Our February NSA Chapter meeting was all about how to make our presentations more dynamic, engaging, easier to manage, so we can further differentiate ourselves in this new normal! We held a Hybrid meeting with about 20 folks in the room and 8 online. Followed by an excursion to The Orleans Theater, here in Las Vegas, for a private showing of the Wonder Woman 84 movie. A nice change of pace and another opportunity to socialize while sharing a COVID safe experience.
Warm Up:
- Tom Davidson gave our Spirt of Cavett message about how the NSA culture is like that of small towns – helping each other.
- Kathi Kulesza showed off her technological prowess with an overview of a highly engaging software platform, Mentimeter, that has doubled her training clients’ participation rates and helps her stand out from other trainers not utilizing these kinds of tools. We engaged with her as an audience does. Then she showed us the behind the scenes setup and usage. I recently started using this tool myself and immediately saw participation and satisfaction rates go up as well. If you weren’t there for the meeting, I highly recommend watching the recording if you are interested in an easy to use tool to increase audience participation.
The Main Event – “9 Lessons Learned from 150+ Virtual Keynotes – with Jay Baer”
- Our main speaker, Jay Bear, is way ahead of the curve for providing dynamic virtual presentations since 1993! People were still learning about the world wide web then and very skeptical. He proved his aptitude by successfully joining us virtually and giving us nine of his secrets for virtual success.
- Jay talked about the changing event planner and consumer buying patterns, their fears about this virtual world, and how to help them get comfortable that we ‘have their back’. Of course, that includes contract considerations, platform familiarity and preparedness, technology pros, cons, and checklists, and easily managing visuals, audio, and Q&As.
- Plus based on Jay’s ongoing conversations with those planners and clients, he told us about their key topic interests for 2021.
I noticed side conversations throughout the day was all about spreading technology knowledge with each other, thus further demonstrating inclusiveness, just what Tom Davidson shared that he loves so much about NSA.
If you missed us this month’s meeting, catch us in March, in-person or virtual, so you can mingle, learn, share and maximize your membership. See you next month.
Be Gutsy … PIVOT
Chrystina Katz, The Gutsy Pivoter