Have you noticed that when things get quiet, you tend to listen more?

Quiet or silent doesn’t always mean boring.

In fact, if done right, it will make your event much more interesting.

It’s interesting to see how events have been toning down their noise levels, making it easier for people to interact on a personal level.

They’ve found that it’s actually a very effective tool in bringing people together.

“As we become more digitally connected, we’re hungry for more human and physical connection, for physical experiences.” – Jesse Israel, co-creator of the Big Quiet, a mass meditation movement (from this article on BizBash)

Of course, we need to be digitally connected for many reasons.

But, when we get together as human beings, the extra noise around us can actually remove us a little from the experience.

You want your attendees to always be in the moment as much as possible. If not, they won’t take away as much.

This is such a small detail, and it often goes unnoticed.

As an event planner, you know that these details are extremely important in the long run.

You might not be organizing a mass meditation or a silent disco, so you might be wondering how can you use silence to bring people together for your event.

It’s true that your attention is drawn by visual things, and noises are more distracting.

The quieter the atmosphere, the easier it will be to get attendees to pay attention to the visual cues around them.

Here are some ways that you can use the intrigue of silence to bring people together for your next event:

Organize an optional “quiet time”.

You can use this quiet time in a way that is congruent with the theme of your event.

For example, a screen could display slides instructing them to do certain things without speaking, such as communicate with the person next to them.

Or you could simply instruct them to visualize their goals, as if they’re watching a movie of it in their heads.

Many events are turning down their volumes with wireless headphones that are all picking up the same sound.

These are known as silent discos or silent events.

Even though all the people there are wearing headphones, they have more control over what they’re hearing and how they can communicate.

All they have to do is take the headphones off.

If they want to talk to the person next to them, they can politely get their attention to take their own headphones off.

This is a really interesting and revolutionary way to hold an event.

When people think of an event, they usually picture lots of people, the droning background noise of everyone talking at once, loud music, someone talking into a microphone, etc.

Throw in the mention of quiet and silence, and people start listening.