E2: The Attendee’s Perspective: Getting an Accurate View with Joanne Dennison
Today’s guest is Joanne Dennison, a speaker and event planner that has traveled the world educating people. She started out as a college administrator and even then was busy planning events, then started her own small event planning firm, which evolved into speaking, writing, and advising masses on her strategies for 20 years now. Her secret is her passion for listening to other people’s viewpoints to find points of communication and agreement to know how to best serve the client and build ROI for both parties.
Let’s jump right in and learn how she is able to get you to understand and experience a different POV, by having you sit in the attendee’s chair and experiencing what they do.
[00:01 - 06:28] Opening Segment
I welcome and introduce Joanne Dennison
Joanne gives a bit of her background
Started as a college administrator
Always planning events
Started her own company
Began speaking and teaching
What people get out of Joanne’s engagements
Preparing people for the CMP exam
Known for her philosophies
Instruction and teaching from a different way of approach
Example of her philosophy
The educator at heart
CMP is not just a three-letter word
Teaching people to use their education to move their business forward
List makers
Detail-oriented teaching
Planning is a destiny, not a destination
Thinking of the event three years forward
[06:29 - 14:43] The Attendee is the Most Important Stakeholder
Joanne talks about planning events today for the future
The attendee’s needs
Register or be fired meetings
What should people do differently after they leave
The example of sales managers
Creating more ROI
Not the number of people, but the number of ROI
Joanne talks about bad event ideas and how to fix it
You can’t just make everything virtual
Get good presenters and you’ll have no problem
Reworking the budget
The problem of engagement expectation
Excellent meetings and events no matter what
[14:44 - 28:25] Be in the Attendees’ Chair
Joanne talks about the energy drop
How to engage in virtual meetings
Joanne gives advice about production enhancements
Examples of a virtual class Joanne gave
Relying on the team to fill the gaps
Seeing from the virtual attendee
A polished presentation
Consider re-allocating budget
Joanne’s views on pre-recorded speaking
Make sure it feels real
Live is always better
The attendee can watch recorded videos any time
Make recordings available later after the event
Have back-ups ready, but don’t let it be the main thing
Let things go wrong, it’s human
Using Avatars
We don’t need more non-people
We crave human faces
[28:26 - 35:27] Closing Segment
The value of human engagement
Creating ROI
Joanne’s thoughts on going back to face to face events
Keep quarantine and violations in mind
It’s not the meeting planners decision until q3 and q4 2021
Don’t feel bad for turning virtual
Joannes next CMP training class
November 17 - 20 (virtual)
How to register - links below
FAQ on Eventsquid Rego page
Final words
