Event planning is the fundamental building block of a great event, whether it's a convention, summit, or meeting. To ensure that your event resonates with your target audience and doesn't feel like it's just going through the motions, it's essential to prioritize experience design. By crafting an immersive and engaging experience that considers the needs and preferences of your attendees, you can create a memorable event that leaves a lasting impression. Remember, events are the epicenter of face-to-face communication with the people who keep the industry running, so it's crucial to invest time and effort in planning an event that truly delivers.
Exploring how you switch your event to a virtual experience? Check out these techniques to enhance your virtual event.
Below we’ve listed a few ways events should feel, plus how to tell if you're creating an impactful event
1. Determine How You Will Measure Success
When it comes to event planning, it's crucial to start by determining the impact you want to have on your attendees and the overall success you want to achieve. Whether you're starting from scratch or looking to revive a tired program, outlining your goals and KPIs will serve as a filter for every decision you make going forward. By prioritizing attendee experience and understanding what success looks like for your event, whether it's connecting with a particular audience segment or becoming the go-to event of the year, you can design an immersive and engaging experience that delivers measurable results.
Some key performance indicators such as the total number of registrants, event check-ins, social media mentions, gross revenue, number of leads generated, and post-event conversations can help you gauge the success of your event and identify areas for improvement in the future.
2. Make Your Event Accessible
Access comes in many forms. Inclusivity, availability, and accommodation are the largest factors that determine if an attendee can participate in an event. Some ways to incorporate more connection into your event include: building custom break-outs or programming for various sectors of professionals attending your event, providing on-demand viewing for attendees that were unable to join in-person, or developing a mentorship or scholarship incentive for those that may be unable to attend due to financial or locale reasons. Taking steps to increase accessibility at your event will lead to a stronger relationship with your audience.
Here are some questions guide you when planning an event experience that is accessible for all: I
- Is there reliable and accessible transportation to and from the venue?
- Does the venue have adequate ramp access for those why may require it?
- Is there enough space to accommodate people with additional accessibility needs?
- Are there accessible parking spaces available?
3. Strategies for Captivating and Engaging Your Audience
To captivate and engage your audience, it's crucial to focus on their interests and motivations. By designing your event to align with attendee interests and providing opportunities for interaction and participation, you can create a memorable and impactful experience. Additionally, keeping your event goals in mind and setting relevant event metrics can help you measure the success of your efforts and make adjustments as needed. Whether it's through dynamic speakers, interactive activities, or targeted networking opportunities, prioritizing attendee engagement can help you create a successful event that resonates with your audience.
4. Deliver Meaning Through Content
Raise your hand if your program comes to a halt because a portion of the organization feels they absolutely must have 15 minutes to read a specific report to the general audience. If you feel this jolt, imagine what your audience is thinking. Referencing the newly established measurements of success, what changes can your team make to remove the ‘business meeting’ feel and add substantive content through keynote speakers, panel sessions, audience interaction or concurrent sessions that keep the attendees feeling inspired?
The most memorable events for audiences are the ones that offer content that entertain and educate. Part of planning an interactive event that engages attendees is determining the topics relevant to your audience and seeking out and collaborating with expert speakers who can develop a content curriculum around the subject matter. Education sessions should provide opportunities for attendees to learn, pick up new skills, and leave with action steps.
4. Create Community
The building blocks of longevity across an industry include effective communication and understanding the big picture. Whether through networking and group activities, panel sessions with leaders sharing varied points of view, hands-on learning with an ‘in-their-shoes’ approach, or hosting a town hall, use these opportunities to open communication between the organization and the members/attendees and keep the doors open beyond the event.
There are various ways to go approach building a community centered on your event. For example, consider leveraging social media to get the conversation going prior to the show and to maintain momentum after it. You can set up groups just for your attendees, host Twitter chats, and more. The more opportunities to give guests to be active participants in the experience, the more likely you are to create connections between attendees and your organization.
5. Host a Post-Event Gathering
The idea of events is to bring people together - whether to gain new business partners, friendships, or to simply bring likeminded people together. After an event, people will want to stay connected with the new people that they met but may not always have the means or platform to do so. Post-event gatherings can bring people together again and remind them of the reason why they connected at the initial event.
Post-event gatherings come in various shapes and sizes and are typically more intimate affairs compared to the main show. Many of the principles of how to create an event apply to the post-event gathering. For example, you’ll want to offer reasons for people to want to join in on the fun. What will they get at the post-event that they won’t get elsewhere? Also, remember that a great event is nothing if people don’t know about it. Highlight the post-event gathering during the registration process, promote it during the main show, use your social media channels to spread the word, and, of course, a little word-of-mouth never hurt, either!
Virtual events offer a unique opportunity to create a sense of community while engaging with a wider audience. With remote work and event technology on the rise, attending virtual events has become a convenient and accessible way to participate in conferences, summits, and other professional gatherings. Check out this project we worked on to showcase the capabilities of an authentic, community-driven event! Our project highlights the potential of virtual events to create a strong sense of community and demonstrates the importance of designing events that prioritize attendee engagement, interactivity, and a sense of belonging.
6. Choose the Right Speaker
Choosing the right speaker for your event can be hard. You need to keep in mind the speaker's strengths and the audience that the speaker will be presenting to in order to find the perfect match. A speaker can either make or break your event. They could be the best part of your event, leaving the audience inspired and ready to tackle their task. Or, event attendees may not even remember the name of the speaker because they could not relate to him or her. A speaker should not be considered just another act within the event. They should be someone that the audience is looking forward to and someone who will connect with your audience.
Consider the following as search for the speaker that’s the right fit for your event:
- What is the main objective of the keynote speech?
- Do they speak to the topics is most interested in hearing about?
- Does their presentation style match the type of audience they will be speaking in front of?
- How do their fees align with your allocated speaker budget?
- What are some value adds the speaker is offering? (Think book signings, meet-and-greets, Q&A, and more)
7. Utilize Social Media
We all know how useful social media can be in promoting an event. However, social media should be used for more than just event promotion, it should be used to help an event gain traction and a following as well. In order for your event to make the greatest impact, those not even attending the event should feel like they are involved. Although those physically attending the event will gain the most out of being there, the event can still inspire those who are following along on social media and can create a meaningful impact outside of the event venue.
Before taking your event viral on social media, decide which social channels you want to leverage. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter each have their advantages for expanding reach and engagement for events. From there, develop a strategy outlining what type of content you’ll post and when. If you’re looking to get the ball rolling on what to post, event updates, behind-the-scenes images, incentives and giveaways, and interactive polls and questions are a great starting point.
Events don’t need to be flashy or expensive to leave an impact, but they do need to connect with the attendee to be a success!
READY TO RETHINK YOUR EVENT STRATEGIES?
If you are starting to plan and prepare for an upcoming show and want to rethink the traditional approach for your next event, get in touch.
Whether you are interested in finding a hands-on event production partner with the experience and expertise to help you execute a tribute show from start to finish, or you have the basics covered and want to work with a cutting-edge event production partner who can help you to integrate the latest trends and techniques into your program to enhance and elevate the whole experience—LAI Live can help, so please reach out to us.
Are you ready to work with an event production company to enhance your next tribute show, awards show, or live event? Contact our team!
To get in touch with a member of our team right away, you can also fill out the form below, email us at Contact@LAIevents.com, live chat with us online, or call us at 202-783-0300.