Creating a Great Post-Event Experience

by Megan Wein

People on a white background with red shapes

Tags: Post-Event | Brand Experience

The education and fun shouldn’t end when attendees walk-out the venue doors, keep the connection and engagement going up through your next event. This will keep your members reading emails, staying active on social, and attending outings throughout.

How to Infuse Learnings from the #ErasTour into Your Next Event

Swiftie or not, the entire world was captivated by Taylor Swift and her remarkably creative and well-produced Eras Tour and the cinematic feature that took hold over the country this past year. While we might opt for the business casual outfit over a full-sequined look, here are some of the takeaways that we can infuse into our events.

1. To create an affinity and emotional connection— you’ve got to create a story around your event. Akin to each bespoke “Era” of the concert, there is an opportunity to create a storytelling framework and shared visual language that attendees can use to accompany you on this event journey. They might not remember what was said, but they’ll remember the story arc of your event.

2. While you might not have the budget to create a cinematic masterpiece that grosses over $500M, creating an event recap video with urgent and compelling music, zippy graphics, and shows attendees enjoying themselves is a way to leverage content that can show potential attendees what it’s like to be a part of the experience, extends the chronological passage of times, and allows your event attendees to daydream a little bit after the event.

3. Finding moments to lift the veil a la the Wizard of Oz to share the inner workings of the event can serve as a fun #BTS (behind-the-scenes) opportunity for attendees to see what goes into event planning—from a time-lapse video of setup, to stage rehearsals, to intimate back stage photos of speakers before they head out, there is something to be said about seeing the intentionality behind events. These #BTS moments can be with your leadership, paid keynotes, or panelists who work to create special content that can be aired after an event or on social media. Also, if you’ve got a really special group of attendees that you want to shower with some perks—perhaps consider a meet and greet, photo line, or even luxury experiences like time with a chef, a musician, or golf pro at your event location.

4. Bring back the mix-tape! If you’ve got a theme that is driven by a particular song or moment in time like the Eras Tour, allow attendees to curate a shared playlist that is aptly titled with your event theme to activate their engagement with the event long after it’s over. Or maybe it’s a curated playlist that a key stakeholder or paid talent curates on your organization’s behalf. Sometimes we all like to have a shared playlist that we can daydream to!

5. Leverage the halo effect of your event—critics and analysts had long predicted the death knell of movies and live events with the advent of streaming platforms and digital event platforms—but the Eras Movie proved that people are willing to go into a physical space to view a film. We can extend this learning to our live events—sometimes when we use a muscle we haven’t used in a while like getting used to networking again with no small talk in your arsenal, you might be surprised to learn that participating fully at a live event can make you more apt to try out different conferences and events. You might also choose to use this opportunity to wear your sequins!