Workplace Archives - Laughter Works

1 December, 2014 by Kris

5 Secrets to Drawing Attendee’s to Your Conference

With how much time, funding, and energy planning a business conference requires, you want to be sure to optimize your profit margin. The best way to do this – besides proper budgeting – is to draw in as many attendees as possible.

Business leaders are becoming careful about which conferences they attend. They look to optimize the value of their experience by comparing travel and attendance costs with what your conference has to offer.

Follow these 5 tips to take your conference from “just another business conference” to a “must-see event”:

1. Get a head start

Don’t wait till every last detail is planned out to start attracting attendees. You are going to need sufficient time to advertise. Pick your venue and a date that doesn’t conflict with holidays or other, similar conferences and start marketing. The larger the conference, the further in advance you will need to announce it.

2. Make it marketable

Marketing firms are constantly keeping an eye on the latest trends. The goal is to borrow a trend’s existing momentum to advertise their own products or services. Search social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to find out what subjects are trending in your industry, and brainstorm ways your conference can provide exclusive content on these topics.

3. Don’t skimp on the speakers

Anyone can talk about trending topics in your industry. The trick is to find experts at the top of your field, people who are seen as innovators and industry leaders. These are the kinds of speakers that bring with them the promise of inside information on the future of your field. The money you spend on expert presenters should be made back in increased registrations.

4. Interview the speakers beforehand

Introduce your speakers to potential attendees through interviews leading up to the conference. If you are able to, make video interviews and share them on YouTube. This provides registrants with a chance to preview the speakers before committing to registration.

5. Industry outreach

Send personalized letters to major industry groups. Advertise in magazines, newsletters, quarterlies, and any other media that your target audience would read. Take advantage of social networking to spread the word. Savvy marketers can hire industry bloggers to promote the event through advertising, or even contests and giveaways.

We offer laughter workshops for both teams and organisations. Have laughterworks deliver a laughter session at your next quarterly forum or team-building day. Contact us: info@laughterworks.com.au, or 0438 545 607.

5 Secrets to Drawing Attendee’s to Your Conference. http://t.co/5dIcIaV29w

— Cris Popp (@laughterpopp) December 1, 2014

13 October, 2014 by Kris

Increase Workplace Productivity With Laughter

Numerous factors have been identified as major causes of stress such as job pressure, poor nutrition, relationships, media overload the list is endless. According to the American Psychological Association around 48% of people lie awake at night as a result of some sort of stress with an unbelievable 77% experiencing physical discomfort on a regular basis for the same reason.

Many of the people who cite stress related problems are quick to say how they’re not able to juggle other aspects of their social lives in tandem with their work related responsibilities. Research conducted in August 2014 by the American Psychological Association, American Institute of Stress, NY has revealed that annual costs incurred by employers due to employees stress related issues such as absconding duty or healthcare problems run into hundreds of billions of dollars. $300 Billion to be exact! A laughable if not ridiculous amount.

How Laughter Relieves Stress

Someone once said that laughter is the best medicine and it really is! Scientific research has shown that a good laugh has both short and long-term effects on your health. One such positive impact is that laughing will soothe your body muscles simultaneously stimulating your heart and lungs as well as increasing your blood pressure and heart rate resulting in a relaxed feeling. Stanford University’s Dr. William Fry also proved that 10 minutes of enthusiastic laughter equals half an hour on the rowing machine and offers the same aerobic value.

A happy employee is a productive employee and laughter activities in the workplace have been proven to exponentially increase productivity. This is easily achieved through increased efficiency, enhanced communication and better teamwork all of which are combined to create a happier workplace. John Cleese, an English comedian and actor once said “people who laugh together, work together”. Laughter therapy offered at laughter workshops is one of the ways team cohesion is enhanced.

Other than being an important tool for team building, laughter also enhances our focus. Our minds’ attention span is greatly reduced after the first 90 minutes of a meeting or conference event. A laughter session goes a long way in helping revitalize our energy and increases our focus on the task at hand be it a convoluted HR training session or a protracted conference meeting.

Contact Us

Here at Laughterworks we specialize in laughter to create an environment that is great fun for all. Kris Popp is a renowned laughter leader who has perfected his art over many years of experience. For more on how you can make your next conference fun and interactive please get in touch with us: info@laughterworks.com.au or (+ 61) 438 545 607.

6 October, 2014 by Kris

Factors To Consider When Organizing a Conference

Conferences provide a great way to broaden your network of like-minded people, share your ideas and ease up tension at the workplace through effective team-building. Well organized events will normally leave you bursting with fresh ideas and wondering why the aha! moment hadn’t come any sooner.

To set up a successful event however requires a lot of skill not to mention tireless effort. You should be prepared for late nights, a roller coaster of emotions and your social life will be interrupted in no small measure. A lot of people fail at event organizing as they mostly try to retrofit ideas from previous conferences which mostly results in a mediocre conference or an outright disaster.

By simply having a check-off list while planning your first conference you will have avoided the many pitfalls that many novice organizers fall into. Here are a couple of things you should be sure to get right from the get-go:

Event Theme

It may sound pretty obvious but torturing yourself with thoughts of everything that could go wrong may easily make you forget why the conference is held in the first place! A principle unifying idea not only sets the tone for the entire event but also offers guidance on what items should be the main focus; it makes creating an invitation list for the attendees much easier and makes choosing guest speakers a breeze!

Venue

Conventional conferences are not virtual and so determining a venue that is comfortable for all the attendees is critical. Attendees are more likely to be excited about an event held in a conference hall with an airy feel to it featuring large windows with a stunning view as compared to some dingy basement accented with a hint of mustiness. Comfort for the attendees means that they’ll have a better attention span and even want to stay behind and meet new people once the speakers conclude their speeches.

Speakers

Speakers can either make or break an event. Different speakers will have various ways of capturing the attendees attention for the time they’re up on stage. While most people will try to keep their allotted time at a minimum while offering the most value some subjects require an exhaustive explanation and its fairly common for the audience to drift off to what they had for breakfast or a less banal topic.

According to the journal of Primary Prevention (2007) laughter influences the amount of effort put toward a goal. This would come in handy especially during conferences that are geared toward workplace team-building. In addition optimism and motivation levels were boosted by laughter among the participants of the study making them more effective at work. Just because a subject is dynamic or the speaker is unable to build rapport with the audience shouldn’t mean that it’s ok to settle for a gloomy conference.

Contact Us

Here at Laughterworks we specialize in helping teams create an environment that is great fun for all. We are well spread out across the country and have laughter leaders in each state in Australia. For more on how you can make your next conference a fun and interactive experience please get in touch with us: info@laughterworks.com.au or (+ 61) 438 545 607.

4 October, 2012 by Kris

Australia’s Premier Laughter Leaders

Welcome to Australia’s leading laughter leaders. We have been leading laughter, team-building, resilience and stress-busting seminars across Australia since 2004. So if you’re looking for something that will bring your staff together, reduce stress, lift morale and fill your workplace with happy high performers you’ve come to the right place.
We’ve enjoyed success in all sorts of settings from micro-firms to large corporates including the ANZ Bank, Honda and the Chamber of Commerce in Tokyo and with groups from four to four hundred. Our talks on change, wellbeing, and happiness are legendary (ask about “Happy Hour is 9 to 5”).

“Employers who actively sustain a positive environment could experience up to 25% improvements in efficiency and customer satisfaction”
– Journal of Applied Psychology

To find out more about the benefits to you and your organisation have a look at the links above – make sure you check out our blog for the latest research. Alternatively give us a call. We’re always happy to help.

“In a group of people I hardly knew – all of a sudden we had bonded by laughing together. With Cris’ guidance we had cleared our heads and decreased our social and mental barriers. We were ready to tackle the problems over which we had gathered”
– Gillian H. Occupational Therapist

Clear your team’s head and build bonds – book a laughter session for your team today, Mention this code LYJan2014 for a discount (conditions apply).

4 October, 2012 by Kris

How to Make A Booking

Like to arrange a laughter session? Wise decision – your boss and colleagues will thank you for it.

Arranging a laughter session is easy – just call or email. Let us know:

Number of people, time and place.
Decide if you want a keynote or shorter session.
Need an MC?
Choose any special message or a keynote you want included (entirely optional)
Confirm your book.
Publicise it (we can help)

We”ll customise the agenda and deliver the session.

Check out our testimonials or give us a call if you’d like to know more [Read more…]

1. Get a head start

2. Make it marketable

3. Don’t skimp on the speakers

4. Interview the speakers beforehand

5. Industry outreach

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