Business conference is a vital tool for enriching knowledge, updating skills and networking. It creates a strong learning atmosphere by bringing together people of similar passion and calling. Conferences have remained popular since ages and the current age is witnessing a massive surge in the liking for conferences. In a study, nine out of ten people were positive of attending conference.
But conferences do not just happen. A great deal of planning, meticulous arrangements and proper time management is required for arranging a successful conference. If planning a conference seems too much of trouble to you, then don’t worry! Listed below are six informative tips based on the trends of 2017 and consumer expectations that let you to plan an effective conference.
- Keep Stakeholders updated-
Surprises are fun as they add touch of excitement to any event. But the surprise element must be used conservatively. Keeping people uninformed hampers trust and may result in losing out stakeholders.
Providing conference details to attendees is always beneficial as it fuels excitement and creates a perfect build-up for the event. Keep updating stakeholders with vital developments such as any additions in the list of speakers or finalization of caterers.
Sharing conference schedule and activity lists brings openness and sends a message to attendees that they are connected with the event and are important. By acquiring knowledge about speakers and conference schedule, attendees get to prepare themselves better for the event.
Courtesy of state-of-the-art communication tools, reaching out to stakeholders has become a piece of cake. You can send emails or create social media posts to keep every stakeholder in the loop with what is happening at your end.
- Include Live Streams-
Why stay local when you have the chance to go global?
Streaming your conference in real time has become hassle free thanks to several social media applications that popularized live streaming services in 2017. By using Facebook Live, Periscope and Meerkat you can reach to a broader set of audience without making much investment.
Live streaming is a strong and effective tool for promoting your conference. It helps in building relationships and results in positive networking.
If streaming entire conference isn’t viable then atleast stream lectures of main speakers and important presentations. Exploring unconventional aspects of conference isn’t a bad idea to bring innovation and uniqueness. You can stream other significant facets of the conference by having a team member walking around the hall and filming the conference as it happens.
Streaming your conference to global audience in real time is a part of embracing latest technologies and venturing into future. Hence, this is one useful tip you cannot afford to miss out on.
- Promote networking-
Business conferences are for updating knowledge, stimulating thought processes and also for networking. People attend conferences to meet new people and to improve their networking. According to studies, 76% of attendees consider networking as a top driving force for attending a conference.
Social media has revolutionized the way people connect with each other by opening up new avenues of networking. However, the classical tool of networking- physical interactions and meetings can never go out of fashion as meeting someone in person creates a massive impact on a human mind. Report suggest that, only 40% people regard social media vital for human interactions while more than three-fourths of all people see face-to-face-interactions as crucial for networking.
To make your conference popular, include networking elements. Question answer sessions or a casual interaction with the speaker after the talk helps in breaking ice and fuels communication among attendees. Having frequent intermissions and allowing attendees to speak on a topic can help in opening up people.
Your conference should aim at enriching knowledge of people and should also focus on helping them in exchanging contact with altleast one new person.
- Focus on delivering finest customer service-
An event is an experience for attendees and everything that happens in the event shapes this experience. Hence, for an attendee, main guest’s talk is as important as the behavior of the person at registration desk.
Planning a successful business conference is all about creating a ‘memorable experience’ so that attendees remember the event positively. And for creating memorable experience, you must deliver professional service to customers at every point of contact.
It all begins with training your staff in customer handling. They must know how to deal with different types of customers and how to solve their grievances. Your staff should be efficient in handling any tricky situation that arises suddenly.
Studies reveal that 78% customers bail out from completing their transactions citing awful service experience as the reason. Also, surveys have found that, when compared with positive feedback, consumers share negative feedback with more people. So, offering the finest customer service is imperative to success of your event.
The latest research findings mirror customer’s increasing affection towards self-service help centers. 50% customers believe in solving their issues by themselves. These stats mean event planners must invest in a kiosk or a self-service portal such as interactive digital signage locating nearest washroom.
- Good conference App works wonders-
Event apps come with host of benefits and if you are still not using an event app for your conference then you are missing out on serious perks.
Event apps let you connect effectively with your attendees. Sending updates, locations and other details becomes seamless through apps. No more print outs and no more emails. Thus, you end up saving money and time.
Apps allow you to interact with consumers before, during and after the conference. You receive consumer feedback quickly resulting in creation of more loyal consumer base.
Attendees have plenty to gain from conference apps. All event updates are at their fingertips and they have opportunity to network with guests and other attendees. Thus, it is a win-win situation for all.
In-built social media features in conference apps allow attendees to brag about their conference experience on social media in real time. It results in your event promotion and advertisement. You can share multimedia files such as conference pictures and videos seamlessly through apps.
But before releasing your conference app check its responsiveness and functionality of other features. An ill-functioning app is a massive turn-off for customers and leads to negative publicity. So, make sure you have a glitch free app that runs smooth without any blip.
- Take the road less travelled by- Organize unconference-
Sometimes, business conferences turn ugly. They become monotonous, exhausting and soulless. This is the truth, and we all have faced it at some point. We all have experiences of attending conference where the panel discussion went off-topic, the keynote speaker turned out to be boring and the PowerPoint presentation made no point at all.
So, how do you ensure that your conference doesn’t become one of those ‘bad experiences’ for attendees? The answer lies in ‘unconference’. Unconferences are conferences which have highly flexible schedule and the listeners aren’t passive stakeholders.
In unconferences, audiences have crucial roles which allow them to shape outcome of the conferences. Keynote lectures and panel discussions are replaced with group discussions and conversations. The premise is to make audience more interested and to make them bring out their expertise and experiences.
Unconferences go beyond traditional ideas of networking. They allow attendees to not only connect but also to collaborate with each other. Workshops and shared projects foster collaboration, creating an unique experience for attendees.
Unconferences are an ideal way of breathing fresh air into your business conference and makes your conference stand out from the competition.
Organizing a business conference is a tedious task as it involves minute detailing and extensive planning. But by executing these above listed six tips you will be able to conduct a successful business conference.
