EP 32 How Successful Leaders Use Experience Design for Events and Meetings

What if you took the details of the most memorable experiences you’ve had and integrated that into work? How did that experience make you feel? What did you get through that experience? What is it that made you walk away and continue to share that experience with others? Inside this episode, we interviewed Experience Strategist and former head of VIP events at Cirque du Soleil, Carolene Méli. Carolene has traveled the globe creating and delivering VIP experiences and now she’s here to help leaders understand more about Experience design and tips for creating unbelievable experiences. On today’s podcast you will learn the four essential elements to create a successful and meaningful event, the one question to ask before planning any event, and the magic of a box of popcorn.To Create Incredible Experiences Ask Four QuestionsTo become better at experience design, leaders must ask four questions when they are planning experiences.Is it Personalized? Does it Create Connection and a Sense of Belonging?Is it Memorable? Will I Share this Experience with Others? Solve Problems With Low Effort, High ROI GesturesIn Cirque du Soleil, Carolene shared she was surprised by how many problems she could solve by offering a box of popcorn. It was how she quickly solved customer service problems by offering this small gesture. Offering a box of popcorn showed the customers that she cared about them and understood the issue, even if she couldn’t solve the problem. Often, the customers would come up and thank her for the box of popcorn after the show. Carolene explains that we tend to overthink solutions (internally and externally.) Offering a box of popcorn for her was incredibly cheap, but had a high impact for customer service solutions. As a leader of your team, what low effort, high ROI gestures can you make to help solve problems that show that you understand the issue even if you can’t solve the problem? This goes back to personalization. How can I get something across very quickly to my team? Examples to consider are using more personalized videos. Don’t overlook personalization when it comes to small gestures; this extends connection even further. What do you have to offer to your customers and employees to solve problems that are low effort, high ROI.Event Planning Tips:For leaders to become better at experience design, they should start planning events by leading through curiosity.Don’t focus on creating the experience that you want to create; rather, focus on creating the experience your attendees will want to create. The ideas in your strategy are going to come through your employees and teams. Your teams are the ones who know your customers better than you. Rely on them for improvement ideas. Create opportunities for conversations to happen naturally.What can you put in place in the event for conversations to happen naturally? When people walk into the event, how can you wow them with a conversation starter right away? Can you use food to open a conversation? Virtual Events: What questions can you present to the group that will create exciting conversations? How do you want them to feel at the end? For a more detailed summary, visit our blog. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Team Anywhere’s mission is to uncover Leaders on the Front Lines that are building teams and cultures where the majority of the workers are dispersed throughout the city, state, country, or world. We explore how these remote leaders foster engagement through trust, authenticity, and a sense of community. Ultimately, we are uncovering the new skills and practices that leaders must take on to connect, inspire, and transform their teams to compete in the new dispersed global economy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.