Plan.Meet.Repeat January February 2019 Issue plan meet repeat jan feb 2019 | Page 8
Engaging the Audience - one
cool tool at a time
Y
ou’re booked! You’ve done your homework
about the organization. Mission, goals, values?
Yes, you’ve done your research. You’ve even asked
the questions about audience demographics. Perhaps
you were hired to inspire and motivate these
attendees. Or to educate them on the ethos of the
organization, its mission and objectives. Quite
possibly, you were hired as a keynote speaker and
your superpower is your ability to talk business
strategy. The client would like you to help the event
attendees understand the significance of what they do
and inspire them to do it better.
There are a million quotes about first impressions. But
what you need to remember is that first impressions
last. As helpful as all your research is and no matter
how many questions the event organizer answered,
you’re still the one – in front of the group – working
to capture and keep their attention. Don’t worry.
You’re going to be great!
We are living in a very fast age, where toys and
technology have forced us all to work a little bit
harder. These gadgets and apps - well, they are
supposed to make our lives easier. Alexa? She can
pretty much do anything we need, except maybe take
out the garbage. But give her time, I’m sure she’ll get
there. Portal from Facebook? Their tag line is “if you
can’t be there, feel there”. That’s about as warm and
fuzzy as long distance gets. I’m guilty! I rely on some
devices to make my days run smoother, but I’m not in
front of 400 meeting attendees, trying to make sure
they are enjoying and engaging in my presentation.
If you’ve started looking at the plethora of tech toys
and tools that are at your disposal, maybe your head
is spinning. Where it used to be enough to have great
content and a charismatic personality for presentation,
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Plan Meet Repeat Magazine Jan/Feb 2019
now you are expected to have Jetsons-like tools that
dazzle and keep them talking about it for months. But
first, you have to get their faces out of their
phones……or do you? Goodbye to passive audience
attention and say hello to the interactive experience.
Allow me to introduce you to SLI.DO – one of the most
user-friendly and analytical mobile audience
engagement tools. SLI.DO is an award-winning web-
based tool for meetings and events. And while it is not
necessarily new technology, its simplicity makes it an
ideal tool for presenters and attendees. Event owners
can create the platform effortlessly and the participants
can join on any device by logging in with their event
code. This software can integrate across PowerPoint
and Prezi, making it a very comfortable choice for
presentations.
By simply opening a web browser, navigating to the
event app and entering the specific code, audience
members are now interacting with presenter,
anonymously. This web-based application allows for
live Q & A through their device. No more standing in
a que at the microphone or waiting for someone to pass
a microphone through the audience to get audience
participation. This anonymous feature allows for more
open sharing and less shyness about public speaking.
The attendees can also participate in live polling, which
in my humble opinion, is one of the coolest trends to
come on the scene. Sure, it requires you to be much
more deft in your presentation, but as an attendee, its
pretty darn cool that what we share may have an impact
on where you’re taking your talk.