A bespoke meeting experience? In this economy?

That’s the key challenge for associations meetings leaders in a nutshell. Personalization and the delivery of a special experience is essential to excite attendees (and encourage them to come back). But those special experiences can be hard to deliver when just about everything is more expensive. 

That’s a challenge I explored in a recent Associations Now Deep Dive article on what VIP experiences at association conferences look like now. The basic takeaway: Many of those valuable experiences can be delivered at relatively low cost, but optics matter. There’s a fine line between “VIP experience” and elitism, a tricky business when the goal of your meeting is to cultivate a sense of belonging. 

But some add-on experiences aren’t particularly divisive or hard to deliver. Beth Surmont, FASAE, CMP-Fellow, CAE, VP of event strategy and design at 360 Live Media, noted that VIP opportunities around keynotes, such as meet-and-greets or speaker Q&As, are relatively easy to deliver. “I’ve seen things like being able to sit in the front of the room or being the first to enter a general session so you get to pick your seat,” she said.

And the white-glove treatment doesn’t have to be reserved for the high-spending segments of your community. For instance, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has dedicated energy to creating distinct spaces for emerging professionals and student members, creating dedicated spaces for them and allowing them to attend at a deep discount if they’re willing to take on volunteer roles on-site. It’s a win-win for both the student members and the association: The members get a personalized experience, and the association gets savings on temp costs and a higher likelihood of retaining those members.

That doesn’t spell the end of the executive golf trip, exclusive parties, or other sponsored events that are designed to specific in-groups. But even the attendees who can afford those opportunities are more likely to avoid them now, mindful of how it can look when leaders are spending big in a rough economy. So now, bespoke experiences can look a whole lot more like old-fashioned learning, just tailored to a more particular audience.

As Rich Vallaster, CEM, QAS, AAiP, senior director of industry strategy at Momentive Software, explained, “pre-event workshops or master classes are easier to justify. You can tell the boss, ‘Here’s the normal education program, and I’m paying extra because I’m going to get to go to this master class or the keynote speaker is going to give a 45-minute interactive roundtable afterwards.’”  

Earlier this year, an American Express survey of meetings professionals found that they’re increasingly asked to deliver more personalized experiences. But that doesn’t always have to mean whiz-bang, spendy experiences. Indeed, more than personalization, the survey found, attendees are craving interactive and social activities that allow people to network. So it may be that the most valuable VIP experience a meeting planner can deliver are the spaces and opportunity for attendees to breathe and connect. That’s a tactic that fits every budget.