Key Events’ Heather Keenan chats with growth marketer Kate Connally on how a global pandemic has changed the way we market, on enhancing experiences in virtual and live events by giving communities the tools to engage, and on what we can learn from digital meetings to apply to future live events.
A moment for the acceleration of digital behavior… and feedback
Heather: During COVID-19 we were all sitting at our computers and the focus turned to everything happening online. How has that changed your world?
Kate: My world for the first 18 years of my career was really focused on getting people to recognize all the power of engagement they could get out of their screen. I’ve been able to extend some of my engagement disciplines from digital games to real-world activities because that’s where my heart and soul are.
It has been an incredible moment for the acceleration of digital behavior. I think in particular for vast numbers of people who’ve never done it [engaged digitally, socially and professionally] before, to be giving feedback to the companies on whether or not their experience works has been incredible.
On the winners of “the pivot”
Heather: Who has pivoted really well? Who is a winner there?
Kate: I would not have said they were a winner in March or April, but now they are: Google Meet.
At first, Zoom had the most accessible conferencing experience but Google Meet tightened up their user experience, which is something that you can do in a digital experience. You can turn it very, very quickly. And so now I am here – it is mid-June – and my default for reaching out to other people is a Google Meet link.
How COVID-19 has changed the way we market
Kate: I think COVID-19 has changed our outlook on what we value. I think it has made us much more comfortable looking for “the joy” much closer to where we are…losing that feeling, that sense that we need to go out and do something or acquire something in order to get happiness. I think we’ve been sort of forced to figure out how to do it ourselves.
I have a friend who says that the pandemic was like mother nature saying, “Go to your room and think about what you’ve done.” We’re going to change, especially in the technology world. The narrative needs to change from one of convenience to one of resilience.
The value that we’re going to pursue in research and development and growth is not going to be convenience for people. It is going to be resilience.
On giving the virtual community the tools to engage
Heather: If I hear one more person say to me, “How do I gamify my meeting?” … I do not think the word is “gamify.” I think the conundrum is that we have to make a digital experience engaging and compelling. How and what are ways that we do that?
Kate: I’m so glad that you said that. Let’s kill the gamification sacred cow. If I wanted to really say what I think gamification is missing the boat on it is about engagement design, and in that, community design as well. I think one of the important things about improving engagement design is that if you can start to harness all of the members of the community to help encourage each other to be more active, that becomes exponentially more powerful.
Heather: I never thought of it like that. I always felt like I need to engage each and every person in their living room. I never thought about the fact that they are a community and the community needs to be engaged in order to engage more people.
Kate: Give the community tools to engage each other and that is where you get that multiplier of value and you also create so many more contribution points for all of the community members to build into this.
On live events, post-COVID
Kate: The sum is greater than the parts. It’s so true especially now when you start thinking about how engagement cycles are going to need to span virtual and in-person meetings. You’re going to really need to make sure that the magic of pulling it together and packaging and polishing it is there. Otherwise, it’s just going to be these little disparate pieces that roll away like marbles.
Heather: The reality now is that…digital is only digital and you need to be human too. So post-COVID, what do our in-person events need to encompass?
Kate: You have to consider the audience – even more so. Kids who’ve grown up with iPads, they think that the world is a series of activities and things that you do and people that you connect with and they get value from that. I think there’s a lot of power in events when you can tap into that way of thinking.
Heather: What we try to do is think of the most shocking, the most uptight person, the least socially fluent person, the most outgoing person – the extremes – and then “how can we get that person to feel comfortable?” It’s through activity. The activity design has to make them feel more relaxed, cooler, et cetera, et cetera.
Kate: That is what brings out the humility and increases the integrity of the experience — that interaction can bring people out who needed to be “brought out” and amp the celebration.
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Key Conversations are a series of transparent talks that tackle issues and explore the ideas of the moment. Our guests are thought leaders in their fields who share a passion for our mission to ignite lasting change. To be a part of the conversation, email us at hello@keyevents.com.
