Let Attendees Be Participants

I wrote a while ago about the issue with Social Media events being that they aren’t Social. The problems boiled down to two things: ego (speakers like to hear themselves talk) and ego (we love to say we heard ‘so and so’ speak).

These aren’t conducive to effective learning. Here’s why:

After 2 weeks, if attendees just hear talks they will only remember 20% of what they heard. But if you get them to discuss it immediately, they will remember 70% of what they say.

This research from Edgar Dale isn’t new – he did it back in ’69. But one thing is clear: the higher up the participation scale you go, the less broadcast you are, and the more social you become.

This means you have fewer attendees, and more participants. That’s the right trade-off.

People remember 20% of what they hear and 70% of what they say. We don’t let people say, because of our egos. We love our own voices too much.

Attendee-centric events let attendees say, and turn attendees into participants.

Let attendees be participants.