Event Professionals Finally Get Real Audience Intelligence
Conference organizers, keynote speakers, and other event professionals have spent decades trying to learn what resonates with audiences. Surveys, either post-presentation or post-event, often have low response rates. Thoughtfully completed questionnaire responses are even more rare and usually lack granularity to evaluate specific content elements. Tools like biometric monitoring and facial expression analysis are interesting, but haven't gained much traction in the event space.
As a speaker, I can tell when an audience responds to something I said. Individuals look more focused, increase eye contact, start writing notes, or raise their phone to take a photo of a slide. At the end of an hour on stage, though, I'd be hard pressed to give a minute-by-minute account of audience engagement.
Now an innovation from event technology company Cvent provides something event professionals have never had: real-time data on exactly which moments spark audience interest.
The concept, part of CventIQ 'AI for events,' is straightforward. As I described in my previous article, attendees use their event app to view a live, real-time transcript of what the speaker is saying. When they hear something they want to remember, they click a button to save a 'snapshot' of what the speaker said. A future iteration of the app will also capture the associated visual (e.g., a PowerPoint slide), if any. Snapshots are saved, then labeled and summarized by AI for easier reference later.
This concept greatly simplifies note-taking for attendees. Here's the interesting part for conference organizers and speakers: each tap creates a data point showing precisely when audiences engage most deeply with presentations.
"Planners are going to be able to see what people are interested in across all the rooms," explains McNeel Keenan, Cvent's VP of Product Management. "You can start to see what topics are trending."
This creates what behavioral economists call "revealed preference" data. Instead of asking people what they found valuable, you observe what they actually choose to save. Actions matter more than opinions.
Most conference feedback suffers from fundamental flaws. Surveys depend on memory and arrive after the moment has passed. Response rates are typically low. Respondents often provide socially acceptable answers rather than honest reactions. Rarely do they capture granular information about specific topics or moments in a presentation.
The digital snapshot approach sidesteps these limitations entirely. Attendees naturally want to capture valuable insights. They aren't completing a survey to help the organizer, they are saving information they find useful. Response rates could potentially approach 100% once attendees are familiar with the app and recognize its potential to create recurring value from the event.
The most intriguing possibility involves adjusting presentations based on live audience data. Conference organizers could redirect afternoon sessions based on morning patterns. An opening keynote speaker could adjust the content of her afternoon breakout session. Multi-day events could use first-day results to juggle content on the following day or days.
"You can start to see what topics are trending, which speakers are your experts," Keenan notes. "Who are your best experts on a topic that not only get good survey responses, but get engagement in the room?"
This real-time feedback loop has never existed before. Traditional audience measurement tools provide data too slowly to influence current events.
The aggregated snapshot data creates new insights into content performance across multiple dimensions. Organizers can identify which speakers consistently generate engagement. They can spot topics that resonate across different audience segments. They can even detect when presentations run too long by watching engagement patterns drop.
The technology could even aggregate insights across events. Patterns will emerge about what works for specific industries, job functions, or experience levels. This intelligence could add major value to organizations planning future events.
Consider the strategic advantages:
Speaker Selection: Data shows which presenters generate genuine audience interest vs. high survey scores or impressive credentials.
Content Development: Topics that consistently drive engagement become obvious choices for future programming.
Schedule Optimization: Time slots and session lengths can be adjusted based on when audiences engage most actively.
ROI Measurement: Organizations can quantify content value by measuring sustained audience engagement rather than relying on attendance numbers alone.
Most conference programming relies on educated guesses about audience preferences. Planners choose speakers based on reputation, topics based on trends, and formats based on tradition. The results vary wildly.
Objective engagement data removes much of this uncertainty. Instead of wondering whether a keynote resonated, organizers can see exactly which segments generated the most interest. Instead of guessing about breakout session effectiveness, they can compare engagement levels across concurrent sessions.
Looking beyond individual events, organizations running multiple conferences could identify content that works across different audiences. Trade associations could spot emerging topics before they become obvious trends.
Unlike biometric monitoring or facial expression analysis systems, the snapshot approach raises minimal privacy concerns. Attendees consciously choose when to capture content. No sensitive data gets collected, only anonymous engagement patterns.
Implementation requires no special equipment or complex setup. The technology works through standard event apps that many organizations already use. Speakers present normally without additional requirements or training.
Snapshot data has great potential, but I can see some situations where it might not provide a measure of engagement. A motivational speaker who tells mesmerizing stories might have tremendous audience engagement but few snapshots during a keynote. A boring speaker presenting lots of quantitative data or lists might get far more snapshots simply because that kind of information is hard to remember or even fully analyze in the moment.
Cvent will continue to offer targeted surveys in its app to provide another way to evaluate speakers and content.
Another problem I see is that to use the snapshots the audience member needs to have their phone turned on and the app opened. Tapping the snapshot button is minimally distracting, but an opened phone in hand could be seductive. The temptation to check messages, see what the latest notification is, etc. could pull audience members away from the live speaker. If a speaker sees lots of people look down at their phones, are they taking a snapshot or just bored?
If this approach becomes widely adopted, speakers might learn to manipulate snapshots. If I'm on the stage and say, 'If you remember one thing from today, it's ____," I'm sure lots of audience members would tap the snapshot button as a precaution. FOMO works.
Then again, if speakers focus on creating 'snapshottable' moments, it might be a good thing for everyone.
The technology could actually pressure speakers to focus on practical, actionable content rather than bland, general advice. When audience engagement becomes measurable, content quality becomes more important than speaking credentials alone.
The revealed preference concept applies far beyond conferences. Webinars, training sessions, and internal meetings could all benefit from similar engagement tracking. Any situation where audience attention matters becomes an opportunity for optimization.
The broader trend points toward more sophisticated audience intelligence across all forms of business communication. Just as web analytics transformed digital marketing, engagement analytics could reshape live events.
Conference organizers have operated with limited audience intelligence for decades. They've relied on imperfect surveys, small focus groups, and speaker evaluations to guide programming decisions.
Real-time engagement data offers a new way to optimize content on the fly and plan future events. Snapshots are one small step in changing conference programming from art to science.
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