Hybrid Meetings, Karaoke, and Road Trippin' to Cleveland

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Welcome to Association Chat Podcast.

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This is the podcast for the
association community and each

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episode is a little bit different.

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This one's , going to be very different
because typically I do interviews.

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This time I'm doing something
that is a little bit more

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free, free form, free flowing.

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I've got some notes, I've got some
questions I'm going to answer.

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So , but really this is going to be
something that's a little bit shorter

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and sweeter so that we can just keep
things rolling, , and start putting

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out episodes twice every week.

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So the idea is this, you're going
to hear from the brightest minds,

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the trailblazers of the association
community, both inside the association

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world and outside the association world.

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People sharing tips and tactics
and ideas, quick wins, pitfalls,

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challenges, opportunities, You name it.

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They might even teach you how, , to
work with your dog better.

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I don't know.

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I'm just making this stuff up.

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So,, we're gonna talk
about all kinds of things.

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Hopefully things that are relevant to
you that you can apply and maybe a few

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things from life, pop culture, and the
beautiful Chaos of our daily lives.

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, I'm KiKi L'Italien, your
host, and let's get to it.

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Okay, so this is a short episode.

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I might have mentioned it before.

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We're talking about both work
related and also some fun,, different

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questions that have come in.

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I've been collecting them through both the
Association Chat Facebook community, and,

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, And some random stuff from, you know, a
couple WhatsApp groups that I belong to.

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, so first there is a work related question.

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We have a question from Sarah, , not
using her last name 'cause I didn't

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get permission to use it yet.

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But this is a question from Sarah in
Alexandria, Virginia, and she says.

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What are some effective strategies to
boost member engagement in a hybrid event?

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And, , actually this is
a really great question.

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, hybrid events.

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are known for being challenging, right?

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, this is something that, especially
as we were going through, , the

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pandemic and everything, a lot of
organizations, , tried, , hybrid for

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the first time, , and a lot of them went
running and screaming because they didn't

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feel like they could do it properly.

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Others, like it sounds like yours
is, , continue to do hybrid events so

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that they can offer an opportunity for.

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engagement with more people,
with more of their stakeholders.

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And so the effective strategies
for boosting that engagement

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though,, there are a few things.

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I made a few notes to talk about this.

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One is interactive sessions.

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I think that there's nothing that's
more boring when something's supposed

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to be quote unquote hybrid., I just did
a panel like this where I was one of

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the panelists, and there was a virtual
audience, but we really didn't interact.

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As a panelist, we were speaking
to the people who were there.

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But there was no way for us to really
take questions from the virtual audience.

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Have you ever been in that situation?

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It's kind of boring.

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So, , this interactive session, , using
interactive live polls and Q and

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A, you can also, , To incorporate
everyone, both the people in the

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room and also the people online,
you can use something called Slido.

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Slido is an awesome tool, , that if you
haven't played with that before, , you

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should go ahead and check it out.

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There are other tools you can
use, there are like whiteboard,

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, solutions, for example, a great tool.

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App called Pickles, and , it's kind of a
creativity booster that you can use that

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is supposed to create more engagement.

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It's P I C C L E S because it's
like, Pick like images, right?

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But that's another tool that you can
check out to create a more interactive

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session that will bring both your
virtual and Potentially your in person

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audiences together Interacting with
technology so they feel like they're

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part of a bigger group and part of
the same the same event, right?

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, another thing is networking opportunities.

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So networking is one of those things
where being able to connect with

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other people is one of the best values
that you have for any kind of event.

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So like how you are helping one
person to talk to somebody else

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in person is really important.

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How are you helping the people
who are online to talk to

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each other is another focus.

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And then if you wanted to take
it a little bit further, , it's

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possible and I've seen it work.

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Rarely, right?

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Because it's really hard to like do the
coordination around it, but I will say

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it is, it is easier to do the person to
person, , cultivating that engagement

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when you have an online, , moderator
for the virtual side of things, even

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if they're sort of the, the avatar for
That virtual component, and they're

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representing that online group to the
rest of the people who are in person.

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And then of course, making sure
that the in person participants

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are able to engage with each other.

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, so yeah, so the networking opportunities,
making sure that that works.

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, having a staff person act as a
representative slash moderator

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for the online folks will help.

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, exclusive content.

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This is something that.

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, if you're looking at your virtual
attendees to make them feel valued,

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because sometimes it can feel like they're
basically being beamed in just so they

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can observe, but they're not interacting.

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They're not getting anything in
addition to, , just being able to

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sort of listen and maybe watch,
, The content that's being shared.

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So why don't you offer them additional
content that's like special for them?

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Like maybe in addition to this
there's a related white paper

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or some sort of a checklist or
something that they get in addition

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And then I would say
strong technical support.

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So even if you have a small shop, even
if you have a small team, if you can put

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a little extra emphasis on making sure
that you have a good tech setup, that

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you have a backup for your backup, right?

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And that you have, you know, At least some
people who are are identified as being a

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support team to handle any tech issues.

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The thing you don't want to have happen
is that the people running the in

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person event have technical difficulties
and there's no one else to support.

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Dealing with making sure that the
people who are online or are able

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to hear and see and doing all the
things that they need to do it.

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It pretty much halts the whole affair.

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So what you want to do is you want to
make sure that you have good tech support

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in place and, , and that will help you
to have those are some solid strategies

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for, , having a better hybrid event.

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, and you know what?

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I think it's time.

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Let's move on to the fun question.

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Not that hybrid events aren't
fun, but I mean, you know what?

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I'm recording this and I'm feeling a
little bit stressed even talking about it.

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So, let's talk about the fun question.

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this one comes from Kevin, and he
asks, What is your go to karaoke song?

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And I really like this question.

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And I actually like to ask this
question of a lot of people.

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And my go to karaoke song for years has
been The Black Crowes Hard to Handle.

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It's like my go to song, I think
it's It can be a crowd favorite,

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although the older I get, the fewer
people actually really know it.

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But it's kind of an unexpected
one for me to do, and I

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really, really like singing it.

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But I will say that so recently,
within the past several weeks, I was in

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Charleston, for a management retreat.

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And if you've never been to Charleston,
first of all, Charleston's amazing,

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but in Charleston they have a karaoke
bar called the Bangkok Lounge and

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it's, it's always a karaoke bar, right?

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That's its claim to fame.

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And I might be switching my go to karaoke
song out,, after that excursion because,

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you know, we spent some time there.

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We might have been there
a couple of nights.

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And I think I'm going to go to something
that's a little more of a throwback.

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we'll see.

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I don't want to get too crazy,
crazy about it because, you know, it

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can be a real buzzkill when people
take karaoke way too seriously.

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Um, and it's like, this
is my shining moment.

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I've always been meant to
be a star or something.

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It's like, it's just have fun,
just have fun with it, you know?

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, but, you know, that actually makes me
think, does anybody know where the best

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karaoke spots are in Cleveland yet?

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Because, you know, We're gonna be
there for ASAE Annual, at least some

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of us are, and I have a whole busload
of people that are gonna be there,

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and we're heading out to go on this
association chat road trip to ASAE Annual.

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We need to know.

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Where the best karaoke
is in Cleveland, okay?

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Okay, so before we wrap up.

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Make sure to check out our
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Right.

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So this is our road trip and all
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So thanks for tuning in.

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Remember if you're singing karaoke,
do not take yourself too seriously.

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And that's it.

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