the passion trigger. Thinkthrough the whole experience from the emotional perspective of the participant—thinkthrough flavored coffee, the lighting, the ambiance.Howdoes somebody feelwhen they walkinto the room? What is theemotional jour- ney that they are going to go on? How can they have the best sense of instant emotional connection to the speaker and the theme of the event? How can you create a bond, not with brochures, not with data, not with statistics, but a bond where people can kind of almost fall in love with the event, so that they feel like they are caught up in something that is bigger than a rational process? You would use the prestige trigger if you want people to
respect the event. To elevate the standards of an event, find just a few particular ways to dramatically raise the expectations of how the event is executed—a couple of ways to really sur- prise participants with developing what I call “ the ultimate.” It might be that the chairs have some sort of cushion on them, so that the seating experience is elevated. Or it might be that there is a tier of VIPs that get something that nobody else gets. Think through every single aspect of the event, and find just a couple of ways to make something really extreme. You don’t
Activating the power trigger is “about making sure that the message of the conference—the speakers, the theme, the overall takeaways—are presented in a way that is like giving attendees the keys to the kingdom.”
have to do it with the whole thing and you don’t have to be fancy, but create an ultimate level of something. Attendees have a pretty set idea in their mind of how a con-
ference works.You show up, you check in, you get your badge, you get the brochure. After registration, there’s a cocktail party; and the next morning, the keynote starts at eight o’clock, you have coffee, you sit in a big room.To activate the rebellion trig- ger, strategically pick just a few ways that you are going to tweak expectations to creatively reimagine howthe conference works. People are going to breakout of their regular expectations and say, “Wow, there is something really different going on here, I better pay attention.” Their brains are going to be more capti- vated, because there is something novel going on in the envi- ronment. One way to do it is by finding a non-traditional location, but you can also do it with something small:Howcan a nametag be reimagined to become part of the experience? One way to effectively apply the power trigger is to build
up the authority of the speakers, and really make sure that peo- ple understand the gravitas and experience of each speaker. Event planners give more power to their message when they give more power to the speakerwho is delivering it. It’s about making sure that the messages of the conference—the speakers, the theme, the overall takeaways—are presented in a way that it is like giving attendees the keys to the kingdom. It’s not about con- trolling attendees—it’s about making sure a message is heard and acted upon in a powerful way.
If somebody did a couple of things strongly, could www.pcma.org
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To read how Sally Hogshead pulls all the seven triggers of fascination when she delivers keynotes, see Convene’s blog, at http://bit.ly/qLZfMC. For more information about Hogshead and her research, visitwww.sallyhogshead.com.
they be as fascinating as someone who hit on all the triggers? Yes, absolutely. You don’t need to use all seven triggers—in fact, you shouldn’t. [It’s like] when little kids are playing with fingerpaints and smush all the colors together—they stop being colors and start being a mush. The triggers can operate the same way; if you try and apply too many, you stop having a clearly directed message.You should choose the trigger to use based on the response that you want to create.
Your research has shown that triggers operate differently for different age groups. How can you fascinate a multigenerational audience? Here is the good news. Fascination is deeply hardwired inside our brains—it has nothing to do with trends, it has nothing to do with age groups. Different generations are fascinated by different things, but the triggers for how you create fascina- tion are all instinctively hardwired within us. You don’t need tomake radical changes when you have multiple generations [in an audience], because human beings respond the samewaywhen you are dealing with instinctive triggers. A newborn responds the same way as an 80-year-old. That said, there are different degrees of response. Participants
aged 35 and under respond most strongly to the passion and rebellion triggers. They want to feel as though they are deal- ing with new ideas, which is the rebellion trigger. They love cre- ativity, they love change, but they also love to feel things viscerally with emotion; that’s the passion trigger. At the other end of the spectrum, senior executives respond more to the power and trust triggers. Power is about authority, and trust is about consistency and dependability.
What is the difference between individuals within an organization vs. the organization itself becoming more fascinating? Organizations can choose which triggers they use in order to build a connection.Anorganization could choose to utilize pres- tige if they want to raise the price of their product. They could use passion if theywant towhip up advocates, get thembuzzing on social media. Organizations can consciously do those things as part of a marketing plan. But individuals are different—we have hardwired into our
personality certain strengths. You can’t artificially bolt triggers on the way an organization can. I want to help participants understand what is their natural, hardwired personality strength andhowcan they use that to become most fascinating. And that is what this system is all about.