Event Professionals: Now that college football is nearly done (we’re in Big Ten Country, so congrats to Michigan, OSU and Wisconsin and condolences to MSU, Northwestern and Iowa) it’s New Year’s resolution time. Many of you are in full planning mode for your Q1 launch meetings, annual incentive payoffs, conferences and trade shows (we're full bore on CES and launching a new product line here at Message Blocks right now) but It's probably a good idea to take a few minutes to make some event resolutions for 2016.
I've held event planning and event team leadership roles, been a CMO, a speaker, a sponsor and a conference attendee over the years, so my perspective is sort of broad and may not apply to you, but here are my suggestions for 2016 New Years resolutions:
- I will evaluate and then re-evaluate my use of event technology. Not only my planner tools, but also attendee marketing, sponsor marketing, and attendee engagement tools. Event technology is here big time, maturing rapidly and now economically priced. Let's put away the spreadsheets, Google forms and event binders, etc.
- I will enter the world of data-driven event design and operation. Otherwise known as "know thy audience." It's expected that the millennial generation will soon become the predominate members of face-to-face audiences. Agenda design, on-site registration, social integration, session surveys and Return-on-Investment data will be captured and reported in real-time - both from the CMO's and the Sponsor's viewpoint. We learn a lot about conference attendees and should use that in a deliberate data analytics model.
- I will strive to create unique event experiences, aligned with the learning style of the audience at my event. At a minimum, banish the words "but we did it this way last year" from the event planning lexicon.
- I will focus more on delivering relevant Content to my audiences in a manner that makes sense for my audience. OK, so maybe for an incentive trip the destination has obvious cache if merchandised and promoted correctly, but for customer conferences and employee events, don't assume the destination will have much value to potential attendees, but what you deliver to them from a messaging standpoint is what will keep them interested and engaged. And while the agenda may look good on paper, jamming attendees into a hotel or conference center ballroom for up to 9 hours a day with one-way presentations, a networking lunch and cocktail reception, then a long dinner will just wear out the attendees. Same thing for sessions scheduled on departure day. Expect significant falloff in attendance if your hotel contract calls for a 10am check-out time and your agenda calls for a 2pm meeting end time. Interesting agendas can help. This is no time to have a panel discussion.
- I will recognize that events make up a large portion of my company's (or association's etc.) marketing budget (up to 1% of top line revenue and on average at least 14%, of total marketing spend) and competes with data-rich inbound and traditional marketing campaigns for investment. So I will set clear KPI's, measure everything that I can, never surprise my boss, sponsors, speakers, client or key stakeholders, but strive to delight my attendees.
Those are mine for 2016. Love to hear your feedback and if you have any other "Resolutions" for this year. Happy New Year to all of you.
