Podcast: Jez Paxman from Live Union on the 'Anatomy of a Delegate'

On today’s podcast, Jez Paxman, Live Union’s content director, spoke to Event Industry News about the business of creating live events and his recent report, ‘Anatomy of a Delegate’.

Today, audiences are very experience-rich and therefore “spoilt by live interactions”. This makes building a memorable and effective event increasingly difficult for agencies like Live Union.

Though the team at Live Union mainly deal with B2B events, the difference between B2B and B2C isn’t always that different. No matter what the event is, audiences don’t want to be “bored rigid”. People may be giving up an entire day, if not more, to attend an event, therefore, the organisers must arrange something worthwhile. 

Talking about his report, ‘Anatomy of a Delegate’, Jez touched upon what audience members really value with the aim to help event professionals understand how to create meaningful events.

Jez touched upon five key areas that make an event audience-friendly:

• “Brain-friendly” – healthy environments and compelling event agendas that engage their brains
• “Entertaining” – events that surprise, excite and entertain
• “Personalisation” – allow audiences to tailor the experience to themselves
• “Shareable” – allow content to be easily shared to the audience to extend the value of the experience beyond the event itself
• “Connections” – attendees want to make valuable connections so make networking a priority

Jez advised organisers to look at their events from the perspective of their audiences. All too often, event planners start with the logistical, financial or production aspects of their event. “Start with the audience – I think that’s the right thing to go about things,” Jez concluded.

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