Transcript As organizations grow beyond 100 employees, town hall events are often used to deliver internal communications, quarterly sales meetings, and sales enablement events. This form of interaction is great to reach and engage with employees. Most importantly these forums are effective at driving alignment with priorities.  The Pandemic changed much of this - virtual events took hold. We now need to employ a hybrid model of in-person and online events to stay connected with employees and drive alignment with priorities. For many the level of employee engagement from these meetings has been impacted, putting in question the effectiveness of traditional forms of communications. How then do we keep everyone aligned to the company’s mission and goals?  We know that it takes repetitive attempts, as many as seven times, before concepts and narratives get through and are embraced by individuals. In-person forums are particularly effective for those that can read the audience. But when you’re faced with a hybrid of in-person and online interactions, engaging and connecting with your staff with video is the most compelling and effective way to deliver your narrative and connect with the audience. But for many it has been too much of a challenge to organize follow-ups, until now. If designed well, these drive higher retention and commitment and help you get more out of your budget. Planning and delivering video communications increases engagement when it matters the most. There are activities and steps that can be done before, during, and after a company event that help increase its impact. Part 2 will address an approach to help you extend the reach of your narrative. ... Others in this series

Transcript Part 1 surfaced the challenges that most experience getting their communications reach the audience in a post-pandemic environment. Part 2 outlines how you can plan your delivery to extend the reach of your communications and narrative. Start by planning your event’s narrative with the end in mind. Identify what would you like participants to retain and act upon after they turn their attention back to their other activities. If the changes and actions you seek are to take hold, your call to action needs to be delivered repeatedly, in various forums, and amplified by others. Start by identifying the top 3 to 5 results you seek and who in the organization can be most effective at helping you drive these and deliver your narrative.  Structure your communications starting with the “why”. Convey the company’s purpose and the benefits you want your customers to obtain from your products and services. Next, identify the actions you want your leaders and teams to take. Convey this information and messages to your leadership team first. By warming up your leaders and getting their buy-in before your broader outreach you will improve the success of your communications. Be clear about your team’s role in delivering your message so that leaders can be effective at amplifying them. Identify 3 to 5 videos and presentations that will most effectively convey your purpose and goals, and deliver these to your leaders in person and online with recordings that you share to help them internalize your narrative. Collect earlier internal and voice-of-the-customer videos that support your desired outcomes and prepare yourself to create an inventory of these so that you can deliver them during and after the event. Make sure that the summary videos you collect and distribute align to your narrative. This content will help your team amplify your message during and after the event.  Keep in mind that most prefer short summaries more apt to be retained. Keeping the end in mind, what would you want the audience to remember a week or two after the event? Design for it up front. Part 3 will address how the video communications inventory you prepare for, during and after your events matter to drives engagement and retention. ... Others in this series

Transcript Parts 1 and 2 surfaced the challenges and planning of your communications. We close this series by describing the approach to extend the reach of your narrative for the audience that counts. Having set the context of event’s narrative you can now let your leaders and others deliver your message, convey goals, and your desired results. The inventory of video gathered before the event will help your leaders and presenters prepare and deliver these messages, those they have internalized and learned how to  deliver in their own voice. Short customer testimonials can effectively convey benefits and help connect your audience with outcomes. Taking the time to emphasize benefits and sharing it with attendees not only teaches them how to convey these, but extends this information to broader audiences not only during the event but also after. The effectiveness of your event should be measured by how well participants retain and are able to deliver and share the narrative well beyond the end of the event. This will depend on how well they are enabled and have the means to act on them. What happens in between your meetings? The 90 days following the event is an important time to maintain alignment with your priorities and drive engagement across the organization by leveraging storytelling. Have teams build an editorial calendar of content that can be shared across your organization and ecosystem. Deliver 90-second short stories that reenforce key messages using your pre-existing video inventory.  Bring in the voice of the customer and employees by providing them the means to create their own stories and share these with others that over time drives ownership and builds on the organization’s inventory of stories. Encourage the sharing of best practices, up-skill and cross selling content, and contribute to a knowledge network from the events you hold. More importantly encourage feedback and stories obtained from across the organization. Over time influencers, leaders and doers will start contributing to playlists of internal communications and sales enablement content all of which drives alignment and engagement with your priorities. Ask yourself what event attendees should have retained a week or two after the event. The inventory you prepare for, during and after the event matters. It drives engagement and retention. Thanks for your time.  ... Others in this series