Check out our own Elizabeth Ireland in this month’s Convene Magazine!

Busting Moves

The National Restaurant Association (NRA) did it to Lady Gaga. The Society for Human Resource Managerment (SHRM) did it to the Black Eyed Peas. And ASAE did it to Cascada. What is it? A flash mob, the phenomenon in which groups assemble suddenly to sing and dance and then melt back into the crowd. All three organizations included them for the first time at their annual meetings in 2021.

The trend is still going strong – and for good reason, Elizabeth Ireland, public relations program manager for Stalwart Communications. For one thing, flash-mob routines are inexpensive, using volunteers organized through social media, she wrote. They get talked about, since people share the experience by way of cameras and cell phones, she added. And finally, they are energizing and engaging. At an event for a client that installed solar arrays at the University of San Diego, even the speakers joined in the dance. “Priceless,” Ireland concluded. “It felt like the flash mob was inviting the crowd to become part of this new solar movement.”