In this episode of Event Experience by Bizzabo, host Rachel Moore welcomes back Will Curran, Bizzabo's brand ambassador, to discuss the evolving landscape of event networking, inclusivity, and attendee engagement. Will shares insights on improving hybrid event experiences, ensuring virtual attendees are not treated as second-class citizens, and the importance of designing events that cater to diverse interaction styles and needs. He emphasizes practical strategies such as making eye contact with virtual audiences, hiring skilled speakers, leveraging ambassadors to guide attendees, and creating multiple networking spaces tailored to different goals and personalities.
The conversation also explores the significance of energy management at events, the value of intentional networking environments, and the need for event planners to move beyond traditional approaches like relying on alcohol for socialization. Will and Rachel highlight the impact of thoughtful design, staff engagement, and clear communication in making all attendees feel included and energized. The episode concludes with actionable tips for event professionals to create more inclusive, engaging, and memorable experiences for both in-person and remote participants.
Here’s what you’ll hear about in this conversation:
Rachel Moore: Welcome to Event Experience by Bizzabo. The podcast where we bring the best and brightest event experience leaders together to share stories, tips, and lessons learned from creating some of the world's biggest events.
Rachel Moore: I'm Rachel Moore, your podcast host.
Rachel Moore: If you heard our recent episode recapping our webinar, the Future of Event Networking Smarter Matches, better Conversations. You'll recall today's guest and the insights he shared about improving audience experiences.
Rachel Moore: Will Curran, Bizzabo's brand ambassador is back with us today to expand on how networking has to improve in hybrid events, how speakers and staff engage with attendees, and how to help people navigate multiple networking spaces.
Rachel Moore: Where there's a Will, there's a way for a better event experience.
Rachel Moore: Welcome back to a new episode of Event Experience. We are the podcast bringing you all the smart people in the events industry and, uh, I'm bringing back a friend of the pod.
Rachel Moore: A friend of Bizzabo, he's not just a friend, he's the brand ambassador of Bizzabo. So this is gonna be a Bizzabo rich, a Bizzabo rich, uh, podcast episode, but also very events rich.
Rachel Moore: We're gonna talk about all the things and it's gonna be great, but, uh, I know I teased this out. He's the brand ambassador of Bizzabo. He leads the charge to bring Klik Smart Badges to the world of events.
Rachel Moore: If any of you listening have ever experienced a Klik Smart Badge, then you're gonna know exactly who I'm talking about.
Rachel Moore: Uh, he's also spent nearly two decades, people, shaping the future of events, working with global brands like Amazon, Google, Louis Vuitton, Warner Brothers, and even Uber to deliver transformative event experience.
Rachel Moore: We're about to make this experience transformative for you. I'm very pleased to welcome back to the pod, Will Curran.
Rachel Moore: Will, how are you doing?
Will Curran: I'm doing great, Rachel. It's so stoked to be here. You know me. I love dropping knowledge bombs and getting everyone excited about events and giving everybody the, the, the spike of caffeine through the ears that they didn't know they needed.
Rachel Moore: I love it. And also you are probably one of the only podcast guests I have on that can match me for a studio look. But exceed me. Nay. You exceed me.
Rachel Moore: And if anyone, we do have the video versions of these podcast on our YouTube channel, but you should definitely take a look at, uh, Will's setup.
Rachel Moore: You look like you are a part DJ, part event master. I think that's what you're going for.
Will Curran: You know exactly what I'm going for now, you know, I got the LEDs behind me. You have to be the Klik badges that are all lining up and yeah, like, uh, this is, this is the jam, this is the setup. I'm ready to, to bring the energy, whether it's through music, through knowledge, or, you know, just general excitement.
Rachel Moore: Awesome. Well, uh, we are generally excited to have you here and Will, first of all, this is not a new question to you because I've had you answer this before. In fact, On the webinar you were just on.
Rachel Moore: What are your favorite go-to on the ground event day shoes? 14 hours or more, what are you wearing?
Will Curran: Yeah, I, I think I've told you like, I do. The color branded shoes, I think was my answer. I will put this out there. I am looking for what my next pair of shoes are gonna be.
Will Curran: So, find me on LinkedIn. Tell me what to do. Everyone's been, tell me like, Hoka shoes are pretty amazing, but like, I look at their website and I'm like, too many choices, right? Like I get paradox of choice a hundred percent on there.
Will Curran: So like, I'm looking, I'm always looking for like the best thing. Like I think I may have talked about this on the, on the show, on the webinar. If those who know me know this, I, I want the best thing that can eek out, like 0.1% more happiness or a performance or whatever from it.
Will Curran: And you know, honestly shoes are just so complicated. It's such a personal relationship. But like if someone can say to me like, definitively, I have researched and tried a million different shoes and I've watched a million reviews on shoes. I will get, get this, I, I will, I'll just do it. I'll just literally send it, buy it, give it a try, and um, you know, if it doesn't work then I, uh, you know, figure it out.
Will Curran: But I'm looking for better shoes for sure. Especially 'cause I need to find myself a, uh, some new pair of shoes real soon.
Rachel Moore: We have to create the meeting between your dream pair of shoes and you, so.
Will Curran: Yes, exactly. Exactly.
Rachel Moore: Is there anything that you're watching, reading or listening to these days that you cannot put down, and it doesn't have to be events related?
Will Curran: Yeah.
Will Curran: I am constantly consuming movies. Tonight, uh, 28 Days Later, it's coming back into theaters for the first time and it's like impossible to find on any streaming services, and I've never seen it, believe it or not. And you gotta get ready for 28 years later. So, watching that.
Will Curran: Mission Impossible is the day after that. And we're gonna see Imax, you know, uh, opening. I'm a big movie buff. I, I haven't been reading as much. I'm looking to get, uh, books Palma. It's like an Android device with an ink display, so I can start reading on that versus my phone more often.
Will Curran: But I'll give a shout out to, um, uh, a non-obvious show, uh, that people need to check out called The Studio. Apple TV plus is an amazing streaming service. If you're not subscribed, if I got rid of all my streaming services. HBO Max would be hard to get rid of. 'Cause I, I love laughs of us and a few shows that are on HBO Max. I'm a DC comics nerd, right?
Will Curran: So I got, you know, it'd be hard to give that one up, but Apple TV plus I absolutely cannot give up. It's just got some of the best content and The Studio, is completely underrated right now.
Will Curran: Last of us is great, but The Studio is all about Seth Rogan's like a studio executive in the behind the scenes behind movies. And he's, uh, I'll give it a tease for one of the episodes. I think it's the second episode they do one called like the Woner, I think it's called or something.
Will Curran: And it's all about like one shot takes and the stress around shooting a long scene. That's a one shot. And what's amazing is that, uh, I'll give it away because it, I don't think it hurts it too much, is the entire episode is one single shot.
Rachel Moore: Oh my gosh.
Will Curran: And so, you get to see this amazingly complex, like seeing him moving around.
Will Curran: They're like, there's a point where like Seth Rogan gets hurt. And that's obviously planned and that's part of it. And I think that's an amazing thing. That's a Meta commentary on what it takes to do these really elaborate one shots.
Will Curran: And I think a lot of event people really like it for that aspect. It's also just hilarious. Uh, if you love movies you have to check it out. Honestly, I think, yeah, it's an incredible show I think that everyone needs to watch.
Rachel Moore: Well, now I'm fascinated. I, I've been very stinging, haven't done Apple TV but I think I might.
Will Curran: Ooh, best sci-fi. I'll give a rapid fire.
Will Curran: So, get Apple TV plus, uh, watch Silo. What's the other one? Dark Matter.
Will Curran: Obviously everyone loves Severance. I think Season Two is a little bit worse than Season One.
Will Curran: Um, Ted Lasso, I think the first two seasons are incredible. Third season really struggles, but like the Apple TV is one of the few ones that I can open up and just guarantee it's gonna be good.
Rachel Moore: Yeah, I've heard that too. And, and find, I think their, their marketing team's finally like, "Hey, we should tell people that our stuff is good."
Will Curran: Totally. Totally. And they're like, it's something like they're losing millions and millions of dollars from it. And I'm just like, please do not cancel this. Like, luckily Apple has, like compared to Google, um, no offense to anybody who, uh, is from those companies, but like Apple's very much like we're here for the long run and they'll see it through.
Will Curran: But, you know, I'm really excited 'cause like Silo alone is, uh, an amazing Sci-fi show and they just renewed it and said, we're for sure gonna finish the entire books in all the series and commit to that only after two seasons.
Will Curran: And I think a, a network that's willing to commit to say we will see this story completely through is what we need more than less of those shows that are like, and yeah, you get hooked on it and it gets canceled.
Rachel Moore: That's right. That's right. Or it's just a remake of something you already saw.
Will Curran: Oh my gosh. The, yeah, new IP, new properties too. Like let's, uh, let's all start to like pay and give money to anytime it's a brand new, fresh idea.
Will Curran: Especially, you know, let's book adaptations are great. I love what you're against Silo, but like if you know Mickey 17, if you didn't see it in theaters, like, let's celebrate these new ideas.
Will Curran: Let's celebrate risk.
Rachel Moore: Yes. I love that. Uh, again, mic drops all over the place. These are so good.
Rachel Moore: Is there a particular social post or a piece of media or even a hot take about events that you found interesting lately?
Will Curran: Oh man, I, I purposely don't have social media.
Will Curran: I'm on LinkedIn. You I'll confine me on LinkedIn. I try to stay as active as possible, but even then, like I really resist in a lot of ways. I try not to doom scroll through feeds.
Will Curran: I do do Reddit, um, which obviously is full of hot takes all the time. Um.
Will Curran: But for me, um, you know, I think probably where I'm seeing a lot of the hot takes right now, I don't, I think we may have talked about this in the past before, but I don't pay a hundred percent attention always what our industry is doing, which I look outside, so like right now I'm really focused on where AI is going and how this is all affecting it.
Will Curran: But what's really interesting I think right now is that we're in this like, agentic future of where potentially AI could be doing our tasks for us. And what I think is gonna be very, very interesting to see is, the hot take of like, what if they really, we see this future that we see is clearly, uh, we think is gonna happen.
Will Curran: What if it does actually happen? And what is our world gonna look like in a world where, uh, robotics, uh, and we train robots to do human actions, right? Where, uh, anything you could do on a computer screen can be automated. What does that look like for us? And I like to think to myself, what does that look like for events?
Will Curran: What, what kind of experiences do we want? If this day and age we're like collecting leads and doing sales, doesn't really matter anymore 'cause the robots are doing everything for us.
Will Curran: You know, what does that look like for a business event? And that that's where like, I like to look at what other people are saying in the AI space to understand like, how close are we to that and how are other industries reacting to that sort of world?
Will Curran: So, then that way I can apply it back to what we're doing. Yeah.
Rachel Moore: Super interesting. You're made my making my, my brain go, go wonky right now.
Will Curran: For sure. I think most reactions is like, I'm scared, dog. Yeah, yeah. Don't wanna think about it, but like, we have to be prepared if we wanna be six steps ahead.
Rachel Moore: Agreed. Dang! Will, all the mic drops going on here?
Rachel Moore: Not even asking just like, boom! boom!
Will Curran: Gotta get rid of, I gotta get rid of this boom arm so I can just drop the mic always over.
Rachel Moore: You're like, here's another one. Uh, very cheap mics. Very cheap mics. No, no. Uh, no They're too heavy.
Will Curran: No, no. Yeah. No expensive mics, these ones.
Rachel Moore: Right, well, I know I always do this, and again, you might be very familiar to a lot of our audience. But I gave you a super brief intro.
Rachel Moore: Tell us more about what it means to be the brand ambassador for Bizzabo. What does kind of, your day-to-day without entail?
Rachel Moore: What, what's, what's your jam with the, the whole gig for, uh, Bizzabo's brand ambassador?
Will Curran: Yeah. Yeah. Well, uh, you know, kind of coming off my tenure at Bizzabo where I spent a lot of time working on how do we get Klik in as many events as possible.
Will Curran: And, uh, you know, you mentioned a little bit about Klik. We can probably definitely talk about that at some point, for those who aren't familiar with it.
Will Curran: I'm gonna assume most people who probably listen to podcast have list familiar. If, if not, I think we did a past episode where we do dove deep onto it where you can go check it out.
Will Curran: But for me, like the big thing I'm trying to do is just beat the drum of how amazing this technology is. My, my goal is that I believe is as a technology that fundamentally can change and transform events, you know, and I'm not saying that in the hyperbole sense that like. "Oh yeah, like this, uh, audience engagement polling software is going to change your events."
Will Curran: Like, no, like I truly believe it's because I was a customer. I then worked so much time and energy onto it, and then now I'm just going out being the brand advocate essentially for it moving forward.
Will Curran: Especially as I, um, you know, am somebody who's been planning events and continues to plan very massive events moving forward, essentially saying like, look, this is how you can use these things.
Will Curran: And, you know, for, for those who, uh, who have been following me or heard of me before, you know that I also have very strong opinions on where the events industry are. And so, essentially what my job is, is that I just get to continue to do that as part of, uh, under the Bizzabo uh, uh, brand, essentially.
Rachel Moore: I love that you have strong opinions because we want those here. All of our audience have strong opinions. Our guests have strong opinions. And you know what, I appreciate you letting us know, kind of like you're beating the drum, uh, for Klik Smart Badges and, and you know, what, how you believe that technology can really continue to transform the events industry.
Rachel Moore: And I wanna clue our audience in. This is actually kind of a part two, if you will, from, uh, us featuring you, uh, along with some other panelists in a recent Bizzabo webinar.
Will Curran: Some awesome panelists.
Rachel Moore: Oh my gosh. And it was a great discussion.
Rachel Moore: So, for anyone who's not familiar, we did, uh, biz bbo just hosted a webinar recently. The Future of Event Networking, Smarter Matches, better Conversations.
Rachel Moore: Will, was, uh, one of the panelists on that.
Rachel Moore: And we're bringing you back onto here because, you know. Obviously in a webinar and, and you weren't the only panelist. We only have so much time to cover, um, and dig deep into some of these topics and questions. Uh, particularly about networking.
Rachel Moore: And so, really pleased to have you back on because we want to take this time now.
Rachel Moore: So, with that, I'd love to kick off with something that you brought up during the webinar. I think all of us are gonna be like "mm-hmm" at this phrase. 'Cause you, you brought up how virtual attendees at hybrid events can tend to be treated like second class citizens.
Will Curran: Oh yeah.
Rachel Moore: Oh my gosh. That all of us were like "uhhuh".
Rachel Moore: Yes. Can you expound on that for us?
Rachel Moore: And then possibly on ways that event planners can help avoid treating their attendees like that. Especially if they're doing hybrid events where you know you're gonna have people joining remotely.
Will Curran: Totally. Well, I mean, like I, I definitely immediately want to go to the, "how can you fix it?" Because I feel like we've all probably experienced it at some point. It's the feeling that like, you know, if you're, if you're attending a a, a, a webinar or virtual event, you kind of sit there and go, "Okay, why, why should I watch this live right now?"
Will Curran: Should I like, "Why don't I just watch the recording?"
Will Curran: Number one question I know, and I can tell there's an attendee ready to just get off this webinars. Is the recording gonna be available for later? And you know, if the answer, the answer is always yes, but if the answer is,
Will Curran: "Okay, great. I now want to tune out and check my email.'' You know, you know, there's something wrong going around in the design. Of your, your virtual and hybrid event.
Will Curran: I think, and as we start to lean towards hybrid too, it's this experience that you don't feel like you really want to be there. You feel like, okay, I'm just kind of like passively at getting this information. I think that maybe that passive description is probably the best thing to explain this is that you just feel like meh, like, I don't even know how to describe it. This is the boring feeling.
Will Curran: Um, and so like, I, I wanted to get into like the, the tactical, how do you do this? But let's start a very simple level, like making eye contact with the camera. If you're doing virtual, right, like we, we all try to make eye contact with the camera. We put our scripts up higher, right? Uh, we, uh, we, we try to make sure the windows of our chats are up higher. , But you know, when it comes to hybrid events, for example, there's so many times where we put cameras in the room and then you hire a speaker and then all they do is like, look at the people in the room.
Will Curran: And engage with them. And la when they, they laugh at a joke and you feel like, you're like, well, I'm just this fly on the wall. And that's not an experience that you want, you want somebody who will, is looking at the camera and talking straight to you. And then I think that bridges into something I personally try to do as a speaker.
Will Curran: And by the way, the way you solve that, it's called Tally lights. It's where the, the ca light lights up on top of every camera. So, the speaker always looks at, and it's also hiring speakers that are used to this sort of world the second piece of this, though, is the, the engagement that you need and that I, for example, I, if I'm speaking at a hybrid event, virtual event, I want the chat open. And in fact, the second the chat opens, I'm engaging with it.
Will Curran: Uh, obviously when I'm on stage, I don't have like a keyboard in front of me, but only reasons why I have this elaborate setup is that I want to be able to chat with people. So I'm literally, you can see it in the webinar actually. I am literally chatting as people are going along.
Will Curran: I'm replying to 'em. I'm liking their posts. I'm telling them that was a fire response. I'm saying hi to people. I want them to feel like I am here with you, and why is this live and why do I need to experience this?
Will Curran: And so, one way that you can do that for a hybrid event, uh, you know, when you're doing virtual, it's just simple. Have the chat open, have your keyboard work on trying to multitask and move back and forth. It does take a certain skill.
Will Curran: So, hire speakers who have that skill, I think is important.
Will Curran: But if you're doing a hybrid event, it means like, you know, this is something that really shocked me is how many hybrid events post COVID where I got hired and they go, yes, this is a hybrid event. Cool. Is there gonna be a monitor where I can see the chat?
Will Curran: And they go, no. And I'm like, "How do I know who these people are? How do I talk to them? How do, how," and just as simple as saying, "Hey Rachel, I see you out there" and Rachel goes, "Oh, oh, Will's paying attention to me. Maybe I should pay attention to him."
Will Curran: And I think that can go a very, very long way. And those are just very basic concepts that no one executes on.
Rachel Moore: I can attest to this. And also for anyone wondering, and again, you should go check out the webinar is available on demand. Big spoiler there, but uh, you can actually see in the webinar Will is doing exactly what he is talking about, where he's chatting as well. You know, because he's not talking every second.
Rachel Moore: Like, if we were doing the webinar right now or had a live chat, um, you'd probably talk chatting right now as I am responding.
Will Curran: Exactly. Yeah.
Rachel Moore: You're actively listening at the same time. Like you said, it is a very, it's like, uh, Liam Neeson. It is a very specific set of skills.
Will Curran: Sometimes it doesn't take a lot though, too Rach. Like, it, it, it,
Will Curran: Sometimes it's just as simple as saying I agree. Or just liking somebody's post or just saying, oh my gosh, I agree. Or, or, or just saying hi. Like, you don't have to like write out a de, I'm not writing out detailed, deep responses to this stuff.
Will Curran: I'm not writing a novel. That's where me talking is meant for. But just showing that I'm here and I see you and I make you feel heard. That's it. That's everything.
Rachel Moore: Well, and, and as you said, it takes that little bit more of effort. It can be very easy. And event planners, our audience out there when we're talking to you right now can be so easy to be like, yes, we're going to prioritize people in the room.
Rachel Moore: The speaker's gonna be looking at them, maybe occasionally making that eye contact to the camera, but go a step farther than that, knowing that, hey, the way that you know, that, that, uh, person joining remotely, is engaged is if they chat. If they are engaging or reacting or anything like that.
Rachel Moore: But it's really hard if you don't have a speaker or someone set up as a moderator to be, not only be, "Hey, we're reacting to you," but to then bring them into the room.
Rachel Moore: I've definitely been in that situation too. I had an opportunity at one point to. Be hosting on stage, a hybrid event. And it was very much that we actually, I think we even had a separate kind of a, what we call them, a hyper mod or something where they were like, they would join on the camera occasionally and say, here's what's going on in the chat.
Rachel Moore: So everybody felt like, "Hey, we're still part of this."
Rachel Moore: But does that take extra effort? Yes. Is it worth it? Yeah. 'cause you don't want that second, um, that second class citizen.
Rachel Moore It does take that extra effort to be able to bring in and make sure you're including everybody sitting at home. And Will, you made a great point. It is the easiest thing in the world. It's almost second nature to all of us to say, yep, I am mailing it in as an attendee because I'm remote.
Rachel Moore And 'cause the assumption is probably, and it's a fair assumption that the event planner and the event is going to treat you like, yep, that's perfectly fine. And instead you want them to be riveted.
Rachel Moore And I think just like you said, it's, it's really needs to be baked in from the very beginning. That hybrid doesn't have to mean that those remote uh, attendees are instantly lower class.
Will Curran Absolutely. Absolutely. And I'll give another tip to people too. Like, fake engagement, like to, to show people that like, "Hey, this is live, this is different." Is sometimes also really a, a secret key.
Will Curran Like, I can't tell you how many times I've been on a live stream where like, you know, for example, I'm waiting for everyone to log on and come in and I start reading comments from like a past live stream. To show like, "Hey, I'm reading something, something is there."
Will Curran "Hey John, it's great to see you." Like even if your employee's the only other one watching, like giving him a shout out and like I'm showing this engagement. I think can be really, really powerful.
Rachel Moore Agreed. Agreed. So just a few tips there, everybody, um, just to think about it and because I, you know, hybrid's around, you know, it's, it's not gonna go away. Obviously virtual's here in person's here, but, uh, you know, it's super key to give everybody that experience and that even your remote people are gonna love your event just as much as your in-person are.
Rachel Moore I wanna go into another topic we talked about on the webinar and this one who, there's so many aspects to it. We'll dig in.
Rachel Moore Um, inclusivity.
Will Curran Ooh.
Rachel Moore Networking can feel like, well that's automatically inclusive. 'cause we're trying to bring people, human beings together. It's just gonna happen. Just because of person to person connection.
Rachel Moore But we, you and I both know, and our audience knows that is not the case.
Rachel Moore What are some ways that you have experienced or, or even designed yourself, uh, to ensure that broader audiences and their different interaction styles and needs are being included as naturally as possible into an event?
Will Curran Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll, I'll use a great example from an event that's actually going on right now called C2 Montreal. Everyone's familiar with this event. I think that probably listens to this show. If you haven't yet, check out the event. It's absolutely incredible. And that was actually the first event where I experienced Klik, by the way.
Will Curran And so, this was like a, a game changing experience, reviewed so many different ways. But this was a great example of an event that solved for some, one of my biggest pains as an attendee, which is that I, I sometimes attend events, believe it or not. I think I may have mentioned this on a webinar that like I can be a little bit more introverted in this event I went to and I knew almost nobody there.
Will Curran I think I got invited by somebody who I knew pretty well, but he was very busy going off and doing his own thing. And I showed up at this event and didn't know anybody at all. And one of the cool things they designed is that they had these ambassadors that essentially what they did is they, they had tablets with your like attendee profile and everything like that.
Will Curran I'm pretty sure what happened is that you clicked your badge to it and then that's how they got all your information. But what was cool is I was assigned this very specific person, a very specific email of this person. I didn't really understand how to utilize this person at first, but when I got there and I kind of settled in and walked around a little bit, I was like, you know what? Lemme like reach out to this person.
Will Curran Or I think someone said, "Hey, have you met your ambassador yet?" And I was like, "Uh, no." And they're like, "Oh, let me go, like, ping them on the radio." And they came over and like, "Oh, Will, it's so great to meet you."
Will Curran And I think they were signed like maybe like 30, 40 attendees, you know, not like, it wasn't the point where I was like insanely, but I felt like I was getting this kind of VIP experience first of all.
Will Curran But what was great about it is they kind of used it as a chance to guide me in a way that tell me like, where should I go? What should, and they were the ones I think that first told me about brain dates. And I was like, oh, like let me go check out this brain dates thing. And that ended up being completely game changing for me. If you've ever experienced brain dates before.
Will Curran And so, my thoughts around networking and how can we design a more inclusive experience is that we have to recognize that a lot of people are coming into events and don't know anybody at all.
Will Curran You know, for those extroverted people who just literally could grab someone on the, the, the subway and would be inviting them to their wedding in five minutes, you know, like those people, you don't have to worry about, they thrive on this.
Will Curran But where you need a software is like the Me of the world where like I'm extroverted, I like talking to people, but I'm just introverted enough to not enjoy that experience and creates that friction.
Will Curran So, maybe, for example, you're doing your opening night, uh, social event as an example is, are very common. Instead of just being like, Hey, yeah, take the bus over and come over here and hope that God, you meet somebody and you know somebody, like maybe for example, having someone there who greets you, like sees you by name, knows who you are, and says. "Oh, Will. Okay, cool. Oh, I see that you're at this company."
Will Curran Like, you know, it's really great to meet you and maybe assigning your staff, somebody that can kind of guide someone in and bring them into the experience.
Will Curran And let's be honest, like you know who those people are because they usually, they walk in and they're like, their eyes are kind of darting all over the place. They're kind of like trying not to make eye contact with people, right?
Will Curran They're not sitting there already in a conversation as they're walking in the door, or they're not like B lining it straight in because they know where their friends are.
Will Curran They're usually like a little bit more nervous, let's say, and read those people and maybe bringing them in and saying like, "Oh, let me introduce you to someone." And sometimes it's just another staff member. Or sometimes it's just, you know, someone else that, that the organizer probably knows and can introduce 'em to just to create that initial spark and, and to make that person feel comfortable.
Will Curran Because sometimes that maybe that connection will be forever and amazing and super deep. But let's be honest, like sometimes you just need that like initial push that ends up helping.
Will Curran And I think that like in this day and age, to call it out like I think that, far too often do we require alcohol to be the kind of social lubricant, to be like, "Oh yeah, get your drinks, and then all of a sudden I become chatty."
Will Curran Well, I, let's be honest, like I'll say this, I'll say this as an attendee. I don't drink. And so, like, I'm not gonna go here and be like, "Oh yeah. Like I'm, all of a sudden I'm, I'm one beer in and all of a sudden I wanna talk to people."
Will Curran It's more so like I show up and if I can't start to have fun and have these things to do, and maybe for example, also, here's another idea. I'm all over the place a little bit right now, but creating an an activity that people can do, that doesn't require them. It's not just like, "Hey, put you in a room," or, "Hey, let, here's a dance floor and here's music and this is the thing to do, and hopefully you bond and make friends." But more so like maybe there's a game or maybe there's something.
Will Curran And sometimes those little interactions have you bump shoulders with somebody, figuratively, um, and you end up saying, "Oh, wow. Oh, you, you, you work at x, y, Z company. That's great." And then you end up talking and then continuing that conversation out of the, of that activity into the rest of the event.
Will Curran And I think those things that are very consciously designed for thinking about the fact that there are people out there that are like me, who seem extroverted, but really are introverted. I think we can create a more inclusive experience as well.
Will Curran And that, obviously, I think I talked about this on the webinar, but this doesn't even dive into the neurodivergent side of the audience. This doesn't dive into the, the people who are maybe more or afraid of social environments.
Will Curran Not just introverted, but like truly actually terrified to talk to other people. Like we need to be able to design for those experiences even more intentionally as well.
Rachel Moore Like we said, it is not to be pun intended here, but all inclusive of literally everything. It can be like, I, I am a very, a very extroverted person, but who knows if on the way to that event that morning, I fell on the pavement or something, twisted my ankle, and now I'm, I'm, you know, and I cracked my phone screen.
Rachel Moore So now, I'm like angry, and I've got all that going on in my brain and I'm thinking, "Oh God, I gotta go replace that"
Will Curran And you don't have your phone to retreat to when you need that. That like kind of that escape.
Rachel Moore It's just all there. I'm like, well, I'm, but I'm here and I'm here and I, you know, you come in. And so, every one of those interactions matters. Like you said, whether you've got like a dedicated ambassador that you set up to say, "Hey, I'm gonna approach you."
Rachel Moore I know you, act like I know you at least. And create that first familiarity touchpoint. But that can usher in the rest of the day. You really literally can make or break someone's, uh, event experience.
Rachel Moore Ha! I'm using all the puns here today 'cause that is the name of the podcast. I can't help myself, everyone. I can't.
Rachel Moore But you, you really can make or break their experience at your event if, if you at least give them some kind of that, that positive doesn't have to be major, doesn't have to be like, "Hey everybody, it's Will Curran. Let's all welcome him into the event and give applause or anything."
Will Curran Oh yeah. That might be more terrifying for some people than that.
Rachel Moore That would be the worst nightmare for us, one attendee versus another. But, like you said, just, just that little bit of effort can go such a long way. And then sometimes, yes, your attendees can then take care of each other.
Rachel Moore You're just helping bridge that gap out the gate and get things warmed up for them and, and that can make a big difference for them.
Will Curran Totally checking in with your attendees. I mean, just, you know, I think, uh, making it everybody's job just to make sure that everybody's having a good time. Do, do you need anything? Like, it's the idea that like we all hate to be called party planners, right?
Will Curran But we have to go back to the things that we would do if we were part planning a party.
Will Curran We bring together people who maybe don't know each other, you know what you always do is you just walk around, Hey, you guys doing okay? Do you need anything to drink?
Will Curran Do you, blah, blah, blah. Like, you know, just let me know. Like, and if you can't do that as an organizer, 'cause you're too busy doing X, Y, Z, whatever, million things, hats that we all have to wear, well hey.
Will Curran Maybe having someone on staff be that, or hiring someone to be that one that does the check-in. So, then if someone's like, you know, sitting on their phone in the couch for like a half an hour and you just see that they're like, not even a half an hour, five minutes, you see someone's on their phone, check in with a, "Hey, how you doing? Like, is there anything I can do?" Oh yeah, yeah. You know, I'm just like, do break.
Will Curran "Do you need me to introduce you to anybody? Is there anyone I can help connect? Who are you trying to meet?" You know, like making those things. 'Cause it's far too often we go, oh yeah. Like, no, I'm good. Everything's fine. Okay, then we move on. But reality like that, the, I'm good and moving on isn't what people are looking for.
Will Curran Now, if someone says, "Yeah, you know, honestly I'm just a little overwhelmed. I just meant talk to a lot of people. I need to check in on my daughter's at home."
Will Curran "Cool. Awesome. Well, uh, you know, you let me know if you need anything"
Will Curran And then just, 20 minutes later, circle back. Is that person still on their phone? Or you know, are they now immersed back into the event?
Rachel Moore Right. It can make a big difference, like you said. And, and, um, I, I actually, I'm gonna refer back to a couple of our last podcast episodes or previous podcast episodes.
Rachel Moore We actually did do, interview with, uh, one of my favorite event planners, Jessica Connolly, who's a friend of mine. She does that too.
Rachel Moore She'll, she'll walk around. She could easily stay back in a green room and just let the staff take care of it, but she likes to go around and just look and then just randomly ask people how their event's going. And they don't know that she's the person who's pulling all the strings in the background, but she wants to hear actively, like, how are you enjoying the event?
Rachel Moore And if sometimes they are really honest, she's like, that's good to know and, uh, but also gives them a face to talk to. And then we did do another episode. And I love that you brought up that alcohol does not have to be the catalyst for all networking of all types, like everybody's just gonna start chatting because now they're holding a, you know, a beverage in their hand.
Rachel Moore Um, and fortunately, thankfully as our, uh, prior episodes of revealed, there are the events industry is evolving beyond that.
Rachel Moore Sure, there's gonna be bars, cash bars, open bars, whatever. But there will also be options for people who are like, can I have tea? Or can I have
Will Curran Yes,
Rachel Moore Like a, an non-alcoholic beverage that is still tastes great and isn't just like a sugar high now that you're gonna make me bla, bla, bla? You know, it's, it, there are a number of ways to mitigate around that.
Rachel Moore And so, I really appreciate that you brought that up too, because that is. Can be something. All these things that we default to as event planners and like you said, go back to when you had to plan a little intimate dinner party and you need, it was your're on you to make sure everybody enjoyed themself.
Rachel Moore: We'll be right back with more event experience after the break.
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We're back with Will Curran to tackle the question of planning for multiple networking spaces in your event.
Will Curran Those things totally scale. And if, if you are not Jessica who can go around and talk to people, I bet you someone on your staff, you know, and let's say for example, you don't even have someone on your staff. I bet you have a friend who you could say, "Hey, I need you to come to my event and I need you to do this." Or there a partner.
Will Curran There's, you always know that one person who you put 'em in a room, and they become best friends with everybody.
Rachel Moore Yeah. Yep.
Will Curran All know those people. I'm, I'm thinking like McCall from Bizzabo right now. She like literally could talk to anybody and become best friends with them. And so like, McCall you that I, I would hire her in a second to be that person to go work the room.
Rachel Moore Absolutely. But everybody knows somebody. We've all got those people.
Will Curran Definitely.
Rachel Moore Well, Will let, let me ask you one other question though about, um, this can be a bit of a challenge.
Rachel Moore This also will be dependent upon the size of the event. So, one of the questions from our audience in the webinar was about when there's more than one networking space. So, maybe you do have an event where you've got. Multiple networking spaces for different segments of your audience.
Rachel Moore So, maybe you've got, uh, interest based connections, uh, in one spot, maybe some, uh, human resource activities over here. Maybe it's, you know, if you're doing different industries, supply and demands over here, etc.
Rachel Moore How do we navigate that when we've got multiple networking spaces and again, trying to make sure everybody's accomplishing this thing called networking?
Will Curran Yeah. Yeah. I actually think like the idea that there's, you're looking for something very specific in your networking is actually a really important part of the design, right?
Will Curran Like I think when people generally think of networking, I think the first thing that comes to mind is like sales, right? And let's be honest, like some people wanna network for other reasons other than just to be sold or to sell, right?
Will Curran Let's use this example. I'm no longer in this way, but some people might, is that like they might be looking for career progression. They want to meet more people from different companies in the hopes that someday when a job opens up at those companies, that they'll be considered for it, right?
Will Curran That is a completely different type of networking than, "Hey, I want to hear about your product and I want to be sold to." And let's be honest, like I think as much as we, we think that no one wants to be sold to, no one wants to have that environment.
Will Curran Sometimes there are times that we do need that, and I'll use myself as an example, is that like I love staying on top of the bleeding edge, and a lot of times I want to kind of know what's going on and I want to see everything.
Will Curran And so, you know, for me, someone's just doing a quick once around with the exhibit hall and kind of looking around and seeing like what's new can be very, very powerful for me because I need to know what that stuff is versus me being more on the career oriented side. Then there's a other type of total networking that we see happen too, which is some people really just wanna find friends.
Will Curran Let's be honest, like in this day and age, I'm getting older and so I'm realizing I, you know, and I apologize for anybody who's gonna totally be like, I know how old Will is because I've heard him speak before and you are not old Will. I hate you!
Will Curran Um, uh, but like I'm in pushing my third, mid thirties now, and we always make this joke that when you start hit your thirties, like making friends is hard.
Will Curran And I see it too, amongst when I meet new people how everyone's, there's a lot of people in my age group who are just trying to make friends. I think this is a thing that we think just naturally happens, but in reality, like we need to design specifically sometimes for that and have those different areas.
Will Curran I think physically making those separate is a great thing. Because as much as we have great technologies, and this is an example, I think when, you know, we can sometimes lie too much on technology is that, like, for example, Klik has the ability to make it where badges light up, um, different things and you can kind of like tell what people want.
Will Curran This is really great for this, but sometimes like really lit, like actually physically separating people to be able to, to, to give that space can be huge.
Will Curran Especially I'll give a, big firm jab of my knife into loud networking environments, right?
Will Curran And this is the problem too, when we just decide to put everyone in the same space, no matter, even if you don't have a DJ blasting music, please stop doing that. Put it, you know, make the dance floor separate. And, uh, as someone who loves blasting music and dancing, that most events where I'm attending for professional reasons, I don't want that.
Will Curran Or there's a loud band, obviously sometimes even more louder, or, you know, sometimes it's just about the room acoustics that makes it hard.
Will Curran And as somebody who talk about inclusive environments, is hard of hearing because I've gone to too many loud concerts in one lifetime. We need to recognize that networking doesn't get made easier when it's harder to hear the person that you need. So sometimes bringing into smaller spaces where it's quieter, can go even further.
Will Curran It's one reason why also, like, I, I like it for the meal networking aspect of things. Like, uh, the, if you've seen me speak recently in maybe the last like three, four or five, maybe six years, I feel like I've been ranting about this one forever, is that we need to, like my opinion for catering, push attendees to go offsite to eat lunches.
Will Curran As an example. And the reason why is 'cause like I've been there before. When you put a thousand attendees in round tables, you're six feet apart from each other. Good luck. I'm never gonna hear what's on the other side of that table.
Will Curran I can hear the person next to me, this person next to me, and maybe one other person, but that's gonna be so awkward for me. So like maybe pushing into smaller tables, more intimate lunches, more intimate meals together I think can be really, really powerful.
Will Curran So, um. Man, I went way off topic on this one, but like, you know, we, I think that physical spaces can be really powerful that, and then it also makes it easier for people to say like, look, if I'm looking for to meet someone based on this, then this is where Klik is super powerful, is like, I visually know where it is, and this case, I physically know where it is. And I can always count on this being the zone.
Will Curran Now the challenge with it though is that if you have a very, very big event, I might not ever know that space exists. And that's again, I think where concepts like the ambassador and stuff where you, if, if you have an event with a lot of complexity and you're pushing people into these like really unique situations, you really gotta make sure that you're guiding them.
Will Curran And in my opinion, just saying there's a map and good luck finding it. You know, it's more about making sure that everyone's aware of it.
Will Curran And I think like, uh, HubSpot's Inbound Conference did this really well. I think the first year that I went. I didn't know there was this whole zone that I, I think it was for HubSpot for Startups, and this was when I was first starting my company and I think I was part of HubSpot for Startups, and they were like, oh, we have this whole zone where you can go and talk to other people who have startups.
Will Curran And I was like, I had no idea this existed, right? And it was great because if it wasn't for that person pushing me towards that physical location, I would've never known.
Rachel Moore Right. Well, and that's, that's what's so key too, like you said, whether it's ambassadors or just having information, making sure people know, but letting them self select.
Rachel Moore And you're so right, too. This goes right back to what we were just talking about in the prior question about, you know, if you do put everyone at, you know, a round table that's among, you know, room full of like 19 other round tables and everybody's trying to yell across like, what about the person that doesn't wanna raise their voice? They don't ever raise their voice. Maybe they don't, that's just not how they communicate. But now, to even be a part of that conversation, they would have to. Well, they're not gonna do that.
Rachel Moore You know, they're, or if they do, they're gonna be feeling way outta their comfort zone, and they're gonna interact differently than they would if they were feeling natural. But instead of that, and maybe some people are really into that, they're like, no, I don't mind this, this is great. I love all this sensory input.
Rachel Moore But then, but you give, uh, people who are like, Nope, that's not my jam. Give them the option to go somewhere else where like, Hey, it's quieter, a little more intimate. But also if you wanna be quiet by yourself, that's great, but also there's other people who are into that as well.
Rachel Moore But you're, you're right. It's just, it's, it's gotta be about that awareness and being able to provide those different, um, avenues, the environments, but also facilitate that people can actually find those places where they know they belong.
Will Curran I'll drop a new idea on people's heads too for this one. Is that, a big problem with events, especially large conferences, is that it's about energy management. You know how many times we've, we've used the, I'm exhausted, I'm exes of marathon, not a sprint as an example for our industry, right?
Will Curran Like, and the thing is like, how can you as an organizer protect your attendees energy levels? And then in this case too, you're specifically your voice. How many times have you left a conference and your voice is just shot for like a couple days or whatever it may be? It's usually because you're having to yell, you're having to do things loudly.
Will Curran So, how can we design the event to make it so we don't have to do that? That you don't have to tell your attendees. It's up to you to control your energy levels, but more so how can I maybe make it like a, a slow build throughout.
Will Curran And, and I bring this harp, this back to like my DJ days, that like it was my job as the DJ that like you slowly go into it. You come out hard to build the energy real quick, to get them excited, but you don't go 1000% all the way through, but instead you go hard to get the energy going.
Will Curran Now you got their attention. Now you slowly build them up all the way to the end. So, they are using every little bit of energy, in this case I'm saying like completely deplete them in energy.
Will Curran That was my job as a DJ is to make you exhausted and sweaty at the end. But like as a conference, my goal is not to make it so, I leave going, I'm just so exhausted, uh, you know, I need to take a week off. It should be, I'm so energized now that I'm gonna get even more done than I've ever done before.
Rachel Moore That's right. That is key. And, uh, good luck to everybody.
Rachel Moore I appreciate that. And you know, if I would drop my mic, I would, you know, I don't wanna hurt my mic.
Will Curran If it wasn't attached to a mic arm, right?
Rachel Moore My boom arm there. But, uh, that was a mic drop moment.
Rachel Moore Thank you for bringing that in because it is at that energy management. That is going to be another topic we have to have you back, back on for.
Rachel Moore: Well, Easiest question of all, and this, this again, uh, alludes to earlier and everyone, once we know this information, please take your shoe recommendations the fourth with, uh, where can we find and follow you online Will?
Will Curran Easiest place is WillCurran.com, so just look at the title of this podcast. It's got my name in it. Just do that.com. Uh, that has all links to all the places where I am active on where you can reach me.
Will Curran As well as like, just if you wanna learn a little bit more about Will and what's my background, all that stuff is in there.
Will Curran Great ways to hire me for speaking, engagements, consulting, all that fun stuff. WillCurran.com is the place to be.
Rachel Moore: Thanks again to Will Curran for joining us on Event Experience, and thank you for listening.
Rachel Moore: If you're enjoying the show, we'd love to hear it. Connect with us on social and subscribe, rate and review us wherever you're listening. Also, don't forget to share the show with your colleagues and friends.
Rachel Moore: You can find transcripts of each episode and key takeaways on Bizzabo.com/podcast.
Rachel Moore: On behalf of the team, thank you.
Rachel Moore: We'll gather again soon for a new episode of Event Experience.
