Getting your event attendees to show up once is hard enough, but getting them to come back over and over again is a different challenge altogether. If you are an academic event professional who believes that bringing in as many new faces as you can into the conference room is what equates to success, you may be mistaken.
In the race to be and remain competitive, event management organizations today have forgotten that true value also rests in retention. A first-time attendee who never returns the next time is a missed opportunity and wasted effort. The difference between a struggling event and a thriving one often comes down to how well you convert newcomers into loyal regulars.
The truth is that most people decide whether they’ll return before they even leave your venue. Attendees form opinions within the first few minutes and then spend the rest of their time either confirming or revising these impressions.
If you get it wrong early, then no amount of scrambling later will help you fix it. But if you get it right from the beginning, you will have established the momentum that will run your show throughout and even after the event ends. In this listicle, let’s take a look at 10 strategies that will help you convert your first-time attendees into individuals who will not miss your next event for anything.
1. Make the First Five Minutes Count
What happens when someone walks through your door matters more than almost anything else you do. Most organizers assume people will figure things out on their own or that the event will speak for itself. This is a mistake. People who feel lost or unsure in those opening moments often spend the entire event feeling disconnected.
How to make it count: Assign someone to greet newcomers personally and not with a generic hello at the registration desk. Have that person walk them through what to expect and where to go and who to talk to. Introduce them to at least two other people before letting them wander off.
2. Create Moments Worth Talking About
People remember experiences and not logistics. They won’t talk about your efficient check-in process or your well-organized schedule. Rather, they’ll talk about the moment something surprised them or made them laugh or challenged how they think. If your event doesn’t create at least one of those moments, it becomes forgettable. Forgettable events don’t inspire return visits.
How to stand out: Standing out doesn’t necessarily mean that you need pyrotechnics or celebrity guests to walk into your event. Smaller and more unexpected touches work just as well. This can be a question posed to the audience that starts a discussion or a breakout session that runs differently than expected. Maybe it can be something as simple as handing out handwritten notes with recommendations for each attendee.
3. Fix the Mid-Event Energy Dip
Almost every event has a point where the energy drops. It usually happens after lunch or during a particularly dense presentation or right before the final session. Most organizers ignore this or hope people won’t notice. However, people always notice. They check their phones, start conversations and mentally check out.
How to keep spirits high: Plan for this and build in something that will switch the mood of the room just as the engagement starts to fade. It could be a short physical activity or a change of pace or even a 5-minute break that’s actually long enough to reset. Pay attention during your events to when people start losing focus and adjust your schedule accordingly for next time.
4. Stop Talking At People and Start Talking With Them
Too many events consist of information being delivered from a stage to an audience that sits passively absorbing it. This works for TEDx talks that people watch at home. However, it barely works for conferences that demand attention and a sense of belonging. First-time attendees came because they wanted something more than content they could have just consumed online.
How to talk to the audience: Build participation into the structure of your event. Ask questions that require real answers and not rhetorical ones. Set up small group discussions, even if your event is primarily presentation-based. Give people a reason to turn to the person next to them and exchange a word or two.
When people contribute to an event rather than just attend it, they develop ownership. They feel like they were part of something rather than just spectators at something. That feeling is what brings them back.
5. End Strong Instead of Fizzling Out
The final hour or half of your event will disproportionately influence how people remember the entire experience. Most events make the mistake of saving logistics and housekeeping announcements for the end. By that point, half the room has mentally checked out and the other half is calculating how quickly they can reach the exit.
How to end well: Flip this around and handle the boring stuff earlier. Conclude the event with something that feels meaningful. It can be a closing thought that ties everything together or a final activity that sends people out energized. On a simpler note, even just a sincere thank you that acknowledges what people contributed by being there works well as opposed to announcements.
Never allow your event to just trail off because your scheduled time has officially run out. Attendees should leave with the feeling that the event concluded rather than stopped.
6. Follow Up Within 24 Hours
The window for meaningful follow-up is smaller than most people realize. Wait a week and you’ve already lost momentum. Wait 2 weeks and people have forgotten most of what made your event special to begin with.
How to follow up: Send something personal within a day. This should not be a generic ‘thanks for coming’ email that goes to everyone. Rather, it must be something that references what happened or acknowledges specific people. Include information about your next event but don’t make that the focus. The focus should be on showing that you remember them and value their presence.
7. Build Community Between Events
People do not return simply because they enjoyed a few hours once. They return because they associate with something ongoing. If your event exists in isolation with nothing happening in between, you’re making retention exponentially harder than it needs to be.
How to make a community: Create a space where people can stay connected. It doesn’t have to be complicated; even a simple group chat or monthly email and occasional virtual meetup works fine. The goal is to maintain a thread of connection so that your next event feels like a continuation rather than a cold start.
8. Ask for Feedback and Actually Use It
Most feedback surveys are performative. Organizers send them out to check a box and then never look at the responses. Attendees can tell. If you ask someone what they think and then ignore what they tell you, they’ll assume their opinion doesn’t matter. People don’t return to places where they don’t matter.
How to ask the right questions: Ask specific ones:
What didn’t work?Â
What should change?Â
What almost made you not come?Â
Then do something with those answers. You don’t have to implement every suggestion, but you should acknowledge patterns and explain what you’re trying differently next time.
9. Make Next Steps Obvious
Confusion is the enemy of commitment. If someone has to hunt around to figure out when your next event is or how to register or what it will cost, they probably won’t do it. Make it easy and tell them before they leave. Send them a link in your follow-up and remove every possible point of friction between intention and action.
How to move on to the next steps: If you are an organizer who worries about seeming too pushy by mentioning future events directly, you may want to reconsider this. Your attendees appreciate knowing what happens next and being direct about it shows your confidence in what you’re offering.
10. Remember Names and Details
There is no substitute for making someone feel recognized. Therefore, when you learn and recall the names of your attendees, you will make them want to return. People return to places that acknowledge their inputs and value their presence.
How to make your audience feel seen: These seemingly small and insignificant actions of attention and kindness compound over time. They will eventually turn your event from something that people merely attend into something that they belong to. And this sense of belonging is what brings people back again and again.
The gap between first-time attendees and regulars is not about how much someone enjoyed themselves once. It also has much to do with whether they feel like they have a place with you. Minimize this gap and the retention will take care of itself.
Make Your Attendees Come Back with the Right Tools
The 10 strategies listed in this article, when you attempt to incorporate them all manually, can become quickly overwhelming. Certainly, it takes a well-equipped and committed human team to make your new attendees feel at home. However, the more technical aspects, such as follow-up emails, feedback surveys and registration tasks can benefit from an event management software.
Dryfta, a purpose-built event management system, has been built by a team that knows just what should be automated and personalizes what matters most. All thanks to the countless clients that have trusted Dryfta over the years, we have seen what works and now intend to ensure that it reaches ambitious and emerging event professionals and organizations. Know more about event automation on our website and sign up for a demo today.