Our special guest today is Lindsay McGuire, the Associate Director of Content & Campaigns at Goldcast and host of the event series Donuts & Demand. Join Lindsay and our host Casey Cheshire as they delve into strategies such as polls and giveaways to increase audience engagement and the importance of creating content that caters to the audience's interests. Lindsay highlights her love for the 'surprise and delight' elements of live events, noting that these are key in retaining audience attention. She also cautions on the importance of carrying out 'tech-checks' before the event and shares several horror stories from past live event mishaps. Lindsay talks about embracing unpredictability and being transparent with the audience as key to successful live event hosting. They also discuss the content strategy after event participation, specifically for marketing purposes.

Takeaways:

• Make Use of Polls: Utilize polls to not only engage your audience but also to get valuable feedback, which you can use to improve your content or serve your audience better.
• Regular Tech Checks: Perform regular tech checks before going live to avoid disruptions. The purpose of the tech check is not only to test equipment but also to ensure everyone's familiar with the platform being used.
• Be Interactive & Strategic: Plan to make your live event or show exciting and interactive. This includes thinking about how to engage your audience, planning surprises, and considering how to phase key moments.
• Practice Makes Perfect: The more live events you do, the more comfortable and professional you will become. Expect things to go wrong and when they do, stay positive and maintain an authentic and relatable persona.
• Importance of Engagement: Quality of engagement is more important than quantity. Even if the audience is small, if they are highly engaged then you're on the right track. It opens the door for relationship-building with the audience.
• Plan Your Content: Be strategic in your planning. Consider your audience and aim to provide what they want to see or hear rather than pushing content you assume they'll like.
• Be Real and Authentic: Show authenticity and realness in your shows. This helps to create a deeper connection with your audience and makes you relatable which in turn increases engagement.

Quote of the Show:

• “You can be less polished and perfect and a little more relatable. We want those authentic and personal moments.” - Lindsay McGuire

Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/McGuireWrites 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsayladeroute 
• Website: https://www.goldcast.io 

Ways to Tune In:

• Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/12f108ea-018f-44a6-8bb0-9444e9cbf3cc 
• Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/creating-the-greatest-show/id1638399900
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1B7OnWCGoxBRzH2rbkEFIf 
• Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkLnBvZGJlYW4uY29tL2NyZWF0aW5ndGhlZ3JlYXRlc3RzaG93L2ZlZWQueG1s
• Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/creating-the-greatest-show-4823789 
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/URahHYi2HE4 

Creating The Greatest Show is produced and sponsored by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/