Use Creativity, Technology and Ingenuity to Get and Keep People Talking
If you’ve ever worried about how to keep your audience interested and engaged for the duration of an event, fear not! MeetingsNet offers integrated marketers eight ways to encourage audience participation and drive interest at events.
Invite Advance Contributions Well before anyone arrives at the venue, spark attendee interest by encouraging the submission of questions to be answered at the event, eliciting keywords and topics of interest to incorporate into your presentations, and building anticipation through updates, social media posts, and hashtags.
Request Creative Input Make attendees central to your event by crowdsourcing videos, photos, slideshows and other shareable information that will help them feel more invested in the event. Consider offering prizes for submissions. Personalizing activities and boosting connections with your business makes for happy attendees.
Crunch the Numbers Marketers can take advantage of the many marketing survey platforms available for free or at low cost to reach out to attendees before and after the event. Use pre-event feedback to steer the direction of presentations at the event, products or services that are exhibited, or materials that you give away. Post-event data can help you determine topics of interest for future reports, whitepapers or blog posts.
Surprise and Engage Facilitate lively, topical discussion by deviating from a pre-set script and instead inviting audience questions, encouraging participation, and asking on-site experts to weigh in. Consider live polls, games at your booth, and fun competitions that ask attendees to get to know you and your business.
Include Special Guest Appearances Instead of having marketing or sales drive all conversations at your booth, take advantage of today’s technology and beam in supplemental speakers. Industry leaders, community members, and your own organization’s leadership can pop in for a brief Q&A or live update, offering a new perspective or authoritative voice to the discussion.
Promote Running Commentary Keep the conversation going throughout the event with a live social media wall or multiple screens featuring attendee feedback or discussion topics for everyone to see. Share live forums where attendees and staff can continue in-booth conversations and promote participation as more content is made available. Boost interactions and create lasting impressions by meeting attendees where they are: on their devices.
Better Leverage Speakers Think outside the keynote and consider all of the ways you can create engaging opportunities for attendees. Expand speaker opportunities through alternative audience and expert interactions such as Q&A forums, meet and greet opportunities, information sessions or panel discussions. This is the ideal time to make video or audio recordings of these compelling presenters for later use in ads or as website or newsletter content.
Create Unique Takeaways Take advantage of the feedback you get during the event from speakers and other experts and create materials that you can share post-event. Interview speakers, ask your organizational and community leaders for their thoughts, and compile advice on key topics. Repurpose presentations, content and audience feedback to create valuable ebooks, whitepapers, and articles that can be shared long after the event ends.