Gamification helps in understanding delegates deeply and what they want in events. Photo Credit: Adobe stock/ NicoElNino
Large-scale complex events come in many guises - a conference,
tradeshow, convention or congress with more than 1,000 attendees,
in-person, virtual or hybrid, flagship or multiple. They also have
different objectives, from promoting brand awareness, driving revenue,
to delivering thought leadership.
A recent Cvent webinar entitled ‘Playbook for the complex: executing
your conference plan’ featured how best to produce and manage a
multi-day, multi-track conference, and how to balance the needs of the
audience against business objectives.
The right elements
Do not duplicate content in-person and online. Curate the right
elements for each part of the audience (in-person, hybrid, virtual),
whether it is via a webinar after the event, or streaming certain
sessions during the event.
“Listen to your audience - figure out what your audience wants rather
than what you’re trying to sell,” said Felicia Asiedu, director, Europe
marketing at Cvent.
Accessibility
Look at accessibility in broader terms. “When we think about
accessibility, we’re not just talking about disability within
accessibility, we’re enabling those who just can’t come, who cannot fly
for some reason,” said Asiedu. “They may have restrictions on flying, or
on how many people can fly to an event. Think about how you are
providing a way for people that can't come to consume your content and
how you are making it as easy as possible for them. The impact of having
that virtual event is to offer some level of exclusivity alongside
inclusivity.” Asiedu added that Cvent events often have ‘little sneaky
backstage things’ for people who are in the virtual audience, which
in-person attendees do not have access to.
Communication
Attendee communication is key, but do not overdo it. Give attendees
what they need, but also prioritise that communication. “Around six push
notifications per day is the recommended maximum - don’t go over that
otherwise you move from communication to annoyance,” said Asiedu.
“If you have a virtual audience, create short, snackable pieces of
content to keep them engaged while they wait for another session.”
Asiedu also recommends using apps with AI-powered networking based on
attendee profiles and customer settings, to make the most of targeting.
Gamification
Gamification can be a gamechanger for large-scale events.
Gamification provides data and insights and more engagement around the
event experience. “It is one of those inputs that helps you understand
attendees’ interests, but just because your technology has the ability
doesn’t mean you are required to use these things,” said Alyssa Peltier,
director, market insights at Cvent.
“Putting a game in front of someone may not work but understanding
them deeply and what they might need out of your conference experience
should then necessitate how you will use that feature.”
Feedback
Segment your post-event feedback and surveys. Post-event feedback is
commonplace for every event planner, but there’s a level of
sophistication in complex events that can offer more insight, just based
on the sheer volume of attendees you might attract.
“Collect feedback through surveys segmented by audience types - at
one of our events, we’ve had upwards of 25 unique registration types to
target with, differentiated not just with surveys, but with experiences
overall,” said Peltier.
Using technology such as RFID can also offer additional insight, such
as patterns of behaviour within certain areas of the event space,
including attendee visits to booths. These can help identify hot topics
or areas of interest where businesses should invest more in their
marketing efforts following the event. “If you think about your
conference as this kind of test for a broader promotion strategy, those
are the types of insights you can glean,” added Peltier.