Creating a “Don’t Miss – Must Attend – WOW!” Event

PreVisor booth at SIOP 2010 Atlanta

Live events – welcome back. It appears that even in today’s world of ‘living online‘, people still flock to events all over the world to learn, share and/or be entertained. And I’m not talking about sporting events or U2 concerts – although you can measure economic shifts by those attendance numbers too. From my B2B marketing view, many conferences have bounced back from the 2009 slowdown. Yeah, last year numbers were downright depressing – as travel and marketing budgets were slashed – and predictions were made about a permanent shift towards virtual meetings. But it’s looking like ‘going virtual’ isn’t the answer all the time. People still like to get together. Social animals? Go figure.

While I attend a fair share of industry trade shows and conferences, for my own edification and on behalf of clients, I also at times create and manage events. These can be time consuming to plan, and resource-sucking to execute. Managing budgets is exhausting. But the pay-off can be a large multiple of the investment – if the event is a “Wow!”.

How do you get that kind of response from participants?

1. Give them something to talk about. Content, content, content. Assume that your audience is already pretty smart/experienced – and provide useful information, stories, innovation. We are busy people, our time is valuable. Don’t waste it.
2. Anticipate their needs – and then some. Provide a stress-free experience, from start to finish. Communicate often, and have ambassadors on site to provide more.
3. Wine and dine them. Don’t fool yourself. I’ve heard more talk about the food and beverage provided (or not) at events than about the quality of the presenters. Feed the bears.
4. Surprise and delight them. Entertainment and fun play a major role too. I still have people who remember a cruise through San Francisco Bay, under the Golden Gate bridge, right at sunset, which broke through the rain JUST as we were approaching. I got the credit, but contrary to urban legend, I am not a witch.
5. Thank your attendees and follow up. Attendee gifts and thank-you’s are nice – especially if they are actually useful and not just chotchkies. But post-event communication with feedback results, content downloads and inducement to attend the next one is even nicer.

There’s certainly a very long list of other things that go into providing a ‘Wow!’ event. Would love to hear some of your tips!

Now I have to finish putting together some evaluation forms, check on the praline delivery, get the keynote speaker’s travel itinerary, complete the executive agendas…and catch a plane to Chicago.

Wow.

–Donna