Royal Audience

The first time my company invited a big-name speaker, I tried to make sure the day was full of activities. I wanted as many people as possible to take advantage of the opportunity. When he said, “I’ll be here the night before; if anyone is interested, we could do dinner.” Aha! Dinner! Lunch! Good times for interaction! I learned from this experience to always invite people to meals with any famous visitor because the relaxed atmosphere can be more fun and even more interesting than the visitor’s formal presentation.

Arrange for management and members of the organization to spend time with a Big Jolt visitor.

You are an Evangelist(144) or Dedicated Champion(129). A Big Jolt(107) visitor has a few spare hours during the day or during the evening before and/or after the day of the visit.

You want to get the most out of a visit from a famous person.

It’s better if a visit from a well-known individual is more than just a presentation to a large group. Famous people are usually charismatic and can give your cause a boost. If management and other influential people in the organization will take time for a short, one-on-one meeting with the Big Jolt, this can lead to more interest and support for the new idea.

Therefore:

Use spare hours or lunchtime during the day or evenings, before and/or after the featured presentation, to make the visitor available for teams, individuals, or managers.

Arrange lunch, dinner, or time for informal discussion with the speaker during the day. Personally invite people to attend, especially those who have helped with the change effort. The visitor may also be willing to take some one-on-one time with managers who still need to be convinced of the value in the new idea. This can lead to support from a Local Sponsor(186) or Corporate Angel(123). It is also a good way to Stay in Touch(221).

If you can, try to schedule several audiences, enough opportunities so that no one minds not being invited to all of them. For example, dinner may need to be a small group, but lunch in the cafeteria could be open to everyone. You might schedule “consulting time” when the visitor could meet with teams to discuss particular problems.

Don’t wear out the visitor. Make certain he agrees to do more than a presentation. Give him a chance to turn down any opportunities that he wishes. Sometimes we assume that someone who comes in for a presentation will want to spend lunch and dinner with us, but we should be sensitive to the fact that everyone needs time to relax away from others. Remember to Just Say Thanks(183) for any extra time he spends with the organization.

Don’t expect everyone to accept the invitation to meet with the speaker. It is important that you offer them the opportunity. For those who can’t come, it may be enough for them to know that they were invited.

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This pattern creates an opportunity for people to meet with a Big Jolt speaker. Participants will enjoy the time spent getting to know a famous person. This can be a reward for those who have helped with the effort, and can be a public relations opportunity for management who have not yet bought into your new idea.

But be careful that this doesn’t backfire. If you need to keep the audience small, people can be upset at not being invited. But if you always Involve Everyone(173) as much as you can and are a fair person, then people will accept that they weren’t invited to a particular occasion but will be included in the next one or will be involved in some other way.

Dorothy sent invitations to everyone to join famous visitors for lunch or an open discussion forum. Free consulting time was also announced on the e-Forum. Even if people couldn’t attend, they always felt that the opportunity was open to them.

Deloy always invited everyone to meet with well-known visitors for lunch or a coffee break after the presentations. Because the meetings were held in the cafeteria, there was room for every one at the presentation to attend. Even those who couldn’t talk one-on-one with the visitor still enjoyed listening to him chat with others in an informal setting.