When does your meeting really begin?
The minute someone learns that there will be a meeting; the meeting has begun. That is the moment when they start making space in their mind for the potential of attending and participating, or maybe even avoiding the meeting. What you and I do to entice them to be a part of it determines to a large extent how successful our meeting will be.
Recall a recent event where your host or emcee mounted the platform, grabbed the audience’s attention and then proceeded to lose it again by saying, “before we get started I have a few announcements.” I’m sure that, like me, you’ve heard those deadly words at most of the meetings you’ve attended. Well, here’s a news flash for those speakers: When you are on the platform and the audience is looking at you The Meeting Has Started! If you are making announcements then the meeting is in fact now underway. Perhaps a better opener would have been, “Good Morning! Three things you’ll need to know as we meet today are:…..” (Then announce the ‘housekeeping items’ but don’t label them as ‘housekeeping’ otherwise everyone will tune out.)
Once I attended a conference in Santa Fe, NM and found that the man in line next to me as I boarded the plane in San Diego, CA turned out to be my roommate in Santa Fe! He also was an executive at my largest client company. What if I had been a high-maintenance traveler and behaved obnoxiously that day? After all (I could have rationalized), I’m not at the meeting yet, so it won’t count. Wrong!
Time and again over 36 years of professional speaking I’ve found that people next to me as I traveled turned out to be in my audience at my destination. We are always on stage.
Here is a useful way to think about your meetings. Plan for the pre-meeting experience, the travel experience, the arrival experience, the participation in the event, the disconnecting and return travel experience, and the new behaviors back home. In other words, take responsibility for the entire experience and be intentional about facilitating the effects you desire. If it’s a new attitude then reinforce it in everything you do. If it is new behaviors then put tools, resources and measurements in place to assure new performance.
The more parts of the meeting you facilitate, the more successful your investment will become.
Jim Cathcart has addressed over 2,800 conventions and chaired scores of large and small events worldwide. In Dec. 2012 he was inducted into the Sales & Marketing Hall of Fame at a ceremony in London. He is past president of the National Speakers Association and the author of 16 books.
For information on how to book Steven Little for your next event, visit PremiereSpeakers.com/Jim_Cathcart.