Imagine two types of events: the company Christmas party and the quarterly mandated security awareness training.
We can guess which one you are looking forward to the most. We have all attended our fair share of impersonal or unexciting corporate events. But while teaching employees about cyber threats is crucial in maintaining a healthy security posture, keeping employees' attention during these events can be challenging.
Many companies seem to struggle when blending the enjoyment of a get-together, such as a celebration, with the educational aspect of a training or company meeting.
Finding the right balance between education and entertainment involves proper planning and the right tools to get the job done.
Here are four ways to plan an educational and entertaining corporate event:
1. Make it an Experience
Many presentations force the audience to sit as passive members. These types of presentations too often result in talks that are too long, too dull, and can rarely get any message across effectively.
Successful events bring the audience into the present moment, encouraging them to feel a part of the presentation. The right presenter will actively engage the audience with questions, activities, and other techniques. If an audience believes that they may be addressed, they are far more likely to provide their attention than zoning out or scrolling on their mobile devices.
2. Choose the Right Speaker
Choosing the right speaker for your audience can make or break your corporate event. Many organizations choose the route of an in-house speaker, but bringing in a "special guest" is more likely to grab your viewer's attention. Well-known industry experts provide value to any educational get-together while still keeping it exciting and entertaining.
While some speakers may excel at in-person events, their personalities may not shine through in a virtual event and vice versa. After determining whether the event will be in-person or virtual, determine whether the speaker you are considering specializes in one type of event or exceeds in both physical and virtual speaking engagements.
For virtual events, ensure that your speaker has the proper audio and visual capabilities to provide the highest quality. The virtual event participants should feel as if they are sitting in the same room as the speaker. Read more tips for booking a speaker for your virtual conference here.
Additionally, any speaker you hire for a corporate event should provide an entertaining and interesting story, which leads us to our next point.
3. Tell a Story
Stories are an excellent way to engage the audience. This is especially true if it's an interesting story! True stories with an introduction, climax, and resolution are like reading a great book or watching a movie. These stories will catch the listeners' attention and hold it while the educational content is delivered.
Look for a speaker who has perfected the art of storytelling while still providing educational content.
What better way to understand the risks of social engineering, hacking, and cyber threats than to hear a real-life story from someone who has lived on both sides of the legal spectrum?
4. Give Real-World Examples
When others tell us about possible threats, it's easy for us as humans to write them off and conclude that it would never happen to us. Using real-world examples is an excellent way to connect the audience with an idea.
Listeners may find similarities in the victims or the characters in the event and relate to them on some level. This creates a connection that helps drive a point home and forces the listener to better retain the information they have just received.
Choosing the Right Presenter
With COVID-19 cautions in 2020, many corporations are switching to virtual events. Here are 8 things to consider when booking a digital presenter.
Trust us, we know that finding the perfect blend of education and entertainment at your corporate event is never an easy task. That’s why we developed an informative guide to help you decide.
Hire the best cyber security speaker with confidence by downloading our free Choosing the Right Cyber Security Speaker guide.
