Psst... Don't Set the Tone for Another "Boring" Meeting!


I saw the above image on icanhascheezburger.com (a popular site dedicated to the internet phenomenon of "Lol Cats"--cats with often-misspelled captions that make you laugh out loud).

This poor captioned-kitty isn't alone in its feelings. In fact, around the internet--whether in advertising, cartoons, or lol cats, the joke is on meetings: corporate meetings are "boring". Period. Everyone "knows" it. It's ubiquitous and universal.

So when a company hosts a large meeting or event, they're already fighting against that preconceived notion which, by the way, has *plenty* of evidence to back up the perception.

You know what? Most corporate meetings ARE boring. Presenters are strung together one after another with little thought to the overall messaging. Presentations are given out of obligation--and without consideration for engaging the audience. (The goal shouldn't be just to present the information--which it often seems to be--but to actually present it so that audiences GET it.)

Changing your meeting from boring to effective is one task (and it's not so monumental as one might think), but how does one change that, "This meeting is going to be booooring" attitude BEFORE the event? It starts before attendees walk in the room, get on a plane or leave their homes.

  1. Pre-event materials that are fun and focused. Don't miss the opportunity to "market" your meeting--even if it's an internal audience. Send them pre-event reminders, building up excitement and making it clear that this will NOT be a typical meeting-as-usual.
  2. Pre-event videos. Record a clip of the keynote speaker, president, CEO, etc., previewing the event. In our case, if a company has used an AniMate in the past, we'll have the AniMate record the message conveying his/her excitement for the upcoming event.
  3. Pre-event buzz. Bring your event online. Create a website, if possible, detailing the event and providing a space for attendees to talk about it. You can also use social media outlets--like Facebook or Twitter--to get discussions going about what people want to take away, personally, from the upcoming meeting.
  4. Surveys and pre-work. Send out pre-meeting surveys, asking attendees what they'd like to see at the event. Even if presentations aren't flexible, these issues or questions can make the presentation more relevant for attendees. If necessary, there can be a special time dedicated to addressing key content, or a presentation can be swapped out for a more relevant one. You can even assign attendees pre-work that prepares them for the event at hand.
  5. Publish the Agenda. Distribute the agenda along with key take-aways. This prepares attendees for the learning that's about to occur in the event and also gets them thinking about how it will be relevant for them.
Of course, pre-event materials do only a fraction of the legwork in changing the perception of the event. The real proof is in the pudding--as they say--but get the audience to expect something that is going to be different than the usual, and they'll be more receptive to your messaging from the get-go.

Now putting that change into effect once they get into the room (and immediately when they get in the room) is another list altogether.
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We're now on Facebook!

Live Spark has joined the ranks of millions on Facebook!

Become a fan, and you'll see extra pictures, updates and more, plus a feed from our blog and twitter pages. It's a one-stop place for Live Spark news and updates--along with trends and industry tools that we've spotted.

We look forward to seeing you there!
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Pecha Kucha in Practice

Recently, we talked about our excitement surrounding the concept of Pecha Kucha presentations.

Pecha Kucha (pronounced pa-cha-chka). Is a presentation format developed by Japanese architects who wanted to show off their work, but who were sick of the same old death-by-PowerPoint presentations.

Basically, a presenter is allowed 20 slides--20 seconds per slide--for a presentation total of 6m:40sec.

At first brush, this sounded like a wonderful idea. It limits the time and presentation space that presenters have in such a way that they have to be highly selective and highly visual in order to be effective. Or they *should* have to be selective, anyway.

Then we saw our first batch of Pecha Kucha presentations at a recent event.

While the concept is still a great one, in practice it fell far short of an effective presentation style.

Why was this?

Well, the presenters treated it like just another presentation--only shorter. This meant that there was the same visual clutter on the PowerPoint slides, the same slide-as-speech mentality, and--worst of all--the limited time did not seem to have an effect on the content focus. Instead of being short, concise and witty--as we envisioned a Pecha Kucha to be--they were meandering and--at some points--a bit schizophrenic in their direction. That, and there was still the ever-present sin of trying to cram as much information as possible into the presentation (only with limited time, you can imagine how well this worked out--talk about overload!).

It goes to show you that just because a presentation is short, does not mean it's engaging. And just because it's reduced in length does not make it concise. The presentations should have been laser-focused, but instead the presenters didn't really know what to do with the format, so they reverted back to presentation-as-usual (only crammed into 6 minutes and 40 seconds).

We're not saying it's their fault--most people are raised in business culture to think of presentations in one way; the way they've always been done and the way they always will be done--damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

So perhaps we just need to refine the Pecha Kucha in order to make it a more effective presentation tool...

...or perhaps we still need to look at presentations differently. Not as vehicles for information delivery, but as vehicles of communication. More on that later.
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A little bit of Funny...

The Onion consistently amuses us for various appropriate and inappropriate reasons.

We thought this was too funny not to share:

Wow Factor Added to Corporate Presentation

It makes us think about what *really* adds a "wow factor" to a presentation...interaction, simplicity, engagement, stories...perhaps not just the bullet points. :)
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Behind the Scenes: Engine Eddie

Here's an exclusive peek behind the scenes of one of our characters. Engine Eddie was a creation of Briggs & Stratton. He was interviewed by multiple morning news broadcasts live, giving tips on lawn care, and directing people to the Briggs & Stratton site.

This is a bit different from a normal AniMate setup, since it was a Satellite Media Tour, but it's still neat to see the voice behind the character.

Engine Eddie Behind the Scenes
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PowerPoint Pecha Kucha

While working on an event highlighting best practices for meeting planners, we stumbled upon something different.

"Then they'll do their Pecha Kucha presentations," said one of the creative directors.

The what now?

Pecha Kucha (pronounced pa-cha-chka). It's a presentation format developed by Japanese architects who wanted to show off their work, but who were sick of the same old death-by-PowerPoint presentations.

Basically, a presenter is allowed 20 slides--20 seconds per slide--for a presentation total of 6m:40sec.

We kind of love the idea.

Obviously, it's not going to work for all content and all presentations, but the concept is great.

  • Because there are only 20 seconds alotted per slide, slides have to be very graphically heavy.
  • Simplicity is key--there are no eye-chart graphs, because you can't absorb that in 20 seconds.
  • The rapid-fire format is a break from the norm, and has the potential to be incredibly engaging.
  • There's something *different* and catchy every 20 seconds, continually reinaging the brain.
  • It forces presenters to pare down their information into the most critical bits.
Now, we could see where an entire day of Pecha Kucha presentations would be very wearisome (and also overwhelming), but in small doses--or as a stand-out presentation--we think it's a fabulous idea. It's something we'll definitely explore trying/recommending in the future.
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Follow Us on Twitter!

We've been Twitterpated (to use a line from the movie "Bambi").

Live Spark is now on Twitter.

We'll be posting exclusive updates on projects, news pieces, tips and more--all in 140 glorious characters.

To follow us on Twitter, click here:

www.twitter.com/live_spark
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AllPlay Web: Curing the Common Webinar


Live Spark
has redesigned a lot of events over the years. When the economy started turning down, however, events followed; a result of travel budgets decreasing on a great scale.

Not to worry, however. Live Spark doesn't really specialize in *events* exclusively (though we make a huge impact in that space). No, what we've always been concerned about is presentation; finding ways to communicate information in a more efficient, interactive, effective way, ensuring that MORE of the crucial points are retained by the intended audience.

So when live, face-to-face events started being supplemented or replaced by webinars--or web conferencing--we found a niche where we could also make a difference. After all--what is a webinar but a presentation?

What we found was that a lot of webinar hosts were making the same mistakes in a webinar as they were in their face-to-face presentations. There was PowerPoint--and how!--very little interaction, and no call to action, review or accountability.

But a webinar--more than anything--cannot be a presentation as usual. Attendees aren't in an event space--eyes dutifully turned towards the stage and away from their Blackberries because they hold a sense of obligation to look like they're paying attention. They're in front of their own computers with the great, powerful and endlessly diverting internet in front of them. With email! And games! And... well, one gets the idea. There is no way to ensure that they're paying attention.

The need to engage webinar attendees is greater than ever. They need interaction. They need accountability. They need measurability. They need feedback. They need camraderie. They need...competition and fun and engagement and...and... and....

They need AllPlay Web.

Developed by Live Spark's sister company--LearningWare--AllPlay Web allows you to engage every webinar attendee with an online game show experience.

· Each webinar attendee participates using their own onscreen keypad.

· Individual player results are tracked for accountability and analysis.

· Works with every Webinar provider: Webex, Gotomeeting, Elluminate, etc.

It's a great resource that we've begun to utilize in re-designing our client's webinars to be brain-based, interactive and anything BUT a presentation as usual.

If you’re conducting webinars, you must check this out.

Watch a video here:

Or go to www.learningware.com and sign up for a webinar to see it in action.
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Millennials and Team Competition

Often times in the strategic re-design of an event, we'll break the audience out into teams. This creates accountability during the meeting, engages participants, and allows for smaller breakouts and peer interaction.

Team interaction transcends generational boundaries, but we're finding that it's particularly good for the Millennial generation. (And if you want to start a hot debate in your workplace, start talking Millennial--those born after 1982--entering the workforce.)

But wait! We've spoken before about how Millennials are not the only generational group that needs to be engaged. Generations shouldn't matter--everyone needs to interact!

This is still true, but recent research has discovered something particularly unique to Millennials:

The love to collaborate.

Positive or negative, collaboration is the lifeblood of the Millennial generation. They grew up working in teams and getting constant feedback from teachers, parents and peers.

So at your next event, instead of sitting everyone down theater-style, put them in rounds and get them to start collaborating. Not only is it good interaction for everyone, but the Millennials in particular will thank you for it.
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PowerPoint Pitfalls

We love this video--it's a humorous take on PowerPoint mistakes, and I think every person who has ever been through a PowerPoint presentation can relate:



It may not hit on all of the PowerPoint pitfalls, but it highlights some of the most prevalent.

PowerPoint is a *great* tool, don't get us wrong, but it's easy to turn it from a tool to a weapon (the latter being used to bore people into a comatose state instead of highlighting key points).

With that in mind, over the next few weeks, we'll be starting another blog series--similar to the 7 Truths. So get ready for the Top Deadly PowerPoint Mistakes (and how to fix them!).
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