A couple of years ago I was sat in bed checking emails on a Saturday morning, and the TV was on in the background, but I wasn’t really paying attention. My ears pricked up as I heard Mel Gibson talking about the three E’s of storytelling. I immediately grabbed the remote and turned up the volume. Now whether you’re a Mel Gibson fan or not is irrelevant here because what I’m focusing on is how he as a director takes his audience on a journey. That journey is called storytelling.
Here at the Academy we spend a great deal of time teaching our students about the art of storytelling when designing an event. The principles used are no different to those applied by the film industry. We encourage our students to think about what kind of story they want to tell when planning and producing an event.
SO what are the three E’s that Mel Gibson was referring to? First you Entertain, then you Educate and finally you Elevate.
He was very clear that for him entertainment was the most important. The key to any successful story is that it must entertain your audience. This is non-negotiable and it doesn’t even have to be logical, as long as people are entertained and they get something from it, whether that’s a feeling or emotion, they need to walk away with something.
Education can be there in a number of different ways and this was the one that Mel talked about least, but for us in the event industry there is always a certain amount of education in any event we produce. This might be in the message we are delivering at a conference or our ability to take guests on a journey where they learn a little more about the bridal couple and their life together.
When talking about the final E, to elevate your audience, Mel was clear that this was the hardest of the three. Your aim is take people to another plain and reach beyond our earthboundness and go for something a little higher, whether that’s spiritual or something outside yourself that talks to your soul. This is something we all aspire to achieve within our work as event planners. We want guests to leave with an emotion and a feeling that will stay with them for a long time.
There ends today’s lesson. Remember if planning events for a living is something you’d like to do you can visit one of our websites for more details on the courses we offer:
UK – http://weddingplanningacademy.co.uk/
Australia – http://aawep.com.au/
UAE – http://arabianweddingacademy.com/
South East Asia – http://aseanweddingacademy.com
New Zealand – http://nzawep.co.nz/
North America – http://northamericanweddingacademy.com/
