Knowing your audience means more than knowing their names and titles. It means understanding what impact demographics, geography, behavior, and attitudes will have on how they participate in your event and what they take away from it.
Here are a few items to consider:[Tweet "Know Your Audience - demographics, geography, behavior & attitude. #GovEventsBlog"]
- Demographics - While stats on age, gender, and ethnicity can paint broad brushstrokes of generalizations, they can also provide some really interesting insights that can make your event more personal for attendees. Take advantage of growing diversity in your attendees by highlighting different types of cuisines. This will serve to make some people feel at home while introducing others to new foods and traditions. If your attendees skew to a younger demographic having free, reliable wifi will be expected and critical to their event experience.[Tweet "Take advantage of growing diversity in your attendees. #GovEventsBlog"]
- Geography - Do your attendees live near your event site? If travel is involved for many, providing a city guide will be a good addition to all of the event material. Do many of your attendees take public transportation to get to your event? Hand sanitizer in the event goody bag (handed out at the beginning of the event) may be a welcome Will a good number of people be getting a cab or Uber to leave your event? Picking a venue with heated porticos during the winter months is a nice consideration.
- Behavior -- How many of your attendees are active on social media? If you have a group with low participation, then scaling back social media efforts at the show makes a lot of sense. While it can still be a great way to attract new attendees, if social is not used by the majority of people attending, things like hashtag contests and photo booths will not be of interest.
- Attitude -- Knowing what is going on in your attendees' professional sphere is important. For a government audience, is sequestration looming? If so, stress and tensions may be high. This can influence the tone of information presented (recognizing the stress) as well as the activities offered (yoga or massage chairs for relaxation).
[Tweet "Knowing the audience allows for the event to be tailored to what they want to hear. #GovEventsBlog"]More than the things you do at the event, knowing the audience allows for the event to be tailored to what they want to hear, not what you want to tell them. What are some examples of "know your audience" changes you've made or seen at events? Share your thoughts in the comments.
