Conferences are held for different purposes: to motivate people, share and exchange information on a specific subject, develop business strategies, launching of products. People attend conferences to learn and be motivated by their mentors or speakers on topics they are interested in.
The joy of every conference organizer is for their attendees to be enthralled and engaged so much so that they become regular attendees of such organized conferences. Below are a few ways to ensure your attendee become a regular at your conference:
☑ #1 Ensure that your Speaker Are Delivering Salient Topics
Ideas delivered should be fresh and from a different perspective. The content of the speaker’s message should be sustainable. After- all we are in the age of sustainability ad governments are trying to develop ‘sustainable energy, sustainable housing, etc.
☑ #2 Speakers should be Polished in Style
They should possess the skill of speech delivery. Nobody wants to listen to a dull speaker or a speaker who is not confident and unable to relay his/her information to the audience.
☑ #3 Ensure that your Speaker Keeps to Time
People would become disinterested in the organized conference when speakers overlap their time, or they go on and on and on, merry- go-rounding the topic.
☑ #4 Schedule Regular Short Breaks
Don’t be tempted to put so much content amid your conference. While offering so much content is worth it, it can easily backfire. A poll conducted by Rand Fishkin concluded that apart from gaining new knowledge, the attendees look for a great chance to network and interact with the crowd. Your attendees need frequent breaks to mingle, talk about the topic and of course, refresh themselves and get ready for the next set of guest speakers.
You don’t want to make your conferences too intense such that the attendee becomes exhausted halfway through the talk. Don’t be scared to include a lot of breaks. What you view as being negative downtime can help you positively and make your meeting a huge achievement and turn your attendees to regulars.
Another plus side to having regular breaks is that allows for more elasticity, in the sense that if a speaker overshoot his time allotted to him/ her or the speaker ends up being boring, the audience can be more forgiving and thankful for the break.
☑ #5 Provide Refreshments
During these short breaks, refreshment should be supplied, and if supplied they should go round all attendees. You don’t lose some attendees because they are holding grudges that they didn’t get this or that. Refreshments such as water, snack or even food could be provided. Remember a hungry man is an angry man. A hungry man would probably not be enthralled by anything happening at the conference.
☑ #6 Provide Power Sockets
In this digital age and time, everyone relies on their gadgets; tablets, laptops and smartphones all through the day. People get discontented when they have dead batteries at a conference. Therefore, it’s vital to plan and make provision for powered sockets for all attendees. In recent times, people have become more dependent on their gadgets and can, therefore, become uninterested with the conference and will fundamentally not learn anything from a meeting you worked hard to put together.
☑ #7 Provide Wi-Fi
Rand Fishkin concluded in his survey how ironic it was that Wi-Fi had a high percentage from his respondents. It can be frustrating to many conference speakers to see a majority of their audience on their laptops or phones connecting to the Wi-Fi, working, and multi-tasking during their presentation, however, the attendee wants fast web access to answer a few emails and to be on social media. The attendee can also use the internet to take note, visit URLs and try out new tool mentioned by the presenter.
☑ #8 Be Memorable
We are in an age where people are easily distracted; it is necessary to make the event memorable. To make sure your attendees remember and even talk about the event days and weeks after, you can introduce photography. Such that attendees would find the conference social networking accounts to find photos, provide an avenue to repeat the message of the conference and thereby be aware of future conferences released. They would look forward to coming again for future conferences because they have been made to feel involved in the success of the conference by the beautiful picture of themselves, they have seen.
☑ #9 Hand- out Freebies
People love gifts; they would feel appreciated when they are handed freebies. Freebies serve as incentives to make your attendee become regulars at your conferences. Ensure that you brand your freebies so anytime an attendee uses items -such as apparels, books, water- bottles, adapters, etc.- they would remember they attended your conference.
☑ #10 Provide Entertainment
Entertainment is always fun; people will be willing to continue attending your conferences when they know they would be getting a little fun out.
☑ #11 Be Organized
Ensure your event starts at the scheduled time, no-one like to be kept waiting. It is unprofessional to keep your attendees waiting. Ensure all sound checks are made.
