Return on Event (ROE)

Has there ever been a more important year in which we need to laugh? I don’t think so. Well, maybe 2009. I enjoy being a comedy Red Bull – the Energizer Funny at the halfway point in a message-laden day at a week-long conference – but there are also lots of other reasons clients ask me to include humor (customized or otherwise) as an integral part of their event. Think clearly about where it will best fit; your answers may surprise you. I recently helped an IT department create an interactive humorous PowerPoint that would help limit their talk time to two minutes each and, at the same time, help the IT folks sound interesting doling out the usually more lackluster tech talk. This is no cheap whack at my IT friends. And even if it is, they soon found out that humor mixed into even the most dry talk point does not undercut its message, but instead delivers it more effectively, efficiently, and with better grip.

But even more simply than that: the holidays. The end-of-the-year wrap up party. The December-Thank-Goodness-We-Made-It celebration. The Client Appreciation bash. It doesn’t have to be a full dance band with 30 musicians and a diva singer; doesn’t have to be a magician that makes your CEO’s wallet disappear… Just one guy, one mic, one stool, one glass of water, loads of laughs.