This article originally appeared on Forbes.

Capturing and maintaining people’s attention during any innovation event is hard enough as it is, and the current imbalance between in-person and remote work, along with unpredictable travel restrictions, makes this all the more challenging. But it’s not all doom and gloom.

Online innovation events have the unique potential to cut through barriers and empower people to connect and collaborate  on an even footing no matter where they physically reside — a work reality that some organizations are still struggling to cope with while others have embraced with open arms.

Take Novartis for example, a multinational pharmaceutical company that embarked on an ambitious culture transformation in recent years. Along this journey, we helped them run a Pitchfest, part of their UNBOSSED culture to accelerate innovation and create new value-creation relationships between associates across geographies, divisions, and disciplines. As Aimee Reynolds, project liaison for Novartis’ Genesis Labs, said about the event (35:36): “We encouraged psychological safety with our colleagues who were willing to put themselves out there and propose what sometimes might seem like crazy transformative ideas on the platform. And we saw colleagues who felt willing and safe to provide comments and feedback, make new connections, and build their network.”

Based on their success story, here are three practical tips you can use to supercharge your next online innovation event.

Encourage inclusivity, equity and psychological safety

From a design perspective, a conscious effort must be made to give the event a professional look and feel, as well as its own unique branding to captivate as many contributors as possible. But above all, we want the event to be fun, so let your creativity run free and grab inspiration from anything that might help you establish an overarching theme and structure. The Voice, the popular singing competition television series, is a perfect example. For those not familiar with the show, it’s a blind audition where the series’ hosts judge contestants exclusively on their vocals.

This approach can be appealing due to its inclusive nature, and you can use it effectively to ensure that your innovation judges will similarly review ideas without being influenced by factors such as the idea submitter’s seniority, location, background, gender, race, and so on. In this case, each contributor remains anonymous, and their ideas are judged objectively and squarely on their merits without any external influences clouding the judges’ decisions. 

Get senior leaders to join in on the fun

The other important consideration is to get senior leaders excited and invested in making the most out of your innovation efforts. If they’re timid, don’t worry, you can inject some humor into your event by creating an animated version of each judge that highlights their idiosyncrasies. The Voice does this naturally without the need for cartoons because their judges are TV personalities, which is why it’s important to leave room for imagination so you can overcome hiccups and give the event your own twist when grabbing inspiration from other sources. 

This approach makes for a great ice breaker because it creates an emotional connection between the judges and their online personas which helps to drive a more engaging experience for all those who are involved; it was so effective for Novartis, in fact, that their excitement inspired fellow executives to join in, doubling the number of judges from 4 to 8. This is a great example of how you can create enough buzz to recruit executive sponsors and maximize the visibility and stature of your online innovation event.

Recruit innovation coaches to fine-tune ideas

Lastly, just like contestants are assigned vocal coaches on The Voice, you should recruit innovation coaches and assign them to the best ideas to create an additional layer of review, which can be achieved through your very own network of employees. Before advancing to the next stage, ideas can be pitched to and vetted by coaches before being brought forward to the executive team. Ideas in this stage should be fine-tuned using a value proposition canvas to ensure the final pitch to senior leaders is clear, concise, and on target.

These three simple approaches can help to exponentially increase engagement at all levels for your next online innovation event, leaving a lasting positive impact on your organization’s culture, as well as its ability to launch future events, secure leadership attention, and build a network of innovation coaches. If your organization is still struggling to unlock its employees’ creativity, take inspiration from The Voice — and remember that it isn’t over until the fat lady sings.


Ludwig Melik

CEO at Planbox and author of the Future-Fit Manifesto. I help organizations build a sustainable culture of innovation. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn.