It’s not about you – are you really putting your audience first?
Building event engagement always begins with understanding the audience. This is so obvious, so instinctive, that we’re sometimes surprised when we read insight pieces about how to "understand your audience" – as if this is something new or innovative. After all, who makes a conscious decision to communicate without first thinking about who they’re talking to?
But in truth, it's not easy to build an audience profile. And even when you feel you do have a handle on your audience, thanks to things like segmentation models or Emotional Mapping (TFI Lodestar’s own preferred planning tool), it’s a big mistake to assume you have all the answers and can proceed directly to a nifty one-size-fits-all solution.
Events do invariably coalesce around a particular field, subject matter or theme, which helps narrow things down somewhat, but audiences are big, unwieldy, diverse, and the needs within that audience will vary hugely. That’s why most event programmes contain multiple concurrent subject streams.
If you’re trying to tailor something for someone, start by finding out what they want. Themes and clusters will emerge, commonalities of purpose and intent. From there, you can start sketching out the various streams and strands that will make your event more broadly effective.
Start with questions like:
Why are people coming to this event?
Do they want to be part of something bigger, and if so, can this event deliver that?
What do they want to belong to? A peer group? An elite? Something progressive?
Can this event help further career aspirations? Can it build connections? Can it foster the sharing of knowledge?
Do they want to engage actively? Do they want a platform?
That final question is particularly important. Most people do have something they want to say. They would love to be given a way to share their thoughts and be heard. Limiting opportunities for knowledge-sharing, the articulation of opinions, and leadership to just a core roster of speakers and sponsors creates a programme that silences most of your audience. Chances are, they want to be heard – not everyone travels halfway across the world just to sit in a dark room listening to others talk.
Remember, we’re trying to create an experience as multi-directional as possible, and finding answers to the big questions will help make that happen. It’s their experience we’re putting together, not ours. It’s not about us. It’s about them.
