How many times a day are you sitting listening to someone? My guess is way too many. Generally speaking, the meetings we attend, we are on our own. We need to keep ourselves awake and interested. I believe this is the responsibility of the planner and the speaker to capture the audience and guide them through, not force, the meeting.

The other day, I attended a good breakfast meeting. However, a few distractions hampered me from giving my full attention. When you are planning a meeting, you want to do everything possible to make it easy for the audience to pay attention.
In this following picture, there is a talk show type interview setting on a 6″ riser. Great looking set- up. It sets the scene for a one-on-one, intimate, inside the mind of your speaker similar to the show 20/20. The audience sat at three 72″ round banquet tables with 10 people at each table (or was it four with 8?) I don’t have complaints about this meeting. I am simply pointing out a few simple ideas to make the speaker look better and to make sure the audience can gain all the value from the speaker.

Distractions: Low visibility of the speaker

• Back Light - The light was brighter than Seattle’s dark and cloudy reputation. This cast unflattering shadows on the interviewer and the speaker. We could not see her expressions very well. As a speaker, your body language helps you build rapport with your audience. Now this is lost. My vantage point was around 14′, yet visibility was low and it wasn’t the clouds. As an audience member, I was less connected with the speaker, even though we are close in distance. I could not make out her facial expressions, only her overall body movements. The lighting also causes problems for those who want to take pictures. A professional photographer can adjust and deal with the bright light in the back, but how often is it you have professional photographer at your meeting? These days we want to share pictures, videos and capture the essence of our experiences. Well, bummer! This lighting makes it tough, particularly for a videographer.
• Suggestion:  
   Close the curtains, draw the drapes, take out the distraction. The dilemma planners may run into is the gorgeous view out the window, particularly at the top of this skyscraping beauty. As the planner and the speaker, you want the audience to pay attention to the speaker, not the airplanes or birdies fluttering by. Other windows have views, too. If these are the only good view, then have the shades open before and after the event. You would probably rather have them say, “great meeting, but I wasn’t able to daydream out the window” instead of, “I have no idea what the speaker was talking about, but I had a great meditation session.” If you there is not window coverings another option is to reposition your stage against a wall with the windows at your audience’s back.
  
• Stage Risers -The speaker’s head is at the height of 4′8″ or so (she is petite) as she sits on the comfy chair. It is difficult to have a good sight line to the speaker. As an audience member, you need to maneuver in your chair to see through the other audience members to see the speaker’s face.
• Suggestion: If you want this interview setting, the stage riser needs to elevate the speaker to at least the same height as if she were standing. If you have a large audience, of course, you would want the stage to be higher. I stand at a towering 5′1.” I need a 12″-18″ stage so people can see where the voice is coming from. A bar stool is a great option for visibility, but gives a more casual air to the interview.
  

• Chairs - They are slightly angled towards the audience, but mostly the interviewer and speaker are facing each other. This translates into the back of the speaker’s head for a handful of audience members. The speaker did a good job of craning her neck around so she could face the audience. However, as a planner, we want our speaker to be comfortable and not have to get a kink in their neck. As a speaker, we want to be comfortable on the platform. As the audience, we want to be able to see the speaker talking.
• Suggestion: The chairs can be facing the audience, slightly angled toward each other and closer in proximity to each other. The interviewer’s purpose is to guide the speaker and for the speaker to address the question to the audience.
  

• Microphone - The microphone was set up in front of the stage by her chair, but not in front of her mouth. We have 2 problems here. From my vantage point, the microphone stand was blocking her face (highly distracting). The second issue is we can’t hear her very well because she isn’t close enough to the microphone.

• Suggestion: With the chair repositioned, the mic stand can be directly in front of the speaker set to her mouth position. Currently, it is too high and blocking her face. The coordinator of the meeting should have a brief talk with the speaker ahead of time requesting the importance of using the microphone, regardless if they think they don’t need one. Even professional speakers say, “I don’t need one.” Once in a blue moon that could be true. But most of the time, it is not the speaker, it is the person in the back of the room or slightly hard of hearing or others who want to hear the the range of tones of their words. It is easier on everyone to use the microphone. The speaker can save their voice if they have a long program or can use their voice for emphasis.
  

• Always have the speaker use a microphone. It’s more professional, official, but most of all, it makes it easy for the audience to hear the presentation. The speaker can utilize their range of voice diversity if she doesn’t have to worry about people being able to hear her. I was leaning to the left so my short self could see her short self. However, the mic stand, being unused, was blocking her face. ‘No reading lips here. Meanwhile, I concentrated hard to hear what she was saying.  Forget about eating anything crunchy, which would drown her out. Many times, I was going to move the mic stand and give her the microphone. I couldn’t be the only one working so hard to hear her. However, I was not in charge, one my colleagues was, and I didn’t want to interrupt or make my colleague uncomfortable, or throw off the speaker.
  

• Look at the improvement with this picture with shades down. We can even take pictures successfully with a Canon Powershot. Small changes can have a big impact. Your audience is number one, do what you can to accommodate them.
  

Eliminate every second that is unnecessary or boring. The other night, our international student from Korea asked us, his host parents to attend his event. He is the student planner of a talent show at his college.  As responsible, caring, host parents, we attended. This is a two hour talent show with ten musical acts and a comedian emcee.

Scene:

• Room 100′ across and 70′ deep with a wide built in stage.
• Stage doesn’t have curtains to open and close, just a backdrop, no side wings or backstage
• 20 par can lights mounted on the ceiling on a large “U shaped” track
• Theatre style seating with 10 chairs in a row, five rows deep and 2 sets of them, 100 people

This is a huge room for an audience of 100.

What are talent shows, auditions and auctions notorious for? Guesses? Getting behind schedule.  Well, I don’t know the schedule for this event, but if you took out all the wasted time in between acts, then sold this time to a busy person, you would be rich.

We were impressed with the talent. I just don’t understand the hairdos, but then again I am an 80′s child from the land of a million hair products.

Eliminate the wasted time – Identify the unnecessary and boring bits.

The emcee announced the next act, then steps off the stage.  Meanwhile the audience stares at an empty stage. The acts take a long walk and gathered their items, then eventually got on to the stage.  As an entertainer, you need the enthusiasm of the crowd to hype you up, not the silence of the library scene. Your introduction has already been said and bored eyes are glazing waiting for the act to start.  You are setting up your set, such as arranging the chairs, music stand, microphone placement, and get settled. The audience sits another 1-3 minutes.  You can feel that the audience is getting ancy. You are a bit stressed and you are not thinking straight because you are under a microscope as you set up.  You usually are behind the stage, but this time everyone is staring.  The paid emcee, says your acts name again from off stage and you are on.

How interesting is it to see a band get set up? Not interesting, unless they are famous. By the tenth time of setting up, the musician better be worth it. Because the set up is boring this also puts more pressure on the audience  to be better because the audience has to wait.

This is a wasted 4 minutes of our lives multiplied by 6 acts, 24 minutes. I could have updated Twitter, sent  11 texts, read facebook updates, booked a flight, downloaded and audio book, referred 2 linkedins, and had extra time to be bored. We left after wasting the almost half an hour on noting. Multiply this ten times (40 minutes)  and then add the judges tallied time, which is always painstakingly long, so long, that we left.

Banish Boredom

Entry and Exit

Even though this is an amateur show, you still want to make the most of it.

• Orientation/dress rehearsal – make sure every knows the process to get on and off the stage

• Decide the official entrance and exit of the stage, for example, enter on the left side of the stage , exit on the right side of the stage
• Tell your talent to be “on deck” ready to step on to stage the moment they are announced
• Define “deck” (since you don’t have a stage curtains or a backstage) make sure this location is the closest area to get on stage without being a distraction to the current act

Emcee

The role of the emcee is to warm up the crowd, guide the crowd, choral their attention and to keep the show moving, eliminate drag and make your talent look good.

The comedian emcee was relatively appropriate for the college age crowd and had his stories and bits. However, I think the placement for his monologues should have been delivered while waiting for the acts to show up on stage and set up. Extra time was inserted for him to mess around with the crowd adding more time to the program. His entertainment value, in my opinion was not worth the extra time.  These bits would have been great while serving the purpose of stalling while the act gets ready.

Emcee Solution

To give the acts more attention, a bigger entrance and more energy, the emcee should remain on the stage while the acts are setting up and until they are ready to perform. The emcee should take the attention of the crowd away from the behind the scenes set up.

While the act walks on, the emcee can give background on the act.

• How did they get started?
• How did they meet?
• Tell the story behind their name
• Why they chose this particular act?

This is all background the audience may find interesting and builds the credibility of the talent.  When the act is just about ready, they can signal the emcee to do the official introduction and pull up the momentum.

Your emcee should be prepared to improv when…

• Technical difficulties occur
• Set -up takes a long time
• The next act can’t be found
• The act was awful, but you need to say something to make them look good
• The show is behind schedule and need to get back on track
• You need to ease the tension of the crowd is something made them upset

The emcee should have an arsenal of 30 sec, 1-10 minute bits to fill, transition and or energize the crowd.  He/she should do research on the acts so he/she can be prepared to add interest to each act.

Floor Plan

I would have put the stage in the center of the room and the chairs in a u-shape. The room was twice as big as it needed to be. The audience was 5 rows deep and set 10′ back from the stage. The last row was about 30′ from the action. A front row seat for a concert can be much more interactive and engaging.  Here is an alternative plan, I would have done.

• Take the stage to the ground. The stage is important for large crowds, unlike this one. They knew ahead of time the ball park of attendance.  We can give better visibility and front seats to more people.  The worst seat in the house is 3^rd row and about 15′.
• The seats are 2 and 3 rows deep. This U-shape format will provide more energy for the performers and the audience. The audience can see each other, which can also be entertaining.
• The up-close seating allows the audience to see the sweat roll off the forehead, to see the intense passion in the singers eyes, and be in earshot of the band cues.
• The lights are already positioned to highlight this area and make this community college talent show feel like a high ticket price, theatre in the round performance.

All and all, the talent was impressive. The lighting and sound was great. The seating was fine. But making these changes would take this  community college talent night run by students, seem like a funky, professional, off-broadway, interactive, night club lounge feel. None of these changes would take any money to do and would not take any more labor.

These modifications are a win-win for all.

In this full day Presentation Skills Workshop, you’ll learn to SHAPE your message and SHARPEN your delivery. Whether you’re speaking to clients, employees, stakeholders or the media, you need to speak with authenticity, confidence and passion. Gain the ultimate advantage, communicating effectively for a competitive edge.

Six top Presentation Skills Experts from the National Speakers Association will teach specific techniques to craft your message and polish your speaking skills so that you truly deliver every time. Work smarter, not just harder! Invest in this one day to make the difference in your professional development! Be the speaker you always wanted to hear!

• Prime your audience to receive and retain your information
• Use space and gestures strategically
• Connect your professional image and brand
• Find the best ways to tell your story
• Connect with every audience so people want to hear more from you
• Use the power of the media to deliver your message

Presenters

• Emcee – Tracey Conway
• Emcee- Scott Burns
• Be a Stand-Out…Nonverbally -Vanna Novak
• From Here to “Wow”…Right Now- Sunny Kobe Cook
• Art of Audience Interaction – Jolene Jang
• High Stakes Story Telling:  What to Say When It Matters Most – Max Dixon
• How to Say What You Do So People Want You to Keep Talking- Brian Walter
• How to use the Media to Deliver Your Message -You’ll learn insider’s secrets for succeeding in print, radio, and television interviews-Candace K. BelAir

Thursday, March 26th, 2009 8:30am-4:30pm

Directions to the Columbia Tower Club, Downtown Seattle, limited to 150 people

$99       Everyone

Sponsored by the Columbia Tower Club – Business Forum – Kristiina Hiukka & Pete McDowell &

National Speakers Association of the Northwest - Jolene Jang, President and Marilyn McGuire

If you didn’t start off the year the way you wanted, start again honoring the Chinese New Year. It’s year of the Ox. Check for your fortune here.

Jolene Jang      jo@FunSpecialist.com   www.FunSpecialist.com

In reference to this linked meeting.

The goal of the session was to give you ideas on how to create the ideal audience.    

1. Know your audience – Example Pre-Program Questionnaire,
2. Change expectations – do it differently, mix it up – sign up for newsletter here.
3. Design an interactive meeting environment – think of Hollywood, Broadway and special events.

Pictures for you

Here are photos from the event, compliments of our photographer, Vinh Chung. These are high resolution and go ahead and use them, just give attribution.   

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who helped, which is the majority of you. A special thanks to Cheri for coordinated this program, Becky for marketing it, Jennifer for leading it and to Al, Anne, and Jan who stayed until the very last cord was packed away.

FunSpecialistBlog

This purpose of this blog, most of the time, is to talk about integrating fun into the workplace. In the next month, will be several entries on how the event or meeting could be improved. Please blog and tell us the value you received and what transpired for you. What will you do to improve your programs?

You are invited to NSA Northwest in Washington State

We would love to invite NSA Oregon to join us at our bigger NSA Northwest meetings. Here is a link to 2 future events.  

NSA Northwest Events

March 14, 2009 – Innovative Marketing Mastery for Professional Speakers, Ford Saeks

March 26, 2009- Presentations Skills – Get your audience to stop, look and listen , see flyer

See mini-sessions we include in our meetings.

See a past meeting example

October, The Rock Star Speaker…, How To Stand Out, Market & Perform Like A Rock Star, Robin Creasman

Jolene would enjoy seeing you and hearing from you.

Picture This:

The speaker demanded two wireless mics and a sound check 1.5 hours before the program.  The planner is thinking, “That’s an extra $150 per wireless microphone, plus we now need to have the AV guy to set it up which is $60 an hour. Our other speakers don’t have these requests. She also requests a stage, backdrop and 8 foot screen. Next, she will ask us to polish her tiara. What’s up with her?”

Your out of town speaker, keeps asking you questions about the audience he will be addressing in his full day customer service program. “It is annoying. We hire him to do his program, not to evaluate the personalities of everyone here. I feel like I am doing more work , than he is doing. Argh!”

Do you ever wonder why your speakers are adamant about trivial details? This is the time to ask professional speakers “why?” Plus this is a chance to share with your speakers the scope of your job as a planner and how the speaker fits into the big picture.

This is first time planners and speakers get to hash out their confusion about each other’s job and how to make each other look great for the client. 

Santa’s Gift is this program

Friday, January 9, 2009, 2-5pm NSA Meeting

Columbia Tower Club in Seattle

Register here 

Meeting Planners Are from Mars, Speakers Are from Venus!

Creating the Speaker/Meeting Planner “Love Connection”

Like Fred and Ginger, Franklin and Eleanor, even Kermit and Miss Piggy, Meeting Planners and Speakers have a classic relationship but frequently “Just don’t get it!” when working together.  Like many a romance, we often fail to ask important questions at the beginning and assume we know each others’ needs, often resulting in a Ricky and Lucy explosion on Event Day: 

Meeting Planner:    ”Speaker!  You got some splainin’ to do.” 

                           Speaker:    ” Waaaaaaah!” 

 And vice-versa.  Truthfully, both Meeting Planners and Speakers want the same thing: a successful event with raves from audience members and clients requesting encores.  Here’s how we’ll get it every time!

Within three hours, we’ll address the essentials of this partnership, and explode the myths on both sides of the speaker hiring question. This is an opportunity for professionals on both sides of the contract to get instant clarity and an edge over their competitors.  In both panel and town hall formats we’ll address such burning issues as:

Meeting Planners:

• What are your responsibilities as a meeting planner?
• Where does a speaker rank in the hierarchy of venue, food, etc?
• What makes an ideal speaker?

 Speakers:

• Which information is vital to get from the planner?
• Why floor plan, seating arrangements and food service affects your presentation.
• How other activities and topics in the schedule affect your program.

In addition to our discussions, we’ll have the opportunity for a few speakers to do a mini-showcase and get immediate feedback from people with the power to hire.  Both Mars and Venus will leave with immediately applicable tools as the planets spin once again in sync—-and accomplish their shared goal of a memorable and compelling meeting for every audience, every time. That’s amore!

Register here at  www.NSANorthwest.org,  info@nsanorthwest.org

Meeting Planners $20

First Time Guests $40

Returning Guests $75

Jolene the Fun Specialist LLC
jo@FunSpecialist.com
www.FunSpecialist.com
425.489.1073

 National Speakers Association Northwest, President

www.NSANorthwest.org

Well, Jolene, great question, but you can find toy trends online, I’d like to address a gargantous falsehood that has been torturing us for centuries. It is about time we take a stand, right? Miss Rudolph, Mrs. Dancer and Aunt Blitzen? I understand you are the Fun Specialist and meet a lot of people. Will you share our message? WE ARE FEMALES! We are the ones who work so hard to bring Santa around the world. It is time to be recognized. 

Rudolph and family

In our travels in August to our neighbor to the north we visited all of Rudolph’s friends and family at reindeer farm. MCI would have a heyday selling headset phone plans to them. This reindeer farm was a touch magical and at the same time demystifying.  In  the movies, Prancer and Donner and friends are tall. Reindeer come in a wide range of sizes (if you are ordering online).

Reindeer Farm

We walked through a little house structure to get to the reindeer. The young woman gives us reindeer food (tasty) and tells us the youngsters are shy. I don’t know about you, but before I hangout in an open space with animals with big piercing antlers, I’d like to know more about the animals tendencies. I guess this is where my event planning and professional speaking expericence comes into play. Yes, I want to know the audience before I begin.

Feeding the reindeer

We approached the little guys slowly, indeed they are skiddish.  Now, when we found the older dudes who know we have food for them, they were keen on us. How do you feed an animal who has 30″ inches of pointy, pokey implements in your face? Perhaps this was my personal problem. As the reindeer bends his head to eat the food from my hand, his and hers heavy antlers follow. Getting out of antler range took some trial and error. Long arms would be beneficial, but was not an option.

Cool Factoid

Both the guys and gals grow antlers every year. I wonder how much the antlers grew while we were there, seriously.

If you have felt the texture of a cattail or a pussy willow, their  antlers are a similar fuzzy texture. However, they are a sensitive, not about their fuzzy fashion, but to the touch.  

If you look at this senior dude here with the pink mushroom looking globs around his antlers, he is sporting last years new color palette of chocolate and pink colors. He would not tell me how he grew this unique fashion statement, perhaps like a magician he doesn’t want to share his secrets.  

 Santa’s Lady Crew

The deal is the males lose their antlers in November and December, so females are the ones who help Santa. I do want to share Comet’s message to the world. Santa’s team is female. After all women and minorities are coming it up, why should this movement be just for humans. I knew there was a meaningful connection between this blog entry and me. We both want to speak up for justice.

Merry Christmas!

Get your audience where you want them: with you.  With attention spans shrinking, tech-gadgets on the rise and time as valuable as gold, it is imperative for you, as a speaker, to get Interactive!

Past precedents have set negative expectations for today’s meetings.  The audience doesn’t know you anything about you, but history predicts a talking head. Fair or not, your audience has already slated your meeting time to text their buddies, browse for game scores, sign walls on Facebook and dream of deals on EBay.  Employees are fed-up with torturous mandatory meetings and revolt by catching-up on social networking, building their sports knowledge and seeking-out a good bargain.  The good news is you can break their routines!

Use the Art of Audience Interaction.  With this concept, you can get the process started before your participants ever set foot in the room. You will change participants’ expectations, capture their attention and enhance your program. This session will not just tell you about techniques to facilitate ideal audience behavior, but will also model effective, economical, practical and simple solutions for maximizing the benefits of your meeting.  An engaged audience will absorb, remember and apply your teachings, And, don’t forget; rave about you for years. Get Interactive!

Who Is This Woman?

Her name is Jolene, The Fun Specialist. She comes from Seattle , Washington and enjoys traveling the world. While roaming the globe, she is always searching for fresh solutions and innovative answers. She has the knowledge, experience, education and confidence to conquer the triple demons of insufficient employee motivation, stagnant productivity and disjointed teams. With a unique skill set from event planning, marketing and entertainment, Jolene is the ideal professional to prevent boring meetings from becoming snoring meetings.

She brings employees together as a cohesive unit with a mirror; it’s all about them. And, she does it all with fun. The Fun Specialist harnesses the power of enjoyment to achieve company goals, like Mary Poppins uses her “spoonful of sugar”. Not only does her technique make the “medicine” of a dull meeting “go down”, but her brand of fun makes the information stick. She converts the multitude of dry information into an entertaining, yet informative presentation, ensuring that employees retain the knowledge presented.

What else would you like to hear from the Fun Specialist? Her ears are listening.

Jolene Jang is the president of NSA Northwest Chapter in Seattle. She understands the needs of a speaker. In SPEAKER Magazine, her column was “InterAct” discussing concepts to get the audience involved.

Jolene has a background in event planning, entertainment and marketing, so she will infuse a new perspective. Her high level of creativity gives her an opportunity to stand out.

www.FunSpecialist.com

By the way, here is a link to the Washington chapter.