Sure, you want your attendees to learn, but you also want them to get involved. That’s why it’s worth looking into forms of entertainment that will draw eyeballs at networking events.

Writing for the Event Manager Blog, Scarlett Entertainment’s Amy Capron offers up a wide variety of ideas—some cheap, some gimmicky, some simply mind-blowing—that will get attendees engaged with your brand.

One Capron tip that could prove particularly appealing? Hook your DJ or performers up to social media and have them take requests from the stage.

“As guests become more technology and social media savvy, so do performers,” she notes.

Other tips: Get a digital caricaturist, and (separately) build a social media photo booth.

Expanding on Events

via @BizBash: how magazines are rethinking their events… #events #eventmarketing #eventplanning #eventprofs http://t.co/9tpf8DfVcp

— theo tyson (@ms_theotyson) June 12, 2014

We’ve heard a ton about how media companies are stealing a ton of association tricks on the events front, but that description of things only scratches the surface.

Even magazines and publications that have long held events are starting to try new approaches to attract advertisers and revenue, according to BizBash. The event news outlet highlights how New York, for example, created a new event, the Vulture Festival, that drew profitability right off the bat through sponsorship—and even attracted sponsors that had never worked with the magazine before.

The event also proved to be a massive content hub for the popular website—and drew the magazine some outside press: One of its performers, Solange Knowles, had recently been in the news for a fight with her brother-in-law, Jay-Z.

“These events do what magazines have always done—deliver stories and marketing messages to a specific audience—but they also show how publishers are experimenting with different platforms and business models,” BizBash‘s Chad Kaydo writes. (ht @theo_trinity)

Other Links of Note

Good news for fans of Microsoft Office: The company is working to launch an Android version.

If you find yourself getting distracted by clickbait when you’re trying to work, the new Chrome plugin Dayboard could help. (Speaking of clickbait, The Onion‘s new spinoff site, Clickhole, is really funny.)

Over at SocialFish, Maddie Grant takes a, shall we say, pessimistic view on Facebook’s organic reach.

(iStock/Thinkstock)