Separating A Good Conference Emcee from a Bad

Looking for a critical success factor of prominent and highly successful events?

It’s your ability to effectively engage attendees. Relate each content element back to the meeting design or goals. And of course have your attendees leave with a connection to those they met, the information and inspiration that was shared and the sustain the initiative long after they leave.

How can you help accomplish this? Engage an event or conference emcee with the skill set to accomplish this. The challenge is, many people, (including your boss I’m sure) think they are the person for the job. Therefore, here is some helpful advice on separating the good emcee’s from the bad.

Did your last conference emcee:

• Tell bad or off-colored jokes?
• Give you irrelevant personal stories?  I recently saw the an event emcee who told a story about going through a divorce, living in his parent’s basement and pulling himself up from his bootstraps to get where he was presently (ok, an inspirational element). Yet, this element had nothing to do with the conference theme, objective or last / next speaker – just white “inspirational” noise.
• Keep asking the audience repeatedly “How you doing today?” “Are you awake out there?” or “Are you loving this conference?”
• Seem rushed or unprepared?

While these are only a couple items, if you’ve experienced any of them, maybe you hired a inexperienced event emcee. Someone who might be a great public speaker or TV news personality, but could not transfer those skills to your brand, your conference content and most importantly resonate with your audience.

A Great Conference Emcee

Is an Extension of Your Brand

The right emcee will be the voice of your event and/or company. They have studied or been coached about the look and style of your organization. They are critical to the success of the event as they set the tone of the entire conference with the energy, engagement and entertainment. Additionally, the emcee maintains the continuity of the theme, content and confirms the reason why everyone is there and what we’re here to accomplish. Therefore, your event emcee must . . .

Know The Goals of Your Event!

They will work hard to help you achieve your goals by listening to each element of the event and tie it back to the desired outcomes in an effective way.

Is Chosen Early and is Part of the Process

While emceeing events, we learn a lot.  What works and what doesn’t based on the dynamics of your audience demographics. The earlier we are part of the process the better to support or give guidance on everything from the emotional flow of the event, to proper use of audio, lighting and stage blocking. Additionally, a good emcee understands who the presenters are and how they fit into the conference. At your discretion, they may suggest changing the order of presenters given their messages or even suggest alternative speakers if someone suddenly drops out or is determined to be the wrong fit for your event.

Is in “Shape”, a Great Communicator and Genuinely likes People

Since the event emcee is part of the conference from beginning to end, it is important that the person you select has the energy to keep going the entire time. (Emceeing a conference is the hardest and most exhausting thing that I do.) The emcee needs to be fully engaged during every session and listening for the right content as call-backs and reinforcements. This emcee should be available to network with other speakers before their presentation to learn about what they do and effectively summarize as part of the ‘outro’. And finally, the need to genuinely like people and network with attendees during breaks, off-site receptions or parties and be able to summarize these findings.

Ties the Venue to Event

Last week, I was the event emcee at Kalahari Resorts & Conventions (a first class water park and more). They were also a sponsor of the event and I wanted to highlight them in an unique way. With permission from the resort of course, I wanted to showcase that they are more than a world-class water park and highlight some other features.  So, in an afternoon, with an iPhone and a GoPro, I put together this:

In summary, a quality event emcee enhances your brand. Period. Your meeting should be exceptionally engaging and something to be remembered. Hiring the right emcee can help you achieve both!

About Jon Petz

Jon is an engagement expert and THE leading authority on engaging an audience with energy & entertainment in addition to relevant content and insight that meets the design of your meeting.

What is BORING costing you!?  Engage & Energize your audience!