At Leadercast Women 2019, Connect witnessed some inspirational women speakers who had lots of takeaways on leadership. We also saw some great conference planning techniques, executed by Angie Ahrens, CMP, vice president of operations at Leadercast and Connect’s former senior director of events and meetings.
The conference is a one-day live event simulcast around the world. Many planners are concerned that if an event is livestreamed or offered digitally, fewer attendees will show up in-person. This has not proven true. In fact, Leadercast Women has doubled in size every year for the past three years.
From emcee Billy Boughey to the sessions’ structure to how lunch was served and music was utilized, Leadercast Women was a lesson in excellent event planning. Ahrens gave us the behind-the-scenes scoop.
Your host Billy Boughey was acting like a hype man while people were finding their seats. It felt kind of like, "Don't waste downtime. Program it!" Why was that important?
We do this because we are a live show. We want the broadcast audience to feel the energy from the room, so you need to ensure there is energy there. There is a reason why Cirque du Soleil does it too and why people love trailers before movies. It is additional content for the taking. It’s important because we want our attendees to be part of the show—to engage with it—versus being a spectator.
Music was used so much throughout the day. Why incorporate so much of it?
Music evokes emotion. Many people think of songs when they need it to get into a mood, i.e. the perfect workout song, the mellow music when you need a good cry, that “going out tonight” song with your friends that gets you in the mood for a good time. Our opening song was intentional because of the words that played directly to our theme: taking courage.
Music throughout the day was to keep the vibe and attendees moving, engaging. Billy was specifically using music to get energy back in the room—like when he played “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and had people on their feet clapping to get over that lunch break lull that happens. And that song was selected to match the theme as well.
Why do you have three 30-minute bursts of sessions and then a break, followed by three more 30-minute bursts?
Focused attention is short-lived in our world today. There is a reason why videos are short and to the point—you only have a few minutes, even seconds, to get and keep that attention. We want to give a lot of content, and that is easier done in shorter segments to a.) keep the energy alive and b.) keep the interest of the attendees.
You served Chick-fil-A bagged lunches and had staff handing them out with drinks to each person. Why choose grilled wraps? And what was the thought behind handing them out instead of laying them out?
We ordered grilled chicken wraps versus fried chicken sandwiches for a healthy option. It meets more of the dietary restrictions that are involved in planning. The vegetarian option was vegan intentionally to cover that need, and gluten-free wraps were easy to accommodate in the wrap form versus a fried sandwich. When you are feeding attendees of that size in a small restricted space, flow is important. People are also prone to grab multiple bottles of water and soda if it is free for the taking. Handing out drinks and bags not only helped flow, but kept us on consumption for food waste and cost.
We saw a couple of other cool activations like the nursing room. What else did we miss?
Yes, we had a room for nursing mothers. We also did group sessions with Dahlia+ for LinkedIn and offered complimentary headshots on our professional development floor. We paired sponsors and partners—like educational universities—on that floor as well so it was a wholistic approach.
