Audience Engagement Involves Pre and Post-Show Connections

Before-During-After: Audience Engagement is More Than Just During a Speech

Published by

scottbedgood

on

August 6, 2025

What you do before and after a speech is just as important as what you do during the speech. A recent comedy show was a great example.

This is an area where I struggle as a comedian and a speaker.

Before I perform I’m usually concentrating on what I’m going to say onstage (and dealing with my nerves) so I don’t interact with the audience very much.

After the show, since I’m not a big-time famous comedian, I don’t think people really care to talk to me so I typically hang around in the back until they leave.

But I recently realized that I was missing major opportunities to engage my audience. So I decided to change my pre and post-show habits.

Get to Know People Before the Show

Before a show a few weeks ago I talked to some tables and made a genuine connection with them. We talked about where they were from, why they came to the show, and we talked about NASCAR. They were wearing NASCAR shirts and my five-year-old son is obsessed with the sport. It provided them with a specific memory about me and even gave me some information to slip into my act that they might enjoy.

So when I went up onstage I wasn’t some stranger to this table, I was the guy who they’d just gotten to know as a real person. Fortunately for me, they were some of the biggest laughers in the audience, which encouraged other audience members to let loose and have a good time.

Be Available After the Show

After the show there was a long line of people waiting to meet the headliner (the great Brian Bates), but some people were heading out the other door so I stood by that one and thanked people for coming to the show. I know they didn’t come to see me and wouldn’t be looking to buy merch or take a photo with me, but I still wanted to let them know that I appreciated them coming. Plus, selfishly, I wanted to give them one more opportunity to see my face, maybe ask my name, and hopefully remember me when they went home.

I ended up having conversations with at least 10 people who were genuinely excited to meet me. I had recently moved to Chattanooga and many of them very welcoming and wanted to see me perform again in the future. They asked me when my next show was and followed me on social media.

I’ve had plenty of other shows that went just as well on stage, but very few that went as well after the show. All of those people I spoke with will remember my name and feel a real connection to me that they’d never have felt if I had just shown up and performed. And hopefully many of them will come see me perform again in the future.

Engagement Drives Actions

The importance of connection before and after a speech is true in any type of presentation, including business meetings. In the same way that I waited around to thank audience members and talk to them, business leaders should make themselves available to their workers before and after meetings.

As a business leader are you showing up to All Hands meetings right on time, delivering your talk, and then leaving right when they end?

If you want more engaged employees, try to get there a little bit early. Have some casual conversations, break the tension a bit, ask about people’s families or hobbies. Create genuine connections.

Then after your meeting, make yourself available for one-on-one questions and conversations. Often leaders hop directly into another meeting, leaving the employees without a way to clarify something from the meeting.

Unclear communication costs business millions of dollars each year (see slide deck below). Creating space to clarify and connect after a meeting is a great way to mitigate some of the biggest challenges in business communications and helps your employees feel more connected and appreciated.