What are the best ways to create an interactive live event agenda?

My advice is always start with how you want the audience to walk away feeling. Then you can work backwards. If you begin with the end in mind - to borrow from Stephen Covey in the famous book 7 Habits - everything else will fall into place. Do you want them to feel inspired? Informed? Energised? Engaged with the company culture? Then, based on the demographics and audience type, you can consider how to effectively achieve these outcomes with your audience. Certain demos may be able to take a rapid fire of speakers, whilst others may require a slower agenda with a focus on networking and longer breaks.

Creating an interactive live event agenda is essential to keep attendees engaged and make the event more memorable. Here are some of the best ways to achieve this: Audience-Centric Content: Diverse Formats: Interactive Technology: Breakout Sessions: Gamification: Live Demonstrations: Networking Opportunities: User-Generated Content: Real-Time Feedback: Live Engagement Hosts: Social Media Walls: Group Activities: Scheduled Breaks: Incorporating these strategies into your live event agenda will help create an engaging and interactive experience for your attendees, keeping them involved, interested, and motivated throughout the event.

Try to come up with an original format. The days of 20 rounds, each with a flipchart, are done and DONE. There are many tools to allow engagement with your audience; use them to full effect.

Proper pre-planning prevents poor production. Have a plan, but be pliable to change as necessary. Involve ALL aspects of the event in the pre-production process. A whole lot of "P" words. On-site is very expensive.

The Best way to prepare is to ensure that before the Live event you have done an indepth audience research to ensure that they will be able to connect to the content shared during the EVENT. Their Key takeaways will matter because once they get value from attendance it will be very easy for them to buy into your Brand.

I'm a stickler for being pretty anti-tech. We spend our lives on our phones. We spent a pandemic on zoom. Why when we get into a room together would we want to jump back onto tech, when the very thing we longed for over those 2ish years is all around us - Human connection! It depends on who you have running your conference, but I love audience interaction and live participation. If I'm going to do a poll - it's show of hands, if I'm going to do a Q&A, it's live, I'm i'm going to do a word mind map, I want everyone shouting out answers and we have fun with them. Tech should be used as an enhancement tool, not the main event. We've already travelled across the country for the main event - to get together!

A great way to involve the audience is to other forego the speaker reading out a speech in favor of a Q&A or interview session by a qualified moderator. That can include questions pre submitted but the audience.

100% involve your speakers and attendees. Be wary of opening a can of worms as too many cooks creates a confusing salad. Someone must remain the visionary to execute on the plan and theme, whilst willing to be agile when they hear from the wisdom of their speakers in regards to whats worked and hasn't for them in the past. Remember, at the end of the day the event is about the audience - how do you want them to walk away feeling? You can take insights from them, but sometimes the chef just wants to give the diners an experience, so trust your planning gut!

I always find that planning an agenda to the minute can be tedious. You can have the best runsheet in the world, but if the audience is getting tired after 90 minutes, then they need a moment to jump up, stretch their legs, and say hello to the person next to them. You will increase your ROI on speakers if they content is actually consumed, instead of washing over the listener. So plan accoridngly, but leave what I call 'handles' in the run sheet - 3-5 minutes on each side of the speaker or workshop to take a question, to read the room if they need a break, or just to double down on your speakers amazing content. Oh.. and of course to confound for the speaker running late!

I don’t share my knowledge about this industry for free in this way, and I have more than 18 years of experience. Could you please take me out of this… I’m a serious profesional of this industry. Thanks Carlos Cardo

If your exhibitors are funding the conference, then I'd highly recommend incentivising engagement with them. It's a win-win for everyone, and we all love a competition. In terms of attendees, I'd through caution to 'swag' unless it's truly unique. Don't just slap a brand on a keep cup and hope that it it will create loyalty. Most of those coffee cups get left on the conference table. Think differently, and relate it back to the conference goal of how do you want the audience to feel when they leave. A great attendee gift from an event of mine called the mixer - the clients gave every attendee a fantastic cocktail mixer set. Truly memorable. Of course, no value is better provided than the effectiveness of your speakers.

Remember, the evaluation process should be ongoing and adaptive. By continually analyzing data and feedback and making data-driven improvements, you can enhance the quality and impact of your events over time. Think about things like: --> Considering the insights from multiple events to develop a long-term strategy for creating more interactive and successful events in the future. --> Using insights to innovate and experiment with different event formats, activities, and engagement strategies. --> Designing post-event surveys to collect detailed feedback on various aspects of the event, including content, format, speakers, and overall experience.

Think of Pre-Event, At-Event & After-Event activities to involve and engage with the well defined target audience. Let your audience influence and shape their own experience of an event. Combine live experiences with digital and mobile (e.g. Social wall, videos, online networking, live votings and Q&A Sessions enables with smartphones.. digital tools like mobile apps (native or web based) help to increase and simplify the engagement of the audience. Live Votings before, during or after speeches, asking questions to speakers via event app, connect, chat and enable easy ways to meetup other attendees through such tools cost some money but can help to reach goals.

Identifying Patterns: Look for patterns and trends in the collected data and feedback. Identify aspects that received positive responses and those that need improvement. Transparency: Communicate the changes and improvements made based on feedback to show attendees that their opinions are valued. Social Media Analytics: Monitor social media activity and engagement related to your event using tools that provide insights into mentions, shares, and sentiment.

Interactive events are only so if the audience is ready to interact. I find it vital to fully understand your audience before you design an event. For instance, if you are hosting an event for accountants and another for marketers the focus and activities will be different. So the key is in knowing your participants intimately. ??Who's the audience : this is demographics of age, gender, profession, location, preferences, preferred activities ?? Where are you hosting the event: is it physical or virtual? ?? What is the desired outcome: Networking, learning, refreshing etc. ?? Is it a one off or a series: this determines how much can br realiatically done in the given time needs to be planned into the day. How do you achieve all this?

Ask the audience what they want using: ?? Surveys - simple online forms, phone calls, questionnaires etc. ?? Review data and activies from past events to determine what worked and what didn't. Once you have your data create a program and plan the activities and be ready to adjust on the go as the event progresses to cater for information you read from the participants.

One of the most important aspects that event creators overlook is the entertainment factor. If people are not entertained you lose them. most likely to their phones. Weaving entertainment elements from short high-energy specialty acts to mind-blowing atmosphere talent keeps attendees engaged and excited for the "next thing". In my events clients have come to understand this and something as simple as an exciting CEO reveal (in one event we made him appear on stage inside a helicopter) to full on productions as seen on The Oscars or major award ceremonies makes an event memorable and the talk around the water cooler.