My blog focuses on Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. When you run a business of any kind one of the things you want to do is make your venture as remarkable as possible. The following contributed post is entitled, Interactive Ideas That Will Make Your Next Business Event Unforgettable.
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Business events have come a long way from the days of passive PPT presentations. Today’s attendees expect to get entertained from start to end. While they still expect entertainment to be part of the day, they are professional adults. So their goal in attending a business event is either to connect with similar professionals, learn more about their industry, or upgrade their current knowledge and solutions. So, it’s important to tailor entertainment to also support these goals.
What is the consequences of not planning interactive activities for your visitors? No matter how much you plan around presentations and product display, boredom is never far away. People who get bored tend to leave early, disengage, and not find any value in the event. It ties directly into keeping guests happy, which is one of the core pillars of successful event planning.
Interactivity fuels engagement and creates natural conversations and connections. In other words, when y u can make your business event interactive, you are both supporting your own objectives and the ones of your audience.
Quality Video Display
If there’s one thing that can instantly captivate visitors, it’s a strong visual presence. Everybody loves a video display, especially as it can become the main storytelling tool. When planning a corporate event, you can use the screen as an information hub, which can keep visitors in the loop, with info about the latest scheduled conferences, map of the event, regular industry updates, etc. You can also use it to showcase live social feeds and highlight products or speakers throughout the day. It can be used as a giant info platform.
So you want quality screen, such as LED video wall rentals by Bay Area Lighting and Sound, which provides a crisp and bright result, even in a large space. This is ideal for large, modular displays, so you can simply hire the scale you need for your event, without needing to invest in a permanent solution that may not fit all your corporate activities.
Live Polling Stations
Perhaps the best and fastest way to ensure attendees feel involved is to give them a voice. Live polling stations can allow guests to weigh in on industry questions or react to speaker topics in real time. It’s a simple concept, but it can be very effective, especially if organizers regularly review polls throughout the day.
Polling can be done in different ways, such as touchscreen kiosks or mobile apps. The benefit is that you can display the results on your event screen practically instantly. So, this definitely encourages active participation from your attendees.
This can also be a great way to gather insights about the event, as you can record what attendees care about and what topics receive the most engagement. Ultimately, it’s the kind of info you need to design successful events that keep people coming back year after year.
Interactive Product Demos
How compelling can you make a presentation? The answer is: Never enough. Presentations and conferences require a lot of attention from visitors. So, you want to make these as engaging and interactive as possible, especially if you are using them to introduce your products or services. There’s no way around it: It has to be engaging, memorable, and give visitors a first-hand experience.
What can it look like?
You could have a tech station where guests can test new software in a specific case scenario.
You could have a touch-and-try setup for consumer products. For things that are tough to bring with you, such as larger solutions, a guided VR experience could be a game-changer, taking people inside the product story.
The key focus here is to design an experience that gets people curious, either because they want to ask questions or they want to explore at their own pace. That’s why your product demos should create conversation naturally.
Digital Scavenger Hunts
How about encouraging your guests to explore the entire event space? Most visitors stick to a few stands or the main conference area. But if you start using digital scavenger hunts as a tool, you can get people to check the whole site.
Placing QR codes throughout the venue helps you create a guided adventure that encourages people to be curious about your story. Guests can scan codes to unlock clues, win prizes, or even access hidden content. Suddenly, your event goes from dull to engaging.
Over 40% of marketers use QR codes to create engagement at events. It makes sense as they are effortless and fast. Most people automatically scan a code with their phones, so participation is not only instantaneous but it is also not disruptive.
Besides, you can use scavenger hunts to direct guests toward areas or schedules that receive less interest. So, they are also an excellent tool to maximize the reach of your event.
Breakout Mini Workshops
Sometimes the most engaging moments at a business event happen in the smaller, more intimate spaces.
Breakout mini workshops offer guests a chance to dive into focused, hands-on activities that last just long enough to spark interest without being overwhelming. They are “micro learning experiences” that deliver value in 5 to 10 minutes. These are ideal for busy event days.
These sessions can be skill-based, creative, or exploratory.
You might offer quick tech walkthroughs, short brainstorming exercises, rapid-fire coaching sessions, hands-on demonstrations led by specialists, etc. The sky is basically the limit, and you can run the same micro sessions throughout the day; each station can have a specific set of workshops.
The structure is flexible, which makes it easy for attendees to jump in whenever they spot a session that interests them.
The beauty of mini workshops is the variety they bring to an event. They break up long stretches of sitting and create natural opportunities for networking and conversation.
People tend to remember the things that can help them, so that’s why dedicating 5 to 10 minutes to answering their questions or providing support to one of their issues can be a game-changer.
When considering what interactivity means for your visitors, you need to focus on activities that will deliver value to those visiting your events. It’s also important to appreciate that interactive ideas are designed to come on top of your regular conference and speaker schedule. It’s never a case of doing one or the other. You need both for a successful event.
