Imagine it’s the end of your virtual summit.
After all the time and effort you put into planning, everything has gone amazingly well.
What would that be like? What are people saying and doing now that the event is wrapping up?
Maybe, like a recent client of mine — a manager in a Fortune 100 company, who I worked with on a virtual summit for over 200 managers — you get to the end of the event, and everyone has smiles on their faces, and the chat is flooded with messages saying, “Thank you for making this fun!”
Best of all, in the coming days each participant goes on to implement one positive change from what they learned.
Take a moment to consider the ripple of transformation you have helped catalyze!
It’s a great vision, isn’t it? Who wouldn’t want to create an event that could be truly impactful for their team?
Yes, an energizing, motivating virtual summit is absolutely possible.
With some caveats…
I’ll tell you how you’re not going to achieve these kinds of results:
You’re not going to create an impactful, transformational event with a string of “talking head” lectures or panels. You may as well send folks a link to a YouTube playlist!
Connection Before Content
No matter how brilliant your speakers are, unless you’re mindfully connecting your participants, your event will come off as flat.
It is the connection that will help your event stand out.
It is the connection that will help your participants open up to learning.
“Without relatedness, no work can occur,” says Peter Block.
Contrary to popular assumptions, relatedness can happen in virtual settings.
What doesn’t work well in virtual settings is for relatedness to be left to chance. Virtual connections need to be tended even more mindfully than in-person ones.
“Connection before content” is always a good mantra, and even more important for virtual experiences.
Any virtual experience designer worth her or his salt will include a connection exercise within the first 10 minutes of your event, and weave additional moments of connection throughout the event.
If you want an event that people will rave about, connection has to come first.
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Interested to learn more? Message me to chat about how I can use my signature system to help your employees infuse connection, joy and delight into virtual meetings, trainings and events at your workplace.
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