Finding a unique way to capture attendees’ attention is important. Pictured: Bluewater’s Forbes 2022 Under 30 Summit. Courtesy of Scott Schoeneberger

In a world full of distractions, meeting planners have a taxing task: to move their attendees’ distractions to hyper focus. To engage a person in an activity that is particularly fun or interesting to the point where they can “tune out” everything else is an art form. To master it, the setting requires a comfortable environment where attendees can take an active role in the event, lending more time to think about its sole purpose.

Before a planner can capture attendees’ full attention, they must address life’s everyday distractions. From family to finances, technology is the number culprit, they have found. With mobile phones, tablets and so many other electronic items available in the market delivering a constant flow of emails, social media information and notifications, is it any wonder why attendees are having a difficult time focusing at their company’s event at all?

“Everyone’s got a million things on their mind,” said Scott Schoeneberger, managing partner, Bluewater Technologies, a Michigan-based event management company that produces corporate events. “You only have a few minutes at a time that you’re keeping people’s attention and then you have to recapture their attention again. Just being in competition with the whirlwind of everyday life is probably still the biggest challenge to keeping attendees’ focus and keeping attention.”

Overcoming Distractions

Dr. Jackie Mulligan, development director of Game Republic, the largest and longest established games industry network in the north of England, noted, “Distractions will always be a factor when we have our social, personal and professional lives in our pockets (in our smartphones). However, what I have noted at our Game Republic events is that, when at live events, attendees seem to be more in the moment, more present than I have witnessed previously.”

The reason for that, Mulligan noted is that “there is less sharing online and more sharing in person going on. This may be because the sector I work in is very digital and so in person events provide a chance to put down devices and focus more on making connections in real life.” The network runs 12 events a year and works with the industry on conferences and festivals curating programs, speakers and design related to video games.

One tactic Schoeneberger suggests is eliminating the distraction altogether. But while removing the devices from the equation may seem like the perfect solution to the problem, that’s not always possible. For many attendees, a smartphone means a direct line to their families. They need to be reachable at all times, most especially in case of an emergency. Asking attendees to put their cells in lockers during an event may not be realistic but to switch them to silent, or put them out of sight certainly helps. The goal is to focus on the business at hand: the content.

Distractions aside, a planner’s main objective is to provide engaging content. “If you don’t have a well thought out story and schedule, it’s pretty easy to lose people. Focusing on your content is critical,” said Schoeneberger.

Content is King

Content is king. Done well, even financial presentations that may be unavoidably boring, can wrap its content in a veneer of sailboats or golf courses — while just underneath its surface are spreadsheets, illustrations, charts and boilerplate plans.

Schoeneberger recalls a financial presentation by Mayo Clinic where Bluewater helped craft a story using the numbers and charts within a story arc to keep attendees engaged. “If you have great storytelling along with some really cool visuals that essentially present the same data that you were showing in just a spreadsheet on screen, one is going to capture a lot more of the audience’s attention and keep it. With the other, everyone is going to glaze over.”

Adding a thread of vibrant color to a meeting is important, but nothing is more critical than the content itself.  “Attendees value their time more than ever and meetings and events that do not support that value will result in lost confidence,” said Michael Clarke, senior director, B2B Events & Programs, Global Sales Organization — U.S. & Canada for Marriott International & Marriott International Luxury Brands.

Relevant, valuable and engaging content not only ensures your event’s success and helps keep your attendees focused, it is an important facet of a company’s reputation and a critical factor in achieving its business goals.

The content educates attendees, but for it to be captivating, the setting needs to be show stopper. Mulligan suggests providing comfort, hydration, pauses to process or apply learning and a call at the end on take-homes from the session. “Don’t balance them on beanbags or use gimmicks, relevant content delivered by the right speakers will always help attendees focus more than anything else.”

Clarke, whose team plans customer related events that span from 20 to more than 1,000 attendees, added other insights on how to retain today’s attendees’ attention. “They want to find solutions to their challenges more quickly, so therefore, they do not want to be talked at; they want more interaction time with their peers to discuss those challenges and learn how to solve them. Further, attendees do not want to always feel programmed at meetings and events. They want more choice, and they will determine if an event was worth their time if they are given more choice during their event journey.”

Brainstorming & Networking Breakouts

Some of the strategies his team at Microsoft uses for scheduling include more free time for brainstorming and networking during events. “We have shortened the length of breakouts, allowed for more interaction, which then also allows for us to offer a wider range of topics for them to explore than we have in the past.”

Clarke also emphasized keeping attendees involved in driving the content for discussion, including dedicated peer to peer time where attendees determine the topics they want to discuss. “We let them provide the topics then use the event app to communicate when and where these discussions will take place.  We have found that when attendees are able to share real-life experiences this enables deeper discussions and uncovers new opportunities for them.”

Focusing on expanded time for networking and working is also a priority and key to driving focus and engagement, according to Clarke. “We are building in more time for them to not only gather together as peers, but also giving them permission to work and stay connected with their offices and their customers during our meetings and events. This way they do not always feel like they have to leave the event to go and get work done because they have pressing issues or deadlines. We build areas in our event space where they can do that work rather than them going back to their guest rooms.”

Mulligan also believes leaving time for networking is vital to keeping attendees engaged in the meeting, as is mixing up the formats for education and learning. “Exercises or deeper dives into topics presented in shorter sessions are good. We are doing an event on XR and virtual productions, so we are mixing in presentations, panels and roundtables, alongside an expo too to provide learning and interaction, as well as tangible business opportunity, in one day.”

Higher Recall

While a good balance of sessions and networking is good, before planners get too far into content creation and providing different topics for attendees to discuss, they should think about whom they want to appeal to. Who are the attendees, and what can they stand to gain by immersing themselves in the content? Schoeneberger encourages clients to use a learning style dubbed VAK – Visual Auditory Kinesthetic.

“Essentially, what that says is that everyone learns and consumes information in a different way. Some people are very visual so they need charts, graphs, words on screen, things they see. Some are auditory; they want to be spoken to. And then some are physical, which can be implemented as writing, or engaging in some kind of motion like standing up and sitting down, things of that nature. So, when you combine all three of those, you end up with a much more compelling story. Your content will be taken up by a lot more people. There will be higher recall.”

Tools like interactive polls, Q&A platforms and virtual breakout rooms can be used to enhance engagement and focus. Microsoft drives interactions through its event app. According to Clarke, “We are significantly increasing the use of our event app technology to gain real-time reactions to content being presented on the stage. The use of emojis significantly tells us how they are reacting to the content being presented and allows the speakers to pivot to be able to address those reactions and make sure they are delivering what the audience is seeking.”

In addition, Microsoft is building more “play” into its events, Clarke said, “creating environments where attendees can physically come together and participate in interactive, not competitive games and activities that build on the content and the messaging, spurring creativity and solutions.”

While some planners like to engage attendees by having them use their phones, this activity can backfire. “I have never particularly favored use of devices if it does not add to the content or if it is not relevant,” said Mulligan. “The challenge when you ask an attendee to use their phone in a session, you risk losing their focus as a message comes in or it reminds them of something else they need to do.”

Bluewater specializes in event production, which can also be utilized to help attendees maintain focus throughout the day. “Spending a little bit on production is always encouraged,” Schoeneberger said. “It doesn’t cost a lot to bring some additional mood lighting and set the stage, bringing the lights down, changing lighting patterns. These are all things that are relatively inexpensive and can dramatically change the audience’s reaction and help recapture their focus in between different speakers or segments.”

It bears repeating that the most important component of a good content strategy is usefulness. Your attendees don’t come to your events to be talked at; they come because they believe you have something new and valuable to offer them. Breaking up this information with various elements, such as video, can help prevent attendees from losing their focus.

“You might want to strategically place a video at a point where you’ve been talking for a while,” explained Schoeneberger. “We can then dim the lights and everyone’s going to say, ‘OK … something is happening.’ And you can really crank the audio if you want. Louder tends to be better, especially if it’s good audio. And then you can bring the lights back up or it could be as simple as just the lighting cue change. People are going to sense that, so you’re creating more tension.”

One production tool that is trending, according to Schoeneberger is incorporating LED walls. “We want to see very clean, very nicely designed backdrops, whether it’s an LED wall or large-format LCD.” Along with high-resolution projection, the audio needs to be clean. “You need to be able to hear from all parts of the room. You don’t want to have echo.”

For clients using LED walls, Bluewater can create interactive games that can be projected in the lobby, for example. Those might include a giant LED floor with a back wall that has a digital game. By using sensors that track movement, games can be controlled by an attendees’ movement. Bluewater has had games deployed that are silly where you’re flapping your arms like a bird and that controls game play.

One of Bluewater’s clients, ImpactEleven, a speaker training and development community, stands out for Schoeneberger. “Even though they are in a much smaller conference space, than say a general session for Walmart, they pack the room, and they really spend time on the agenda, the schedule, the run of show. There are a lot of heartfelt stories that they incorporated throughout. The longest segment of uninterrupted content is maybe five minutes. And there’s some kind of visual like video. They pump up the audio. They change the light patterns. They really spend time on the mood. It’s loud, it’s colorful. If I had to summarize it, they treat it like a rock and roll show.”

The art of attendee engagement comes down to one thing: Great events serve a need. Planners should think about what that is and why it will cause attendees to not just hear it, but to share it with others.

The best way to keep them engaged and hyper focused on the content being presented is by using creative ways to make their lives and work easier. In the end, no matter what distractions may lurk around them, their eyes will be fixed on the content if they believe it has something to offer them. C&IT