Five ways to engage your audience with technology

Today’s workforce is growing farther apart – with the need for diversity in the workplace, companies are looking more to the international community to bring a variety of knowledge and experiences together for growth and success. In the meeting and planning industry, we are seeing a growing trend in the necessity of bring groups together from around the world and engage them to share information, but how do you keep everyone’s attention in a busy room? With the technological advancements of today, it’s in a business and planner’s best interest to use it to engage and interact with your audience to maximize engagement and knowledge retention, and these five options are ideal for helping make your event great.

1. Use polling and voting systems

There’s no easier way to keep your audience engaged than by giving them something to do. Polling and voting systems are great for checking in with your audience throughout presentations and meetings, and allowing them to offer personal insight in a large room full of people. Give each individual, table or a group a voting machine and tailor your presentations with opportunities for engagement and voting, such as opinion polling and knowledge checks.

2. Create power breaks

Utilization technology during your breaks will not only break the ice, but re-energize your audience when they return to their seats. Offer some fun break options, like Throw Yo’s interactive projection games or digital trivia through touch screens.

3. Make an interactive learning environment

With the use of projection and touch screen technology, create an interactive environment that requires your attendees to get up and moving. Have them move through stations with different interactive components that reinforce your meeting or event goals and knowledge.

4. Develop engaging visuals

There’s nothing worse than flipping through another boring presentation, but through engaging stage design and graphic visuals, you can guide your audience through learning and growth in a new way. Upgrading your presentation from flat slides to exciting platforms like Prezi makes your audience excited to see what’s coming next and how you flow through you lessons and ideas.

5. Get mobile

Everyone in today’s world are connected via mobile technology, whether it’s through smartphones or tablets, so engaging your audience in their own palms is a great way to start. Develop interactive apps with event information, push notifications, special information and interactive components to get them engaged in the event. These are a great option as well for polling your audience or sharing changes in information.

About the Author: Sarah Christian is the Marketing Manager leading the Midwest’s largest conference and events center to the forefront of planning and meetings. Based out of the Chicago suburbs, she brings years of conference and event experiences to the business, helping Q Center develop exciting new opportunities to engage clients and guests from around the world.