Many guests who attend your events will be outgoing and ready to experience excitement, still others may be more on the quiet side.
In fact, some of the people attending would rather NOT be attending.
These people may consider themselves introverts and surprisingly compose more people than you would expect. Many times, they can be flat out shy, but in a lot of cases, they are strategic about where and how they choose to allocate their energy.
If you can reach these people, encouraging them to attend your events, what might you do to make them comfortable? Here are some ideas that may help put them at ease…
Make the event program for your event customizable
The ability to go about things in a personalized way will help introverted attendees feel more comfortable. They will not feel stuck and can focus only on those things that are going to interest them. In order to make this work you still need to make sure you have very specific information about things on the event schedule.
Introverts need to be able to decide who they’ll interact with and when they want to take a breather from it all.
Don’t make it mandatory to participate in a group
While most people have a lot of fun with group-related activities, introverts are going to feel different. They might be somewhat on guard and protective. Maybe they might feel socially awkward or simply uncomfortable. In order to take away these concerns, you need to make group related activities optional.
You can also create areas where everyone will feel at ease to let their guards down a little. Introverts prefer to listen more than they speak unless what they hear is truly interesting to them and their expression will not be focused on.
Don’t spring surprises on introverts related to interactions or socializing
The last thing any introvert wants is for someone to approach them in a crowd, put a microphone in their face and put them on the spot about the event. It brings about high anxiety and stress. In order to help reduce this, speak with the moderators or presenters at your events to let them know what to do and what not to do. The main thing is to strongly encourage them to not force people to talk or engage in any way.
Instead, you may want to try something like anonymous polls or question and answer segments done through mobile apps you have created for your event, if you have that capability.
Allow attendees to have some degree of control over the experience
Networking is something that introverts or more outgoing people don’t particularly look forward to. The majority of people prefer not to interact with strangers. Introverts experience this discomfort to an even higher degree and will usually look for ways to disconnect from their surroundings and the people in it.
The best way to handle this is to create a controlled environment. Introverts need a degree of certainty in order to eliminate stress even more than extroverts might.
Create areas for people to go in order to relax
Introverts generally prefer some time alone in order to process the event or even to settle down a bit. Attending an event can be quite stressful, especially due to the high energy surrounding them. If possible, offer up a quiet area where people can go to calm themselves before coming back into the action.
Catering to the needs of every type of guest will be next to impossible. It is your job to ensure that all attendees have an awesome experience. Introverts will be more likely to come if the last experience was a good one. You never know how important one of them might end up being.