The importance of a good host, an emcee, is important for many reasons: they set the tone, keep your audience interested, help make the event an experience, maintain focus for your event and drive the event forward. On Liveto’s webinar we had Gregory Offner as a guest discussing the topic. This blog post has been written based on the webinar.
Gregory Offner is an international keynote speaker, event emcee, and globally recognized expert on performance. Offner holds professional designations in Lean/SixSigma, Risk Management, Organizational Development, Positive Psychology, and he spent 12 years touring the world as a professional dueling pianist.
Why Is a Good Emcee Important in Events?
There are lots of different kinds of events so you will also need different kinds of emcees to perform in them. On a virtual event you need an emcee to be entertaining so that the audience will stay captivated throughout the event. For a more serious event you would most likely pick a very professional emcee, if there is no need to lighten up the mood. Whatever the event is going to be like it is important that the emcee is professional because there are always unexpected things happening in the event.
A good emcee should know who is going to be in the audience so that they can set the tone right to the event. The event organizers can also tell if they want some specific tone to be set in the event and then the emcee can work on that. Also sign for a good emcee is that they know if they are not the right fit to the event where they are asked for.
Tips for a New Emcee
Gregory Offner gave few tips for a new emcee:
- You should know what you are good at and don’t pretend to be something that you’re not. For example if you know you’re good at being professional then use that to your advantage.
- Keep the show moving forward. You should know the flow of the event, who is going to talk next and about what throughout the event.
- As an emcee you should watch the shows also so you can discuss the same topics afterward, as this will tie the show together.
- Keep in mind that the audience is there to see the event and not the emcee, even though you are a big part of it.
- Reherce your speeches beforehand and also think about what you’re going to do if you forget something or something goes wrong. This will give you more confidence and lessen the performance anxiety.
Download our free webinar from here. If you want to learn more about how to be good at public speaking, read our blog about it here.
