You're organizing a live event with skeptical stakeholders. How can you win their trust in its success?

Calm their skepticism by sharing past successes with creating (and attending) live events. Assure them that your experiences and expertise can troubleshoot and resolve problems. Assure them that you have trusted allies who also seek a successful event.

Listening actively and understanding their concerns and needs will help build trust. Again, there is the need to address their concerns directly and not avoid or dismiss their worries is vital. Providing evidence and data to support claims with facts and metrics can help to build trust. Showing empathy and understanding by acknowledging their perspective and offering solutions and alternatives through collaboration can also help.

To gain the trust of skeptical stakeholders for a live event, start by understanding their interests and influence. Clearly communicate the event's objectives and involve stakeholders in planning to align them with the vision. Maintain open and honest communication, using preferred channels to ensure transparency about progress and challenges. Build trust through proactive engagement, empathy, and consistent delivery on promises. After the event, follow up by analyzing feedback and acknowledging contributions to sustain positive relationships and show commitment to improvement.

To win the trust of sceptical stakeholders in your live event’s success, provide them with data-driven projections, case studies, and a detailed plan that outlines how the event will achieve its objectives. Regular updates, clear KPIs, and risk management strategies will demonstrate that you are organised and focused on delivering positive outcomes.

Clients can lose touch/trust for a number of reasons. But you can always win things back. Apart from maintaining correspondence, one way is to revert attention to the projected plan, the level of deviations accounted for (and actualized), and the projected outcome of the live experience. A durable plan that includes contingencies and foresees outcomes is the way to having a trustworthy relationship with stakeholders. A plan also ensures that all the parts are moving efficiently and effectively. The old adage wasn’t all wrong, “stick to the plan.”

Part of your pre production calendar should include regular presentation to the key client. If possible show as many detailed visuals as possible because not everyone can get inside your head or even visualise what you describe. Person to person presentation with key members of your team to present. Having a small team present will allow the client to see the energy and passion you are putting into their event. Also it allows them to give notes, make changes and creatively be involved. If you collectively make creative decisions with the client you minimise them being upset or surprised once the train leaves the station.