Working Smart

Double the Impact of
Your Next Convention
by Linda Goldman

The single most important event for most direct selling companies is their annual convention. Whether your audience numbers in the hundreds or thousands, or your program spans two days or an entire week, your meeting objectives probably include:

• Inspiring confidence and loyalty
• Rewarding high achievers
• Introducing new products
• Motivating your attendees to reach higher goals

An effective convention builds on the person-to-person connections that are so fundamental to the success of direct selling. However, when your attendees are seated in a ballroom, convention center or theatre and facing a stage, they become an audience, with heightened expectations. Given the significant resources that go into planning an annual convention, exceeding those expectations is crucial to achieving your objectives.

There are several strategies for increasing the Return on Investment of your next convention, including:

1. Evaluate the current
effectiveness of your conventions

Perhaps your company has developed a convention agenda that you repeat year after year, changing your themes and looks, assuming you're communicating in the most effective way. It may be time to take a fresh look.

Let's use post-convention sales as a barometer. There will inevitably be an increase in sales following a convention. However, much of that increase is attributable to the introduction of new compensation plans, incentives and products. How much more might sales increase if you use your convention to also strengthen the capabilities, loyalty and determination of your distributors? Simply seeing your distributors cheering at your event may not guarantee the desired outcomes.

Let's take a look at a top direct selling company's convention we were recently invited to observe: The bulk of the general sessions focused on recognition, which went on for so long that the ceremonies lost their intended effectiveness. So much time was occupied in processing people and distributing giveaways, little time was left for business-building strategies, and no time was allotted for testimonials from successful sales consultants.

Following the convention, we asked a random sampling of attendees their opinion. Some responded, "I didn't get my money's worth." When we queried further, we learned these attendees were measuring the worth of the convention by comparing their registration fee against the value of the free products distributed. Clearly, for these attendees the communication and messages were not valued.

Compare that to another successful direct seller's convention where there were no free products given away. Feedback from attendees? "Best convention ever!"

The difference? The attendees of the successful convention valued what they took away from the meeting-from pragmatic business-building tips to heartfelt inspiration-an outcome far more valuable than $75 or $100 worth of product.

Get feedback from your attendees about what worked and didn't work in the past. While your plans will not be solely based on attendee opinion, it is a good place to start. From there, consider engaging a professional to review past videotapes, scripts and agendas with a fresh eye to creating more impact where it counts.

2. Develop a strategy for your general sessions

While most companies think strategically about their marketing and product development, they may not plan their general sessions strategically.

One place to start is to ask yourself, "What do we want our attendees to take away from the meeting?" While the answer may at first seem obvious, delve deeper. Perhaps it is new knowledge. Or a clearer understanding, new competencies, trust, a greater sense of loyalty, determination, new behaviors.... The more specific you can be in identifying desired takeaways, the better.

Chances are you want your attendees to return home with a combination of tangibles (such as knowledge and skills) and intangibles (such as feelings of loyalty, confidence and determination).

Once you've identified the takeaways, you'll need to identify attendee preconceptions. You must first understand what your audience believes and where they stand before you can influence and motivate them. Identifying preconceptions can be accomplished through surveys, focus groups or informal polling.

Here's where you start strategizing. With a clear understanding of the desired takeaways and attendee preconceptions, you can begin to develop the general session elements. Toss a lot of balls in the air-from the sequence of presentations to the use of creative modules, to style and tone. What should be said when and by whom and in what manner? What might be introduced through dramatizations or musical numbers, and what works best at the lectern? What would benefit from introducing humor, and what would be catastrophic if humor were used? What needs to be built throughout, what needs repeating, what needs to be presented in different forms? What should be stated up front, and what should be reserved for later in the program? With the right strategy, you can transform your audiences with new knowledge and new, changed or reaffirmed attitudes.

3. Vary your presentation methods

There's a time and a place for speeches from a lectern. Used judiciously, a formal speech can be highly effective (think State of the Union). But often, presentations intended to inspire change or educate will fall flat when presented as a podium speech. Audience members' attention may drift, and retention, understanding and acceptance can be low.

As an antidote to talking-heads-at-the-lectern syndrome, consider providing more engaging and memorable experiences for audiences. Alternative methods of presentation are only limited by the imagination. Start by evaluating your presenters, then look at your thematic through-line and creative hook.

Assess the strengths and weaknesses of the key presenters and the most effective ways for them to deliver their messages. For instance, say you'd like a key employee with great technical expertise about your product to speak, but every time she makes a presentation she appears nervous and lost on stage. Consider reinventing her presentation to be a live, onstage interview, like you might see on TV. Using a company executive as the interviewer (or a professional actor), you can present your own talk show. It's amazing how much more at ease a topic expert will appear in an interview situation. No longer concerned about being left out there alone trying to recall the order of the presentation or reading stoically from a script, she can respond to prepared questions with confidence, enthusiasm and authority.

Further energize your presentations by tying them to your thematic through-line and creative hook. For example, you could take your audience through a typical daily routine, showing them newly discovered moments to introduce your company's opportunity and products to prospective buyers. Role-playing presentations can be staged-using actual sales distributors-in scenes at the supermarket, hair salon, health club, etc.

By adjusting your presentation methods, your audience will become more engaged, leading to more memorable experiences and greater acceptance and retention of your messages.

4. Take control of unwieldy recognition

Recognition plays a key role at conventions by rewarding those who have accomplished and showing others what can be attained. People are motivated by recognition. But when a seemingly endless number of people must be recognized with awards, or recognition occurs more than once during a convention, the challenge is to keep the ceremonies from appearing repetitious or monotonous, thereby losing their intended meaning.

Have you been to conventions where, once the recognition begins, throngs of attendees run for the rest rooms? Or people engage in conversation at their seats? Or awardees leave after their onstage recognition?

Start by looking at what part of the time given to recognition has no impact, or even negative impact-such as processing time-when nothing is happening on the stage or time is wasted between each recipient. This nonproductive time can be trimmed by carefully planning and staging the ceremonies. The result: Recipients enjoy the same amount of time on stage while the audience becomes more involved because the momentum builds.

Next, look at how the various recognition segments can be distinctive from each other, and how to scale them to reflect the relative importance of each type of achievement.

Also, look at eliminating redundancies. If recipients are recognized for a certain type of achievement on Day One, consider whether it is necessary or even beneficial to parade them again the next day.

Finally, put yourself in the recipients' shoes. Being herded backstage 30 minutes before their onstage appearance or waiting in line without a clear view of the stage may detract from the special moment.

Paying attention to these elements will reduce the duration of these awards while significantly increasing the desired impact. With careful direction and stage management, you, too, can enjoy well-paced and meaningful award ceremonies and gain valuable general-session time to reinforce your messages.

Linda Goldman, CMP, is Vice President of Harris Goldman Productions Inc., an award-winning strategic communications and event-production company, with a unique system to help clients build their businesses by increasing the ROI of meetings and events. To learn more strategies to increase the impact of your next convention, visit www.harrisgoldman.com.

Jump to: