STEVE DEWIT
sharing best practices
Secrets of Effective Meetings & Events
extract of the book
Part 2
Creating an M&E format
1. The Master Plan Format
Let’s illustrate the master plan with a little example. Suppose a meeting has to be organized for a medical company bringing together 200 employees, including managers, sales and marketing staff from all over Europe, for a short three-day conference.
Starting with the information gathered on the 7 ‘W’-questions, a draft idea of the meeting can be written. That may look like the following example:
To bring anything into your life, imagine it’s already there.
- Richard Bach - writer and pilot, °1936
To keep the overview of the whole meeting, this is done on one page only, we like to call this ‘the master plan’. This one page gives a quick overview of all composing elements and the sequence of these within the meeting program. The challenge is finding the right
balance between all composing elements, reflecting the right mix of content and information sharing, team work, networking opportunities and motivational actions. It preferably takes into account the budget restrictions from the very beginning.
‘Primacy and Recency effect’
This is terminology originating from the world of psychology and was the experimental result of the following test.
Volunteers were asked to learn a long list of words by heart during a predetermined time. When the time was up, they were asked to write down as much as possible of the words they studied. Now, the results revealed that the participants of this test were able to remember a lot of words from the beginning of the list. These were the words they ‘primarily’ studied. This effect was then called the ‘primacy effect’. Opposite of this effect is the ‘recency effect’. As the test revealed, not only the first words on the list were best remembered, but also the last words, the ones they studied most ‘recently’. Obviously the scientists called this effect the ‘recency effect’.
What is important for meeting planning?
This confirms an old saying: ‘you never get a second chance to make a first impression’. When it comes to meeting management, it’s wise to invest a lot of time and effort in the beginning of the conference, the start.
The first contact the delegates have with the organization often happens at the airport or the pick-up shuttle transfer. The next step is the registration at the conference centre, shortly thereafter. Then comes the first session in the conference, the opening session. All these elements in the program are the ones participants will remember the best, once the conference is over. Having a great start is also important for the ‘captatio benevolentiae’ of the delegates. Get the delegates in a positive mood to make the most out of the conference.
The same is important for the very end, the closing conference, last words, last meal and goodbye. The saying goes ‘end in beauty’. For meeting planners, this means that most of the efforts, budget and interesting content is preferably scheduled during these crucial last moments.
2. Formatting the Components
Once the draft of the master plan is in place, it’s time to focus more closely on the format of the composing elements. Below you will find ideas for formats, as well as guidelines to create your own formats.
The objective of this chapter is not that you exactly copy these ideas, but that you start reflecting on how you in your own daily planner situation can be creative to make strong meeting elements. You may be in charge of a convention centre or a hotel with extended conference infrastructure. You may be a sales representative or perhaps you are a group and event manager. Either way, start thinking about the unique selling points (USP) of your infrastructure and how you can improve your USP by creating new formats, adapted to the accommodation you are responsible for. Independent planners, PCO’s and DMC’s can do the same, start being creative about infrastructure you often use and try to find new formats within these accommodations.
On the following pages, we summarize formats for knowledge sharing, social activities and dinners.
2.1 Formats for Knowledge Sharing
These are formats that aim to keep the audience’s attention during meetings and presentations in order to share information with the delegates.
Ex Cathedra Format
This format is the one we all know and at the same time, the most challenging one when it comes to keeping the audience attention. This isn’t a problem if you have a ‘power’ speaker who can keep the audience sitting on the edge of their chairs for a full hour or longer. Unfortunately, not many speakers have this power. But the planner can help by making the setting more attractive.
An idea is to put a huge screen with retro-projection in the middle of the stage. The speaker can stand in front while behind him a related photograph is projected. The picture serves only as background. Every change of topic, the picture can be changed too. The data the speaker wants to show can also be projected on two side screens, left and right. It involves more beamers and screens, but the little effort and extra cost may be returned in the form of attention and audience retention.
Another idea is to try to have a meeting with the speaker some weeks before the conference happens. See what his topics are and how you can help in visualizing and enhancing the presentation. Stress the use of flip-charts: writing something down instead of projecting it creates a moment of rest for the audience. You can even use two flip-charts, one on either side of the stage. That allows the speaker to walk (on the condition that he is willing to come out from behind his speaker’s podium) left and right and gain more contact with the entire group of listeners.
If the budget allows it and there are many speakers, one idea is to have the speakers arrive one day earlier and do rehearsals on stage with a ‘coach’. This is a public speaking professional who can give some simple tips and feedback to make a stronger speaking performance. In Part 3 of this book, we propose a survival kit for public speaking.
The speaker’s podium, if one is needed, is best placed 1/3 from either the left or the right side of the stage. Be aware that the middle point of the stage is a visual ‘dead point’. As our eyes are not in the middle of our face either but left and right, we experience objects and their position in relation to the background. Photographers know this phenomenon very well (more about this also in Part 3), and use it in the composition of their pictures.
In summary: the Ex Cathedra format is a well-known format but the effectiveness of the performance depends a lot on the power and experience of the speaker. The next format will cope with the challenge of effectiveness in a different way.
Duo Presentation Format
In this format, two speakers perform a speaking act together. This means that part of the information is brought by one person and part is brought by another person.
The better the interaction between both speakers, the greater the effect. We like to call this a ‘basketball presentation’, because it looks like speakers ‘throw’ the right to speak to each other, as they would throw a ball in the game.
Imagine two speakers, Jim and Michael. Both are on stage talking about a new product invention. Suppose Jim begins his presentation, talking for two minutes and then suddenly ends a phrase with something like: “ ... as you can see, ladies and gentlemen, the new product opens a lot of new opportunities for the user. But, there are also important benefits for a greener environment, isn’t that right Michael?” Now Michael is ‘catching the ball’, looking first at Jim and next to the audience while he is saying something like: “That is very true Jim, as we can see on the next slide, etc.”
And so now Michael has his two minutes of fame. If this kind of interaction between Jim and Michael is repeated regularly, let’s say every one or two minutes they pass the ball to each other, then the presentation catches a lot of speed and a good dynamic. The magic word here is ‘variation’. We humans always are on the lookout for ‘change’. Compare it with this: driving a motorbike at a continuous speed on a straight highway isn’t fun at all. It is the acceleration, deceleration and the turns that make it fun. On stage this is brought by alternating between two different faces, two different voices and two different styles.
Often, the budget can be small if it concerns two non-professional speakers, e.g. internal speakers from an association or a company. The investment will be the extra preparation time both speakers need in order to agree and to try out who is saying what. This format is more difficult and expensive in case of professional ‘guest speakers’ or ‘keynote’ speakers who often bring a one-man show and are paid a high fee for a one hour speech. In this case, the talk show format can be a better solution.
Talk Show Format
This format is well known and often used for live television shows. It always starts with a central host (moderator) sitting on a nice couch on stage. He gives a short introduction to the theme of the evening and invites a special guest, who is someone with specific knowledge about the theme, to come on stage. While the guest is walking towards the stage, some music is playing to fill the gap of silence. Once on stage, the guest is greeted by the host, takes a seat and waits for the first question. Often, that first question will be one with an informal character that can be answered quickly, sometimes with a smile. This will give the speaker and the audience a very short opportunity to get used to each other and be more at ease, before starting the real topic. We have done this format often, especially with important keynote speakers. The extra time to be invested is the preparation of the questions for the moderator. This is done in close collaboration with the keynote speaker and a representative of the meeting owner. All of them have to get familiar with and agree upon the content of the speaking performance.
Some speakers are not used to this format but after their first experience, all of them told me they liked it a lot and it looked very professional. It also makes speakers more relaxed as they can sit back and now and then, get the time to think when the moderator is asking a new question. Of course, this is a more expensive format as you need a professional moderator, plus his or her preparation time. One word of advice; never try to do this without sufficient preparation.
This format offers more conversational opportunities because instead of only one speaker, more guest speakers can be called on stage during the conference. The act of guests walking to or from the stage creates a short pause that will help to keep the focus of the audience.
On top of the interview with the speakers, this format offers opportunities for live discussions between the different speakers on stage, each of them adding information or countering a point of view.
The skills of the moderator here are very important. This must be a person who, in a very short time (one or two days), is capable of getting familiar with the niche terminology of the content and with important and sensible matters of that content. But out of experience, I can tell you that this format works very well and creates a lot of energy.
News Edition Format
Even more dynamic is the news edition format. This includes the talk show format, explained above, but in addition to a moderator and guests, we also have one or two ‘news readers’. This can be people from within the association or within the company as long as they get a day of proper training to do this. Their job is to briefly announce the news topics to be discussed in the ‘studio’. They are giving a few facts, just like news readers do on television. Look at the following example:
After finishing a topic, let’s say two minutes of talking, Maggy (the news reader in the following example) ends her interview with something like:
“We now go to our studio in which we have Professor Smith, specialist on this topic, in the presence of my colleague Heather.”
Now Heather (the moderator in the studio) takes over and says something like:
“Thank you Maggy. With me here I have Professor Smith. Professor Smith, welcome. Can you tell us more about this new scientific discovery?”
So now it’s time for the professor to talk. At the end of the discussion, moderator Heather can close:
“Thank you, Professor, for this information. Let’s go back to our news desk.”
And so now the news reader takes over again. It looks like a live television show when the speakers are captured live and projected on big screen.
More elements can be included: instead of going to the live studio, the news reader can also announce a video recording about the topic, which is then projected without any further delay on stage. This format is very dynamic, it’s like a show or a movie and time flies for the audience. But two important implications have to be taken into consideration:
1.
It needs a lot of detailed preparation: all the text parts for every speaker have to be clear and written out in full. Video clips may have to be produced and news readers and moderator have to be trained.
2.
A very strict and close collaboration with the technical crew is an absolute condition for a smooth show. When a news reader announces a video to be projected, the video should
start on exactly the same moment, lighting on stage should be dimmed accordingly and the sound must be switched from microphones to video output. These kind of actions are happening non-stop during the whole performance. To do this, a very detailed conference script (by seconds) needs to be worked out. The script should involve clear cues and actions for every speaker and every technical intervention. (More on this in part 3)
Obviously, this is a complex thing to do and you will need a good ‘conductor’, a specialist who can steer the show, who knows the speakers and the contents. But the reward is great. This is an especially interesting format for an opening session of an important conference. Personally, I directed many of these kind of productions and they have been the most rewarding format for me to do, however the mental (and physical) energy consumption of all participants is not to be underestimated.
Animated Formats
The formats mentioned above can be extended into ‘animated’ formats. The intention is to link the format to a business theme or to a business situation in order to enhance the visual attraction of the set. The objective stays the same: knowledge transmission to the audience aiming for everyone’s full attention and a high retention level for the content and the message of the conference.
1/ The Bridge Format
This format is built on the duo-presentation format. Initially we invented this idea in view of the theme of a conference in Berlin: bring two corporate departments together in a convention and get them to know each other better (internal networking). Some conference topics can be presented to the audience by two speakers together, one for every department.
...
Full chapter available in the book.