Anyone who has ever organised a live event or conference knows how much hard work it takes and how difficult it can be to deliver success.
Whether you are physically getting people back in a room together for the first time in a while, are now a permanent convert to the ease and flexibility of being fully virtual or blending both to create a hybrid approach, events take significant investment in time, energy and budget.
And yet one of the most important aspects of delivering a successful event, tends to be the most overlooked… the role of facilitator. Get the right one and they will make your life much easier. That is, after all, what the word facilitate means: ‘to make easier’.
In this blog we explore what to look out for and what to avoid when thinking through who to partner with.
Why you want a fantastic facilitator
Your facilitator sets the tone of your event – particularly long-running ones where engagement levels can wane. The energy, enthusiasm and engagement a facilitator brings (or doesn’t) is contagious. A skilled facilitator not only sets the tone from the outset but can also read a room and intervene to increase energy levels and reinvigorate participants.
A fantastic facilitator keeps everyone focused on the end goal – i.e. your event outcomes and the reason you are taking people away from their day job to meet in the first place. It’s amazing how many meetings get derailed because there is no-one designated to keep it on track and on time.
A good facilitator frees your leaders and speakers to play to their strengths and focus on what matters most – connecting with their audience, delivering their key messages and landing a standout leadership performance. How can that happen if they are also explaining where the restrooms are, what to do in the event of fire and how to pay for parking?
But it’s much more than a matter of housekeeping. A professional facilitator can quickly summarise and capture what’s said and join the dots for participants (between sessions, speakers and content), to reinforce your key messages.
Your facilitator acts as a red thread, seamlessly stitching your entire event together. And being external, they can help address the topics that are uppermost in participants minds, particularly during those invaluable Q&A sessions.
A highly skilled facilitator also creates a psychologically safe environment, so everyone feels comfortable enough to speak up. It’s a real skill to quieten the show-boaters, to create the space for quieter voices and get their contributions recognised. Doing so harnesses diversity, leading to better informed, crowd-sourced, solutions.
An experienced facilitator will share their expertise to help you shape an outstanding event experience for organisers, speakers, and participants alike, with everything from intelligent agenda design to interactivity.
How to choose a fantastic facilitator
Contrary to popular belief your facilitator doesn’t need to know what you do to facilitate well. The best facilitators know just enough to guide the right conversations but are far enough removed to cut through internal politics, jargon and complexity so outputs are clear and concise.
So how do you determine who makes a fantastic facilitator? Here are 12 things to ask or elicit when deciding who should facilitate your next event:
Format
Does the person you are considering have a depth of experience in your event’s chosen format – be it in person, virtual or hybrid?
Audience
Do they have experience in working with the group size and career level you are convening? Getting the best from a small group of entry level colleagues is different to convening a large group of very senior leaders, or those with mixed levels of seniority.
Charisma
Does your candidate have the charisma to capture the attention of your event participants for the duration of the event, while coaching your speakers to shine too.
Intuition
Can your facilitator offer examples of reading a room and adapting their style accordingly? A facilitator that can intuitively understand the behaviours of presenters, panellists and participants alike is worth their weight in gold. It enables them to skilfully navigate the inevitable twists and turns of live events and still arrive at an ideal destination.
Likability
It may sound obvious, but is your candidate likable? Will their persona be a good fit with those you are bringing together? Working with one another in these high-pressure environments should be a pleasure, not a pain.
Interactive
Is your facilitator’s style going to get people on the edge of their seat – the front edge, keen to crack on, not the back edge, trying to nod off? A good facilitator gets your participants interacting with the content, each other and the speakers to truly engage them and embed learning.
Time
Mundane but a must if you want your participants to leave happy – you want to know your facilitator will be able to keep your event on track and on time. Can they offer examples of the interventions they seamlessly slip in to flex things but still land your event per the schedule?
Attentive
One of the must have skills of a facilitator is that they are attentive to what’s going on. They remain engaged throughout and are skilled active listeners. Part of the value they add is their ability to listen to what’s being said, then concisely summarise and capture it in simple language. When you are talking to them about your forthcoming event, are they really listening to you or keen to talk about themselves?
Tech-savvy
As well as being familiar with the event tech, a good facilitator also understands how modern digital tools can be used to drive meaningful interactivity. These can often really differentiate your event from those that have gone before.
Insights
An outstanding facilitator is skilled at drawing out and capturing everyone’s insights. Genuine innovation comes from diversity of thought and voice. A skilled facilitator can create a psychologically safe space to democratically surface contributions from beyond the usual suspects.
Outcome
Does your potential facilitator ask you about the outcome you want to achieve? If they don’t ask why you are convening your event or about your desired goal, it’s a clear red flag. A facilitator’s raison d’être is to help the organiser achieve their desired outcomes, objectives and goals.
Neutrality
Your perfect facilitator will ideally be someone whose only stake in the game is helping you successfully deliver your event. Neutrality is important. It signals to your participants: That the facilitator isn’t biased or politically motivated; that all contributions will be equally weighted; that this is a genuine collaboration and not a tick box exercise for what’s already a done deal.
Put all the above together and you spell out what it takes to make your life easier in any event… successful ‘FACILITATION’.
‘I’ve partnered Axiom for over a decade. I do so because they make it super easy to deliver. This time, at short notice, Axiom facilitated a virtual event, so we could focus on driving up engagement with our strategy. If you are looking to host an event either online or off, and want a partner that will bring expertise, energy and enthusiasm then give Axiom a try – they won’t disappoint.’ – Mattias Hakeröd, Chief Human Resources Officer, ViaCon Group
If you’d like to learn more about how Axiom could train your own people to effectively facilitate or to use one of our own energetic and professional facilitators for your next in person, virtual or hybrid event, we’d love to partner with you. Contact us today!
