Magician for Zoom: Customer Advisory Boards and User Councils
Magician for Zoom: Customer Advisory Boards and User Councils
A customer advisory board asks senior people at your best accounts to give you an afternoon, review your roadmap, critique your product, and tell you what you're getting wrong. They receive no fee, and the value they get is mostly the promise that their input will matter.
That's a considerable ask, and most companies under invest in the experience of it. I'm Magical Katrina, an award winning magician and mentalist, and I want to explain where a magician for Zoom fits into an advisory board or user council, which is a hospitality problem rather than an entertainment one.
You're Asking for Unpaid Work
Start with the honest framing, since it changes how the session should be designed. What you're requesting is expert consultation from senior people, delivered for free, in an afternoon they could have spent on their own work.
Companies sometimes forget this and run the session as though attendance were a privilege. It isn't: it's a favor, extended because the relationship matters and because members believe their input will land somewhere. Designing the session around that reality, rather than around your agenda, is what makes members return for the second one.
Virtual Makes It Harder
Worth acknowledging, since most councils now run online at least partly. An in person advisory board has dinner, a room, and the informal conversation that makes members feel part of something rather than consulted at.
A virtual one has an agenda and a gallery of faces. The substance can be identical and the experience is considerably thinner, which is why virtual attendance frequently declines by the second or third session. A magician for Zoom doesn't fix that entirely, and it supplies something the format otherwise lacks, which is a reason for the session to feel like an occasion rather than a long meeting.
Members Don't Know Each Other
An underused asset. Your advisory board contains senior people from different organizations facing similar problems, and one of the genuine benefits of membership is meeting each other rather than meeting you.
Virtually, that doesn't happen on its own: people arrive, present their views in turn, and leave without having spoken to each other. Anything that produces shared experience rather than sequential contribution addresses that, and members who value the peer connection are members who stay on the board. That's worth designing for deliberately rather than hoping the agenda produces it.
Open With It, Don't Close
Practical guidance, and it matters more here than at most events. Senior people leave the moment the substantive portion ends, so anything placed at the close reaches whoever stayed, which is the group you already had.
Opening with something enjoyable does different work: it rewards punctual attendance, gets people talking before you ask them to be candid, and sets a tone that this isn't an ordinary meeting. Candor is what you actually want from an advisory board, and a room that's warmed up gives you considerably more of it than one that arrived cold into a roadmap presentation.
Keep It Short and Obviously Separate
Worth being clear about proportion. An advisory board session has a purpose and members gave their time for it, so entertainment should be brief and clearly framed as hospitality rather than as part of the agenda.
Twenty to thirty minutes at the start is right. What doesn't work is anything that eats into the substantive discussion or makes members feel their afternoon was padded. If your agenda is tight, that's an argument for a shorter session rather than for skipping the hospitality, since the thing members resent is wasted time rather than enjoyable time.
Don't Let It Substitute for Acting
The point that matters most, and it's a warning rather than a tip. Advisory boards fail when members conclude their input disappeared into nothing, and no amount of good hospitality compensates for that.
If you take feedback and act on none of it, a pleasant session makes the next invitation harder to accept rather than easier, because members recognize being managed. Report back on what you did with previous input, name the changes that came from the board, and be honest about what you decided not to do and why. Entertainment sits on top of that, never in place of it.
It Helps the Difficult Sessions Most
Worth thinking about placement across a program. If your board meets quarterly, the sessions that need help aren't the first one, which has novelty, but the third and fourth, when attendance quietly declines.
Something genuinely enjoyable at a mid program session gives members a reason to attend one they'd otherwise skip, and it signals that the company is still investing in the relationship rather than treating the board as an established fixture. Among reasons to book a magician for Zoom for a council, propping up the sessions where attendance slips is the practical one.
Time Zones Are Part of the Ask
Practically relevant, since advisory boards are frequently international. A member joining at seven in the evening or six in the morning is giving you more than one joining at eleven, and that should shape how the session is designed.
Keep it short, rotate which region is inconvenienced across a program, and acknowledge the imposition rather than pretending the time suits everybody. Anything you program should work identically for the person on the difficult end of the clock, which is another argument for something participatory rather than a long presentation they're watching at midnight.
Why Book Magical Katrina
If you're running a council, here's my case. I'm a member of the Magic Circle in London and the Academy of Magical Arts in Hollywood, I've earned multiple magic awards, and I've performed for companies including Formula 1, the Olympics, Porsche, Zapier, and the Ritz Carlton, with appearances on Penn & Teller: Fool Us. My virtual material works particularly well with small senior groups, everybody participates rather than watching, it works across time zones, and I understand that an advisory board session has a purpose and that hospitality serves it rather than competing with it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the experience matter so much?
Because you're asking senior people for expert consultation, delivered free, in an afternoon they could have spent on their own work. That's a favor extended because the relationship matters and because members believe their input will land somewhere, and designing the session around that reality rather than around your agenda is what makes them return.
Is virtual really harder?
Considerably, since an in person board has dinner, a room, and informal conversation that makes members feel part of something, whereas a virtual one has an agenda and a gallery of faces. The substance can be identical and the experience is thinner, which is why virtual attendance frequently declines by the second or third session.
What do members get beyond influencing our roadmap?
Each other, ideally, since your board contains senior people from different organizations facing similar problems, and meeting peers is a genuine benefit of membership. Virtually that doesn't happen on its own, as people present their views in turn and leave without speaking to each other, so it's worth designing for deliberately.
Where in the agenda should it sit?
At the opening, since senior people leave when the substantive portion ends and anything at the close reaches only whoever stayed. Opening rewards punctuality, gets people talking before you ask them to be candid, and sets a tone. Candor is what you want from an advisory board, and a warmed room gives more of it.
How long should it be?
Twenty to thirty minutes, brief and clearly framed as hospitality rather than part of the agenda, since members gave their time for a purpose. What doesn't work is anything eating into substantive discussion or making the afternoon feel padded. If your agenda is tight, shorten the session rather than skipping the hospitality.
Can it make up for not acting on feedback?
No, and that's the warning. Advisory boards fail when members conclude their input disappeared, and good hospitality makes the next invitation harder to accept rather than easier, because members recognize being managed. Report on what you did with previous input, name the changes, and be honest about what you declined and why.
Which session should we use it for?
Not the first, which has novelty, but the third or fourth, where attendance quietly declines. Something enjoyable at a mid program session gives members a reason to attend one they'd otherwise skip and signals continued investment in the relationship rather than treating the board as an established fixture.
How do I book you, and what do you need to get started?
Reach out with your date, platform, how many members will attend, the time zones involved, and where in the agenda you're considering it. That's enough for me to check availability, suggest placement, and send a quote. If you run several sessions a year, mention that, since a series is easier to schedule and priced more favorably.
Make the Ask Worth Accepting
A customer advisory board runs on goodwill, since members give you expert time for nothing and continue only while the exchange feels worthwhile. A magician for Zoom contributes to that specifically: an opening that warms a room before you ask for candor, a shared experience for members who'd otherwise only present in turn, and a reason to attend the mid program session where attendance slips.
What it can't do is substitute for acting on what they told you, which is the only thing that keeps a board alive.
Reach out with your session dates and member numbers, and let's talk about placement.