Over the last 6 months, my team and I have been having a blast immersing ourselves in the world of digital-first conferences and how to make them engaging for our audience. We are applying a lot of the lessons we learned from HashiConf Digital in June (recap video) to our upcoming digital conference in October.
We found that the emcee role becomes even more important in a digital format. It falls on emcees to create a fun, engaging, and flowing atmosphere throughout the event. They are the first people the audience will be introduced to, they help set the tone for the entire event, they queue in each presentation, they run speaker Q&A sessions, handle technical difficulties when they arise like a speaker’s WiFi going down, and so much more! 😅 A big thank you to Domi and Rob for being our beta testers and for absolutely crushing the emcee role.
As we hold auditions for the role this week, I thought it would be helpful to share our findings on the skillset needed to tackle this important role.
Digital Event Emcee Skillset
- Ability to follow a script without looking like you are reading it.
- Since this is a live broadcast, think nightly news TV show, there will be someone talking in your ear giving you cues. You have to be able to hear them without reacting or losing your train of thought. *This seemed to be one of the most challenging tasks.
- Be able to think of your feet and improvise on the spot when needed.
- Ability to stay high energy and physically engaged for a continuous period of time. Some shows go for 6–7 hours each day.
- Have a full breadth understanding of your company’s products and be able to speak to technical capabilities of all products. This is important for when you’re conducting speaker Q&A’s.
- Need to engage with the audience differently. As an emcee of a digital event, you won’t actually see your audience but you have to have the ability to look straight into the lens and reach everyone through the camera. You can also engage with them in fun ways on social media or through your conference platform features.
- Through a camera lens, your movements are much more noticeable. Things like swaying back and forth when you speak can takeaway from what you are saying or make you go off frame. Nodding your head constantly when reacting to something can be distracting.
- Finding an emceeing partner that you have great chemistry and banter with is a must.
- Lastly, the ability to have fun and be playful.
I’ll be publishing more findings and lessons learned about organizing digital-first conferences over the coming months.
