and pre-event to gain an understanding of the content individuals will value. Then tailor a format that allows small groups to engage in active learning around the topics of relevance to them.

   Design a narrative that naturally steps people towards collaboration. This shouldn’t mean having to spontaneously share thoughts with the entire audience rather it should see people working together in more intimate twos or threes. Allow time for people to reflect on things and encourage solo flights of thought before they collaborate.

   Consider the physical setting, provide quieter seated areas where people can have deeper conversations or simply recharge. Think about the duration of your conference and ensure that people feel able to skip fringe drinks receptions.

3. Facilitation

   Traditional one-way presentation formats has no need for facilitation, but as you involve your audience more the need for support increases. Good facilitators are expert at appealing to all personality types and will help you avoid the pitfalls you might find on the path to delivering a more participative event.

4. Q&A

   Move your Q&A from being the preserve of the vocal few by using an app. Some of these go beyond simple question functionality and allow the audience to see all the questions being asked and vote the most pertinent to the top. Ensure people can ask questions via digital channels at any point before, during or after the event.

5. Networking

   Encourage people to self-categorize on registration and to book one-on-one meet-ups during the event with people they’re likely to share genuine interests. Use topic zones or topic tables to make the networking more efficient and less reliant on small talk. In short, deliver context.

6. Social Media

   The social channels around your event are the perfect place for people to connect and contribute on their own terms. The key is integrating the social content back into the event and vice versa.

In Conclusion

For events to deliver true value you need to treat the audience as participants. But in doing this we have to be mindful of the full spectrum of personality types. If we design events that appeal only to extroverts we not only alienate a large proportion of the audience we lose the reflective expertise and focus that introverts bring to the world.

Effectively debriefing your event is vital to dissect the good, the bad and the ugly of your most recent event and ensure you continuously improve for future projects. Here are some top tips for a constructive debrief.

If you’ve ever participated in a job interview, you know some of the most common questions asked are questions on strengths and weaknesses as well as working preferences. Some interviewers have now embraced the question, “Tell me about a time when…” One of the ways you answer these tried and true questions is by having a firm grasp of who you are, what you like, and what situations you work well in. By giving the employer this knowledge, they are able to assess whether you are a good fit for the task at hand and the culture of the team.

The same is true of event endings. If you don’t take the time to assess what went well, what brought you challenges, whether you met your goals, and how you can improve next year (or next time), you’re missing out on a valuable opportunity for yourself professionally, your team and your future clients.
The easiest way to conduct an event debriefing is by having a good skeleton framework with which to begin the discussion. If you handled the entire event alone you can have this conversation in your head but if you worked with others, if vendors or session leaders were involved, if anyone else who was in attendance had an opinion different from yours, you need to conduct a debriefing. This event debrief template could be a useful starting point for you.

1. Review the Highlights

   This helps everyone focus on the positive before moving along to constructive criticism. Let people call out a few stars of the event and allow those team members to bask in the appreciation. While you’re blowing some sunshine around ask if there is room for improvement. If so, how? If not, why? For instance, you may be at near 100% attendance with your members and improving attendance could only be done through improving member recruitment.

2. What Areas Can Be Improved Next Year?

   Make sure you incorporate specific and general areas of improvement. For instance, “the food could have more variety” and “We need a different caterer to satisfy our audience.” It’s okay in the highlights and improvement reviews to voice opinions. Don’t look for statistical proof that you need a new caterer.

3. Get Personal

   Ask the team members if they felt like expectations were clearly conveyed before, during, and after the event. Why or why not?

4. What Did We Hear?

   Word of mouth is extremely important to an event’s success. Leave room to discuss what your team “overheard.” Make sure your social media person is involved in this part of the discussion.

5. Present Audience Feedback

   If you’ve had time to collect audience feedback, break it up into the same areas you have on your template and present the highlights. Enjoy the positive and use it to brainstorm ways to become even better next time. Then read what the audience viewed as areas for improvement. Take some time to talk amongst your team on how you could improve the attendee’s experience in that area at the next event.

6. Technology Review

   Make sure you also take the time to assess the use of technology in your event. This area if changing so rapidly that every event needs to assess how it used event technology and how it could improve its use. Did it work correctly and help you accomplish your event goals? Was it easily adopted? If not, could you have facilitated that process better or was the user experience lacking?

In Conclusion

At no point should an event planner feel that they don’t need to review an event. It doesn’t matter how long they’ve been in business or how many times they’ve hosted an event like it. In today’s world where personalization is becoming more and more important, you should never lump all events into one category. Each deserves its own debrief. Believing they are all the same is the kind of thinking that will eventually render you extinct in this industry.

Engagement keeps attendees coming back, right? And that adds to the pressure of needing to create more interactive sessions. So what do you do when group interaction isn’t living up to your expectations? Here are a few ways to increase engagement and interaction in your breakout sessions.

Most event planners these days long for interactive sessions that engage their audience in dynamic ways. But interaction is a two-way street – just like conversation. The audience has to play along as much as the session leaders need to give them the opportunity to do so. If your group interaction isn’t what you’ve been hoping for, you can make it better by taking a more in-depth look into several factors that could be impeding it.

Reasons People Don’t Interact

Understanding why a group doesn’t interact is important to turning it all around. Here are some of the most common reasons groups fail to thrive:

• Your group members feel too self-conscious to share.
• They simply aren’t interested in the topic or the question.
• They have no experience to share.
• They don’t understand the expectations, roles, or assignment.
• There’s a barrier to communication.
• They aren’t paying attention.
• Your event is too early in the morning and they were out too late last night.
• They’re simply not invested in the outcome.

So how do you turn it around? How do you ensure more people participate in your sessions?

13 Ways to Improve Group Interaction During Breakout Sessions:

For increased group interaction at your event it’s important to establish or maximize several things early on.

8. Facilitate Introductions

   There’s a reason most group sharing is held until the end of the session and that’s because it gives people time to feel comfortable in their surroundings and with their group. But achieving that early on can mean more meaningful, prolonged exchange. But how do you do that?
   Make people feel welcome and encourage discussion early on. Don’t request quiet. Encourage the noise of sharing from the moment they walk in the door. Facilitators should greet people and immediately begin asking them open-ended, conversation-starting questions. The event is always a safe topic but they could also ask questions about the host city and whether this is the attendee’s first time there. If people know discussion is valued, they’re more likely to become a part of it.
   You want to create an energy that is so infectious that people are bubbling with ideas. Leaders can also encourage people to get to know a little about one another by using a few funny ice-breakers.

9. Improve the Event Ethos

   While you’re at it, the best way to encourage participation in sessions is to create an entire event around participatory practices. If you want more interaction in groups, you want to create an ethos of interaction throughout your larger event. Otherwise, it feels very compartmentalized. This is where you share. This is where you listen. Those types of edicts don’t improve interaction. They limit it and make interaction feel like it’s something largely inappropriate that needs to be reined in. Try adding some of these participatory activities to set the stage for interaction in your sessions.

10. Recognize the Introverts

    Introverts can make extraordinary leaders and conversationalists when they enjoy the topic at hand. If they don’t, they often feel drained by the whole experience. Be cognizant that as many as half of your audience could fall into this category. Forced group interaction is low on their list of interests. This means you have two options:

    • Market the session as highly interactive so that individuals who do not enjoy group work will decide to participate in something else or
    • Ask your introverts to identify themselves as such and proceed from there.

    If you decide to go with the second option ask everyone to identify themselves as introverts, extroverts, or ambiverts. With that knowledge of people identified as such, ask them to break into groups. Note where the introverts go. Do they stick with one another or surround themselves with extroverts? Switch up the groups mid-way through and see how it affects the discussions.

11. Limit Choice

    Friends sit together. People who come to events together sit together. It’s just that simple. And while they may feel extremely comfortable sharing with one another, they may also not feel the need to stay on topic or they may accidentally alienate other members of the group because of their closeness.
    Sometimes for the sake of interaction, you need to bust up the cliques and assign groups. You can do this by having them count off a number and then asking them to report to the table of the corresponding number. That way you’re assured people sitting next to each other won’t end up in the same group. You can also simply rearrange people to balance out some of the groups.

12. Choose Topics of Interest

    Sometimes people don’t interact to the extent you were hoping for because they simply have no interest in the topic of the discussion. In order to avoid these types of situations, you can create areas of discussion focused around different topics along the same theme and have people select which one appeals to them.
    The upside of this process is that people are engaged from the beginning. They’re not being told what to talk about. They’re asked what they’re interested in. The downside is that, conceivably, everyone could select the same group. If that’s the case, you could break down that large group into smaller ones so that discussion will flow more freely.

13. Set the Tone

    Earlier, I mentioned encouraging discussion from the beginning. As a continuation of that, it’s also important to set the tone in the session. For instance, if the leader begins by covering a few concepts or strategies, it’s important during this learning time that interaction is still valued.
    A concept should be presented and discussion should occur through probing questions like, “has anyone found this to be true?” or “who thinks I’m full of malarkey?” This sets the tone and people quickly understand that concepts are best explored not preached for maximum interaction.

In Conclusion

Boasting about interactive sessions at your event isn’t enough to actually get people participating. You need to create and nurture the right environment and encourage discussion under an explorer type leader. Asking questions is a good start but you need much more than that. Interaction must be an underlying theme of your event if your goal is meaningful exchange.