Virtual Emcee. A few ways to look at how your master of ceremonies can help.

How do you use a virtual emcee?  What value does a virtual master of ceremonies bring to your online meeting or convention? How specifically can you think about the services of virtual MC can provide?

I just had a really interesting meeting with a client and we were talking about exactly these questions. And I realized that I should share these ideas with you.

Before I get to the larger, 35,000 foot view of what an emcee can do virtually, let’s talk about what an emcee can do generally for your big event.

• Be the face of the convention.  People love consistency, and an emcee helps them feel a greater connection to the meeting as a whole.

• Provide energy and humor.  During breaks where the emcee appears, a good master of ceremonies will inject that room with more energy and excitement. By giving people “brain breaks” and making them get up, move, and definitely laugh your master of ceremonies helps set the next portion of your meeting up for success. It’s exhausting listening to Talking Heads all day. A master of ceremonies for Zoom will make sure you give your attendees the breaks they are craving.  The final result:  a way more successful meeting.

• Insurance. But not the kind you’re thinking of. Have you ever attended a meeting, either live or virtually, or something did not go wrong? Of course not. It’s part of the business. A professional MC can step in during a technical glitch, when a speaker is late or has a problem, or just generally anytime she or he is needed and gracefully take care of the audience while whatever is broken is getting fixed. If you have a funny master of ceremonies that is ready with his/her own material, you’re ready for the things you can’t predict.

Brad is more than an emcee.  He’s a funny motivational speaker, a member of the Speaker Hall of Fame, and a comedian and magician.  Why should you care?  It just means that Brad can do everything from stall for 3 minutes while your presenter gets his microphone fixed, to filling in for your online motivational inspirational speaker who suddenly canceled due to illness.

On a lucky day you and your virtual emcee won’t have to use any of this “insurance material,” but you will sleep better knowing you have that ace in your pocket.

• Content Weaving.  A good MC Will help with the content all the way through the program. This means she will help connect the information coming from each speaker and each presentation to the larger themes of the conference. Saying something as simple as, “Did you notice that Dr. Smith just reiterated what we heard from the general session… And he added the scientific background to everything we’ve been learning so far. How cool is that!?”  can be extremely powerful and valuable to your attendees.

What Does Brad Do In Addition to these MC basics?  Glad you asked!