When you have this kind of opportunity, it’s not enough just to have a great time. You need to take advantage of everything the event has to offer.
You don’t just want to be a passive audience member — you want to be an active participant.
Actually, there’s a whole lot you can do to completely prepare for — and get the most out of — your next event. The infographic below can provide some direction. It will tell you everything you need to know to prepare for any event:
Whether you’re unveiling the first round of logos to your clients, walking through a data analysis with your grant funder, or even aggrandizing your work experience on that crucial face-to-face job interview, coming across as confident, prepared, and engaging is just as important as the words coming out of your mouth. So how do you do that?
“Just imagine everyone in their underwear.”
No, don’t. That’s a joke, and a bad one at that. Instead, here there are some tips and tricks on how to be a good speaker, wherever you go:
This one seems easy. You just have to get there, wherever there is: the conference room, convention stage, classroom, etc. Always be at least 15 minutes early. This gives you time to find a mirror, check yourself out for a minute (or two, or three) and run through your presentation. Preparation is 90% of the battle with public speaking.
You also have to be mentally present. Be focused and relaxed. Breathe and focus on that exact moment. Use eye contact to check in with each audience member. Breathe…1…2…make eye contact…breathe…1…2…make eye contact. Keep that rhythm up and you’ll get through your slides in no time.
You can’t just take your notes and put them verbatim onto a slide to project onto a screen. Nobody wants to hear you read off the screen what he or she can just as well read along with you. Craft compelling infographics, charts, and PowerPoint presentations that can be used to spice up any presentation. Use more picture and graphics than text, and always properly credit your sources.
Not every presentation should be a two-way street, but when appropriate, ask questions to your audience. Make eye contact, single someone out, and have him or her answer a semi-rhetorical question to spring you into your next point. Breaking that presenter/audience barrier, even for a moment, keeps the energy up in the room and at the very least, forces everyone to pay attention to you lest you catch them off-guard and call them out in front of the rest of the group.
Because anything could happen—a presenter gets sick and you’re the next one up, or an impromptu donor pitch materializes in a seminar or networking event, and sometimes you’re tasked with putting on a show with little to no warning. This is where you really have to rely on being clear, concise, and confident.
As you begin, take a deep breath, set your intention, clear your head, and trust yourself. You should still have some knowledge of the subject matter. Probably not as much as you’d like, but that’s why you focus on the most salient points, and drive them home clearly. Other things to remember: eye contact, smile, and speak loud and clear.
Respond to any hard question by first identifying two solid points that you’ve already made, and then riff on a possible answer. No matter your circumstance, remember that to a degree, the information sells itself. Your job is to make the audience receptive to hearing it.
It’s certainly possible that you’ll have to field a question that you can’t answer, and that’s okay. An honest “I don’t know” is always better than a waffling, circuitous, non-answer. People see right through that.
Here are some go-tos when you are caught off-guard at a client presentation:
No matter the circumstances, prepared or not, the main thing that will help you present like a pro is to believe what you’re saying. No matter how many times you forget your place, get interrupted, or have to deal with technical snafus, leading with your heart as well as your mind will make you come across as genuine and honest.
Find your connection to whatever it is you’re talking about, remember to breathe, and trust yourself. You’re gonna do great!
Green events are now a hot trend, but environmentally sustainable events must become a standard requirement moving forward if we as an industry are to do our part in addressing this huge issue.
The greening of events can’t and must not simply be a trend; it must become a standard practice.
So instead of repeating what has already been said in many other places, let’s focus on six best practices for green events that you may not yet be familiar with but that will make a huge impact on reducing the carbon footprint of your events.
So what are carbon offsets? Basically, they are reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (namely CO2) taking place somewhere in the world that are subsequently translated into credits that can be purchased. One example of such a reduction would be the renewable energy generated by a wind farm that replaces energy generated by a coal-burning plant.
Such reductions are called carbon offsets, and these are quantified and sold in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents. So if you purchase 1 ton of carbon offset credits, you will have reduced 1 ton of CO2 emissions from being released into the environment. The money you spend on these credits essentially goes towards these carbon-reducing projects and programs and speeds our progress in permanently reducing carbon emissions.
You have a couple of options here. You can choose to offset the carbon footprint for your on-site event itself, or you can offset the carbon footprint of your on-site event as well as for the travel of each of your guests/attendees. The latter will be more costly, as guest/attendee travel has by far the biggest carbon impact of any event-related activity, so you may want to offset for your on-site event activities/practices and ask your guests/attendees to purchase their own carbon offset credits to help reduce their travel footprints.
Did you know that meat production generates 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions every year? In simpler terms, a half-pound hamburger that cooks down to a patty the size of two decks of cards releases as much CO2 as driving a 3000 pound vehicle almost 10 miles.
By reducing the meat portions in your event menus or altogether eliminating meat and substituting other protein options (like tofu, beans/lentils, seitan, etc.), you can considerably reduce your event’s carbon footprint and green up your event even more.
Granted, eliminating meat from menus may not be feasible for some events (especially if you are holding an event for the beef or pork industry), so in those cases you should seek out in-season, locally sourced meats and produce. This will reduce the transportation costs of these foods.
In addition, you can seek out food providers that package their foods with environmentally friendly and recyclable or reusable materials, and you can have any leftovers sent to a local food kitchen or homeless shelter and compost everything else.
A green event isn’t green without the involvement and participation of your event venue.
Today many venues offer recycling and composting options for you and your guests. However, truly green venues go much further than this, so when evaluating facilities for your green events, look for venues that:
As we discussed earlier, transportation is likely to have the biggest impact when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions generated by your event. This can extend to a number of areas – like transportation of food items and decor/flowers and on-site transportation – but the biggest transportation impact is the separate trips all your attendees make to the event itself.
The first step here is to locate your green event centrally so that the largest number of guests have the shortest distance to travel.
But the next thing you can do is to give your attendees incentives to share rides to the event or take direct flights (which are much more efficient than flights with connections).
You could offer special prizes or discounts to these guests who choose these greener options and partner with a sponsor to provide the gifts. You could even give priority seating, menu options or value-added programming to these guests as incentives.
Swag. Handouts. Gifts. Programs. Favors. Promo items. Gift bags. It’s amazing the amount of stuff we take home from events and never, ever use again. Eventually, most of it ends up in a landfill. When you think of all the energy it took to produce those items and the additional energy to dispose of them, it makes you shake your head.
So instead of handing out materials, opt for electronically distributing things like programs and guides for your event that people can load on their laptops, tablets and smartphones.
And instead of giving out another logo-emblazoned stress ball or post-it note dispenser, opt for giving out experiences or intangible-but-useful items instead, like tickets to movies or music shows, gift cards for local vendors or donations made by you on your guests’ behalf. If you must give out a physical object, give out items that are environmentally sustainable, like beeswax candles or small flower/herb pots.
Suits may look spiffy, but lots of dress clothes can also contribute to the carbon footprint of an event. Dry cleaning releases lots of greenhouse gases, as does having to lower the temperature of your event venue or guest rooms so that guests in dress clothes are comfortable.
By instituting a casual dress code that fits the seasonal climate, you can avoid the above measures and have a greener events.
Do you have any revolutionary sustainable event best practices of your own? Then add them to the comments below.