It is incredibly impressive to watch great emcees doing their thing. They can have the entire audience hypnotised and hanging on to their every word, ready to laugh or cry with them at the drop of a hat. The event flows effortlessly, transitioning from one segment to the next with the audience fully engaged and united by the shared experience.
Events like this are almost guaranteed to be a success, etched in the memory of everyone for years to come. Although it seems effortless, such success doesn’t come cheap, and a great deal of preparation has to be done.
Any decent emcee can do a good job, but to do a great one, your help is needed. The more prepared you get your emcee, the better his or her performance will be.
If you’ve got an event lined up, here are a few things you can do to prepare your emcee and make it spectacular!
Share the Big Picture
The more your emcee knows about your business, the better prepared her or she can be. Share as much of your business as possible, like objectives, opportunities, strengths, and weaknesses. Also share your event’s goals and whether it is to inspire, educate, entertain, or drive a certain action.
From this information, your emcee should be able to identify the tone of voice and overall vibe that you want to achieve, like celebratory, formal, casual, or friendly.
Brief on Audience Profile
Share some insights about your audience like who they are, their general demographics, what they care about, and how the event is relevant to them. This too, will affect the tone of the event, whether it’s in-person or a virtual gathering.
If you can, share as many funny situations, inside jokes, or personal anecdotes as you can. Depending on the circumstance, laughter is always the best medicine, and gentle humour and well-timed jokes can always get the audience’s attention and create an instant bond.
If you feel uncomfortable sharing personal information, you could share trends in pop culture or latest happenings around the world that are relevant to your audience.
Minute-By-Minute Agenda
Time every segment in your event to the very minute, and do not deviate from it. Your schedule be crystal-clear with extremely precise timing. For example:
– 12.30 pm break
– 1 pm announcement to resume
– 1.10 pm seated
A few minutes here and there might not seem like much, but add them altogether and you might have an event that is running behind, and a very unhappy audience.
Prepare Personal Speaker Introductions
If you have guest speakers, VIPs, or anyone taking the stage for that matter, whether in person or via a live stream, provide your emcee with information that can help craft deeply personal introductions, instead of simply using details that can be found on LinkedIn and Google.
For example, if a particular speaker has recently gotten married or had a baby, congratulations are in order. Learn of any significant milestones in each speaker’s life, whether professional or personal.
Handle this with tact, as some people might like to keep their private and professional lives separate. Take the time to identify where each person draws the line.
Logistics
Here’s where all the nitty gritty details come in. Your emcee needs to be thoroughly briefed on the logistics of the event so that he or she knows what’s happening behind the scenes. For example, the type of mic, stage layout, entry, and exit points.
This might be a meeting that also involves your venue provider and event producers, so you can get everyone’s ducks in a row. It is also a good opportunity to walk through the entire event in a live rehearsal. You don’t have to cover every segment, but having a mock event will help familiarise everyone with the event’s structure and anticipate any issues.
Rehearsals
A competent emcee will already be doing his or her own rehearsal, but it doesn’t hurt to check. After the logistics meeting, you can also run through all aspects of the script with your emcee, also checking on the timing.
Expect the Unexpected
Events are full of hiccups, and you might want to work with your emcee on anticipating some of them. It might not be enough to simply have a Plan B, you might need a B, C, D, and E, and still, that might not be enough!
Experienced emcees know how to take things in their stride and quickly recover from minor hiccups, but you can also draft some contingencies for when things go wrong, like a speaker being late or a tech glitch.
Great emcees are wizards at what they do. After all, we don’t call them ‘Master of Ceremonies’ for nothing! However, with some help from you, they can do an even better job and make your event truly legendary.
Give us a shout if we can help with your wedding emcee or any other event needs. Good luck, and we hope your event is a huge success
