There are so many words to describe the people that come to an event or meeting.
For some there are still “audience”, for others “delegates” or “attendees”.
It depends on the way you look at them and the role you assign them.
If we want them to learn something, if we want to learn from their experience, we have to take them out of their inactivity and make them take an active role.
This is why I always refer to them as “participants”.
In the end it’s “only a word” but if we refer to them with an inactive word, we push them into an inactive role.
Nowadays we will not get anyone to attend our meetings and events, if they will not achieve a change in behavior, knowledge or motivation. A change cannot be achieved by inactivity.
Thus, we have to rethink the role of the people attending our meetings, events and conferences.
To be able to achieve the objectives we have to make them actively engaged.
Therefore, the word we should start using is participants.
Try it! You will see how it works!