
How can we convince people to be passionate about a meeting before the meeting? The same way we bring passion during the meeting - the motivational presentation. If an hour presentation at the annual meeting is meant to motivate the attendees for a year, a series of short 90-second inspirational videos delivered with the invitation will go a long way towards creating excitement about the annual meeting.
Meetings aren't just about relating industry facts and stats. We could do that with an email and save a lot of time and effort. Meetings are about networking with your peers and getting excited about the future. Meetings are about creating passion. And passion is shared with inspiration, motivation, and leadership. Take a look at the faces in the audience when a truly passionate person is giving a presentation and you'll see the changes taking place. When the leader stands up and is excited and full of hope and optimism about the future, it is felt by all the attendees and they become filled with hope and optimism.
The idea is similar to a presentation itself: Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you’ve told them. Motivate them to get passionate, get them passionate, and then keep them passionate about your organization.
If a professional motivational speaker is on the agenda, utilize their skills and ask him/her to put together a short series of inspirational videos to go out with the invitations. Yes, there may be an additional cost, but the return on having members attend with the intent of learning and becoming passionate is well worth it. And follow up with more motivational videos and stories after the meeting - the return on this meeting is only the beginning. It also sets next year's conference up for success as well as the return your organization receives from inspired members during the year.
Let's give people a reason to be advocates for attending. Let's convince them to be excited about the upcoming meeting, to be excited about the changes that will be announced and how it will better the organization and all of it's members. And… Let's not abandon them after the meeting. Let's continue the excitement and passion with follow-up videos and stories of success. Stories involving peers who through their passion and contributions have helped propel themselves and their organization to the top.