Struggling to get your team and stakeholders excited about attendee-centric events? You're not alone! In this episode of Not The Same As Last Year, I tackle the challenge of building a compelling case for prioritizing the attendee experience.
We'll explore the benefits of attendee-centric events, from increased ROI and happier attendees to a positive brand perception and share practical strategies to address common concerns and get everyone on board, including:
Ready to ditch the tired event format and create events your attendees will love? Tune in and learn how to build a case for attendee-centric events that stakeholders get!
Ready to dive deeper? Download your free guide, five ways to elevate your attendee experience without breaking the bank HERE
Connect with Clare:
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welcome back to not the same as last
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year I'm Clare Forestier I'm your host and
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today we are tackling a really important
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topic for anyone that is passionate
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about creating events that put the
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attendee at the heart of your event and
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that is getting your internal team on
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board with this approach now if you've
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been following me or listening to my
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rants here or on social media the
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chances are you are now really up for
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design siging events that put the
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attendee first and you probably have a
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vision for an event that really
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prioritizes their engagement but if it
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means doing things a little bit
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differently from last year and chances
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are it does sometimes convincing your
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colleagues and your bosses and
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potentially your clients to move in this
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direction can be tricky so let's start
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by acknowledging the challenges internal
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teams often have different priorities
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they might be focused on budgets
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Logistics or meeting internal goals of
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the business that don't always align
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with the attendee
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experience additionally there can be
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resistance to change especially if your
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company has a history of traditional
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event formats and to be fair I think
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we're all a little bit institutionalized
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into expecting our events to follow the
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default event setting of coffee breaks
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masquerading as networking and
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PowerPoint presentations over busy
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schedules crappy lighting too much noise
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etc
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etc but there is a way we can make a
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compelling case for prioritizing the
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attendee first of all tell them happy
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attendees lead to Better Business
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outcomes the satisfied attendees are the
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ones that are more likely to become
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loyal customers brand Advocates and
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potential Partners secondly they will
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increase your Roi why because an Engaged
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attendee is much more perceptive much
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more receptive secondly it will increase
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Roi an Engaged attendee is much more
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receptive to your message leading to
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better lead generation and sales
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opportunities and thirdly it's going to
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mean a positive brand perception when
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you prioritize a tende experience it
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actually reflects a company that values
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its customers and the way they feel so
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how do we translate this why then into
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action I think we've got to learn to
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speak their language of the people that
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we're trying to persuade you can't just
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talk about the term attendee experience
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to your colleagues and your bosses they
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don't necessarily work in events they're
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not necessarily going to get that so
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you've got to connect it to what matters
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to them their priorities so you frame
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increased attendee engagement as a way
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to improve lead generation for sales or
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brand awareness for
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marketing and you show them the money
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data is your friend here gather all you
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can from past events like attendee
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feedback or post event surveys not just
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your own but also what other people are
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sharing out there on social media around
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best practice and event Trend reports
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and you can use this data to really
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highlight the benefits of the attendees
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Centric approach and I think it's also
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important to think just in terms of
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starting with small winds people like me
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MC's and others who are out here loudly
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pushing for change I know we often talk
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really big about the potential but the
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reality is you may have to start quite
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small you can't overhaul everything in
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your event overnight how about
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suggesting that you implement some more
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attendee Centric elements into a pilot
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event to showcase the effectiveness of
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them or ask if you can maybe prove
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Concept in a smaller internal
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event now it's frustrated me for ages
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why the concept of of an attend Centric
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event is so slow to really start
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happening um at business events and I
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suppose it's like when you're looking
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for a place to live with your partner
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some of us can easily see the potential
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in a space and visualize its
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transformation my husband tends to be
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discouraged by limitations for example
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like a small living room he can't see
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like I can that we could make it look
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amazing and have an open layout if we
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just knock down some walls and it's a
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similar idea with
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events now be warned wondering why some
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people are not able to picture what to
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them as an unfamiliar event experience
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and why they then reject it despite what
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we tell them it has led me down quite a
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few weird paths or two in researching
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online but it's apparently because we
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tend to understand things only by
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relating them to a previous experience
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cognitive psychologists suggests this
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thing that humans rely heavily on is
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called schema it is a mental framework
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that we use to organize information it's
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a template if you like that helps us
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understand new experiences by relating
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them to things we already know I mean
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it's what helps us make sense of the
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world quickly it allows us to fill in
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gaps in our knowledge and to then be
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able to make predictions but the problem
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is it can also sometimes lead to biases
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or stereotypes and it can make it
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difficult for us to understand things
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that are completely new or outside our
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existing knowledge Bas so if your team
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don't immediately get you and your plans
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don't despair it's not that they're
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being bloody minded and old fashioned it
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is their schema bias and that's when you
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need things like good old behavioral
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psychology to help move them don't worry
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I'm not about to LGE into that because
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it isn't my area of expertise although
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it is fascinating but the one bit of
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psychology that I think always works is
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finding the humanity the Common Ground
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bonding so collaboration here I think
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it's vital you want to get your wider
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team involved in the whole brainstorming
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process around your event rather than
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just hectoring them about all the shizel
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I talk about in this podcast try and get
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their input on the ideas that you have
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for making things more fun and engaging
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ask them what matters to them what they
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would want to achieve from the event and
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what they would want to achieve if they
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were going to the event and then you can
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see how your ideas might help them see
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that specific thing happening I think
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another way is to Showcase success
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stories share examples from other
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companies and what they've done those
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that have successfully implemented
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attendee Centric events and the positive
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impact it had on their business and then
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you will really get them to see the
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impact and you can then follow that up
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by following the surveys and reading the
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research getting the data showing that
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to them and follow the influences in
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this field I would suggest subscribing
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to Julius solis's newsletter about
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research the event psychologist Victoria
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matey on LinkedIn she's great look at
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her research on her website and she
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shares actually loads of other links to
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the great resources event design that
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puts the attendee first also check out
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the event well consultant David C
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Stevens's podcast it's called um return
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on wellness and in fact both Victoria
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and David are joining me on the podcast
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in the next few months and I will share
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all the details of everything I just
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mentioned in the show notes and of
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course there are many more people to
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follow if you've heard episode five I
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think it was with Liz lean you're
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hopefully already paying attention to
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what she says around experience at
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events now even if you do all of the
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above let's be honest there may still be
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some concerns so here are a few common
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ones and how I think you could address
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them so there's going to be budget
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concerns often if you want to change
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something and maybe spend money in a
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different place from where you spent it
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last time on the event so always focus
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on the potential for the increased Roi
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to demonstrate that attendee centricity
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at events going attendee first can be
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cost
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effective time constraints highlight the
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efficiency of inter acve formats and
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collaboration within the team to
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streamline event planning so show them
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how it can actually make things more
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effective when you're planning things to
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have lots of collaboration and
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interactive formats because if people
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see that happening with your planning
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they'll go oh that could really work in
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an
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event fear of the unknown I mean we've
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been talking about that but you need to
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maybe get them to just say look maybe we
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could experiment so kind of try de with
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knowledge There's an opportunity there
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to try something new and and experiment
whilst emphasizing how you could then
grow that out later and and any positive
results make sure they are really
highlighted now we've talked about some
ideas of how to help people come along
with you on this on this goal towards an
attendee
firstand and I think the thing to really
remember is it's about getting building
a shared Vision if you can really
demonstrate the value proposition of
attendee first and this idea of making
things really open and open
communication then hopefully you're
going to create a really collaborative
environment for your event which leads
to a more collaborative environment at
your
event so do share your thoughts I know
some of my clients have struggled to get
their team or their bosses on board and
so I'm sure you're in the same boat
sometimes how do you bring all the
stakeholders on board with this attendee
first approach what strategies have
worked for you I'd love it if we could
keep the conversation going on social
media maybe tag me in CLA Forest dear or
use the not the same as last year
hashtag I'm determined to get that hash
viral and of course join me next time
when I will be talking to an event
psychologist yes my next guest actually
has anology in how to make events better
so see you next
week and there you have it I hope you're
inspired to re revolutionize the
attendee experience at your next event
ready to dive deeper download your free
guide five ways to elevate your attendee
experience without breaking the bank the
link is in the show notes subscribe to
not the same as last year podcast
connect with me CLA Forest here on
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