Events | Warwick Merry CSP CVP

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The Secret to Successful and Powerful Online Sessions

Warwick Merry on a screen pointing at the reader with a quizzical look on his face

Do you know how to get your online session attendees excited?
Can you make the audience laugh even if it is a serious or dry subject?
Can you make a recording of your presentation really POP?

There is one secret to successful and powerful online sessions, and so many people don’t know it.

This secret applies whether you are presenting online to thousands of people, having a virtual team meeting, or just catching up on Zoom with family and friends. Many people have HEARD the secret but then failed to take it on board. Truth be told, this same secret applies to face to face sessions, physical conferences as well as regular meetings.

That secret is this:

Your delegates and audience want the session to be done WITH them and not just TO them.

That means if you want to play a video of your presentation then get on the chat and engage with the audience as your video is playing. Add an extra dimension to your presentation.

That means if your are presenting, consider what you can do to get the delegates and audience involved. Simplistically, you can ask them questions and get responses in the chat. You could also use polling to ask them questions. Or maybe get everyone working on a Jamboard together.

There are hundreds of ways to make your session more inclusive and still support the theme and learning of what you are after. Find more ways to involve your audience or, quite simply, they will leave.

How will you make your next session something that is done WITH the audience and not just TO them?

Reach out if you need some help with it.

Eventprofs, Associations, and others putting on Online and Virtual Events, Can we Do Better?

Don’t get me wrong, some great things are being done, we have taken on so much really quickly but can we please do better? Your delegates are BEGGING you!

I don’t mean every one needs and expensive studio, top tier conference event apps or the massively overproduced event.

I means tell your industry speakers, hosts and leaders to actually ENGAGE with the delegates. Don’t just read to them

Have your camera at EYE LEVEL because we don’t want to see up your nose.

Find somewhere PRIVATE. We love your family and your pets but we don’t need to see them on the day of the conference. Oh and if you are using your bedroom, please make the bed and tidy the back ground.

Make sure we CAN SEE YOU. Get some lamps, torches, flouro lights, whatever but lets us see you.

PLAY WITH US. As delegates, our attention will drift. You are competing against email and Facebook. Have some fun, make us do something, get us involved so we stay with you.

Virtual and Online Events are AWESOME. But if too many people stuff them up, they will begin to be loathed. A little bit of guidance and direction will make all the difference.

Can we just do a little better?

Reach out if you need some help!

We did it!
We did what they said couldn’t be done.
It has changed things forever!

So often before the lockdown, business and people would say to me, “Oh no face to face is so much better. We will never go online”

Then there was the lock down.

It is amazing how quickly things will change when they have to. While my personal belief is that we are not out of the woods yet when it comes to minimising the harm from COVID19, it seems to me that Online Sessions are here forever.

People have found how easy it is to connect, communicate, sell, entertain, care, and grow with an online experience. Yes, there are different elements of the online experience that are exhausting or take extra effort, but we will get used to it. We will adapt. We will adopt. It will become our new normal.

We did it with trains! In Victorian times, it was believed that Train Travel could cause instant insanity. Turns out, this isn’t the case!

While it won’t replace face to face meetings completely, it has changed us forever. I know for a fact it has changed my business forever – mostly in a good way.

So how do we embrace it? How do we change our interactions to take advantage of it’s benefits? How do we deal with the many different tools to use?

The secret is to not go alone.

I know I have learnt so much from those around me.
I have learnt some of the key issues can be easily dealt with regardless of the technology.
I have learnt that there are secrets to each platform to get the most out of it.

The world has changed forever – I believe for the better.

My renewed mission is to Get Events Online. From large conferences down to small team and family gathers. It means I won’t have to travel as much. It means I get to spend more time with my loved ones. It means I get to have a global presence while staying at home.

When it comes to events, the world has changed forever and I, for one, am glad!

PS Let me know if you need help changing to Online Events in your world!

How can you give your Zoom Sessions Zest?
How can you make your Webex Sessions Wonderful?
How can you Get Your Goto Sessions Groovy?

It is not just Eventprofs and Conference crews who are running online events. In the current world order, online sessions are the new norm. We are running them for family, friends, oh and work too!

But there is a big difference to just “jumping online” and running an Awesome event! More of my clients are asking me to produce the whole sessions, technically as well as the content, because they know they need to take it up a notch.

From my experience, here are the 5 Key Elements you MUST get right (in no order of importance):

1) Timing

Face to face or online, it doesn’t matter. You must get the timing right. Stick to time, honour those who turned up on time, and keep to the run sheet. For online events, it is even better to make your 1 hr speakers 40 mins. Faster is better and you don’t need the extra time for the physicality you had on stage.

It seems that with online events, you can achieve your goals faster. If you allocate an hour to a meeting, it will take an hour. Change it to 45 minutes. You will keep peoples attention, give yourself a break between items and achieve more if you condense it.

2) Get Your Audio Right

I don’t care if I can’t see you fully but if your sound is bad, I will disconnect from the call. Tweak the room, tweak the mic, tweak the settings but get the sound right.

More often than not, it is the room and not the microphone. If you have polished floor boards, bare walls or lots of windows, you will get a stack of echo. Often a big run, some bedding hung on cupboard doors, changing rooms or simply using your ear buds will make a big difference.

Be aware, asking “what microphone should I use” is like asking what dog should I pat. They all have their good points and they all have a different purpose. While there are plenty of good value microphones out there, not everyone one of them will suit your set up or how you want to use it.

3) Make it Interactive

You are competing with Facebook and Email. Only by getting people to do things, play more, poll, or respond will you keep their attention and keep them awake.

Be creative and use the features of the system you are using. Try polling, breakout rooms, changing your name, turning camera on and off, random items on peoples desks. You will be amazed at what you can do.

4) No Dead Air

Dead Air is when there is nothing happening. This can be visual but is usually more audio based. When people join a meeting if nothing is happening they may think it is their system, they may tune out or they may even think things aren’t starting yet so go and make a drink.

During the session Dead Air may indicate the speaker has a problem, has their internet cut out, has MY internet cut out, do I need to log out and in again?

Dead air will kill the session. Channel your inner DJ. When the session is starting welcome people as they come online. It is like you are hosting a dinner party. Welcome and introduce them. If you don’t know them just welcome them. Ask an innocuous question like what is their favourite hot drink.

This works on bigger events too and trains people how to use the chat box. Getting people active straight away helps break the ice and make your event more enjoyable.

5) Have Fun

The Minister for Fun once said to me, “If it is not fun, don’t do it. If you have to do it, make it fun.” This is particularly true of online sessions.

Too many of them are unnecessarily dry and boring. Too many of them send you to sleep. Too many of them make you wish you had skipped it and just watched the recording.

Online is the new normal. Add some simple fun elements and your sessions will be sought after. You will stand out.

Need some help? Get in touch and I will work with you to make your next online session AWESOME!

Are you looking for the secret of Webex sessions?

How about how to deliver fantastic Goto Webinar courses?

Why not the tips and tricks of Zoom sessions?

The fantastic news is it is not about the technology. In fact is has NEVER been about the technology. Let’s face it, there are a stack of technologies available and I am sure there are plenty more in the pipeline.

In fact, here are some of the technologies currently available:

Goto Meeting
Goto Webinar
CyberLink U Meeting
Zoom Meeting
Zoom Webinar
Bluejeans
Google Hangouts Meet
Google Hangouts
Lifesize
Skype
FreeConference
Cisco Webex Meeting
Facetime

There is no way you will be able to master all of these. The rate of change of this technology is vast. New features are included all the time. And the good news is, you don’t have to.

The great news is that it is not about the technology.

It is not even about you!

It is AAAALLLLLL about the audience.

So keep them busy. Keep them engaged. Keep them on the edge of their seats. Here are some ways to deliver fabulous and effective presentations:

Lots of slides: My average is one per second – (a slide with 4 points becomes 4 slides)

Make it interactive: polls, questions, responses in the chat, favourite coffee, biggest problems – fun questions.

Make it fun: Even if you are presenting academic delight – find a way to make it fun

Give more energy: one of the biggest things is you don’t have the audience of the crowd to energise the room. It is all you. So use voice tone variations, pacing differences and even movement. I will lean into the camera and whisper!

Ask better questions: Make the audience actual think and reflect. Token questions just don’t cut it.

Just a few ideas to help you perform better online.

If you need any further help, get in touch and we can make your next online session stand out!

Who is the best online presenter in Australia?
Who is the best online host in Australia?
How can I tell who is the best?

Now that the world has moved to online events and meetings, people are looking for who is the best, most effective, and best value for money online speaker.

Some traditional speakers or managers are struggling with the transition to online. They are just doing the same old thing but online. This simply doesn’t work.

Our engagement techniques are different. We can’t just treat the camera as if it is the person in the room and present to it. Our attention spans are shorter. Our presence is more intense. So things have shifted.

Your position at the event is different. If you are sitting up the back of the room in a meeting or in the crowd at a conference, there is a level on anonymity FOR THE SPEAKER or MANAGER! Now you are UP FRONT AND CENTRE!

People watching you on the screen, be it laptop, desktop, mobile or tablet, see you all under the microscope. So you have to be able to connect with them.

The energy in the room is different. In a physical room the people are bringing energy to the room. In a virtual room, it is just you! So you have to channel your inner Radio DJ. Essentially hold the entire energy of the conversation rather than just feel like you are talking into space.

You gotta make it fun. That doesn’t mean you have to be a stand up comedian but making a session fun is the best way to engage people. A simple smile on their face makes them pay attention to what is going on. You can also be professional as you are having fun – so don’t think that your whole organisation has regraded into chaos just because you are adding the fun!

So when you are looking for people to present or host (naturally I would recommend my good self!) make sure they have a history of presenting online. Make sure they have adapted their style to presenting online and just aren’t doing the same old same old. Make sure they have the energy you are after.

So as well as seeing a promotional video, I would highly recommend you connect with them online and see how they are one on one.

So who do you think is the best online presenter or host in Australia?

Please get in touch if I can help you or your event.

What happens when the Expo or Tradeshow you are supposed to be at is still happening but you can’t fly?

How can you have a presence at the Expo when you can’t be present?

What can you do to show your product but not show your face?

There are plenty of options, and most of them do not include Holograms!

With many governments banning visitors from China, South Korea, Italy, Singapore and other countries, it can be a challenge to represent your brand and your company and the events that are still happening.

Sometimes, it is not the government banning the flights. Maybe it is your company, your family or you just aren’t willing to travel because you feel the risks are too high.

If you have already paid for exhibiting space, how do you take advantage of it all while not being on site?

Here are a few ideas:

1 – A Virtual Delegate

While you may not be able to get a robot or drone to carry around a table and be you at the event, it is very likely you could hire a local person to be virtually you. Have them wear a large name tag and image of you and carry the tablet around as you direct. You could then see the sessions, have the conversations and almost be there. All from the comfort and safety of your home or office.

2 A Virtual Product

Arrange with the expo or event organisers to have a smart tv or tv and tablet at your stand. You can show video, interactive website, 3D imagery of your product or service. Some remote printed posters or documentation can easily represent you.

3 A Virtual Presence

This is a combination of the first two. Set up your virtual product (or actual product if it is available locally) and then have your virtual representative on site to give the tablet to interested people so you can have decent conversations. As you are having conversations with people on the tablet, your virtual person can be booking further appointments.

4 Hybrid Convention Presence

With a Hybrid Convention, you can combine the Virtual Presence with the conference software and have meetings in break out room. Even delegate some of your teams to take the hybrid meetings while you do the live one.

5 Something Else

No doubt there are a plethora of other options available to you. These were some that came up in discussion today. Naturally each of these options is scalable. All you need is to add more members of your team or more onsite representatives with tablets to represent you.

What’s Next?

There is no doubt that face to face meetings are superior to virtual meetings. But the events industry is being disrupted by forces beyond our control. It is a great time to get creative and work WITH and AROUND our physical limitations.

If you are looking for some alternatives for your next event, expo or conference, get in touch and let’s talk about what may be possible.

Are you switching over to Virtual Events or Hybrid Events?
Is your Event likely to go Online?
Are you looking at a Plan B for your conference?

There are so many things that go into making a successful event. Ask any of the Eventprofs and PCO legends in your life and they will give you a huge list.

With the advent of COVID-19, so many of these events are going virtual or online and that just adds to the multitude of issues you need to consider. But there is one key thing you MUST get right.

That is, THE SOUND.

With the vast array of microphones that your speakers will be using, you need to make sure they work well. We can put up with dodgy video (in Australia I will often turn it off due to poor bandwidth) but the sound MUST be good.

Your laptop mic is not enough.

If you are a speaker and plan on doing more virtual work, spend the money and get some good sound gear. You won’t regret it and your audience will love you for it.

I am a big fan of the RODE products. The Wireless GO is a great option. It is wireless and gives you room to move. Often I use the RODE VideoMicMe as it is a shot gun mic and the less that one metre distances means the pick up is good, the background noise is minimised and I have freedom to move.

How good is your sound and audio?
Get in touch if you need some pointers or further help on your next online event.

What to Do When Your Event Cancels

Covid-19/The Corona Virus has disrupted the events sector when it wasn’t quite ready for it. Not just the corporate event industry either. Cancellations are happening all over the world.

Quickbooks 2020 in London was cancelled with very little notice. One of my speaker colleagues had flow all the way there from Australia only to be cancelled the day before.

Japan has shut most schools for a month. Some say it is to stabilise the outbreak as much as possible prior to the olympics.

Universities are rapidly looking for ways to reach out to their students without having them on campus. What was going to be future technology implementations have become urgent projects.

And most recently, Italy has shut down. Minimal movement EVERYWHERE!

So how do you continue to engage your team, marketplace, suppliers, associations, and all those in your circle of influence under the global influence of COVID-19?

Virtual Presentations For Virtual and Hybrid Events.

Never has it been easier or more affordable to present to large number of people using the technology you already possess. While you can upgrade to professional AV equipment, in most instances your phone or your computer has you covered.

Here are some key tips for presenting online:

No dead air. From my time on radio, nothing kills you like dead air. If the audience don’t know what is going on they tune out. You have to be talking with them at all times. Pauses are great, but dead air is a killer.
You are On Before You Are On. If you are running a session, get a host to come on 5 minutes before start time to start chatting with people. Some people will always be early. They can warm up the crowd for you and start to build their energy.
Don’t Do It Alone. Having a second person to look at the chat comments, do the intro, put up polls, change the visuals allows you to focus on your message. After awhile you may build the skill for a solo effort but don’t start that way. A tech team or someone like me can really help here.
Talk WITH Them and not TO Them. It is easier for you to stand there and spout your message. But the audience will be asleep or looking at emails (or even FaceBook). Get them doing something. Ask for suggestions, feedback, thoughts, polls, coffee orders – anything so that they are part of the session. This is more important virtually than face to face as they will not get the synergy from the people around them. They need you to connect them.
Give the audience something. Having some form of collateral will help them stay engaged and follow along. This is more than copies of your slides. It may be key points, summaries, an infographic, polling info, statistics, reference material or a pdf with space for them to write their notes on what’s next.
Start Now. Too many people are waiting until they HAVE to do virtual presentations. Like all skills, practice makes perfect. The sooner you start, the more practice you will have at it and the better you will get. So start now.

Virtual presentations are here to stay. For a place as geographically dispersed population like Australia, it can’t come quick enough. With the rise and rise of video popularity and consumption, you have to embrace this and get better FAST!

So whether you call it remote presenting, virtual presenting, online presenting, hybrid conference or a virtual event, the key question is the same, how do I keep my online audience engaged throughout my presentation. The tips above are a good place to start!

Warwick is running a 30 minute power session on Powerful Presentations Online on Thursday 19 March 2020.
Find out the details here.

Shakespeare famously said, “If Music be the food of love, play on!”

I have so many amazingly talented friends in the music industry and it is an industry in which it is harder and harder to earn a living from. Streaming has massively increased the availability of music, but slashed the earning potential of artists.

For those of us in the Event and Conference industry, the most important way to protect the “food of love” is to pay your annual music license. In Australia, this is through One Music.

Having paid my Gold License, not only do I feel like James Bond (licensed to thrill) but also at any event I host, any music can be streamed or played off digital device/cd and you will have a warm fuzzy feeling knowing your music is legal and licensed.

If you are an EventProf, do you know if your speakers are all licensed? Sometimes a venue license isn’t enough.

Happy to chat with you on basic music license topics, but One Music is the best source.

Show how much you love the music at your next event and make sure it is licensed.

PS For those of you NOT in the event industry, make sure you buy your friends CD, throw a few bucks at the busker, and support your friends in ALL their artistic endeavours. Arts of all kinds certainly makes this world a far better place to live in.

I love a well thought out piece of marketing in the right market. This Techbox is particularly awesome.

Last week I was hosting COBA2019 trades how floor at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre and right outside the main doors was this Tech Box. If you look closer you will see Hi Vis Vests, Gaffer Tape, Power Boards (that have been tested and tagged), phone chargers, USB Adapters, thumb drives, extension cords… all the things you need at an expo but can often forget. All at a reasonable price (for the convenience).

They know their market well, they know their price points well, and they are offering a fantastic service with low operating costs. There were also a few people at this Expo happily purchasing things from it!

How well do you know your target market and how well do you position your products and services?

Have You Got Enough Security?

A couple of weeks ago, I was walking past the Melbourne Convention and Entertainment Centre (or Jeff’s Shed as it’s known) and there was a melee in progress.

Horses, protesters, police and conference delegates were all in the fray. You can see some news coverage about it from SBS by clicking this link.

From my perspective, it did seem that both parties were too enthusiastic and unfortunate delegates got caught up in the cross fire. Some were pushed to the ground and others spat on by the protesters.

I am not deny the rights of the protesters to be there and I am not denying the right of the police to keep the peace. But what does need to be considered is the impact on the event.

While the event organisers considered their event a success (they were quoted by SBS as saying it was “business as usual for our 7,000 delegates”) it definitely attracted some unwelcome attention for them.

Let’s extrapolate that to your event.

You are after the Goldilocks level of security. Not too little, not too much but juuuust the right amount. As you can see in the video above, the level of police presence is intimidating. But it did seem to match the intimidation of the protestors.

If you are running an event that may need security, how do you measure the Goldilocks Amount?

Why Your Event or Conference needs a Professional MC

Andrea Edwards, The Digital Conversationalist, interviewed me recently regarding MCs at conferences.

Based in Thailand, she speaks regularly around Asia Pacific (and further) at many conferences and events. One of the things that annoys her is how the event is not held together well when internal or amateur MCs are used.

So, we had a chat. We talked all things MC, events and conference.

If you are an event professional or run conferences, events or simply an internal meeting, it is worth the 10 minutes to discover how a professional MC makes a difference.

At several recent conferences, we were able to get the event #Hashtag trending. Oh and it is DEFINITELY a WE and not ME. It is nigh impossible to do this on your own.

But several #Eventprofs and conference organisers have reached out to me to ask what we did to make that happen. For some smaller events, again it is a real challenge (I won’t say impossible but you can see if from there!) Even for large events, there are no guarantees!

But there are some key things you can do to lift the interest in your events. This increases the interest for people AT the events and those who are simply watching online.

Some people ask me, why would you even bother. “The conference is sold out – just enjoy it!” But here’s the thing, you, your company, your delegates, your sponsors and your partners have spent a lot of time, effort and money to make this event a huge success. Being able to share it, and increase traction on it makes that success last and even influences next years success.

It also builds a sense of achievement and re-enforces the sense of “made the right decision to be here” among your delegates. And to be honest, it does not take a great deal of extra effort to make it work for you.

So Wed 25th Sept at 8:30am Melbourne time, I will be running a quick power session on how to make your event trend. In 30 mins, learn the tips, tricks and techniques your event needs to become known. Even if you can’t join us, register and I will send you the recording.

To find out more and register, click here.

How Is Your Performance?

Brennon Dowrick – Pommel Horse Routine

I had the great joy in hosting the Class Connect conference this week. The opening speaker was Olympian Brennon Dowrick OAM.

His performance was amazing. Check out a small piece of it in the video above. The fact that he talked to us while spinning around the pommel horse and gave us some great tips on how to get better at what we do (without all the physical workouts!)

One of the key takeaways for me was the extra 15 minutes a day. When he was training, he was getting scores that had no deductions. But his trainer said he could be better, and all that mean was training an extra 15 minutes a day. Do that every day and in a year you have trained 70 hours more than your competitor.

How are you training for your performance?
How can you add 15 minutes a day to stay that one little bit ahead of the game?
What can you do today?

As some readers know, I sing. My quartet has a gig coming up in Melbourne on October 25th (I would love to see you there if you are in Melbourne that night). I am no gifted singer, but I continue to work at it. I call my car “The Rehearsal Studio” as I get my extra 15 mins as I drive to and from appointments. It does make a big difference.

Here is a recent track we did, a cover of Tears for Fears, Mad World. Hope to see you at the gig!!

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