Step #7: Involve Participants at the Meeting

          The most important person at your meeting will typically be... no, not you. The audience! If you prepare the material to suit your audience then you should have greater success in communicating your message. We must seek to ensure that our audience is not only listening, but also understanding our message.

          As written by Stephen Covey in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, you must "Seek first to understand, then to be understood" by your audience. The audience needs to be kept fresh! Consider the following factors involved in your deliver:

Language

Are you using accurate vocabulary?

Are you monitoring the cleanliness and amount of humor?

Are you saying anything offensive?

References

Is your audience too young or old to understand the event you are discussing?

Was that product offered in their country?

Are they online?

Interaction

Does your audience have an attention span long enough to engage in that activity?

Do you need to add or remove any activities?

Delivery

Are your vocals loud or soft enough?

Are you using offensive body language?

Does the room even want to be engaged?

          Once you have considered these factors, you may need to make changes to your agenda. Try to use different room setups when appropriate. Sometimes, the answer to your problem may be to change the room from a cluster to a round shape. 

Written By: James Willies

Sources:

Stephen Covey https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits.php 

Know Your Audience http://robchristeson.com/tag/know-your-audience 

Planning a Meeting http://www.rwjf.org/files/publications/RWJF_PlanningAMeeting.pdf