Five Top Trends To Watch
1. The
Participation
Economy From passive information consumption to actively
contributing, discussing, creating and participating. Conference
attendees don’t want to spend $1,500 – $2,000 to attend your event
and then sit passively for four to six hours a day. It goes against
what they normally do. Instead, they want to participate. They want
to engage with others about the content that is being shared or
about the needs they face. Conferences have to move away from being
just an information channel providing data, facts and figures to
consume. Instead they should move to becoming a social channel
engaging the audience in discussion about that application of that
content. Check out your current conference schedule. How much of it
is passive, consumption of information presented from a stage? If
you want attendee loyalty, you’ll want to ensure that a large
portion of the conference schedule allows for networking and
participation.
2. Social
Sharing
Social sharing is the broadcasting of our thoughts and activities.
Regardless of what you think, it is not a fad. It is a sociological
phenomenon that continues to occur at a rapid pace. This macro
trend is affecting conferences and events. Still not convinced?
During the election of 2012, we couldn’t get away from Facebook
posts and tweets from friends and colleagues sharing their
political views. It was ubiquitous and sometimes frustrating.
Conference attendees will continue to share what they are doing at
your event and who they are doing it with. Some will share content.
Some will challenge what they hear from the stage. If your event is
bland, little social sharing will occur and this actually reflects
a poor conference experience. How can you help your conference
attendees share their experiences with their social networks?
3. The
Content Economy
Content could become your conference’s most valuable asset. You can
no longer afford to only have your compelling content released
during your conference. You need to be creating useful, fresh
content to attract people to attend your event and to keep them
coming back to your site after your event. Just putting up a
conference website is no longer enough. Search engine algorithms
are good enough now that the most compelling content dominates
search results. If you want to dominate search results for your
conference, your conference website must have a continual stream of
fresh, new influential content. And you have to figure out how to
repurpose content from the conference to use after the event.
4.
The Smobile Web Social +
Mobile = Smobile.
Social and mobile are becoming more dependent upon each other. A
smobile web means that your attendees expect the conference
experience to be digitized for mobile and sharing. Instagram and
NFC (near field communication technology) are two examples of
experiences prepared for the smobile web.
5. Last Generation
Sponsorship
Sponsorship maven Kim Skildum-Reid describes how sponsorships have
matured. First generation sponsorship was about gaining exposure
and awareness. This is where many of our conference sponsorships
still exist. The thought is that flashing a logo in the midst of
dozens of other logos in front of potential cynical consumers
equals marketing return. Second generation sponsorship was focused
on sales promotions and vending rights. The third generation was
based on brand’s needs and what the brand can offer potential
customers. Last generation sponsorship is about nurturing a brand’s
connection with a target market. It’s about putting the target
market’s needs first. This is very different than seeing how many
escalator, elevator and hanging banner ads a company can secure.
Savvy sponsors are demanding a new kind of experience with their
markets during conferences. The question is can you transition from
the standard sponsorship menu of choices to a customized
sponsorship package.