 Will
New Federal
Regulations Restrict
Your Site Choices?
Using
Technology
to Create a
Year-Round Event
Visit
us at ASAE!
What
Our Clients
Are Saying
About
DE
|
|
Using
Technology to Create a Year-Round Event
The conference that
you have spent months planning went off without
a hitch - your attendees, sponsors and
exhibitors all left happy and the goals of the
conference were accomplished. But now what? To
get the most out of your conference start
thinking about it not as just a three or four
day event, but as a year-long event –
continually engaging your audience. Here are
some great ways you can utilize technology to
easily and effectively communicate with your
attendees, potential attendees, exhibitors and
sponsors to keep your conference going
year-round.
Podcasting
Podcasting is fast becoming one of the most
popular ways to distribute electronic media. Any
form of electronic recording (video or audio)
can be turned into a podcast for distribution
over the Internet and can be replayed on a
computer or MP3 player.
Conference sessions can be recorded and offered
as downloads from the conference website. This
can be a valuable resource to attendees and a
great way to let those that did not attend the
conference see what they missed. Try “releasing”
one session podcast a month or take one of the
longer keynote presentations and break it up
into smaller sections to create a podcast
series.
Other podcasting ideas include recording
conference attendee testimonials or “teasers”
for next year’s conference. If you already have
speakers confirmed for next years event have
them record a short segment about what they plan
to speak on. As a sponsor benefit, offer
sponsorships of podcasts to increase sponsor
visibility throughout the year.
Online Communities
One of the most beneficial parts of attending a
conference is networking and sharing ideas – so
why limit that experience to just the
conference? There are several technology tools
that you can easily set up to give this
experience to your attendees year-round. The
newest and most robust is a blog – the next
generation of online discussion forums.
A conference blog offers a central location for
interested parties to post messages that become
on-going online conversations on many different
topics. Individual discussion threads can be
categorized by topic and date. Blog topics can
parallel conference development activities such
as venue selection, conference schedule, general
session speakers as well as breakout session
topics. This makes for a tremendous vehicle to
attract interested individuals to your
organization and conference.
Targeted eNewsletters
eNewlsetters are a great way to market an
upcoming conference to your potential attendees,
but why should everyone get the same one? If you
have been able to track session attendance
during past conferences or capture demographic
information about an attendee during
registration, you already have a goldmine of
information. Use that information to create a
segmented mailing list and create specific
eNewletters just for them. This can be articles
of interest, current events or even just a list
of the upcoming conference sessions that they
may be interested in.
Need help with any of the items above or
developing a 12-month marketing plan? Contact
Designing Events at
info@designingevents.com or
866-867-1933.
Click here to return to the
newsletter.
|
