The buzzword I’m hearing is actionable, actionable, actionable. People want actionable takeaways. They are so inundated with information that planners are saying, “Look, don’t give us this real long spiel, or this big beautiful picture, give them things they can walk away and do now. Right now.” For a presentation last week, one of the things [the audience] wanted was improved search-engine optimization using social media. I showed them exactly where to go on LinkedIn to plug in their keywords or words they want to be found [for themselves] online. That’s something they could immediately go to their profile and add.
People are also really open to creativity. I have found myself more and more comfortable creating mass chaos in presentations if it’s going to drive home learning points. For instance, when I was speaking at the Florida Governor’s Conference on Tourism, I had this room full of people, probably about 200 people, and I just freed them for 10 minutes. They were in the hallways taking selfies for a contest I was doing. So you had these people running around the convention center. Then, they come back and I show them, on screen, the pictures they submitted.