One Minute Wins
Here’s a fun, rapid-fire way to share ideas and expertise from dozens of “experts” that works really well at the end of the day in a virtual (or in-person) event:
Select 20-30 attendees, experts, speakers, vendors, etc. who have something interesting to say, have a success story to share, or have solved a problem in a unique way.
Give each of them a minute — and no longer — to introduce their story, talk about the problem they solved, or to share their brilliant idea.
Once their minute is over (being merciless with a bell or a buzzer makes it more fun), tell everyone in the audience that the speaker will be “at table X” if anyone would like to learn more.
Introduce the next speaker, and so on, until all have had their one-minute time in the spotlight.
Then, move to breakout rooms* for the rest of the hour, with each of your “Experts” helming their own. In their breakout, they can elaborate on their story, share more about their idea, etc.
For the remainder of the hour, attendees can “hummingbird” their way from table-to-table, learning more from the experts most relevant to them.
At the end of the session, send everyone a list of the speakers (with their picture, in case people forgot names) and contact information so attendees can connect, follow up and learn more.
* This works best with a tool that allows attendees to move from room-to-room on their own. If you’ve got to manage the breakout room movement, bring the entire group back every 10 minutes or so and allow them to resort themselves into the next room they’d like to join.
A Better Keynote
Here's an "alternative" keynote format we've used at Filament that combines the best of TED Talks, conversational engagement, room for introverts and extroverts to think and process alike, and speaker-audience connection. It is lightly edited from its original form as posted in a Tweet-stream here.
Before the speaker begins, every audience member gets a virtual worksheet with room for notes, a place to doodle, and a few prompts like: What was the most compelling thing you heard? What did you disagree with? What would you like to know more about? etc.
On the agenda, the keynote still takes an hour (so it looks familiar to those too afraid of big changes), but it is broken down differently:
Minutes 1-15: Your “keynote” speaker gets 15 minutes to deliver their talk. Ideally, they’ll focus on making three (or fewer) key points. They can use slides if they want, but it is best to limit the number if you can.
Minutes 16 - 20: Once the speaker's 15 minutes are done, give everyone 5 minutes of silence to contemplate what they just heard and complete a worksheet with a handful of prompts. This is ridiculously hard for extroverts but loved by introverts. It is OK if some take out their phones, though only a few will. (Here’s a worksheet we’ve used).
Minutes 20 - 40: After the silent time is over, break out into small groups for 20 minutes so everyone can talk with one another about what they just heard, what they liked, etc. Ideally, they'll follow the framework from the worksheet, but it’s OK if they do a bit of networking, too. During this time, the speaker can move from breakout-to-breakout and engage one-on-one with audience members who have specific questions. However, each group’s key deliverable during this period is ONE question they'd collectively like to ask the speaker.
Minutes 41-60: Finally, for the last 20 minutes of your hour-long slot, each breakout group can ask a question* of the speaker. If you have a lot of breakouts, challenge them to submit their questions via the chat function for the speaker to answer later if they're able.
We've found this works much better than the traditional "sage on the stage" hour-long keynote. It is easier for the speakers, better for the audience, and more fun to boot! I hope you'll try it and let me know if it works for you.
* In case it’s not obvious, the reason each breakout group must ask a question collectively instead of allowing individual questions is to eliminate the long-winded, self-important audience member from asking their 5-minute, "I'm so smart, don't you agree?" question that bores the rest of the attendees to tears.