Video · Event Strategy · Attendee Experience · Company Conferences · Event Planning
Design the Agenda for the Attendee, Not the Slots
Leadership has important things to say, and the event still needs room to breathe. The best agendas start from one question: what should attendees do differently when they leave?
Key Takeaways
- Design for the attendee experience, not for filling slots
- Protect the networking, receptions and moments where connection happens
- Decide the call to action before deciding the content
Transcript
When you are designing an event agenda, whether you are in the leadership team or planning the event, ask yourself this question. Are you designing this for the attendee experience or just filling the slots? The tension I often see is that the leadership team has important things to communicate and they absolutely should. The event planner, on the other hand, needs to protect the flow of the event, the breakout rooms, the networking sessions, the reception, the moments where true connection happens. The question isn't how much content do we deliver, it's what's the call to action? What do we want our attendees to do differently or what do we want them to take away from this event? That's what makes an event stick, not how much content we packed in but how we made the attendees feel. So the question is, what would you do better about your agenda next time when you put an event together?