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If there’s someone who truly knows the ins-and-outs of live events, it’s Phil Mershon. He’s the mastermind behind Social Media Marketing World, an event known for transcending the ordinary by blending immersive experiences with practical insights. He’s also the author of the new book Unforgettable: The Art and Science of Creating Memorable Experiences.
Zoetica founder Kami Huyse spoke with Phil during a recent livestream about how to create live events that aren’t just good, but great.
“The difference between a good and a great event is in the details,” says Phil. “If you had a 12-year-old daughter… you can teach her to bake a loaf of bread, you can give her the recipes, you can show her the process and with a little bit of oversight, it will be an edible loaf of bread. But it's not going to be unforgettable, it's not going to be memorable. You’ve got to put in yourproverbial 10,000 hours to become the artisan baker that can create that. So I think the secret really is in the details, but it's in knowing what details to pay attention to.”
Kami shares how she’s experienced this first-hand at Social Media Marketing World. “Coming to one of your events, I will just say that you roll out that experience from the first second people walk through the door. There's people greeting you, they're cheering you on actually, … and they're giving you the feeling that you are where you're supposed to be.”
A Great Event Starts at the Very Beginning
Phil notes that the atmosphere of an event starts at the very beginning when you first walk in the door. “If you're going to a dinner party, the host or hostess can set the tone for the rest of the evening by the way they greet you at the front door…. That first impression really does matter, so that's why I put a lot of focus on that.”
While Social Media Marketing World has anywhere from 2000-5000 attendees, smaller events benefit from offering top-notch experiences as well. “The process that you're thinking about is similar because you're thinking about these micro experiences that are setting the tone for the overall goal,” he says.
Placing emphasis on quality is important regardless of what kind of event you’re hosting. “If your event is a sales event and at the end of it you're going to be selling something, you obviously want people to stay till the end? If your goal is you're trying to make a big impact, you're trying to help people transform the way they think, the way a skill that they have, they also need to stay till the end, but they need to stay engaged,” he explains.“
Event Speakers Play an Important Role
Event speakers play an important role in an event’s success. “When someone walks into a room, the environment of that room is going to set the tone of how eager people are to learn and how set up they are to learn,” says Phil.
“A good speaker does a couple of things. They are well prepared with their content, they've rehearsed it, but more important than that is they've come to understand what the event is, who the people are attending, what [the event organizer’s] goals are,” he says.
From the organizer’s side, “if I can come support you and the goals that you have and serve you… a good speaker can tailor their content. They may give the same talk in essence, it may be 80 90% the same talk, but they might change up some examples. They're able to identify some people in the room. They've shown up early and met some people.” This in turn builds a connection with the audience. “If you know that the speaker has looked at you, you're gonna show up to their presentation.”
The Right Music Makes a Difference
Phil points out that an event’s tone is created through a variety of different things. One he finds particularly effective is the strategic use of music.
“I was talking to a friend… who's a punk rock label owner,” he shares. “If you walked into my event… and you heard punk rock when you walk through the door, it would startle you and you'd probably wonder, am I in the right place? If it was used at the right moment – let's say it took a familiar song, Take Me Home Country Roads, something that probably everyone knows, and it started out as the song that you know but then it moved into this kind of edgy punky kind of thing, it would get your attention and it would probably make you wonder what's going on.
“And that might be exactly what you want to happen right before a keynote that's going to introduce you to, though, that is going to take you to a different paradigm. So music can make you comfortable, it can also intentionally make you uncomfortable. Music can help you feel like you belong… we want you to feel like, ‘hey I belong here’.”
Whatever kind of music you choose, “you want to be thoughtful about how are you preparing people. Is the music you're playing going to distract them from what's happening or is it going to prepare them, is it going to compliment, is it going to put them to sleep?”
Facilitating Community Growth Through Events
Phil believes in the power of community. That’s why he tries to ensure that every event speaker or presenter connects with the audience. He hires MCs for keynotes, but where possible also for breakout sessions.
“We want people to feel connected,” he says.”We want the community to extend here. This Isn't just a place that you come sit passively and absorb. So, five to ten minutes before the sessions, the MCs goal is to start to engage the people in the room and say, ‘hey um you know the people next to you might be the very people that you came to meet. And I believe in the power of serendipity and so if you open your mouth and say hi, there's going to be someone in your sphere of connection that is the person that you came to meet, but if you don't ever talk to anyone you're not going to find them.”
The “Perfect” Live Event Doesn’t Exist
Aiming high is necessary, but the ‘perfect’ event doesn’t exist. Things can and do happen that you hadn’t anticipated. Being nimble in the face of imperfection will help you navigate out of difficult situations.
“No matter how well you plan, you need to have contingency plans. The events that look like they're perfectly run are run well because they have contingency plans for the contingency plans. They know that something is not going to go the way they thought it was going to go,” Phil says.
“You know a PA speaker is going to break, a microphone's going to break, … now someone's flight gets changed, they can't make it to the event, someone gets sick, they made it to the event but they're sick in their hotel room, they can't speak. There's all kinds of things that can go wrong that you've got to be ready for. The more that you prepare the better you can create a great experience.”
Phil’s Final Tips
1. Think through your event sequentially. Starting from the moment of arrival to departure and key moments in between, consider what could go wrong during the event and that would undermine its effectiveness.
2. Plan accordingly and have solutions in place.
3. If you’re an event producer, don't be afraid to hire a coach. The people who are top in their field have them, so don’t think you won’t benefit from one.
4. Coach your speakers. Help your speakers serve your audiences by sharing with speakers who the event audience will be, and what their interests and needs are.
To hear more from Phil, watch the livestream replay.