Top 10 Strategies to Increase Attendee Engagement [Infographic]

No matter how hard you work to mastermind an exceptional event for your organization, you won’t have maximum results unless you also have fully engaged attendees. The tired model of a conference delivered to a captive and passive audience is long gone; with careful planning, you can have dynamic participation before, during, and after your event.  

Here are the top 10 ways to increase attendee engagement.

Pre-Event Engagement

Integrate social media interaction into the pre-event stage.

In the days or even weeks leading up to your event, don’t miss the opportunity to set expectations by early interaction. By running mini-contests, rewarding potential-attendee buzz, planning recognition or prizes, creating a Twitter hashtag and posting social media ‘shout-outs’ to those participating in the conversation, you help create anticipation of a dynamic conference experience before it’s even begun.

Use technology to create an interactive registration experience.

This is one place that your planning will make you absolutely shine, or let another event slip into obscurity. Registration shouldn’t just be a formality allowing attendees to walk through the door; it must be a vital process of gathering well-thought-out information that will later be used for personalized followup.

Use technology to personalize each attendees’ experience. 

By giving each registrant choices of which parts of the event they wish to attend, they will receive a powerful message that their presence is noticed and valuable. 

During the Event

 

Set the stage for involvement.

The physical setting can either foster engagement, or discourage it. Create an environment that makes interaction inevitable. Round tables, or rows facing each other, gives a collaborative feel and lets no one fade into anonymity. 

Ask questions. 

Use mobile event apps and live polls taken during the event itself. Interactive feedback is essential to help create an atmosphere of positive energy and collaboration. What do your attendees want to know? Are the presentations making sense and meeting their needs? Are their expectations being met? 

Encourage personal connections between attendees. 

Each conference is an opportunity for dynamic connections between professionals, not just between presenters and attendees. Make it easy for individuals to get together. Here again, technology is vital. By allowing people to identify common ground and making it easy to interact with like-minded professionals, you’ll amplify the entire event experience. 

Focus more on personal interaction, and less on entertainment.

Networking sessions and small groups with measurable assignments facilitated by mobile event software go a long way to increasing the collaborative tone. 

Post-Event Engagement 

 

Set the stage for post-event followup. 

Letting attendees know when and how you will contact them after the conference for feedback gives them a sense that their voices will be heard and responded to.

Timing is everything. 

A truly engaged audience will leave an event with an emotional response. You can capitalize on that by following up quickly to further enlist each person’s continual commitment.

Use data to drive post-event engagement. 

Make data available almost immediately to those who attended the event. Post-event followup needs to be more than a simple survey or recap. Who attended? What did they appreciate most? Tie in your pre-event engagement strategies to help foster a fulfillment experience. 

How can technology help

With careful planning, you’ll create an exceptional event that fully engages your audience before, during, and after attendance. While event management software is an essential tool to help make this happen, ultimately your focus must be on the individual participants and how you can facilitate their dynamic experience. Our award-winning event management platform can help you manage your events throughout the entire event lifecycle. Contact us to explore how Attendease can help.

Infographic: 10 Strategies to Increase Attendee Engagement