How to use scientific evidence to support attendee energy and boost your ROI
When we consider attendee energy—the capacity of an individual to be engaged, their real-time level of engagement and how long they’re able to keep it up—there are some must-know tips that should exist in every planner’s back pocket.
Armed with some insight into how attention spans work, what spikes people’s energy and what stifles it, planners can discover a more efficient way to do events; a formula, even, for ensuring that everyone involved gets the most bang for their buck.
Experts David T. Stevens, of Olympian Meeting and the Return on Wellness podcast, and Dr. Jess Garza, Ph.D., of Legacy Mindset, joined Smart Meetings in the recent webinar, “Elite Performance Tips for Managing Attendee Energy.” For a deep dive into the capacities of human energy and how planners can optimize it to improve event experiences across the board, you can view the webinar on demand. Plus, check out the recent white paper on attendee energy.
The bottom line? Stevens says, “[Attendees] are going to have a memorable experience regardless. It’s up to you if it’s going to be positive or not.”
Attention Span of a Goldfish: Fact or Fiction?
You’ve heard it before: Attendees want more breaks. The greatest challenge? You still only have three days, give or take. How can you meet this need without depriving attendees of the content they’ve come for?
Even if you’re giving attendees all the content they want, if they don’t have adequate time to rest and recharge, they are far less likely to retain the information.
The Forgetting Curve
Dr. Garza breaks down the attention span and retention into categorizable chunks of time. Typically, she says, “Immediately after you learn whatever the information is, you’re at 100% retention. Twenty minutes later, you’re at 60% [retention]. An hour later, 50%; a day later, 30%; a week later, 10%; and one month later, two to three percent.” This is called the forgetting curve, which occurs, Dr. Garza explains, because as we have new information constantly coming in, our brains are constantly assessing whether or not that information is relevant.
Optimizing Focus
However, there are some simple, often overlooked, elements that can slow forgetting. Elements that increase bottom-up focus—that is, the stimulus-driven aspect of a presentation—helps people feel more interested and develop an emotional stake in the presentation.
To amp up bottom-up focus, consider the quality of the speaker down to their tone, inflection and voice. “If the material or event feels very monotone, or there isn’t a lot of change in movement, bottom-up attention is being missed,” says Dr. Garza. If there isn’t enough stimulus coming from the presentation, essentially, it’s harder for people to maintain their top-down focus—intentional focus on the material.
With the technical understanding of attention spans in mind, how do you ensure attendees are getting all the information you can offer them, but also have enough time to take those much-needed breaks? Stevens says, “Cut the fluff.” He works with his executives and presenters to have an honest conversation about attention spans, and what elements of their presentation they want people to remember—and cut the rest.
So, do we really have the attention span of a goldfish? Definitely not. An audience’s attention span is determined by how engaging the material is and if individuals are able to establish an emotional connection to it. Planners can make a big difference by prepping their speakers on engagement techniques, being concise and creating an interesting story arc.
Read More: Bridging the Gap: The Key to Engaging Gen Z
Strategize with Circadian Rhythms
For the sake of maintaining your attention span throughout this story, let’s cut to the chase. What does that ideal agenda look like? Dr. Garza, an expert on performance psychology, mental readiness and emotional intelligence says to base it on circadian rhythms.
Being strategic with an event agenda that reflects how attendee energy fluctuates throughout the day maximizes impact.
Morning Alert Zone (MAZ)
9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Start Time. By beginning at 9:30 a.m., you give attendees time to wake up and prepare for their day however they choose, whether it’s with a workout or their personal morning routine.
9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Opening Keynote and Strategic Content. Because people have the highest alertness for deep learning and cognitive engagement at this time of day, this is the ideal time to place your keynote and strategic content. Hold activities that are both important and urgent.
11:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. Short Break to Restore Attention. Around 11:30 a.m., energy begins to dip. After absorbing all the content from the morning sessions, some time to reset helps get attendees in the zone for the remainder of the day.
Post-Prandial Dip (PD)
12 p.m. to 2 p.m. Lunch, Networking and Lunch-and-Learn Activities. Around 12:00 p.m., and until around 3:00 p.m., energy dips. After lunch, people are in a lower cognitive state, making this the ideal time for non-priority tasks. If people have to balance work while attending a conference, this is the best time for them to check emails and not contribute a lot of energy to problem solving.
2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Movement Break. People are at a lower state, cognitively, after a meal. Ever heard of the infamous “food coma”? Getting in some light activity, sunlight or a caffeine fix—or all of the above—can help boost the energy back up.
Wake Maintenance Zone (WMZ)
3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Active Engagement. After getting energy back up, hold more energizing panels, where there is more opportunity for conversations, creative brainstorming and social engagement. Leverage social energy spikes where people can feed off of each other. This is the time for activities that are important, but not urgent; or that are urgent, but not important.
5:00 p.m. to end of day. Networking and Socializing. Follow up the energizing panels and social engagement with your open network social events. Plus, with all that energy attendees will have when your agenda optimizes circadian rhythms, think of all the great content they’ll have to talk about!
Biologic Night (BN)
10 p.m. to 9 a.m. This is the time of day that attendees should be getting quality sleep. During sleep, short-term memory is converted into long-term memory, so an adequate night’s rest is crucial for retention.
Menus to Maximize Energy
What you feed people matters just as much as how you schedule the day. By considering circadian rhythms and menus that energize in tandem, you’re that much closer to holistically happy and energized attendees.
Protein: What’s the Point?
Protein in the morning makes a big difference. Some research supports that protein in the morning is particularly beneficial for people with ADHD.
Stevens explains, “Amino acids [the building blocks of protein] support your neurotransmitters, which helps maintain focus.…Not only does the protein help moderate your blood sugar, but it fuels your brain to pay attention.”
Starting the day with protein brings benefits for every attendee in optimizing attention and energy. But when it comes to ADHD, the benefits can be even more crucial. “If you’re spending $25,000 on a keynote speaker, and 25% of your audience is potentially on that spectrum, how important is it to have protein at that breakfast? Because if you don’t, you are potentially undermining a quarter of that spend,” says Stevens.
Yes, and…
For every meal, Stevens says, “It really comes down to giving people the ‘yes, and,’ options.”
Give people the opportunity to choose between a range of options. However, to encourage people to make choices that helps fuel attention and energy, Stevens recommends encouraging people to make food choices that will energize them by putting protein at the front of the buffet line. From there, have options follow in the order of veggies and salads, then starches and pastas, then desserts.
“You can leverage that to help people feel fuller longer and moderate their blood sugar, which then helps maintain that attention span,” he says.
Dr. Garza adds, “If we’re only focusing on a heavy carb load, that is where it leads to the blood sugar spikes and crashes, which naturally causes that afternoon slump.” Provide attendees with the options they need in order to have a balanced plate with lean proteins, whole grains and healthy fats, and avoid excess sugars. But don’t deny them of that cookie—if they’re filling up their plate with proteins and veggies, a cookie just might be in order! Not only will your attendees be energized for an outstanding event day; they’ll rate your event as one that truly demonstrated care for the whole person.
Read More: Food Rules to Effectively Navigate Your Meeting Menus
