Half your delegates say networking alone would bring them back.
A third of them also say it feels awkward, and among the under-forty-fives it is four in ten. The receptions are not fixing it. What delegates ask for is to be told, before they arrive, which three people are worth finding and why.
“This is a must-have for all events - the bigger the event, the more necessary, so attendees can be intentional about connecting prior to the event and it helps overcome any pre-event jitters.”
The cheapest thing you can change that moves return rate.
Venue, catering and speakers are all expensive to improve. The reason delegates give for coming back is the one nobody has been working on.
Return rate, which is the number you are judged on
Rebooking is the line your year turns on, and delegates are unusually clear about what drives it. They come back when they met someone worth meeting. That is a cheaper thing to fix than the venue, the catering or the keynote.
The first-timer who knows nobody
Every conference has a group of people standing near the coffee. They are the least likely to return and the least likely to tell you why. Three names and a reason gets them into a conversation in the first hour instead of the last.
Something for the exhibitor conversation
Exhibitors rate lead quality as the thing that matters most and are the least satisfied with it. What they keep asking organisers for is an understanding of what attendees came to do. You will have that in writing.
A room you can describe next year
Most events measure check-in and stop there. After this one you will know what your audience wanted to talk about, what they could offer and where your programme missed, which beats last year's agenda as a starting point for next year's.
Runs off your attendee list, not off a new platform.
Two questions at registration
What they are hoping to get out of it, and what they know about that someone else might need. It goes on the form you already use.
Their three people, before they travel
Everyone gets three names, a line on why each one, and where to find them. It arrives by email, so there is no app for anyone to forget to open.
The room, written down
Within a couple of days you have the demand and supply of your own audience by topic, the cohorts inside it, and a summary that goes straight into a sponsor report.
What your audience came for, next to what you programmed.
Most events know how many people came and almost nothing about what they came for. This is the gap between the agenda you built and the one your audience turned up hoping for.
- Topic demand, ranked. Including the topics that were not on your agenda and probably should have been.
- Where the room could not help itself. The subjects lots of delegates asked about and almost nobody could answer. That is a speaker brief.
- The sub-groups. The clusters inside your audience large enough to be their own track, or their own event.
Priced per event, by the number of attendees.
A conference is a one-off with its own budget, so it is priced that way - one number per event, set by how many people are coming, and free for small ones. If you run several a year the annual package works out cheaper.
What organisers ask first.
Try it on one edition.
Tell us the size of your next event and we will show you what your delegates would get and what you would get back.
Give every delegate a reason to come back next year.
Run it once and read what your audience says it wanted. It would be great to walk you through a real report.
Talk to us