As companies get back into the swing of hosting annual and corporate meetings, Streamline is counting down the Top 5 Ways to Create Memorable Meetings to inspire and reinvigorate meeting organizers. With these tips, organizers can create gatherings that capture attendees’ attention, successfully achieve goals, and have every guest counting down the days until the next one. In Part 1, we introduced the importance of creating and maintaining a consistent theme throughout the event. In this post, we present the magic of The Guide.
Have you ever visited a museum and wandered aimlessly, not knowing where to start? Then, once you chart your journey, you find the displays interesting and the placards helpful, but you eventually tire of reading the fine print and waiting for your turn to get a closer glimpse. Or maybe you’ve visited an art gallery where the paintings are pretty, but you could really benefit from a little extra insight or backstory.
That’s the beauty of a guide. They “guide” you through an experience, allowing you to enjoy it as its creators intended. They provide context, direction, information, and often, interesting tidbits that you otherwise might never have known. When the guide is funny, engaging, or entertaining, the experience is elevated that much more, making all of the details shared far more memorable.
That very same concept applies to your meeting. Most corporate gatherings span at least one full day and are jam-packed with activities, presentations, breakout sessions and shows. It can be easy for any attendee to get overstimulated, floating from one event to the next without retaining much of the information. The Guide exists to counteract that.
Importantly, The Guide is much more than a host. The Guide serves as a checkpoint, refocusing the attendees before the transitioning into the next session. With each encounter, the connection between The Guide and attendees deepens, creating a sense of comfort and familiarity. Attendees eagerly follow The Guide through the meeting in a more intentional, fluid way.
“The Guide creates unique, engaging moments designed to visually reinforce messaging and encourage retention.” Lauren Hamilton – Executive Producer
The Guide also becomes a resource for important messages, whether it’s reinforcing the meeting’s theme as the event wears on, hitting on the brand’s main message points, or even something far simpler like reminding attendees to wear their name tags during dinner. The Guide at its best is a performer who is comfortable in front of a large crowd, and of course, it never hurts when there’s humor. Using their talents to share important content will keep the audience focused and better able to retain information.
For its 2022 Pro Partner Conference, heating, cooling and water-heating manufacturer Rheem selected Justin Flom to serve as The Guide. Justin is a host, entertainer, and magician, and whether or not attendees recognized him, they were certainly captivated. He connected with the Pro Powered theme by playing into his magic “powers” and created custom magic to help Rheem communicate key points attendees would never forget. He relied on direct audience engagement and interactivity to get information across, leaving attendees far more fulfilled than if they had been left to their own devices. During the first general session of the conference, Justin “physically” turned up the energy by using his hands to demonstrate the power each individual would take away from the conference through the information they would take home. The attendees were empowered by innovation, energized by success and charged for growth.
If you want to keep your attendees engaged, focused, and having fun, invest in The Guide. Now, if we could just find a way to have The Guide at all of our daily meetings…
Stay tuned for Part 3 to uncover Streamline’s next tip on how to make meetings more memorable.
