When you are holding an event, it’s important to consider who the host is and what practical skills and abilities they need to host well. It’s good to know that it takes practice, and almost anyone can learn to host well. Read on to get some ideas to consider.
When considering who should host, you need to consider someone who can:
- Genuinely communicate and embody the purpose / essence of the event
- Set the tone for your time together
- Easily connect with the audience/ attendees
- Offer connection between the people who are at the event
There’s a bunch of practical skills a host needs – the ability to:
- Keep time
- Speak clearly and calmly in front of others
- Make the people and the content the hero, not themselves
- Listen, allow space for people to bring forward their ideas
- Set and hold boundaries, they must be willing to confront and protect the purpose, if required
- Adapt and make decisions to ensure time is used valuably
- Enable the finding of common ground
But good event hosting is a practice – and it can be learnt.
Also, find out more about hosts and getting value at the heart of your events. And read about how good hosting can facilitate connection.
When you start your meeting, event or gathering the host should:
Make the purpose of the meeting clear from the start – What are the rules/guidelines around the meeting or event? The host should make these clear from the outset – one person is not going to dominate the meeting, everyone should be included and given opportunities to speak. Everyone should listen.
Keep to task – This is a skill, knowing when to interrupt and shut someone down who is taking the meeting in a different direction or not following the purpose of the meeting
Set clear tasks for the people at the event, so they are clear what their job is: To listen / to ask questions / to chat to others / to ensure everyone is heard / to share the event on social media / to gather and keep the information from a session for future use, to keep people fed / their drinks topped up, and so on.
Hosting for success
Whether it’s an important strategic business conference, or New Year’s Eve party, being a good host is a key role to enable the purpose of an event to be achieved. If you get it right, then your event will flow, taking people with it; get it wrong and time will be wasted, and people will wrestle for control or vote with their feet.
So, there we go – being a good event host is an approach and a set of skills that can be learnt by almost anyone and makes a world of difference. Got an event in mind? Work with Autumn Live to plan and create a great experience for your attendees and achieve your purpose.
