Article Meetings / Events 2 min read

Attendee Engagement: Gotta Keep ‘Em Entertained

A few ideas for building attendee engagement through clever entertainment. Also: how big-name publications are using their events as content hubs—and new ways to attract advertisers.

Ernie Smith

June 13, 2014

Heads up: this content is over 5 years old, so some information may be out of date.

Sure, you want your attendees to learn, but you also want them to get involved. That’s why it’s worth looking into forms of entertainment that will draw eyeballs at networking events.

Writing for the Event Manager Blog  (opens in a new tab), Scarlett Entertainment’s Amy Capron offers up a wide variety of ideas—some cheap, some gimmicky, some simply mind-blowing—that will get attendees engaged with your brand.

One Capron tip that could prove particularly appealing? Hook your DJ or performers up to social media and have them take requests from the stage.

“As guests become more technology and social media savvy, so do performers,” she notes.

Other tips: Get a digital caricaturist, and (separately) build a social media photo booth.

Expanding on Events

via @BizBash  (opens in a new tab): how magazines are rethinking their events… #events  (opens in a new tab) #eventmarketing  (opens in a new tab) #eventplanning  (opens in a new tab) #eventprofs  (opens in a new tab) http://t.co/9tpf8DfVcp  (opens in a new tab)

— theo tyson (@ms_theotyson) June 12, 2014  (opens in a new tab)

We’ve heard a ton about how media companies are stealing a ton of association tricks on the events front, but that description of things only scratches the surface.

Even magazines and publications that have long held events are starting to try new approaches to attract advertisers and revenue, according to BizBash  (opens in a new tab). The event news outlet highlights how New York, for example, created a new event, the Vulture Festival, that drew profitability right off the bat through sponsorship—and even attracted sponsors that had never worked with the magazine before.

The event also proved to be a massive content hub for the popular website—and drew the magazine some outside press: One of its performers, Solange Knowles, had recently been in the news for a fight with her brother-in-law, Jay-Z  (opens in a new tab).

“These events do what magazines have always done—deliver stories and marketing messages to a specific audience—but they also show how publishers are experimenting with different platforms and business models,” BizBash‘s Chad Kaydo writes. (ht @theo_trinity  (opens in a new tab))