Being less ‘phoney’
Andrew Klein, professional MC and presentation skills speaker and director of SPIKE Presentations, presents his front line observations on conferences in a regular feature in BEN.
I TOOK this photo the other day a minute before walking on stage to MC a conference. Back in pre-mobile phones days (for those who can recall those times!!!) conference delegates used to talk to the people sitting next to them during these ‘dead’ times, because, well, there was nothing else to do.
Back then you walked hesitantly into a conference room, found a seat, sat down and maybe had a very quick look at the conference handbook. After that we sat in our seats with little to do, so we often glanced at the person next to us and started up a conversation. There was little other alternative than to sit in the silence with our thoughts (something sadly our kids never do, but that’s a discussion for another time).
Nowadays we sit down, scroll through the Conference App on our phones for a minute before heading over to Facebook or Instagram or to check our emails. And we tend to stay on our phones until the lights go down and the conference opening video starts up or the MC takes the stage.
So as I recall things back in the day, at conferences there was by necessity, more networking, more informal learning from your peers, more face to face communication etc.
It’s now really up to the presenter or conference organiser to try to build opportunities for informal discussions and interactions amongst the attendees because many won’t do it on their own - as their phones allow them to disengage. Outside the conference room, on the fringes of every Exhibition floor, you’ll always find a bunch of solo people scrolling through their phones, because it is a convenient excuse not to talk to other people (we’ve all done it right?).
As a presenter or event organiser, anything you can do to encourage delegate discussions will help mean delegates make at least a handful of new contacts each conference.
As an MC I also sometimes put up light-hearted “Conversation Starters” onto the screen as a holding slide when people enter from a break. “Ask the person next to you which celebrity they had a crush on when they were younger?” or “Favourite holiday destination?” – really just something to break the ice and get a conversation started.
As MC, I also urge delegates to turn behind them in the coffee queue and chat with that person, to fill the time (some of those conference coffee queues are longer than the traffic jams on the M4 in Sydney).
Bottom line, the less “phoney” you are during conference breaks, the more connections you’ll make, the more networking you’ll do, the more you’ll get out of the conference.