Tips and Tools to Boost Attendee Engagement at Your Event
Photo by Ilyass SEDDOUG on Unsplash
You watch everyone line up for registration with a sigh of relief. You’ve done it! You pulled off the logistics for a large-scale conference. You wonder if there is anything you could be missing, and it hits you:
How can I keep them engaged?
While people attend events to learn something new, many come to network and engage with attendees and immerse themselves in the event. How can you facilitate these connections and ensure that attendees stay engaged? Here are five ways event managers can make event attendees remain captivated enough by the event to not only give it an excellent rating but also choose to come back again.
Capture their attention before they even come in the door
Attendees should be looking forward to the event before they arrive at the registration desk. One of the best ways to do this is to develop an event hashtag that is common across all social media platforms. Event managers should share these well in advance of the event on social media, event newsletters, and on and event management apps attendees are asked to download.
Those in charge of social media should make it worth the attendees while to follow these hashtags by sharing information on event speakers, happenings, and hallmark sessions.
Know who is participating
The best way to appeal to attendees is by knowing the background of those who have registered to come:
- Where do they work?
- What are their hobbies?
- Why are they attending?
- Where are they from?
All of this information can be used to tailor social media content and make the event more relevant. Free survey tools, such as the ones listed on TrustRadius, can help event managers poll their audience before the event to help personalize the experience.
Make it fun with games and competitions
No matter the subject matter of the conference or event, everyone likes to have the option to win something. Organizers should think of ways to incorporate games and competitions to increase engagement. Some examples include encouraging attendees to retweet event messages, creating posts that contain the hashtag, participating in surveys and quizzes, or join a scavenger hunt. This not only promotes engagement but it also a cost-effective social marketing strategy.
Did You Know? Boomset offers a great way to subtly introduce gamification into events using the Session Experience to reward your attendees for going to your event sessions! Add an element of fun and friendly competition through gamifiication by assigning points to sessions.
Alert attendees to specific events
This can go right along with polling. An excellent strategy event managers can employ is to take the polling information gathered ahead of time and create tailor-made networking events for people with similar interests or intentions. They can then send information about specific events to select attendees to notify them of networking activities that fit their interests. It lets attendees know that organizers are willing to go the extra mile to ensure attendees have an excellent experience.
Make the audience the star of the show
Attendees like to know that organizers appreciate their engagement and attendance. Event managers can set up social media walls to display user-generated content from attendees across numerous social media platforms.
The primary objective of any event manager is to ensure attendees have the best experience possible. Creating opportunities for event-goers to stay engaged is the best way to make sure this happens. If organizers are successful in this, then they can expect excellent feedback and a more prominent crowd the next year.
Guest Author Bio: Chanell Alexander currently resides in Atlanta, GA. When she’s not traveling and trying new restaurants in the Metro Atlanta area, she writes about the latest technology and tools for TrustRadius.
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