Meetings

Daily Buzz: Developing a Conference Content Strategy

Learn about your attendees to deliver the right event experience. Also: how to make young professionals feel at home at your meetings.

Looking to change your conference format? You’ll need a content strategy that meets your audience’s needs, suggests a recent post on the Minding Your Business (MYB) blog.

“Change for the sake of change isn’t meaningful for an attendee,” the MYB team says. “You want to ensure that the information you’re providing speaks to the different types of people who attend.”

Offering the right experience requires understanding your attendees. If you know the personalities and behaviors that define your community, you’ll be able to provide content that serves it. Strategies such as persona research have helped MYB identify important audience targets.

If you find that your audience comes from many different backgrounds, the MYB team suggests breaking up content into tiers based on level of experience. That way, participants can plan their learning paths at the conference without wondering if the meeting is a good fit for them.

A broad mix of formats can also help satisfy a diverse group. Offer a combination of lectures, debates, roundtables, and workshops so that your event speaks to the different personas you identify in your research.

Engaging Young Members at Events

If the young professionals at your events are buried in their phones or escaping to their rooms, then your organization needs to do a better job engaging them, writes Amanda Kaiser of Smooth the Path.

“Think about how awkward you feel when you enter a room of strangers,” she says. “Young professionals traveling alone often feel this way at events. So they escape.”

Help them feel welcome by offering activities that provide a sense of belonging. Before the conference, hold workshops for young professionals to give them a chance to work together and connect.

“Many of your young professionals are also new members and first-time attendees,” Kaiser says. Early in the conference, offer orientation to give them an idea of what to expect and how to navigate the event.

Other Links of Note

Security researchers found a vulnerability in the popular WordPress plugin Code Snippets. Lifehacker has the scoop on how to keep your site secure.

To help exhibitors achieve their goals, associations are trying new strategies, a recent MemberSuite blog post suggests.

VR technology lets meeting planners take part in remote site inspections. MeetingsNet has the story.

(gradyreese/E+/Getty Images Plus)

Michael Hickey

By Michael Hickey

Michael Hickey is a contributor to Associations Now. MORE

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