We know that planning an event involves many challenges: Picking the venue itself, configuring the space, amenities for attendees, production, design, and others. But what you communicate at the event and how you do it are critical, too. Isn’t that one of the main reasons you spend so much to gather people together? If yes, the focus should be on how to hit one out of the park, in terms of truly engaging and inspiring your people to action.

Five Quick Questions for planning your next event :

1. 1. Are your events unique or predictable?
2. 2. Are they Death by PowerPoint or a riot?
3. 3. Is your content memorable or easily forgotten?
4. 4. Are your executives engaging or stiff?
5. 5. Do your events generate excitement or a nap?

Second City Communications has nearly 20 years’ experience helping clients — literally hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies — stage successful, memorable, and fun meetings. We’re expert at applying what works in our theatres — specifically building a show flow that engages people; using comedy to reveal truths; involving audiences in the show by “breaking the fourth wall”.

Emcee/Hosting Services

An experienced host will - with personality and flair - welcome your audience, warm the crowd, ad-lib to keep things lively, introduce speakers in a humorous way - and generally keep things moving by providing humorous energy bumps throughout the event. We can also create a loose and lively discussion between the executive or speaker panel and the audience which is perfect for either internal or external audiences (think product launches). This approach can get your speakers to relax, open up and talk honestly about even the most sensitive topics in a conversational way. Add on a musical sidekick on the piano to give it some showbiz flare!

Talk Show

Our talk show helps you transform what could be a series of podium speeches into an opportunity for your executives to connect with an audience. You get to pick the guests, and our host will tee-up their talking points with light questions and a little fun – we’ll also include “commercial breaks” as live scenes throughout the show. These “commercials” are custom written sketches that tee-up the topics of the day, generating hearty laughs and a great transition into discussions between our host, the guests on stage, and the audience who we involve via roving microphone (thanks, Donahue). The talk show supreme typically runs 60-90 minutes.

Meeting Breaks

Our writers work with you to identify what’s ‘true’ about your company, your industry, or your audience, and turn that into a series of funny, smart sketches that entertain, educate and inspire. Our unique brand of comedy promotes dialogue, pops the tension bubble around difficult issues, and — of course — makes the audience laugh. We work with you to determine where to place sketches in terms of their role and objective, including transitioning between speakers, open segments after breaks; embedded in a speaker’s presentation; or energy bumps to prevent audience “Death by PowerPoint”.

Speaker Coaching

Similar to our individual coaching sessions, we can work with an intact team preparing for a specific presentation. We can help the group organize the presentation outline and content in a way that keeps the audience engaged at key points, brainstorm creative ways to present the material, plan smooth transitions between presenters and utilize individual strengths in a way that helps the team show best. These can be a follow up to a group skills building session or standalone preparation.