Living Up to Audience Expectations

Two friends were over for dinner on Saturday - one from the marketing world and another a cultural anthropologist. My marketing friend just got back from a conference in New York and commented on how intense all the attendees were. A shaky economic recovery will do that to you, I suspect. His point was that the mood at this conference, and I suspect most conferences these days, is one of impatience for anything that's not on point.

If it's not relevant, people tune out - zone out - and just disengage. Therein lies the challenge for those who plan events - making sure attendees find it worth their valuable time so they will come back again next year. That puts the pressure on speakers to deliver more - to tailor more - and to think about how they're going to engage the audience.

This isn't a new trend, goodness knows - it started back in the late 1990s as the Internet revolution got underway and started to empower customers in every industry and profession in brand news ways. The trend has intensified in this economic environment, that's for sure.

I know what we are doing to position a roster of talent that delivers more relevance than audiences expect. How has this trend changed the way you're running your business or planning your events?