How do some organizations take a 90-minute keynote from an annual event and turn it into an opportunity for teams to continue an elevated conversation and leverage what they’ve learned long after they’ve left the venue? The answer is easy! Send them home with something tangible!
In recent years we are seeing more and more companies expand on their annual or semi-annual events by either sending a keynote speaker’s book home with every audience member, or scheduling an in-depth, post-event training opportunity so that their team members can then do a deep-dive into the lessons learned from the stage.
What they’ve found? Higher retention. Stronger results. More collaboration. And an adoption of strategies and tools that dramatically increase productivity, profitability, and team retention – all at a very low cost per person.
With a book – like Mike Walsh’s new book, The Algorithmic Leader: How to Be Smart When Machines Are Smarter Than You or Dan Thurmon’s book, Off Balance on Purpose: Embrace Uncertainty and Create a Life You Love, event participants find they have a reference guide where they can take on learning at a new level, dog-ear their favorite passages, and use it as a springboard for round-table discussions during productivity meetings.
With a post event course or offering such as Mike Rayburn’s What If Challenge, orVinh Giang’s Creating Communication MAGIC workshop, team members fuel what they’ve learned already with a chance to interactively learn at a higher level with more connectivity, participation, and adoption of strategies because of the more one-on-one engagement.
We love events and conferences for the grand scale they often provide. A chance to network and connect outside of the work environment. To listen to amazing speakers and get drawn into themes that set the tone for tremendous change and personal and professional growth. To be part of an experience bigger than everyday business. It’s exciting and fun, and yes – sometimes exhausting.
Most keynotes speakers share with their audiences to just take what they can from their time together. Find a tidbit, a tool, a strategy, or a solution that they can take back after the event is over. Trying to retain it all is tough – almost impossible – despite rapid note-taking!
That’s why I love this strategy of layering the learning and taking the message home for audiences. It’s clever, powerful, and a small investment that turns into incredible returns for organizations.
