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Designing Events Pharmaceutical Newsletter |
Incorporating Technology into Meetings
For many meeting planners, technology is all about helping us perform our jobs more efficiently – from online registration systems, printing name badges, tracking attendees and managing budgets. Sometimes it may be easy to forget that technology plays a very important role in an attendee’s experience. Below are some ways technology can improve that experience.
Wow - That Was a Great Presentation!
In today’s world of instant information, near
constant Internet access and ever-changing
technology, attendees are beginning to expect
more than just a single speaker reading off of
PowerPoint slides. Technology makes it easy to
really jazz up your presentations and begin to
truly engage your audience. PowerPoint can
easily be combined with Flash animations,
embedded audio and video and other cool features
that can really enhance a presentation.
Wait – Don’t Go!
It does not matter how great the presentations
are if the attendees don’t attend. Keeping
attendees in the meeting environment is always a
challenge for planners, especially with the
distraction of PDAs and cell phones. Setting up
an Internet café outside of meeting rooms that
provides Internet access between sessions will
encourage attendees to stick around.
Giveaways – Yes Please!
With the PhRMA code and the new California
Marketing Compliance Law (CMCL) restricting what
giveaways are appropriate, wowing attendees with
expensive giveaways are a thing of the past. One
giveaway that has recently become popular is a
USB flash drive imprinted with a company or
conference logo. Information about the company
or conference can be saved on the drive for
attendees to access later. Attendees can easily
use the drive for other purposes.
That Would Have Been Cool…
Technology is wonderful when it works, but if
something goes wrong it can leave a bad
impression of the presenter and the conference.
Every failure can’t be avoided, but you should
take steps to ensure that they are few and far
between. Be sure that you have full IT support
throughout the entire conference in the meeting
spaces, Internet cafes and the exhibit hall.
The Next Best Thing
Technology is always changing and attendees will
not always be impressed with technology that was
new yesterday. Don’t wait until you have seen
something at several conferences before trying
it. To keep your conference fresh and innovative
– push the envelope!