Actual article date: Apr 28, 2015

Over the last decade, the events industry has been changing to focus not only on content but also on being a marketplace where relevant contacts can find each other for collaborations, partnerships and business dealings. It requires the organizers to go deeper into understanding how their events tick and most importantly what their customers want. This is because attendees are becoming very data savvy and demand justification for exhibiting at a trade show or for attending a conference.

A new kind of attendee has emerged. One who does more than just sit in a chair absorbing information from a speaker. These attendees measure their ROIs in events and will choose to return (or not) depending on the satisfaction received, meaning derived and tangible value transacted. The events that are able to cater to this need will be the ones that are likely to grow and thrive. However, achieving this is not simple. While solving the content part could be relatively easy (we are living in the age of an abundance of content), building a networking ecosystem that would create the marketplace for your event would be the tricky bit.

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Having a thousand people in an enclosed space is not “providing numerous networking opportunities”.

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Here are some suggestions on what I think could steer your event in the right direction to better answering the needs of your attendees.

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1. Focus on the attendees

In the Cornell Hospitality Report conducted by Cornell University, it was found that 59% of exhibitors and 58% of attendees who participated in events related to their businesses and job specifications cited ‘networking’ as the prime reason for them to invest time and money to attend. If you know what your attendees want, be sure to craft the best strategy you can to deliver this offering to them.

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2. Create conducive areas for collaboration and business dealings

An event can be very hectic and dynamic. For most of us who wish to get the most out of the event that we are attending, we do our homework which entails pre-scheduling meetings at the event itself. The problem arises when there isn’t a conducive area to engage privately with another party. Set up networking lounges and reserve meeting rooms for sponsors. This also allows you to up-sell exclusive areas to more influential attendees.

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‍3. Have a Networking Manager / Concierge

Everyone loves to be personally attended to. Have a networking manager who behaves like an attendee’s personal networking concierge. This concierge would have off the hand information on networking opportunities, relevant meeting recommendations and would even make meeting requests or accept meeting appointments on behalf of your customers. Sounds like a lot of work? It can be done quite easily. Just ask us here.

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4. Use technology for a strong purpose and do not compromise

Events are all using technology one way or another these days. The thing is, with a myriad of options to choose, which do you use for your event? The best way to go about selecting is to drive home to what you ultimately want to achieve at your event. If it is speaker to attendee engagement, get a polling / QnA solution. If networking is the top priority at your event, then get the best and easily networking solution there is! Don’t be influence and tempted by solutions that bundle a tonne of other features only to compromise the key feature that would make the difference and answer the need of your attendees at your event.

To stick out from the crowd, you need to do something better than everyone else. There’s no standard definition of what “better” is yet there are numerous company who have achieved this. A common denominator is their focus on doing one thing well. What gets companies and people into trouble is when they try and do too much, leading to mediocrity.

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