With Back to School season upon us, it seems a good time to reflect on new starts for our regular routine. As students must adjust to new teachers, new workloads, and sometimes even new schools, meeting and marketing professionals can use this time of year as inspiration to take a moment to step back and really get to know our events in order to help them graduate to the next level.
Create a Report Card - take some time to look back at what has been working and what tactics seem to have run their course. Look at different metrics to track what outreach tactics yielded the most registrations, what the demographic trends of your attendees are, and what topics garnered the most interest. All of these findings can help you better tailor your events for today's audience.
Make New Friends - how are you using social media today? Are you getting participation from followers? What new mediums could you try out? For inspiration, check out this article which highlights one company's use of YouTube in which they provided tips for attendees to make the most of their time at the show. How can you use social media before and after your event to build attendee engagement? The same BizBash article highlights UBM's book club idea.
Create Study Groups - maybe size does matter. Just as some students eschew the size of state schools in favor of smaller liberal arts colleges, some attendees will be more comfortable in smaller events rather than large conferences. How can you better tailor your events to meet the needs of attendees that prefer more one-on-one time?
Schedule Lab Time - with attendees pressed for time and money to attend events, webinars and virtual events may be a new tactic to add to your meeting arsenal. They can also be used to supplement your in-person events, providing a taste for content and tone throughout the year. A series of interesting and informative webinars can be scheduled to lead up to your event and could drive attendance.
You can use these ideas anytime of the year, but now (as we yearn for the days of new binders and fresh starts) is as good a time as any. Let us know how you're getting back to basics with your planning.
Image Credit: TVnewscheck
