Content Is King
By Craig Price
People want to know what they’re going to get and what they
got from your event. They want information in hand, on the cloud, and the
second they want it. Yet conferences are still keeping information from their
attendees.
Look at how conferences are promoted. Most events will offer up agendas, speaker
bios and short program descriptions to lure attendees; but is that enough?
How about getting your presenters to create short
content-packed videos that show what they’re going to talk about?
Why not provide in-depth interviews in the form of podcasts
or videos that will highlight aspects of your various breakout sessions or
keynote options?
Don’t worry about giving away too much content. That is the
point! Attendees want content BEFORE they make decisions, and BEFORE they spend
their hard earned money on a conference registration fee. In fact, they expect
this information.
Give it to them.
Allow potential attendees to get excited about coming to
your event. Give them things they can spread and share with others (some of whom
might be harder to convince) see the quality of the content you offer. You want
people to look forward to coming and not wonder if this event will be as
good/bad as last years or another conference. People need to see your event as
“can’t miss”, and they won’t unless you show them what they are missing!
After the conference information is still just as important as
it was before and during the event. You want to bridge the conference you just
had with other events you offer as well as build excitement towards next year’s
conference.
Do you offer handouts and slides on your conference website
so people can access them whenever they need them? This is so they can share
them with colleagues or other potential attendees who will see what they missed.
Do you offer your community a way to tell others how awesome
your event was? For example, encourage discussions on LinkedIn forums, Google+
hangouts or post-conference webinars where attendees share what they have learned.
Most importantly, are you making all this great information
available to everyone?
Far too often, organizations hide their information behind “member’s
only” sections thinking that people will join to get all this great information;
you should look at it the other way. People
will join BECAUSE of all this great information.
Stop thinking of information as the reward for attending and
start to think of it as proof of attending. Allow your conference to be
the hub for your industry where people come to learn, share information, and
engage. The more you give, the more people will want to get. As a result, more people
will understand the importance of your conference and look forward to
returning, year after year.
Craig Price specializes in distilling conferences down into actionable items with his Conference Recaps. He works with meeting planners and conference organizers to maximize their attendees “Return on Attendance”
He can be reached at his website www.SpeakerCraigPrice.com or www.therealistsguide.com.
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