In this episode, Clare Forestier discusses the importance of securing wider event team buy-in for the attendee-first concept. She emphasises the need to involve suppliers, speakers, and the emcee early in the event planning process to create a truly attendee-first event. Clare shares a story about a client who had to make expensive decision, highlighting the importance of tapping into the knowledge and expertise of all event team members.

Takeaways

• Securing wider event team buy-in is crucial for creating an attendee-first event.
• Involve suppliers, speakers, and the emcee early in the event planning process to tap into their knowledge and expertise.
• Get all event team members in a virtual room to share plans, objectives, and expectations, fostering a sense of ownership and collaboration.
• Collaborate with speakers to ensure interactive and attendee-centric presentations.

Ready to dive deeper? Download your free guide, five ways to elevate your attendee experience without breaking the bank HERE

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YOUTUBE

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tired of the same old same old at business events well this is not the same as last year the podcast

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where we blow up the boring and lead the charge into the attendee first era of business events

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I'm Clare Forestier a business event Emcee obsessed with transforming audiences from

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passive observers into Dynamic participants at events each week we'll challenge the conventions

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share actionable tips and hear from fellow event rebels who are mastering the engagement

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game imagine your attendees begging for more after your next event that's the magic of prioritising

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their experience ready to ditch the dull and create corporate events your audiences will

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rave about then you found your tribe join the movement welcome to not the same as last year

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hello and welcome to not the same as last year I'm Clare Forestier I'm a business event Emcee

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and I am obsessed with the idea of putting your attendees first our last episode we

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talked about how the future of imperson events really hinges on creating experiences that put

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the attendee first and how by focusing on their needs and delivering lasting impact you can really

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justify the environmental impact and keep people excited to attend in this episode I want to talk

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to you about securing wider event team buy-in for the attendee first concept now to clarify

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I'm not talking about your internal team or event organisers and juniors and so on I'm talking about

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your wider team the people that you will hire in for the life cycle of this event your suppliers

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those people that are probably outside your core team of staff now I'm A supplier I'm an emcee I

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get booked by a client or their event organiser to be the onstage host on the day of the event and I

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like all the suppliers you book need to really truly get your plans your objectives and feel

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part of a team working together and this needs to be put in place as early as possible in the

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event planning process you will not get a truly attendee first event together if if you don't get

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this piece right why well for one it is going to affect the way we plan to bring our things

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our specialness our gifts our whatever to your event and it's going to impact you getting the

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full value of the investment that you've made in us now be honest how often when organising

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an event do you think of all your suppliers and your contributors as a hive mind working

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holistically together to ensure a fabulous event for you now based on my years of doing this most

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people tend to silo all the different parts and the people working in your event telling them

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just what you think they need to know keeping them all separate from each other until the big

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day because you think it's just easier that way well you don't want to give them too much to do

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or put them off or whatever but more likely it's just because that's the way it's always been done

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right now I'll tell you a story a client of mine by chance in a call while we were waiting for her

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colleague to join us who was late um she let slip that she was really bamboozled just we're

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just chatting really but just I'm really oh I'm struggling with the world of event tech it's all

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a bit much and I'm I don't know who to sign with to kind of get the event tech that we're having

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for our event because it was a hybrid event and um I you know I'm just going to sign a

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deal with these people and they are these people are the most expensive players out there because

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they just it seemed easier and safer and I could see that they did everything and I just you know

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their website was clearer basically now I mentioned that I had some contacts that I

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knew that could actually give some really good information on the subject before she made the

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investment and after just one meeting with a contact I put her in touch with she was then

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so much more confident about this event tech world that she could then properly investigate the offer

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offerings that were on the market as well as the big expensive one and she actually then felt able

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to to hold off on this really originally pricey decision to try out a new product and save herself

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from blasting a huge portion of her budget on the unnecessary functions that were being offered by

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by the larger player now while obviously grateful she also said I didn't even think of asking

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my the emcee for that kind of advice it was just a throwaway in a conversation and the point is

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she's not alone we tend to silo people into the job titles they have and that's really limiting

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because we've all go to lots of different events as suppliers we see lots of different things we

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read lots of different things we listen to lots of different event podcasts like this one and

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I've seen other cases where clients are hiring in two or three different teams to provide different

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elements of their event without even checking if they could have all got it from one supplier and

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of course they've seen the opposite where they might be going for a one-stop-shop option but

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then they're actually also paying for services they don't need now if you're an event planner

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who's all over the tech and you know all about the platforms out there and all the new ways

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to engage audiences then you know shut me up tell me all you know but the chances are not everybody

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has time to know what's in the marketplace or what all the events are doing possibly you only

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organise one big event a year in your multifaceted role in your company and of course we do not know

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what we do not know so the hive mind of the team of suppliers you are contracting for your events

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and not only working in the pokey end of a lot of other events as I say have huge amounts of

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contact and knowledge and Industry awareness and they know this stuff or at least if they don't

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know it they'll know the right people to ask for you now it's sometimes the result of shortly times

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but often I am just not invited to meetings until after the agenda and the big decisions are wrapped

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up too tight to be unpicked and to make way for any clever ideas or make use of any great contacts

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I might bring to the table and hey I'm just the event host think how many of your suppliers also

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have these huge amounts of untapped knowledge that you're not hearing my advice get a room put your

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event suppliers your emcee, your AV teams your stage managers your coordinators in it get them

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all to meet of course a virtual room is fine and share your plans your hopes your dreams through

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the event with everyone there together make sure everyone knows the objectives how you want the

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attendee to feel what you want them to do at the end of the event all that kind of thing I speak

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obviously from the point of view of an emcee and I can tell you a call like this is so invaluable

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to help me understand the events overall setup the technical aspects the logistics

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also familiarity with me and my style and the plans you have for your Emcee are going to Aid

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you in smoothly coordinating transitions intros and onstage interactions all that kind of thing

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and this early collaboration really Fosters a shared sense of ownership by everyone at the

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meeting everyone feels really invested in the event success it leads to more creative more

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problem-solving environment now your speakers and your contributors are also part of the team so

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you need to get another room again Zoom is fine and you put your speakers and your contributors

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in it with your Emcee because they are still the hive mind and these contributors these speakers

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they need to know things like you want to make your event really attendee-centric and what that

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actually is going to mean and they need to know that before they start planning their presentation

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and run up with their 40 slides and their non-stop talk and two 3 minutes Q&A at the end so you don't

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want that anymore do you you want a proper attend first event now have you ever noticed how when you

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get on a plane you have a normal conversation with one of the flight attendant say and then when you

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are kind of in your seats and you're all strapped in and you're ready to go and they suddenly get

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onto the intercom to talk to the whole plane that really normal person you just spoke to suddenly

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has this super weird sing songy voice you know what I mean like ladies and gentlemen can you

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all take your seats can you when the light goes on you know that weird voice and it's a bit like

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most presentations you can have a really normal conversation with the speaker beforehand and then

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they're going to stand on stage and drone along to a series of slides and we easily fall into

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doing and saying what we've heard others do and I think in events we are really institutionalised

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into doing what's always been done so when you are actually going to ask your speakers to make things

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interactive and attending first you will need them to know exactly what you mean and you're going to

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possibly need to help them often I see speakers when they hear that we want to make it interactive

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thinking oh okay that's fine um after every three slides or so I'll just ask the audience if they've

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got any questions that's not enough and this is when the Emcee can help I really want to meet

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the contributors beforehand and then we can share ways that we can make the sessions more fun for

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the attendees to be honest you should always be putting your event speakers and contribute in a

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meeting together with your Emcee before an event if only to build rapport and trust and reduce

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blunders and glitches from misunderstandings it helps both of us to to do a better job me

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to personalise and tailor my interactions to align with each speaker's style knowing their expertise

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and the message they want to give is going to help me guide the questions and answers more

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effectively it helps me to introduce them in the right way but it also means I can actually make

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the session more interactive by potentially asking questions of the audience before during and after

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the session or cooking up a little scenario with the speaker to make things more fun I just want

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to address some potential concerns because I get you might feel hesitant to involve oil supplies

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too early on due to concerns about cost or information overload and I mean yes they're going

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to be individual supplies they're not part of your actual business you can't make them come to all

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the meetings you can't bombard them with loads of emails but I think it's easy to resolve if you are

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clear with them about your expectations you want to share with them that you want oil suppliers to

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feel part of the team that that's what you want your attendees to feel and therefore you need to

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be sure your wider team gets that same sense of belonging that way you won't be bombarding them

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with unnecessary information or demanding them to come to unnecessary Zoom calls but you are

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setting some expectations get them to me as early as possible in one online group meeting

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make introductions share people's emails and focus on obviously the essential points that you can all

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work on together then have a group document that you put information into that they can check in

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for updates you Le tell them every time there's an update but maybe a monthly reminder we've been

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doing lots more to our um event plan do have a look and see and see where you are where we are

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and where you could add some value or or make some suggestions now remember you might be really deep

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in your one big event and some of your issues and your problems are going to feel really thorny to

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you but if you're keeping in reasonable contact with your suppliers you are just being able to

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use their hive mind because they're able to take a step back see your issue in the landscape of all

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the events they work in and they may just have a really simple perfect solution and you didn't even

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know you had this problem so you need to share where you are you really need to keep your Emcee

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in the loop in exactly the same way because if you save it all right until the last minute and

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you give it to them I don't know 3 days before it's not a lot of time for them to have thought

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around the subject how they're going to script things and if they've got something else going on

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it just makes the whole thing very stressful and mad just before the event and again it's limiting

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the usefulness to you of your Emcee in the earlier days so get your Emcee to give you a meeting link

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that you can share with your speakers so they can all get a a session with her to chat through or

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here obviously to chat through stuff but if it's a panel get the panelists to All Join the same call

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that that's just sensible time saving so in this episode we have been exploring the importance of

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getting your entire event team everyone suppliers speakers your Emcee involved as early as possible

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in the planning process if you get everyone together early and you emphasise the approach

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you want to make hopefully the attendee-first one you can leverage the collective knowledge

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and experience of this really big team and this kind of collaborative approach allows you for

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um allows you to have better planning smoother execution and ultimately a more impactful and

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engaging event for your attendees which is surely what we all want and you will then

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as well be avoiding missed opportunities to make things better and last minute scrambles by having

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this open communication and early collaboration throughout the entire event life cycle so that's

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it for this week please join me for the next episode where we're going to be talking about

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the power of a clear objective when you want to have an attendee first event see you next

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time and there you have it I hope you're inspired to revolutionise the attendee experience at your

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next event ready to dive deeper download your free guide five ways to elevate your attendee

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experience without breaking the bank the link is in the show notes subscribe to not the same as

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last year podcast connect with me Clare Forestier on LinkedIn or visit my YouTube channel for even

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more tips and insights to make your events a hit with your attendees don't forget to leave a review

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wherever you get your podcasts your feedback is going to fuel my mission stay tuned next week for

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another episode packed with inspiring ideas and practical strategies to put your attendee first