Remember Short Attention Span Theater? Jon Stewart’s first on-air gig, it ran from 1989-1994. The show’s fast-moving clips suggested that even 20+ years ago attentive audiences were already a thing of the past.
According to a recent study from Microsoft, people generally lose concentration after 8 seconds. Even the most skittish of goldfish have 9-second attention spans.
That’s right. T
hese days goldfish pay more attention than people do.
What does this mean for your meetings and events? For one thing, you’d better begin with the end in mind. For another, you need to think way outside the fishbowl to capture your audience’s fleeting attention – the same old same old ballroom and conference environments might not do the trick.
So how do you get your audience emotionally invested in what you are trying to communicate?
- Pick an unconventional setting. A local performance arts center, a history museum, an art gallery, warehouses, converted spaces, nightclubs for daytime events, rural settings for glam tented events.
- Choose the right visual and audio stimuli. Sharp, short video segments heavy on images and light on text. (Keep promo videos to a minute.) Presentations that move at a quick clip, TED Talk style. Interactive tools for audience engagement. Lighting that surprises as it sets the scene.
Create an intentional event design from the ground up. Ditch cookie cutter plans in favor of captivating, integrated audio and video experiences that attendees will long remember.
The right audio visual production partner is key to entertaining, engaging, and educating attendees in today’s Short Attention Span Theater. Promise your guests that you’ll use their time wisely, then give them a one-of-a-kind experience. And always make sure you deliver.