Hollywood knows a thing or two about storytelling.
From the beginning of the movie business, the industry quickly understood that audiences craved action, romance and comedy. And, if box office receipts are any measure, a lot has stayed the same. Recent blockbusters like “Top Gun: Maverick” are driving billions of dollars in sales.
So, what makes Hollywood blockbusters so successful? It’s called audience engagement.
But we lesser mortals face different challenges regarding virtual meetings.
Our Post-COVID Life
In a January interview with the Wall Street Journal, the CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, stated, “There’s no going back to 2019. But at the same time, it’s not as if we’re in 2020. We’re all trying to crack that combination.”
Indeed, the world has changed irrevocably since the pandemic. With it came the immediate need to work from home. With that also came the rapid rise of virtual meetings.
But with every new development of historic proportions comes a procession of consequences.
One of those is that vague malaise dubbed Meeting Fatigue.
Meeting fatigue is a new phenomenon characterised by exhaustion and burnout after people participate in virtual meetings for extended periods.
People report feelings like being constantly scrutinised, which triggers anxiety. Virtual meetings lack the non-verbal cues of face-to-face communication, like body language. Gone is the power of social cues to understand the nuances of conversations. And there’s the heavy cognitive load as employees process multiple video calls and maintain focus. Meeting fatigue has increased stress and fatigue, while continual multitasking has lessened the attention span.
Attention Spans Are in Short Supply
“Research suggests that the average attention span for an adult is around 20 minutes,” said Franziska Brandl, Sales Director DACH, BeNeLux, Nordics at BlueJeans by Verizon. “When you’re in a virtual meeting, your mobile phone beeps, the dog barks, or the doorbell rings, and your attention naturally shifts. That makes it difficult to refocus on the content of the meeting,” she explained.
We All Can’t Be Tom Cruise
The day-to-day issues of running our remote and hybrid lives are a long way from the big lights of Hollywood.
With the daily demands of remote work, business professionals are often pressed into an entirely different task of giving presentations to hundreds of employees across multiple time zones.
Presenters organise their content (not unlike the dialogue in a movie script) and hope that when the event starts, they’ll get their ideas across. That’s no small feat given the current psychological malaise of meeting fatigue.
Encouraging audience engagement to ensure the attention of attendees stays at peak levels is especially crucial when it comes to these large-scale presentation meetings – or virtual events – which requires better production to create more entertaining experiences.
But organisations aren’t set up to create high-impact production-grade events that require the expertise and expense of production studios.
The Way of Work by BlueJeans
BlueJeans by Verizon dedicates itself to the idea that attention spans are, by nature, fragile, ever-shifting and limited. So, when it comes to events, BlueJeans offers marketing directors and IT managers its virtual event management platform for customisable digital experiences – BlueJeans Events and Studio.
“The business world has a very different way of working now,” said Brandl, referring to the post-pandemic reality. “Management has a significant challenge. How do they keep their presenters and their employees engaged during hybrid events? Interaction and engagement are the way,” she explained.
BlueJeans Events Portfolio Explained
With BlueJeans Events and Studio, marketing and events managers can access a range of features.
Attendee Management
Upload attendee information, use built-in forms, or integrate with third-party registration systems to add and establish the attendee record.
Analytics & Reporting
All event activity is tracked and displayed in BlueJeans’[1] reporting system to view online, download, or deliver to an external system.
Content Management
Upload documents, add on-demand videos, and organise content into catalogues and segment by attendee type.
Session Management
Add video sessions, manage sign-ups, and send reminders. Automatically receive registration, attendance, and on-demand session reports.
Messaging
Automated emails welcome, notify, and remind attendees about upcoming sessions. Custom messages and newsletters are easy to configure.
Virtual Booth
BlueJeans Expo offers brandable virtual booths which retain content, videos and create calls-to-action, which increases engagement.
The way of work has changed forever. BlueJeans is your hybrid and virtual event partner to support your teams in adjusting to the new post-pandemic reality.
Click here to learn more about BlueJeans’ events portfolio.
