Another Way to Share Knowledge
- Guy Niri
- Oct 1, 2005
- 2 min read
Anyone who has recently been to the cinema has surely noticed that the time devoted to advertisements before the movie starts feels like an eternity... Well, it not only feels like a lot, it is a lot. We usually talk for approximately 30 minutes!!!
Most of us get annoyed by this, and several recent critiques have been published about it. But this is a lost battle. Advertisers won't give up on exploiting this opportunity for a simple reason: it works!!
That being the case, an idea arose -
why not copy this method for conferences and meetings with many participants?
When holding such meetings, which of us tends to miss the "dead" time created between the arrival of the first invitees and the start of the meeting/conference? Sometimes, we use it to serve refreshments or for small talk, but we don't plan this time and wait for it to pass before trying to influence the invitees.
However, this time doesn't have to be wasted and can be used efficiently. If the cinema world does it for advertisements, we can do it to convey business and marketing messages that align with the purpose of the meeting.
Instead of having the projector "wait" for the meeting to begin while it's off or displaying a static opening page, we can use it to transfer knowledge; we can run targeted messages to the audience on topics related to the meeting, such as business news flashes, updates for the day of the event, presentations of new products, management announcements, presentations of publications, and more.
Depending on the importance of the meeting, its centrality, and the number of participants (at least 30), one can choose the level of investment and decide whether and how to incorporate organizational humor, music, videos, and animations in the knowledge transfer.
The time that seemingly appears "dead" becomes alive and vibrant and provides several advantages:
Allows more messages to be conveyed in the given timeframe of the meeting
Creates interest among participants and "wakes them up" for the meeting
Serves as a tool to reduce tardiness (those who are late miss out)
Creates a positive effect
On the flip side, before using this tip, it's important to remember that this is a one-way communication channel, and there's no feedback on whether the recipients received or understood the message. Hence, it's important not to rely on it as the main tool for conveying messages. Additionally, it's important to ensure that the messages are light and not too long or burdensome - see what the long advertisements at the cinema have done to us...
By the way, if we're back to the cinema, it was recently published that some movie theaters plan to incorporate advertisements during the intermission before resuming the movie.
There are also breaks in conferences and meetings, right? Hmm... an idea...
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