Five TIPS for Planning & Marketing a Conference or Event to get more conference attendees
- Want MORE conference attendees at your next event?
- Need a bigger audience to increase event profitability?
- Do your sponsors want more attendees to get value?
With so much time and effort setting up the perfect event, you want to ensure it is highly memorable. You also need to keep the conference attendee numbers growing!
We all want a bigger conference audience that comes back and bring others.
So here are my top 5 TIPS for Planning & Marketing a Conference to make your event successful!
1: Use Short “Taster Videos” to Promote Your Conference online
Get your speakers, team and sponsors involved to make several short promo videos for the conference and send them out to promote the event.
If you can do a SITE INSPECTION make sure you make a few small videos to promote all the features of the venue, location and region – the food, fun and amazing facilities.
Send out links to the videos uploaded on Youtube or Vimeo. Post on Social media and send e-newsletters too.
2: Choose Professional Presenters and Coach any Internal or Newbie presenters
Amateur hour can ruin your conference. Hungry sponsors want more “back for their buck” in these turbulent times which makes conference planning a key issue. The attendance at your next event relies on having GREAT content at this event.
Let your Professional MC or Facilitator interview your sponsors on the couch on stage rather than let them present and turn your conference into a boring flog-a-thon.
Internal speakers can also make or break your event – get your internal presenters some helpful speaker coaching and make sure you check the quality of their slide deck well before the event.
Look up the “TED commandments for speakers” for some great tips for newbies – use more pictures and less text!
3: Get Social and Find a Volunteer Tech Team
Most older conference attendees have a smartphone but don’t really know how to use one.
Harness some younger conference attendees and get them to show others how to use some simple Social tools – Facebook, Instagram, Linked-In.
Give them “Tech Team badges” & T-shirts and allocate a TABLE for a tech help desk. Have a few phone chargers and cables on hand too.
Add a spectacular spot for photo opportunities with a big event sign or a Celebrity/Speaker photo spot (Media Wall) and you’ll have loads of conference attendees snapping pics and promoting your event online.
Get an Social Media Frame or “instagram frame” made for the event too.
Video and Photo sharing can also be useful to promote your event for next year.
Make sure you decide and promote your conference #hashtags everywhere.
4: Harness “Celebrity Speaker Star Power” for Wow factor
If you really want to grow your conference attendees, build your brand and get more attendees – consider choosing some really HOT Conference Topics and getting a Super Star Celebrity as a conference headliner.
Big name speakers attract media attention, social media mentions and get your key messages out.
There are several smart and innovative ways you can afford the speaker fees of a big name speaker like having a sponsors VIP-only luncheon, finding a willing speaker sponsor or even a satellite feed.
Talk to your friendly speakers bureau consultant to find out how.
5: Use more SWAG – Offer Quality Giveways, Freebies and Merch!
Conference Attendees love anything for free and most Professional Speakers will happily offer prizes, a useful E-Book or a follow-up Webinar to help implement their inspiring ideas.
Ask your conference speakers for some prizes, giveaways and extra goodies and see what you can get. We have a garage full!
Some conferences are FAMOUS for providing quality Swag for attendees.
Have a look at the great collection of promotional products for conferences at Your Brand Unleashed a proud member of APPA – Australian Promotional Products Association
