EMCEE SQUARED

Leading Consumer & Shopper Behaviouralist, CX Strategist and Keynote Speaker

Recently voted the best speaker to ever present

at Google EMEA HQ

V I R T U A L

World’s leading virtual EMCEE

As a professional speaker on the international conference circuit, Ken Hughes spends his life delivering

inspiring keynote addresses at live and virtual events. From the small intimate C-Level events to the

5,000-person arenas, he loves what he does. Virtually, he has hosted intimate digital debates with high-

level executives all the way to engaging 115,000 participants at one digital event.

His skill is to educate, inspire and entertain an audience, to provoke and disrupt their thinking, to

challenge them, and that stands for live or virtual events. Over the past 4 years he has also been

regularly asked to host and MC client events, both virtually and live.

Having challenged and re-shaped the traditional on-stage MC role at live events, he has now done the

same for virtual events. In our new post-pandemic world, a good virtual MC is critical to set a digital

event apart from the ‘free webinar noise’.

Many digital hosts fail to really understand the difference in Virtual v Live. Virtually, the need for audience

interactivity is more than ever before, the requirement to ensure all the speakers are technically

proficient is high and the energy required to engage an audience over several hours is substantially

different. These is TV v Theatre, completely different mediums requiring different approaches and skill

sets.

The Virtual Emcee Squared product aims to deliver significantly higher value to your digital event.

There are 5 key pillars designed to make your virtual event truly engaging for attendees.

High Energy Virtual Host

Event Production Consultancy

Thought Provoking Full Keynote During Event

Inter-Speaker Content To Bind The Agenda

Event Gamification & Attendee Engagement

Bringing your event to the next level

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High Energy Virtual Host

1Just as in live events, Ken takes the time to learn about each speaker personally. He will speak to each

of them on a call before the event, to understand their content, their story and learn a little about them

personally. This allows him to introduce them with flair, passion and personality.

Q&A and Fireside chat sessions are also designed in the same way. Pre-discussed and set questions

peppered with relevant content-led questions and moderated participant questions. The Q&A should

add further value to the delivered content, not just another 5 minutes of a speaker repeating what

they have just said. Again, discussing this with each speaker weeks before the event allows us to design

value-adding Q&A.

For digital event hosting, the energy maintained by the host is critical. To expect a participant to engage

over the duration of a virtual event requires a different approach in event hosting. An energetic and

authentic performance down the lens is key, something Ken naturally has from his performances and

training as a screen actor in his 20s. As we said earlier, this is TV not Theatre.

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Inter-Speaker Content To Bind The Agenda

One of the issues with any event, virtual or live, is the ‘thread’. While you put so much effort into

curating a good set of speakers, there is never a guarantee their messages will be cohesive to the

overall arching theme of your event.

Each speaker might have a unique take, and while you seek to control that to some level, with anything

from 3 to 8 speakers per day/ half-day delivering content, it rarely all aligns nicely by chance. You will

have stronger and weaker content, stronger and weaker delivery, random technical glitches. It is what

it is.

What is lacking at most events is a Golden Thread through the day, someone to take the core message

of the last speaker, add something to it, and transition to the message of the next speaker. For virtual

events this is even more critical to give the entire event a more comprehensive ‘look and feel’. Otherwise

it can come across as a string of random webinars stitched together.

In between every speaker, Ken showcases 3-5 minutes of bespoke content, adding context, provoking

thought and adding further insight. This binds the day together in a cohesive style, giving attendees a

uniform message throughout the day, instead of just leap-frogging from speaker to speaker.

It is this Golden Thread and added content that helps attendees walk away with a core event theme

and feel they had ‘attended’ an event as opposed to ‘watched something’. Weaving this Golden Thread

is really important for virtual events. 2

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Thought Provoking Full Keynote During Event

Ken Hughes is most famous as a keynote speaker, and as such, as part of the Virtual Emcee Squared

product, he can deliver a full keynote tailored to the event. As he has already been doing micro-content

between each speaker/session, attendees now have a chance to engage at a deeper level.

He is one of the most popular virtual speakers currently, due to his inherent understanding of how we

consume content. His highly visual style with images and videos changing continuously on screen as

he visually engages an audience means attendees forget they are not there in person.

As always he has a wide number of keynotes that can be delivered and tailored to any event, and

having spoken to each speaker about their own content, he can then tailor his own keynote to build on

their story and/or to support the overall event theme.3

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Event Gamification & Attendee Engagement

The role of an MC is not just to host an event on behalf of the client. You become the face of an event,

the energy, the fulcrum.

While at a live event an MC can entertain and engage an audience from the stage (with interactive

games, stories and humour), this need heightens for a virtual event. Attendees needs to feel they are

‘taking part’ in something as opposed to simply ‘consuming’ content. This is one of the biggest mistakes

being made on the virtual conference circuit today – a lack of audience connection, interactivity, and

engagement.

If attendees feel part of the event, a connection with the host and other participants, then they are

far more likely to stay online and learn. From the basics of on-line polling, chat questions and digital

breakout rooms to at home interactivity, it is key that an audience feels connected for a virtual event.

With a set of interactive strategies up his sleeve, Ken brings that connection to life.4

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Event Production Consultancy

For many event planners, the move from live to virtual is something relatively new. For Ken and his

team, it is not. We have found since launching Virtual Emcee Squared, most clients have relied heavily

on this pillar.

Understanding what a successful virtual event should look like is important. How to produce that

polished TV look and feel is critical. This is not a webinar. Choosing, or more usually, blending the right

platforms that allow you to have the flexibility in presentation and audience participation you require

is also key.

Ensuring all your speakers have the appropriate sound, camera and lighting kit to ensure the event looks

well, doing tech rehearsals, pre-recording certain segments, building graphic decks and transitions – it

all takes time and planning.

Ken and his team bring a wealth of experience and ideas to your virtual event. While we are not

seeking to simply replicate a live event, we do want those logging in to have an authentic connected

experience. To that end, Ken brings a stream of ideas for your virtual event planning team to consider

and as the host, acts as a production consultant through out in terms of what will work or likely look

clunky.

Never before has it been more important to have someone outside the core production team to be the

link between speakers, technical team and viewer. This is the Virtual Host. But it is a skill and one that

needs to be developed over time, trial and error.

Lean on Ken and his team in order to make sure your virtual event sparkles on screen.5

An energetic charismatic on-screen presence

An MC who takes the time to get to know each speaker in advance

Engaging and personalised speaker introductions

Q&A/Fireside chat sessions that are relevant and add further value

Relevant thematic content delivered between each speaker forming that Golden Thread

A Thought Provoking, Highly Visual and Entertaining Keynote where required

A speaker used to dealing with digital event production and the technical issues

An event host for the event on main screen, breakouts or in-home interactive networking

A fun approach to virtually hosting an event where attendees remain engaged and interested

A professional approach from digital design, rehearsal, execution and delivery

# Key Things You Get from Virtual Emcee Squared

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“Having had Ken present at a number of our congresses, we are confident that there are few other speakers that can engage and entertain an audience like he can, while simultaneously delivering to the conference theme.”

BILL KISTLERICSC

“We have had Ken emcee our international conference for two years in a row. No one else could bring this event together with such energy, enthusiasm while at the same time having so much relevant industry knowledge and appropriate content. It is a fantastic mix. Don’t hesitate in booking him for any event you’re planning”

TONY WOODSYMPHONY RETAILAI

“We have invited Ken to be part of several of the Forge Rock Identity Summits, as we are yet to meet another speaker that has the presence, link to our attendees and understanding of our own business and industry, mixed with that natural story-telling style and wit. He delivers every time”

STEVE FERRIS FORGE ROCK

This guy just made an amazing MC. I can only define it as ‘Digital Stand-Up comedy

Nobody knows the audience better than Ken Hughes

I saw Ken Hughes and now I feel like his groupie

Probably the most entertaining MC I’ve heard at a conference ever! Fantastic!

Fantastic Ken Hughes today! Lots to think about and lots of ideas down on paper… Thank you!

Please contact us on hello@kenhughes.info to

book Ken Hughes as your Virtual MC & Host.

We are more than happy to assist you in your

enquiry, to discuss how we can best support your

virtual event and tailor the content outlined in this

brochure to perfectly suit your event. The more we

can understand what you are trying to achieve and

what you want your attendees to take-away, the

better we can deliver. Let’s make this fantastic!

| www.kenhughes.info

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