Tag Archives: attendees

How Ambassadors Extend a Brand

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Our connected world has enabled everyday people to become trusted sources for news and information. Take for example, buying a car. "Historically," you would do research through the mainstream media reading Consumer Reports and car magazines. You'd get the input of professionals in the car industry, likely someone you had never heard of before, but trusted them because cars were their job.

Today, you may still do some traditional research, but you may also put a post on Facebook or Twitter asking your friends and connections their thoughts on the models you are considering. What you get back is first hand knowledge from the people you know. The feedback is in more than the words they offer in their response. What you know about their personality and lifestyle will likely impact how you view their input. Those offering positive feedback have become ambassadors for the car brand.[Tweet "Those offering feedback have become ambassadors for the brand. #GovEventsBlog"]

Now, let's move this to the event world. Events are not objects like cars - they are living, breathing entities that are powered by the people that plan and attend them. Because of this, the perspective of people is critical in making decisions about what events to attend. With this in mind, a formalized event ambassador program should be part of event marketing. Continue reading →

Commit to Staying Focused

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We recently shared some tips with event planners about how to get audiences more engaged in event content, but we know the onus is not all on the people putting on the event. As attendees we have to make a concerted effort to stay focused[Tweet "As event attendees we have to make a concerted effort to stay focused. #GovEventsBlog"] on the content being presented. We (or our employer) paid to attend or at the very least committed our time away from daily work. Make sure you see a return on investment by fully committing to being present at the event. This should be an easy commitment, but in today's 'always-on' world it is definitely easier said than done.

Here are several tips that we've used to help us get the most out of events.

  • Take a role -- Step-up your note-taking commitment a notch. If your organization has a blog, contact the person who manages it and offer to write a post about the content presented at the event. Trust us, your offer will be greatly appreciated. Making the commitment to deliver something post-event will help you stay attentive during sessions that impact your day-to-day work.
  • Set your own agenda -- Create your own agenda or list of items you are most interested in learning about and cross them off as you go through the event. Was something missed that you were hoping to learn about? Make an effort to connect with the presenter for a quick Q and A.
  • Take a break - From technology that is. Leading up to the event, set the expectation with co-workers and clients that you will be out of pocket. Knowing that no one is looking for you to respond right away can help fend off the urge (or even need) to use breaks to check your email or make calls. Instead you can use breaks for in-person networking--a huge benefit of in-person events.[Tweet "Use breaks for in-person networking--a huge benefit of in-person events. #GovEventsBlog"]
  • Take responsibility -- While social media can be a huge distraction, it can also help you stay focused. Make a goal of a certain number of posts or finding a certain number of new connections. With these goals in mind you can challenge yourself to pay attention for information that you deem "tweet worthy" or really commit to networking through the breaks. Use social media as a motivator instead of a distraction.

We'd love to hear from you? What have you done to make sure you are getting the most out of events and staying focused throughout the long days? Let us know in the comments.

Tactics to Drive Webinar Registrations

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web_registerWith readily available and user-friendly technology, webinars are easy to produce. The hard part is getting people to register. Your topic may be interesting and your speaker may be engaging, but with most webinars being free to attend and requiring no commitment in terms of travel, it is hard to get people to commit to attending. [Tweet "Webinars are easy to produce. The hard part is getting people to register and attend. #GovEventsBlog"]They may see your email advertising the event pop up in their email box but there is no sense of urgency to register nor is there a driving force to attend since they (usually) do not need to commit money or a huge block of time. So how do you get people to register and then (more importantly) attend your webinars? We've looked around the web for advice and added some of our own in this quick tip list. [Tweet "Tips to drive registrations AND get people to attend your webinars. #GovEventsBlog"] Continue reading →

4 Tips to Take Your Event Plans Back to School

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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.

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Top tips on Getting Your Audience to Ask Questions

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Originally posted on Evvnt Industry News by Adam Parry.

We've all been there: the speaker is nearing the end of their presentation, heading towards the fifteen minutes they've set aside for 'questions and discussion'. Then, as the slide with 'Any questions?' appears on the screen, you could hear a pin drop. Tumbleweed rolls by and everyone stares at their feet. So why isn't your audience eager to stick their hands in the air and get involved? In reality there will be a number of reasons, so we've outlined a few tips on how you can avoid the post-presentation silence and have your audience desperate to ask questions...

Know your audience

You'd hope that every presenter would have an understanding of the types of people that will be in the audience and what they will be interested in, yet we often sit through sessions that aren't quite what we expected. When you're invited to speak at an event make sure you ask the organisers what type of people will be there, what their reasons are for attending and their pain points. If you know who you are speaking to, you can get the content right resulting in a much more engaged audience. If you're addressing something that they can actually relate to, they're much more likely to fire a question your way.

Break the ice

First impressions are everything. If you can get the audience on your side right from the off, then things will be a lot easier further down the line. I recently caught the opening session at EMEC 2014 in Istanbul, where Dave Sharpe energised the audience by asking people to take out the most peculiar thing they carried in their bags and showed it to the rest of the audience. It was a simple request, but really lightened the mood and had the audience laughing. From that point on people were engaged and switched on.

Keep them engaged

If you can get away with it, don't simply introduce yourself and talk at the faces in the crowd for an hour. If you can drop in activities and votes throughout your talk then the likelihood is the audience will feel more energised to participate in the discussion by asking questions.

Make sure everyone can ask questions

You might be happy to stand up in front of a room full of strangers and talk, but not everyone feels the same. According to the National Institute of Mental Health an amazing 74% of people are afraid of public speaking, so you need to get round this somehow. Try using an audience interaction tool to give everyone an equal chance at asking a question or adding their two-penneth without having to speak out loud.

Of course, there are hundreds of ways to engage with your audience (and many books have been written on this very topic!) but following the few simple tips above will go a long way to ensuring some level of audience-based discussion will take place.

Why not tell us what you think about this story and leave a comment below!

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