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Using Technology to Create a Year-Round EventBy Michelle Issing
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.
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