When you are holding a conference you don’t want your attendees to simply sit there passively and watch, do you? You want them to be involved with the event, asking questions, making comments, creating discussions and offering their input. An event in which attendees are more engaged will be so much more effective and will result in a better experience for everyone involved.
So, how can you make sure that your conference attendees are more involved in your event or conference at hotels in Cheshire? There are many ways that you can make your audience more engaged.
Ask for Interaction Upfront
This might sound like an obvious point, but it’s something important to do. At the beginning of the conference let everyone know that you will be looking for audience participation and encourage people to interact. This will encourage them to pay attention and to come up with questions to ask. It will likely make them listen more intently so that they can weigh in with their insights.
Use Twitter
Twitter can be a great tool for getting people engaged during a conference, due to its simple and immediate nature. A great tip is to create a screen up on the wall that shows a constant feed of Tweets to a designated hashtag from the conference attendees. People can post their photos, quotes, questions and much more and it will be visible to everyone at the conference. You can have someone monitoring the hashtag, replying to tweets and answering any questions that come up. This can be a great way to encourage discussion and make people want to be engaged.
Ask Engaging Questions
When it comes to asking the audience a question, don’t just ask simple yes or no questions that can be answered with a show of hands. While these are good, they don’t get people as engaged. Try asking a question with a little more depth, such as “why did you come to this conference?” or “what do you hope to learn from your experience here?” or “what is the biggest challenge you face in your industry?” You can take answers from individual people in the audience and get a much more interesting and diverse range of answers. These answers will really help you to learn more about your audience and create a great atmosphere of discussing and interaction.
Facilitate Small Group Discussion
Another great way to get people talking is to ask them to divide into small groups and then discuss a specific concept with their group for a few minutes. Then, you can reconvene and ask them to share what they have talked about with the rest of the audience. You will find that each small group has their own insight on the topic and that everyone in the larger group can learn from them.
Get People Moving
It’s very effective to get people up and moving when they are attending your event. People will be more awake and engaged if you get them moving and get their blood flowing. Even just a 5 or 10-minute break to do some exercises will have a huge impact on attention and engagement. People will enjoy the chance to get out of their chair and move around and they will feel more awake and alert.
Encourage Competition
People are naturally competitive, so if there is any way that you can encourage competition this will make them more likely to engage in your conference. For example, you can ask questions on topics in your industry and give out prizes to the first person to shout out the right answer. Or, you can split the audience into small groups and give them a task, then have everyone submit what they came up with and then choose a winner. A little bit of healthy competition will make people want to take part and to give their best ideas to the conference.
These are just a few of the ways that you can get people more engaged and involved when you are hosting a conference at one of the many great conference venues in Cheshire. With these tips you will have a very engaged audience, which will make the event more successful and memorable for your attendees and increase their learning.