Engagement Is Table Stakes. Commitment Is the Win
Proscenium founder Mark Shearon on why the goal of a great event isn't a captivated audience, it's changed behavior.
Mark Shearon, Founding Partner, Chief Creative, Proscenium ยท 2025-08-28
Engagement is table stakes. Commitment is the win.
When we started Proscenium, we had a provocative idea: engagement isn't enough.
Everyone wants an engaged audience. We want our audience leaning forward, nodding along, and applauding. But what are we really after? We want people to do something different when they leave the room.
We want the sales team to storm into the field, armed with new features they're genuinely excited to talk about.
We want franchisees go walk back into their locations and transform how they treat customers.
We want clients to see our product roadmap and think, "I need to be part of that."
That's beyond engagement. That's commitment.
And commitment changes everything about how we design live events. Instead of asking "How do we keep people interested?", we ask "What will make them believe enough to act?" That shift in perspective, from entertaining an audience to converting them, gives us a far sharper tool for creating events that drive measurable results.
Because at the end of the day, applause is nice. But changed behavior? That's what actually matters.
Watch the filmAbout the author
Mark bio here