We all have been to meetings, conferences or events that either yourself, or someone around you, pulls out their smart phone within a minute after a speaker or session begins. 

What can you do to help keep your audience engaged to avoid the temptation for them to checkout the latest Facebook updates or grazing through their email on their devices?

Take a moment and remember those classes in school you enjoyed attending.  What was it about them that appealed to you?  The set-up of the room, the subject, the energy, did you have more hands-on learning and participation capability versus other classes?

Attention is becoming more difficult to capture while expectations are still increasing. 

Think of your audience as participants not as attendees. 

Changing your mindset that they are an active part of your event will help you design a program with them truly in mind.   Engage previous attendees to get involved, so they become more of a participant and vested in the meeting or event.

‘Attention sabotage’ caused by an agenda. 

This is a big issue for many. 

o   If you have out-of-town travelers, consider where they are traveling from and their time differences.  Plan Early Bird sessions for those who are ready to start at 7am and/or Night Owl sessions that start at 4pm for the opposite who are still up from their time zone. 

o   Cramping too much information with back-to-back meetings/speakers with short, rushed breaks on a packed day is not beneficial and never recommended.  Offer time for participants to meet and casually network, give their brain a break and body a chance to stretch to allow individuals to refocus and reenergize to continue learning.  

o   Optimal time for meetings is between 10am to 4pm. However, each event is different and needs to have extended breaks if it runs morning to late night.

Key point to remember: Downtime is an opportunity for the brain to make sense of what it has just learned.  So, apply that when designing your program.

Add ‘Chilling Areas’ for those who just need a mental break or silence to regroup.

It is becoming more common to find groups incorporating well-being options in meetings and events.  This is a great way for individuals to have a ‘no talking, quiet zone’ for a brief mediation or 10-minute shut-eye to allow them to be more attentive and involved while in the sessions.

Mix up the seating. 

If you have the space and budget to bring in a mix of chairs, sofas, bean bags, unique benches or different style seating; do it.  Avoid the classic classroom or theatre style seating and use alternative options; such as, fishbowl format, high-boy and low table seating in various sizes, or perhaps use risers to change it up.  The point is to have new and interesting set-ups that keeps your audience engaged.

Walking and Standing Sessions. 

Okay, this may be a bit more complicated or a stretch for some meetings – but if there is a smaller session that allows for it – then do it.  Make sure all can hear the speaker – even providing a portable mic and speaker – for a slightly larger group.  Adults have a low tolerance for sitting and listening for too long.

Keep in mind you could just take baby steps with this in having the speaker start on one side of a room and keep walking to the other end requiring the audience to stand up in the middle of it to turn to the other direction.  Or to be more interesting – you could have the group start in one session room and all walk together with the speaker still talking to an adjacent room for the closing highlights.  The point is just to change it up and keep audience guessing what is next.

Unique entertainment between sessions, speakers or award ceremonies. 

Think of the Grammys or Oscars ceremonies.  Break up long sessions or presentations with a comedian, band, yoga instructor, dancer, acrobatic, exciting Q & A or any entertainment element that would be something different and fun from what your event is discussing.   Change it up with different elements of engagement to keep audiences surprised and keep their attention.