Event and Meeting Planners Guide to Attendee Engagement
Take the full guide with you as a .pdf file!
Successful events allow attendees to learn something new, connect with peers, make new connections, and hear inspirational speakers. They may also give attendees the opportunity to see a new city and take advantage of all that city has to offer.
With so much happening before and at the event, attendees trying to do it all risk becoming distracted or fatigued.
How do meeting planners stay ahead? Event engagement is the answer.
Event engagement is important for your event for many reasons. It is what motivates attendees before the event, it’s what keeps attendees interested throughout your event, and it’s what continues the momentum after your event.
Engaged attendees will connect with other attendees, to your sponsors and to your content - overall event engagement generates true excitement and brings value to your attendees.
This guide is intended to be the complete resource for the meeting and event planner that covers all of the essential components of event engagement including:
Meeting planners are looking beyond just attendance numbers as they measure the success of their events. It has become increasingly important to provide meaningful experiences for attendees. Interacting with attendees during the full event journey – and offering them the best possible value for their time spent at the event – is the new norm. Event engagement is what motivates attendees before the event, it’s what keeps attendees interested throughout your event, and it’s what continues the momentum after your event.
Here at MeetingPlay we understand the importance of a successful event and that begins with attendee engagement. We've created this guide to cover all aspects of event engagement. Below are some helpful tips and resources:
Here are the vital areas for an event manager to consider when planning their event to make sure it is planned to perfection and the attendees walk away impressed!
Here is the complete guide to a better event attendee experience. Also, see how interactive mapping at your event increases engagement.
Networking is crucial. A key focus during an event is to provide numerous communication opportunities. The more opportunity you give attendees to connect during an event, the greater impact you will see and the more attendees will return year after year. Leveraging an event networking app is a great way to engender greater connections during your event.
Here are some tips for how to provide the best networking and communication opportunities using a mobile event app.
You can read more about using an event networking app that connects attendees during your event here.
It's important to note that there is something beyond just ‘engagement’ that leads to successful events, and that foundation is based on creating personalized event experiences.
Creating a personalized event experience is achieved through a personalization algorithm that delivers custom experiences such as experiencing content that is most relevant and applicable to them.
Event engagement starts with allowing each attendee to personalize their event experience attending your event.
Attendee engagement should begin prior to any event or meeting. From the moment an event is formally announced, communicating with potential attendees is key. Here are tips for pre-event engagement that will show you how to utilize social channels and cues to help promote your event and engage with attendees. You’ll also find an example of a unique pre-engagement technique executed for one of our clients.
Without question, social media is the key activation tool to promote your next event. There's a pretty good chance you already have followers. Here are ways to you can leverage that audience and grow awareness around your event:
You can read more about using social media to promote your next event here.
Here is an example of a pre-event engagement technique used by a client:
Read the full case study about pre-event engagement here.
There's a lot of detail that goes into pre-event engagement. There are four ways we've seen events promote effectively time and again. Below we share the specifics:
Want to go a level deeper? Read the Tips for Pre-Event Engagement strategies here.
We know that engagement is strongest on the first day of an event. After day one, engagement wanes as attendees start thinking about the office and see their email piling up. The goal is to keep attendees as engaged through the duration of the event as they are on day one.
Addressing event audience expectations has changed drastically over the years. When you attend an event or conference today you anticipate a much more personal type of involvement – even if you’re sitting in a conference center with 1000 other attendees. Here are six ways to keep engagement high onsite:
Interested in learning more about ways to engage your event's audience? Read more about onsite event engagement ideas as well as our blog post 3 More Ways to Improve Onsite Engagement.
Providing voting within event apps is an essential component of leveraging attendee engagement.
There are several forms of audience response systems you can use at your event:
Read more about using an audience response systems to increase engagement at your next event.
What is iBeacon technology? iBeacon technology is a class of BLE – bluetooth low energy that transmit their data to nearby devices – interacting with smartphones, tablets, iPads, and more – basically any electronic device capable of Bluetooth technology, that is in close proximity of an iBeacon.
Ways that iBeacon can help your event:
Read more about using iBeacon technology and indoor wayfinding that can improve attendee engagement.
Watch MeetingPlay CEO Joe Schwinger explain how beacon technology is changing the way we network at events
Fatigue can set happen even to the most well executed events. Sometimes your attendee engagement can begin to wane. Here are some quick wins to rally the troops:
Don’t let the energy of your event crash. Read more here about avoiding event fatigue at your next event.
Congratulations! You just hosted a successful event. The time immediately following the event is critical, as your attendees are still on a post-event high. It’s important at this stage to capitalize on this momentum.
Here are ways to capitalize on your great event:
Click here to see more post event engagement strategies.
A powerful mobile event app can provide data about your event engagement that in turn reveals important insights. This data helps both real time adjustments and post event reporting that demonstrates ROI.
Here's how the mobile event app data can help:
Here's more info about event success data and ROI.
In a quick 15 minute call one of our event professionals can assess your event needs and provide a list of options to improve your event engagement.
Also, we can share examples of how we are implementing each of these items with our current clients during the demo.
Request a demo by filling out the form on the right, drop us a line, or give us a call at 877-448-1481 to discuss how our custom mobile event apps can solve your event engagement needs.