Successful Event Management: Things to Consider

Overview:

Everyone has different perspectives and objectives when it comes to events. Someone may be interested in connecting with potential customers, promoting their brand, pursuing a better career, gaining knowledge, and many more. So, how can event organizers utilize events to achieve their business goals?

From an organizer's perspective, every single aspect of events is crucial. From event content to event marketing and engagement to audience, an event organizer should have a holistic approach to make the event successful.

The Content Role:

The event's content plays an important role. Being an event organizer and producer, I have always felt something special about events. For the promotion, I was more focused on content value and delivery. I was betting high on quality content for the event's success.

Today, with the hybrid model, the organizers have more freedom to deliver the content in a better and more presented manner. Especially with the on-demand model of hybrid events, the organizers have a better opportunity to highlight the key industry topics with the help of industry experts. It helps extend exposure and capture the attention of a larger group of people with a niche choice.

For hybrid events content, the organizers can think of:

1. Short form of content segmented for a niche audience

2. Bucketed event topics for better attendee engagement

3. Effective use of AV content

4. Make polls an integral part of your event

The Tool Selection:

Being an event organizer for over a decade, I found the same size does not fit all. While designing the event marketing strategy for one of my events, the major challenge was the availability of the right tools. Things have changed technically; however, identifying the right tools remains critical. Nowadays, event tech platforms typically offer a range of event marketing tools like building an event landing page, polls, surveys, and many more.

Today, it is essential to choose a tool that is relevant to you as an event organizer. Instead of choosing everything available, the right decision is to pick what is helpful.

While selecting the right tool, the event organizers need to keep in mind the following:

1) Your tool selection should align with your event marketing objective

2) Make sure your tool is relevant to your audience

3) Make sure it is convenient for your audience

4) Make sure the tool helps you with the precise data and insights

5) You have ample opportunity to deliver the right event message

The Event Experience:

When we look at event experience, they collate everything possible associated with event planning, management, and delivery. In some of my past events, though my core focus was on content, I did think of the event venue, set-up, and registration process.

The lessons I learned from my experience are:

1. Make sure your attendees, speakers, and sponsors find easy navigation to the venue.

2. The audio-visual system is properly in place, with thorough testing of the actual content scheduled for presentation during the event.

3. Have stable and fast Internet connectivity, allowing participants to share event experiences live on social media platforms.

4. Make sure you have a seamless registration process offline / online.

5. Use segregated content buckets to serve a niche audience.

Post-event Engagement:

Post-event engagement plays a crucial role in attracting attendees back to your event. When it comes to collecting valuable feedback for your event, reviews hold the key. This engagement helps the organizers understand the right pulse of the event attendees post-event. When we think of body voting as a part of the in-event engagement, reviews do the same in the post-event scenario. With event tech platforms offering features like polls and surveys, it would be interesting to see how far event organizers can go to collect authentic reviews.

When we speak of event engagement, icebreaker sessions are helpful. Event organizers can plan and execute icebreaker sessions during their events. However, my favorite one is body voting.

In my previous experience as an event organizer, I have executed this technique with 100% satisfaction. In my day-long events, I used this technique for different sessions with different durations, and it helped me understand the following:

1. Attendees' preferences toward content topics

2. Understand their opinion about speakers

3. Their demographics

4. Preferences toward content formats

5. Preferred content duration

6. Preferred engagement activities

Conclusion:

In today's digital era, events, in any form, still hold an immense business value to all the brands across the board. Whether B2B or B2C, events have their own engagement and interaction flavor to keep business momentum going. Over the years, event organizers have played with different ideas and formats to attract the audience for an event. Remember, the above factors will remain crucial for an organizer to innovate event organization.