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It’s time to revamp the onsite experience for all

At Zuddl, we're all about making your event experience unforgettable - think smooth check-ins, engaging conversations, and an overall vibe that works - for attendees and event marketers. 

We've been hard at work lately, launching some exciting updates and features designed to simplify and enhance your experience, no matter the size of your event, from intimate meetups to large-scale conferences.

I'm really excited to share some of the cool new features we've rolled out recently for in-person events. 

See it in action 

Event Check-in and Badge Printing

Is there anything worse than a long line of frustrated attendees? Nope. Attendees want to grab their badges and go, which motivated us to rethink check-in. 

Zuddl’s comprehensive event check-in and on-demand badge printing solution is designed to streamline your event's entry process and elevate the attendee experience with stunning, high-quality (and on-brand) badges. Our integrated system ensures a seamless check-in, allowing attendees to quickly gain access to your event while providing them a quick way to grab their badges and go.

New for event check-in and badging 

• Seamless Check-In Process: Zuddl's kiosks (delivered to you with ease!) offer hassle-free, speedy QR code check-ins and include a reliable offline self-check-in mode for enhanced attendee convenience.
• On-Demand Badge Printing: Say goodbye to the chaos of pre-printing. Our system prints badges in real-time, ensuring each attendee receives a personalized badge upon check-in.
• All-Inclusive Hardware and Software: From badges, lanyards, and badge holders to onsite printers and routers, we provide a complete solution for all your event's on-site needs.
• Customizable Badge Design: Boost your brand's identity with customizable badges. Choose from high-quality paper or plastic and design badges that make a statement.
• Dedicated Onsite Support: Our support team is available to assist with setup, testing, and the check-in process on the day of the event, ensuring everything runs smoothly.

Elevate your event with our advanced check-in solution and give your attendees an unforgettable first impression.

See it in action 

Lead Capture

This feature aims to empower exhibitors with instant access to critical lead data, directly feeding ROI across sales and marketing event strategies. The Zuddl solution offers a seamless and efficient way to capture and utilize lead information, ensuring exhibitors can maximize event participation.

• Customizable Lead Intake Forms: Exhibitors can personalize their lead intake forms by adding custom questions for more targeted and relevant lead data collection. This customization can be easily done within the exhibitor portal, eliminating the need for external coordination and saving serious time.
• Real-Time Lead Data Access: Through Zuddl’s lead retrieval solutions, exhibitors can export leads directly from the mobile app in real time, getting instant access to the data. Additionally, a real-time leads dashboard is available within the exhibitor portal, giving a comprehensive overview of lead interactions and engagements.
• Enhanced Lead Management Features: Zuddl’s system allows booth staff to bookmark leads as hot, cold or warm and add notes, facilitating better follow-up and lead nurturing post-event - a win-win for go-to-market teams.

This feature set is designed to transform how exhibitors interact with and benefit from event participation, providing the tools they need for more effective and efficient lead generation and management.

See it in action 

Attendee Mobile App

Finally, one of the most anticipated features in this onsite bundle: the attendee mobile app.

The Zuddl attendee app revolutionizes event experiences by providing a personalized and fully branded digital companion, uniquely enhancing attendee engagement. Unlike a generic Zuddl app where users must input an event ID, this custom app is native to the Apple Store or Google Play Store, ensuring seamless access tailored specifically for each event.

This is not just an app; it's your event's digital companion, designed to reflect your unique brand and engage your attendees like never before.

Included in the app:

• Fully Customizable Branding: Dive into an app that's 100% yours. Customize it to your heart's content with your own fonts, colors, logos, and images, making it feel tailor-made for your event.
• Engagement at Your Fingertips: Packed with interactive features like Q&A, polls, chat, surveys, and networking, plus fun elements like leaderboards to keep the engagement high.
• Navigate with Ease: With embeddable interactive maps, attendees can effortlessly find their way around, making the most of every moment.
• Personalized Schedules: Allow attendees to craft their own event journey with a user-friendly schedule builder, ensuring they don't miss a beat of what's important to them.
• Insightful Surveys: Craft detailed surveys to gather valuable feedback, with various question types and seamless integration for easy analysis.
• Effortless Networking: Facilitate meaningful connections with interest-based networking, customizable rules, and options for 1:1 meetings right from the app.
• Guided Exploration: Help attendees easily plan their day, using multiple interactive maps for all event areas, ensuring a smooth and enjoyable experience.

Your search ends here. Elevate your event with an app as unique as your brand, designed to deliver an unparalleled attendee experience.

Stay Tuned and Send Your Thoughts

Stay tuned for more Zuddl updates as we work to make event management easier and events more memorable.

Your feedback is crucial for improvement. Share your ideas with your CSM or email me at vedha@zuddl.com – I read and value every message.

See it in action

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The B2B Marketing Exchange (#B2BMX) 2024 in Scottsdale, Arizona, is shaping up to be an essential event for B2B marketers aiming to revamp their strategies and accelerate growth. With over 80 sessions across five tracks, including Content2Conversion, Demand Gen Summit, Sales Impact Summit, Go-To-Market Strategy, and ABM In Action Live, the event promises a wealth of learning and networking opportunities. Here's how event marketers can make the most of #B2BMX 2024:

Must-attend sessions and speakers

Opening Keynote: "B2B Content Lessons From Taylor Swift: Shake Off Your Old Strategy & Experiment To Engage" by Phyllis Davidson (Forrester)

Nope, you don't have to be a Swiftie to enjoy this one! 

Davidson will explore innovative content strategies, emphasizing personalization and experimentation, drawing inspiration from Taylor Swift's approach to engaging audiences.

Keynote: "Elevating B2B Marketing: Transforming Challenges Into Opportunities With Customer Experience" by Dan Gingiss (The Experience Maker)

Learn how integrating customer experience principles can transform B2B marketing challenges into opportunities, driving significant organizational change.

Keynote: "B2B Buyers Want A Better Purchasing Experience — Get The ABM Framework That Delivers It" by Steve Armenti (Google)

Armenti will discuss using Account-Based Marketing (ABM) to meet the evolving needs of today's B2B buyers, offering a fresh perspective on enhancing the purchasing experience.

"It’s Not A Sales Or Marketing Issue; It’s A Brand Issue: No BS Brand Tactics For B2B Marketing Leaders Who Want To Win" by Kate DiLeo (Brand Trifecta)

This session will focus on no-nonsense brand tactics that B2B marketing leaders can employ to distinguish their brand and achieve market success.

Networking and special events

CMO Mentors Program:

A unique opportunity to connect with seasoned industry veterans, offering guidance and insights to up-and-coming practitioners.

CMO Exchange:

An invite-only event for CMOs to share strategies, challenges, and successes in a confidential setting.

B2B Marketing Exchange Happy Hour:

Join 150 Marketing leaders for drinks and dinner - hosted by Chili Pipper, Navattic, RollWorks and Zuddl!

Making the Most of #B2BMX 2024

• Plan your agenda: With over 80 sessions, prioritize those that align with your strategic goals and challenges. Consider a mix of keynotes, breakouts, and workshops for a comprehensive learning experience.
• Engage actively: Participate in Q&A sessions, workshops, and networking events. The more you engage, the more you'll gain.
• Connect digitally: Use the event's hashtag to share insights, connect with speakers and attendees online, and extend your networking beyond the physical event space.
• Follow up: After the event, reach out to the contacts you've made. A quick LinkedIn message or email can help cement new relationships and open doors to future collaborations.

Have fun!

Every event, pretty much, has three main goals:

1) Get as many relevant folks to attend as possible

2) Drive a dizzying ROI

3) Generate as much original content as possible

... After all, this trifecta determines the success of your event and if it will find favor for its next edition. 

Now, events, whether they are in-person, virtual, or webinars, have the potential to generate content that, if leveraged while the event is still fresh, can help sales and marketing teams create better outreach, convert high-intent leads to opportunities, and increase the shelf life of your event. 

This is important because an event today is no longer just about the live moments; it's also about the afterglow—the conversations, insights, and connections that continue to resonate.

To help event marketers truly tap into the potential of event content, we’ve partnered with Parmonic - and we're super thrilled about it!

Now you'll be able to push high-quality recordings of your event or webinar from Zuddl directly to your Parmonic dashboard - where they can be transformed into key moments, trailers, quotes, gifs, webpages, blogs, social posts - the works!

Here are 3 ways you can leverage this power-packed integration:

Maximize your event’s reach

This collaboration between Zuddl and Parmonic presents a ready solution for B2B marketers looking to extend the life and reach of their event content. 

By quickly turning your event videos into ready transcripts, bite-sized moments, trailers, and blog posts, this integration ensures that the rich insights and highlights from any event are not lost but repurposed for timely and long-term impact.

Streamline your content workflow with AI

The heart of this integration lies in its ability to streamline the content creation process. With Parmonic's AI capabilities, videos processed through Zuddl can be effortlessly transformed into engaging ‘Moments’ - snippets suitable for various marketing channels, as well as a blog post highlighting key points of the video and much more!

This not only slashes the time typically required for such transformations but also proves to be far more cost-effective than engaging an external video production agency.

Enrich sales-and-marketing partnership

A game-changing feature of the Zuddl-Parmonic integration is its direct impact on sales and marketing efforts. The processed videos can be effortlessly pushed to platforms like Salesloft, enabling sales teams to leverage these bite-sized moments in their outbound communications. 

This won’t just enhance the effectiveness of your outreach efforts but will also ensure that your hot prospects are engaged with compelling content at every touchpoint.

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How to get started:

Integrating Parmonic with Zuddl is a straightforward process:

1. Contact Zuddl support with your details:

(Organization Name: Name of your organization in Zuddl, Organization ID: Entered by our CS team)

Using the above details, our customer success team will create a Parmonic account.

2. After this, a "Go to Parmonic" button becomes available in your Zuddl dashboard.

Note: You do not need to manually create a user profile in Parmonic - Zuddl automatically creates a user profile the first time you click the ‘Go to Parmonic’ button. 

3. Once created, you can use the same button to access your Parmonic dashboard anytime.

Learn how to start editing your recordings

As we move forward, this collaboration will undoubtedly serve as a benchmark for how event content is leveraged, ensuring that businesses can make the most out of every moment captured.

Whether you're organizing a corporate conference, a trade show, or an intimate seminar, the success of your event hinges on your ability to engage, connect, and leave a memorable impression. Last week, we spoke to some rockstars in the events industry to gather practical strategies that can transform your events from ordinary to extraordinary.

Here are 5 super-cool takeaways from them:

Use this three-pronged approach to planning your event content strategy

Nailing your event content at the pre-production stage is key to event success and outcomes. Here’s what industry expert, Morgan J Ingram, Founder & CEO, AMP, breaks this down into 3 important steps:

• The first step is pinpointing key individuals for collaboration and crafting an engaging booth experience - crucial for attracting the right audience. 
• Next, plan your content goals: whether it's generating a few months of material or aligning with an upcoming product launch. 
• The final step involves strategically engaging key accounts in your content, targeting not just influencers but also potential high-value clients. 

This three-pronged approach ensures a focused and impactful presence at any event, blending content creation with targeted networking.

Now, when it comes to designing your booth or event space, consider it a storytelling platform. How can it uniquely convey your brand's message? Interactive displays, immersive experiences, or live demonstrations can transform your space into a dynamic environment that not only tells your story but also actively involves your audience in it.

Personalize VIP experiences

“Personalization is integral to the event itself; when you register, we ask what you're interested in, and who you want to talk to.” says Sanjib Kalita, Head of Industry, Fintech Meetup

For VIPs or key accounts, create experiences that go beyond the standard. Tailor these moments to their specific interests. This could mean setting up exclusive meetings with your top executives, offering private tours of your product demos, or even organizing special events within the event. The goal is to make these individuals feel exceptionally valued and provide them with a unique experience that they associate directly with your brand.

Make follow-ups memorable

Transform your event follow-ups into memorable interactions. Instead of generic emails, personalize your messages with specific references to conversations had or experiences shared at the event. If you took a photo with an attendee, include it in your follow-up. This personal touch not only enhances recall but also strengthens the connection made during the event.

Use this three-step framework to repurpose event content

Of course, you can turn keynote speeches into blog posts, panel discussions into podcast episodes, or Q&A sessions into social media content. Morgan deep-dives into this and offers a compelling three-step framework that can revolutionize how we approach events. 

• Firstly, it involves repurposing event content in the sales cycle, such as using customer interviews or expert discussions to directly engage with your audience.
• Secondly, he suggests on-site content creation, like hosting shows or conducting interviews at the event, effectively turning a day's event into a year's worth of content. 
• Lastly, this content can be further leveraged bypo transforming it into various formats, such as LinkedIn posts, to amplify your reach. 

Glean insights and learnings from each event

Each event is a goldmine of insights. Pay close attention to feedback, both direct and indirect. Monitor social media mentions and attendee reviews to gauge the event's reception. Use these insights to refine your approach for future events. Remember, the most impactful lessons often come from unexpected sources or minor details that highlight areas for improvement or innovation.

"You've got to find places where they don't know you're listening so you can get the true feedback."  says Jason Widup, Founder, Peak B2B Marketing.

By incorporating these strategies, you can significantly enhance the impact and success of your events.

2024: The year event marketers get what they need

At Zuddl, we operate with a core belief: event marketers deserve better. It's what drives us every day.

We're all about boosting efficiency, sparking creativity, and ramping up success for event marketers, no matter the size of their event. It's a commitment that led our team to spend 2023 really digging deep into what event marketers truly need.

We weren't brainstorming in a boardroom. We were out engaging with thought leaders, customers, and the wider B2B event marketing community to nail down the features that would make a legit difference from the usual, piecemeal solutions.

So, here we are in 2024, ready to unveil our first big launch of the year.

We’ve tackled the intricacies and unique challenges of modern event management head-on. 

The result? A robust yet user-friendly toolset for ticketing and registration that guarantees a smooth and seamless experience, both for the organizers and the attendees. And this is just the first exciting release to come with more enhancements across our platform.

Registration Flow Builder

Forget spending hours diagramming out registration flows and stressing about the potential for error. The Zuddl Registration Flow Builder simplifies complex processes into manageable, intuitive flows.

Enhance your attendee journey from the first click to the event day. Say goodbye to coding complexities. The no-code, drag-and-drop functionality allows you to visualize, construct, and implement the perfect registration process for each event.

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Features Highlights:

• Drag and drop simplicity: Easily create flexible registration flows by dragging, dropping, previewing, and publishing in just a few clicks.
• Complex, made easy: Effortlessly design and integrate branching in your flows, while adding, removing, or modifying forms and ticket modules with unparalleled ease.
• Embed anywhere: Embed your registration flow on your website or via Zuddl’s landing page builder to keep your audience engaged on your platforms.
• Conditional branching: Customize the registration experience with conditional branching based on ticket types, responses, and more.
• Customization at your fingers: Reflect your brand's identity at every step with control over design elements, including custom CSS and HTML options.

Remember how we said 2024 is the year event marketers get what they need? The registration flow is a commitment to empowering you to create complex ,yet personalized registration experiences without needing extensive technical skills.

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Ticketing Conditions

Ready to redefine your approach to event ticketing? This new addition brings unmatched flexibility and control to your event's ticketing strategy and makes activating different scenarios and discounts a breeze.

‍What's New?

• Any ticket, any event: Customize multi-level ticketing tiers, discounts, and bundling plans for any event type.
• Multiple ticket tiers: Cater to diverse audiences with different ticket tiers for access levels or registration types.
• Customized access control: Define eligibility for specific ticket types, with access restrictions based on domains or a predefined guest list.
• Simplified complex flows: Manage different ticket tiers with ease, incorporating caps, expiry dates, and coupon/promo codes.
• Custom communications: Set up tailored communications for different ticket types, ensuring attendees always have the correct information.
• Promo code management: Simplify promo code management with options like ‘BOGO’ or ‘buy three, get 20% off the fourth’, complemented by bulk creation and detailed analytics.

Ticketing Conditions are designed to simplify and enhance your event ticketing, especially for complex setups, offering the flexibility and control you need to ensure everyone gets the right content and context.

Landing Pages and Widgets

Here are two incredible new features to make your event landing pages not only visually stunning but functionally solid and on brand.

Enhanced Customization for Zuddl Landing Pages:

‍Your event's first impression counts. Zuddl’s landing page builder ensures it's a memorable one. With 100% customizable and brandable options, you can now create landing pages that wow.

• Easy and fast: Create beautiful pages in minutes with the intuitive drag-and-drop builder. No coding required!
• Fully brand-aligned: Customize every aspect, from logos and colors to fonts and creatives, ensuring your landing page is an extension of your brand.
• Performance-driven design: Our landing pages are not only visually appealing but also SEO-friendly and optimized for mobile, ensuring a wider reach.
• Your domain, your control: Host your event landing page on your domain for a cohesive brand experience.

Widgets for Site Pages:

‍Effortlessly keep all your event content updated across platforms with new embeddable widgets.

• Efficient content management: Update your schedule and speaker lineup in one place, and see the changes reflect everywhere – be it your registration page, Zuddl's landing page, or the app.
• Simple embeds, powerful customization: With easy-to-embed codes and CSS customization, you can make these widgets blend seamlessly with your site's unique style.
• One-click updates: Easily add, remove, or edit speaker details, and have them updated instantly across all assets.
• Centralized schedule management: Modify your event schedule in one place and allow attendees to build their schedule right from the widget.

These new features empower you to create landing pages and update time-intensive sections via widgets that not only reflect your brand's identity but also streamline managing event content - ensuring content is fresh and accurate.
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Stay Tuned and Send Your Thoughts

Stay tuned for more Zuddl updates as we work to make event management easier and events more memorable. Your feedback is crucial for improvement. Share your ideas with your CSM or email me at vedha@zuddl.com – I read and value every message.

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How are event marketers reimagining accessibility and inclusivity for 2024? 

Our recent survey revealed that 59.6% of event marketers are prioritizing these aspects.

This change is not just about compliance; it's a deep-seated commitment to inclusivity, reflecting a genuine concern for every attendee's experience. 

Today, we’ll look into some of the strategies shared by event marketers.

Comprehensive accessibility planning

Event marketers are adopting a multifaceted approach to understand and cater to diverse attendee needs. This involves recognizing a spectrum of disabilities and tailoring events to accommodate various needs, such as mobility, visual, hearing, cognitive, and neurodivergent conditions. Strategies extend beyond physical accommodations to include virtual and hybrid event formats, closed captioning, sign language interpreters, and mindful gifting. Marketers are also focusing on multiple language offerings, increased website accessibility, and promoting women in leadership and sustainable businesses to cater to a broader audience.

Registration and on-site experience

The registration process has evolved into a critical touchpoint for inclusivity. Detailed questions about attendees' needs are now standard, setting an inclusive tone from the start. Onsite, ensuring wheelchair accessibility, providing quiet rooms, and accommodating service animals are essential. Event marketers are also adopting flexible scheduling and hosting events at times ideal for various time zones, ensuring diverse speaker lineups, and choosing venues accessible to individuals with disabilities.

Diverse and inclusive attendee representation

Diversity in attendee lists is now a deliberate strategy. Ensuring representation across various demographics is becoming a norm. Engaging with diverse communities, checking for unintended bias in invites, speakers, and hosts, and intentional speaker selection are part of this inclusive approach. Event marketers are utilizing diverse networks and promoting small customer businesses and sustainable businesses as key strategies.

Welcoming environment and communication

Creating a welcoming environment goes beyond logistics. It's about fostering a sense of belonging through networking opportunities for underrepresented groups and implementing clear Codes of Conduct. Simple, clear language in signage and materials, along with staff training on respectful interaction, are vital. Many marketers are working with advocates to ensure accommodations for mental and physical needs and conducting training sessions on inclusivity for organizers and staff.

Venue and technology considerations

Choosing the right venue is critical for accessibility. Venues with accessible features and navigable spaces for all attendees are preferred. Utilizing assistive technology like screen readers and ensuring compatibility with various tools is essential. Designing event websites and materials on platforms that meet accessibility guidelines supports attendees with visual impairments or color vision deficiency.

The integration of inclusivity and accessibility into B2B events is a response to a growing demand for empathetic and responsive events. This approach enriches the event experience for everyone and contributes to a more inclusive and accessible business world.

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Event marketing has evolved significantly, shifting focus from merely attracting crowds to aligning with direct business outcomes.

This evolution has also reshaped the structure and function of event teams. Insights from industry experts Stephanie Pennell, Director of Event Marketing at Zoominfo, Rachel Chinapen, Event Marketing Manager at Zoominfo, and Nick Bennett, CCO & Co-Founder of Tack, provide a fresh perspective on this transformation.

The necessity of being scrappy

For event marketers, being resourceful and efficient is more than a desirable trait; it's a necessity.

Stephanie Pennell emphasizes this, stating, "You need to be scrappy... how do you prove the value of what you're doing and how can you do more with less... they (your leadership team) are always going to want you to say - you can do more with less.”

This mindset encourages innovative solutions that maximize impact without inflating budgets, crucial in times of limited resources.

Specialization within teams

The trend towards smaller, specialized teams is evident in modern event management. In 2023, 75.4% of organizations reported having event teams of 1-5 members, reflecting a strategic shift towards efficiency and adaptability. This approach allows team members to focus on specific aspects of event marketing, such as trade shows or privately hosted events, enhancing efficiency and effectiveness through collaboration and integration with other departments. Stephanie Pennell highlights, "Having those niche areas has been really beneficial... provided they all (her team members) work closely to share best practices... it's integrated with other teams."

Mastering communication across departments

Here's a no-brainer that also cannot be overstated: strong communication is crucial for successful event marketing.

Rachel Chinapen points out, "Especially working in an organization like Zoominfo, being able to communicate across departments is essential. To find out how to report back to the C-Suite on our event success, to make sure our messaging at the event is tied back to the broader campaigns, communication is the first skill you need."

Her insight underlines the importance of strong communication channels and skills within the event team to ensure a cohesive and collaborative effort in every event.

Watch the webinar on-demand

As we step into 2024, we’ve handpicked 4 key features of Zuddl that can be game-changers for your events this year.

Let’s get started.

Event hubs

Easily group and access your events and webinars

Event hubs are your go-to solution for organizing and showcasing a series of events and webinars in one central location. This feature allows you to manage each event or webinar individually, tailoring settings like registrations, venue setup, and communications to your needs. You can create a Landing page or a Hub widget, adding your events and webinars to the Hub for an all-encompassing view for your attendees.

Learn more about event hubs

Parmonic integration

Use Parmonic’s powerful AI tools to edit your session recordings

With Parmonic integrated into Zuddl, you have access to advanced AI tools for editing your event recordings. This feature enables you to push recordings to Parmonic for precise editing. You can trim your recordings to create engaging, concise content and generate accurate transcripts, making your content more engaging and accessible to your audience.

Custom access groups

Group your attendees exactly the way you want 

Custom access groups give you the flexibility to organize your attendees exactly how you want. You can create groups based on specific criteria from registration forms. These groups are perfect for targeted communications and implementing access control restrictions, ensuring a personalized experience for each attendee at your event.

Learn how to create a custom group

Trigger-based communications

Fine-tune your event communications

Trigger-based communications offer you automated and efficient messaging tailored to your event's needs. This feature allows you to set specific triggers for sending communications, ensuring that your messages are timely and relevant to each segment of your audience. The available triggers cover various event scenarios, making your communication process more streamlined and effective.

As you plan your events for 2024, these features will enhance your ability to create memorable and successful events, ensuring a more meaningful experience for both you and your attendees.

When Adi Gorelik, Brand & Communications Manager of EverAfter (a leader in the B2B customer interface platform industry), first took up the challenge of hosting the company’s debut virtual conference titled ‘Happily,’ her goal was simple: make it a fun and impactful experience for everyone.

The conference hit this goal and didn’t stop there, going above and beyond expectations. The results were truly a B2B event marketer’s dream come true, with a high registration, turnout, and engagement rate that contributed to incredible tangible results: 18% more demo bookings and 60% more website traffic.

Here are 3 things that Team EverAfter did that led to this outcome.

Tactic 1:  EverAfter's brand’s personality took center stage 

Easy customization let the team make fonts, colors, buttons, and CTAs across the conference - from landing page to virtual stage - reflect EverAfter's lively, happy branding. The end result truly looked as if it was EverAfter’s own platform. 

This branding capability helped to drive a registration rate of 134% more than was expected.

Tactic 2: Engagement tools kept conference energy up! 

The team used a blend of tools, such as Polls, Chat, Emoji Reactions, the Leaderboard, as well as a Photobooth to create an upbeat and energized atmosphere that attendees enjoyed. 

It worked well. 

63% of the virtual conference attendees stayed until the end.

Tactic 3: Clever use of platform features fuelled full-funnel impact 

1. Photobooth photos shared to LinkedIn boosted reach.

     2. CTAs in the virtual venue let attendees easily book demos.

     3. Polls and Chat intel helped Sales follow-up be more targeted 

The combination of all these elements working together led to a 60% website traffic surge and 18% more demo bookings.

The takeaway:

Extremely thoughtful event planning and execution of the virtual conference, aided by clever use of platform features, translated into real-world gains for EverAfter, evidenced by a substantial 60% surge in website traffic and an 18% increase in demo bookings. 

In crafting this success story, EverAfter has set a benchmark for fun and results-driven virtual conferences.

Read more about EverAfter’s success here.

The curtains have closed on your latest conference, but hold off on that celebratory drink just yet!

The post-conference phase is as critical as the event itself. It's time to roll up your sleeves and dive into the crucial steps that will amplify the impact of your event.

Let’s explore how you can turn your recent user conference into a springboard for future success.

1. On-demand content

Your event's extended life: First up, collaborate with your content and design teams to make recorded sessions available online. This is not just about providing value to attendees who want to revisit sessions or catch up on missed ones; it's about extending your event's reach. By making this content easily accessible and shareable, you turn your conference into a content flywheel, reaching even those who couldn't attend.

2. Data reconciliation and follow-up

Next, it's time for some data magic. Reconcile attendee data, session information, and reports. Share these insights with your sponsors and use them for targeted follow-ups. Remember, the data you've gathered is gold – use it wisely to nurture leads and provide your sales team with actionable insights. The goal here is to convert interest into concrete business opportunities.

You can use this checklist to track your after-event activities

3. Feedback collection and debrief

Now, let's talk feedback. It's not just about collecting opinions; it's about creating a feedback loop that aligns with your event's objectives. Use the insights to understand how well you met your goals and where to improve. Remember, feedback is not just a formality – it's a tool for transformation. Involve your attendees in the process; you'll get more honest, actionable insights.

Here's a framework you can follow:

When it comes to collecting feedback from attendees, involving them in building their experience can significantly impact the quality and honesty of the feedback received. By giving them a sense of ownership in the process, attendees are more likely to provide thoughtful and insightful feedback that can help improve the overall event experience.

Here are sample survey questions to get you started

How do you build field marketing events that truly stand out from the rest?

That's exactly what we asked three event marketing experts - Nick Bennett, CCO & Co-Founder at TACK, Rebecca Martins, Revenue Marketing Leader at Jellyfish, and Arthur Castillo, Head of Dark Social & Evangelism at Chili Piper, in our recent edition of Events About Events.

Today, we're excited to share five sharp insights from their conversation, offering a glimpse into the future of field marketing events in 2024

1. Embrace differentiation

In a landscape brimming with similar messages, standing out becomes more crucial than ever. This means thinking beyond the standard pre-event meeting requests.

A more effective strategy involves creating offsite activations. These events offer a refreshing alternative to the usual field marketing event experience, providing an opportunity for attendees to engage in a more relaxed and enjoyable setting. This approach not only differentiates a company from its competitors but also fosters a more personal connection with potential customers.

Arthur suggests that hosting an event with intriguing acts, keynotes, or activities relevant to the attendees' interests can create a more inviting atmosphere by shifting the focus from a direct sales pitch to a valuable and enjoyable experience, which can leave a lasting impression.

Additionally, incorporating unique and fun elements at the booth itself, like offering branded items that start conversations (In Arthur's case with Chili Piper - custom hot sauce :)), can draw people in and spark interest in a more organic way.

2. Sales alignment - a strategic imperative

Aligning with sales teams for field marketing events is essential for several key reasons.

Firstly, it leverages the unique insights and creative mindsets of sales representatives, who often have a deep understanding of customer needs and preferences. Their involvement in marketing initiatives can bring a fresh perspective that enhances the effectiveness of these events.

Secondly, field marketing events like dinners provide an ideal platform for facilitating direct interactions between a company's best customers and their most promising prospects. This setup creates an environment conducive to organic and meaningful conversations, which can significantly influence decision-making processes.

Thirdly, these events can play a pivotal role in advancing deals that are stuck in the pipeline. By providing an informal yet focused setting for discussions, field marketing events can help overcome barriers that might be difficult to address in more formal business contexts.

3. Measuring success - a deeper dive

The importance of quality over quantity in lead generation at field marketing events is a key takeaway.

Relying solely on badge scans at events for lead generation can be ineffective, as it often provides little context or qualification information about the prospects. This approach can result in sales teams receiving a list of contacts without any insight into their relevance or potential interest, making follow-up efforts less efficient and potentially unproductive.

A more effective strategy involves engaging in meaningful conversations with attendees to understand their specific needs and interests. This approach ensures that any follow-up is tailored and relevant, increasing the likelihood of successful engagement. It's crucial to understand the role and challenges of the person you're speaking with, whether they're a marketer, VP of Sales, or Head of Customer Success, to make the interaction as relevant and impactful as possible.

Focusing on booked demos rather than badge scans is a more targeted and meaningful metric for measuring success at trade shows and other events.

4. Creativity over budget

Effective event planning and marketing don't necessarily require a large budget; creativity and resourcefulness can often lead to significant impact. Utilizing available resources can be a cost-effective starting point. Rebecca shares an instance where resourceful and creativity outweighed the budget factor: "I remember my super scrappy days - we just happened to have this like event space in our office building and I think I had like $1,000 dollars to do something in Boston that quarter and I just like scrappily got some drizzly drinks delivered hired a bartender just had some cool music playing and I think I got Whole Foods delivered as well was like under a thousand bucks - we had 50 people there and it was great."

5. The power of collective brainstorming

Collaborative brainstorming sessions are a powerful tool for generating innovative ideas, as they bring together diverse perspectives and experiences. These sessions, which Nick refers to as "Inspo Sessions", involve members from various teams, not just those directly related to the project at hand. This inclusivity is key, as individuals from different backgrounds can offer fresh insights and approaches that might not be considered in a more homogenous group.

Typically, these brainstorming sessions might start slowly, but as ideas begin to flow and participants become more engaged, the quality and creativity of the suggestions improve significantly. Through his years of carrying out such activities, Nick points out that the most productive part of the session occurs after an initial period of warming up, around 35 to 40 minutes in. The outcome of such sessions can be surprisingly effective, with teams frequently finding themselves impressed by the innovative and diverse ideas generated.

Field marketing in the B2B world is evolving, and staying ahead requires a blend of creativity, strategic alignment with sales, thoughtful measurement of success, budget savvy, and collaborative planning. By integrating these insights into your strategy, your field marketing efforts can move beyond the conventional, creating memorable experiences that resonate with your audience and drive tangible business results.

The topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is an increasingly common consideration for organizations of all kinds, including associations. With DEI on the rise, it’s more important now than ever to prioritize inclusivity in your association’s operations. That means offering your members inclusive resources, workshops, and events.

As an association professional, you’re no stranger to hosting conferences, webinars, and even fundraising events to meet your purpose. However, while you may have already established DEI practices for your association’s everyday operations, you may not have tackled the idea of inclusivity for your events yet.

To help you avoid feeling overwhelmed or confused about where to begin, we’ll outline three tips for prioritizing inclusivity at your events. Let’s get started!

What is inclusivity and why is it important?

It’s almost impossible to discuss inclusivity without also discussing diversity and equity. DEI refers to three related values of organizations working to be more supportive of groups from all walks of life. This includes people of different races, ethnicities, religions, abilities, genders, and sexual orientations.

Historically, marginalized groups have not been included or offered the same opportunities as members of the dominant group. That’s what inclusivity aims to address—it refers to the process of providing equal opportunities for individuals who might otherwise be excluded.

Aside from equitably including members from all different backgrounds, inclusivity also brings the following benefits to your association’s events:

• A wider range of perspectives: With attendees and speakers from diverse backgrounds, you’ll have access to a wider range of perspectives. Having these different viewpoints provides attendees with various insights and best practices that they might not otherwise have heard of, thereby increasing the value of your event.
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• An increase in attendees: If you don’t consider inclusivity in your events, it’s likely that you’ll only attract a small pool of attendees. However, if you thoughtfully implement DEI practices, you’ll make it more accessible for many more individuals to attend.
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• Inspire change: Prioritizing inclusivity and accessibility at your association’s event allows you to lead by example. Seeing these values in action may inspire attendees to implement inclusivity practices at their organizations and to advocate for equity in their fields.

As an association professional, your goal is to maximize the value your organization offers its members. By prioritizing inclusivity at your events, you’ll also be able to maximize the number of individuals who can attend and benefit from them.

3 tips for making your association’s events more inclusive

Now that you know what inclusivity means and why it’s important for your association, let’s learn more about how you can prioritize it at your association’s events.

1. Incorporate inclusivity in planning

Whether you’re hosting a conference or a fundraising event, inclusivity starts from your planning committee. Before you begin planning your event, ensure that your committee is diverse to gain a wide range of perspectives. This will help you plan an event that is inclusive to all of your members.

Once you start the planning process, consider how you can facilitate inclusivity with your:

• Registration: Make registration more accessible and inclusive by offering a streamlined online registration form. Ensure that it’s mobile-optimized so members can register while on the go.
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• Ticket prices: When it comes to charging ticket prices, keep in mind that the lower the price, the more inclusive the event will be. While it may not be feasible for you to allow members to attend for free, try to keep ticket prices down if possible so members with limited budgets can attend. Or, offer discounts and scholarships to eligible members to ease the financial burden.
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• Location: Consider the general demographics of your association to determine where to host your event. For example, if you run an association based in the southeast of the United States, consider having your event in Atlanta, as it is a large city with plenty of transportation options.
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• Marketing: Luckily, the best practices for inclusivity with marketing are also generally best event marketing practices. To make sure your content reaches your entire member base, promote your event using a multichannel marketing strategy. This means embedding promotional materials into your association’s website, email newsletters, social media posts, and more.

These are just a few of the numerous ways you can be more inclusive during the event planning process. Now, let’s take a look at ways to make your event more inclusive once it kicks off.

2. Consider inclusivity during your event

Incorporating inclusivity at your event usually takes place in the planning stage. However, even after the event has begun, there are steps you can take to be more inclusive. For example:

• Accommodations: Not everyone who attends your event will be as able as everyone else. Be sure to accommodate those with disabilities or other limitations. For example, leverage live transcription software during panels or workshops so individuals who are hard of hearing can easily follow along. Or, be sure that your venue has elevator access and ramps so that individuals with physical disabilities can easily navigate to the activities they wish to attend.
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• Diverse event programming: Offer a diverse range of programs and activities so that there’s something for everyone. Not everyone learns and processes information the same way, so having a variety of different programs—such as panels, workshops, and networking events—will allow members to craft an event schedule that is tailored to their preferences. You should also prioritize creating a lineup of diverse speakers, presenters, and panelists to allow for more varied and unique perspectives.
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• Employee and volunteer training: To ensure that your event is inclusive, consider mandating that your employees and volunteers receive inclusivity or DEI training beforehand. That way, they’ll be up to date on the best practices.

Make sure to be transparent about your commitment to promoting inclusivity at your next event, such as highlighting the measures you’re taking in your marketing materials. Your members will appreciate the effort you’re putting in to prioritize DEI.

3. Solicit feedback on inclusivity

After your event ends, you need to thank and reconnect with attendees to steward relationships. One of the ways you can accomplish this and help improve your inclusivity practices is to solicit members’ feedback on how inclusive your event was.

In your follow-up communications, send them a survey with questions such as:

• On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the inclusivity of our event?
• Did you feel that the event was welcoming and accessible? Why or why not?
• How were your needs properly accommodated? How were they not?
• How did you feel about the diversity of the event’s speakers, presenters, and panelists?
• What do you think we could do better to make our event more inclusive and accessible in the future?

By asking these questions, you’ll show your members that you’re serious about your commitment to inclusion and DEI as a whole. Plus, you’ll be able to crowdsource advice and feedback from those who truly matter. Carefully consider the suggestions made by event attendees and implement them at your next event to show members that their opinions are important.

To sum up

While society has a long way to go with inclusion and DEI as a whole, you need to take small steps to improve and push these values forward. Only by actively prioritizing these values will your association be able to create a more equitable experience for its members and ensure that you give them the value they deserve out of their membership.

Take a moment to think through how your organization collects and implements feedback after conferences. Do you have a structured, thorough system that encourages attendees to leave actionable comments? Do you simply do your best to jot down what you hear from attendees during the event? Or, is your organization missing this step altogether?

Collecting constructive feedback from attendees gives your organization the keys it needs to unlock better conferences in the future. For example, you might learn which sessions, speakers, and topics attendees enjoyed the most and even inquire about logistical processes like ticketing. Of course, some feedback will reveal your conference’s weaknesses, allowing you to allocate resources to the right areas of improvement.

In this guide, we’ll explore strategies for collecting insights from attendees and making the most of their feedback. To get started, let’s walk through how and when to ask for feedback from conference attendees.

Collect comprehensive feedback regularly

The best feedback is specific and demonstrates a clear path forward. To get these responses from attendees, you’ll need to ask them the right questions.

Avoid asking questions that are too broad such as, “What did you think of the speakers at the conference?” as well as those that could be answered with a “yes” or “no.” Request that attendees elaborate on their responses (e.g., “Who were your favorite speakers, and what made their presentations engaging/interesting?”). 

Another critical part of collecting quality feedback is knowing when to ask for it. Here are some of the best times to send surveys to attendees:

• Pre-event: While in the planning phase, you might consider sending out surveys to past attendees or, if you are part of an association, to your members. To align the conference with attendees’ expectations, prompt them to tell you what they’d like to see done differently at this conference, which topics they want to hear about, and which speakers they think should be featured.
  
  
• During the event: Most conferences take place over several days, meaning that attendees could have very different experiences from day to day. Give attendees the chance to weigh in on their experiences at the end of each day so your organization has the chance to improve between the first and last days. Additionally, this can help you create more consistent conferences in the future.
  
  
• Post-event: Follow up within a week of the conference ending to get a comprehensive understanding of how the event went. In this survey, you can ask about anything from conference promotion to the registration process to the perceived value of the conference.
  
  
• Ad hoc or quarterly surveys: Occasionally, you may want to track long-term satisfaction trends and identify areas for sustained improvement. In this case, it can be helpful to release regular surveys that cover various aspects of your operations, including conferences. Note that these surveys are best for learning about attendees’ general satisfaction with the conferences rather than small details.

Without feedback that translates into concrete improvements, it can be hard for your organization to move forward. Strategically creating and timing your surveys ensures that you get useful feedback from attendees.

Find the actionable insights

While well-designed survey questions will earn your organization more helpful feedback on average, you’ll likely still receive some comments that you don’t know how to use. This is why it’s essential to understand the difference between actionable insights and those lacking actionable components:

• Actionable insights: These are clear, specific comments or suggestions with obvious next steps, such as “I would enjoy more interactive sessions and workshops at the next conference.” If you receive this feedback, you know that you can improve attendee experiences by diversifying the format of conference sessions and prioritizing engagement.
  
  
• Non-actionable insights: This type of feedback is typically more vague, making it difficult to identify a clear path forward. If you receive feedback that a participant thought the conference generally lacked excitement, for example, you might have to guess about what changes can be made to engage attendees. 

In general, your organization should allocate its time and resources to making changes that don’t involve any guesswork. However, if you see the same comment again and again (e.g., “The conference was not engaging”), consider creating a follow-up survey to dig deeper and uncover the next actions.

Focus on continuous improvement 

As you work to improve your conferences, it may be tempting to dial back your efforts once you overcome the initial, common points of feedback from attendees. However, your organization should keep striving to put participants’ suggestions into action no matter how far its conferences have advanced from the starting line.

Adopt these strategies to promote continuous improvement:

• Cultivating a feedback culture. Communicate that constructive feedback is valued and acted upon. This will encourage survey respondents to leave their honest opinions with the assumption that your organization will genuinely consider them.
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• Creating a feedback implementation plan. To properly allocate your team’s resources, create a plan that lays out criteria for which feedback to implement, how you’ll determine which suggested topics or speakers make it to your conference agenda, and a guide to measuring progress.
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• Getting comfortable with experimentation. You may need to push the boundaries of what your organization is comfortable with to satisfy attendees’ expectations. Foster a culture that welcomes innovation, supports calculated risks to get your team out of its comfort zone, and doesn’t fear failure.

To keep your team motivated, remember to take the time to celebrate your wins along the journey to consistently improving your conferences. To identify these wins, be sure to set up a way to accurately measure the success of the changes you make

Measure the impact of changes

After devoting time and effort to improving an aspect of your conferences, you’ll want to know if that investment paid off. The only way to get a definitive ROI is to measure specific metrics before and after making changes. Make sure to keep any data you collect secure and organized within your organization’s CRM or management system so you can easily reference them at any time.

Some of the key metrics that reveal trends over time include:

• Attendee satisfaction scores which show how satisfied attendees are with the conference on a numeric scale.
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• Marketing metrics such as email campaign open and click-through rates, social media engagement (e.g., likes, comments, shares), and conversion rates.
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• Speaker ratings which reveal satisfaction with individual speakers—you might improve this via speaker coaching.
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• Repeat attendance, or the percentage of attendees who return to subsequent conferences.
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• Revenue metrics such as total revenue, sponsorships earnings, and more that reflect financial trends.

Remember to adjust the metrics you study according to your organization’s current goals and needs. Keep older records on file so you can track long-term trends and compare them to industry benchmarks.

To sum up

While your conferences should bring benefits like increased revenue or membership to your organization, they should serve attendees first and foremost. Implementing their suggestions into future conferences not only creates more positive, engaging experiences but also shows that you greatly value their opinions and satisfaction.

As we approach 2024, here’s our round-up of key features that have been instrumental in elevating the experience of event organizers and attendees alike in 2023.

Embeddable widgets

Embed fully customizable speaker and schedule widgets on your landing page.

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Why event marketers love it: Our embeddable widgets are very easy to edit and are responsive across all device types. Create once and use it everywhere!

You can use them on your event pages or embed them on any landing page or third-party website. Customize to display essential information and align with your brand's look and feel using custom CSS.

You can also embed them to your website effortlessly by copying the provided embed code into your website's HTML.

Access control

Customize access across different types of attendees for sessions or zones.

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Why event marketers love it: The Access Control feature simplifies how you manage and control attendee access, ensuring a smooth event experience for everyone.

Whether your event is in person or virtual, you can choose to select specific roles or ticket types and then control their access to specific days, zones or sessions.

It's designed to cater to both ticketed and registration-based events, organizing attendees effectively.

Revenue dashboard

Track and measure your Salesforce Revenue directly inside Zuddl.

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Why event marketers love it: Our integrated dashboard with Salesforce has been a valuable asset for organizers looking to monitor revenue attributable to events.

Available exclusively with Salesforce integration, this revenue dashboard is found in the Analytics section, accessible at both the organization and event levels.

Just enable the integration and sync your data to get started. The system will prompt you if any issues arise with the integration or data synchronization.

The dashboard offers a detailed view of various financial metrics, including Pipelines influenced, Revenue data, Win rate, and more, with filters for Time range, Event type, and List of events.

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As you plan your association’s annual slate of events, there’s one essential task you shouldn’t overlook: how you’ll involve and engage sponsors. Involving sponsors in the event itself adds value to the event for your association, its members, and the sponsoring business. 

Sponsors not only cover fixed event costs, but they also provide credibility, additional networking opportunities for your members, and open doors to long-term partnerships. They also get exposure to your audience, and your association gets the chance to expand your membership.

Here are four tips for getting them involved.

(1) Plan events collaboratively

Collaborating on a conference, a specific event or even a series of events is a great way to involve your sponsors. If you have a major association sponsor, you might even consider including their name in the event’s title. Be sure to involve their team in the planning process as early as possible to make the event more cohesive and the engagement mutually beneficial.

Start by ensuring everyone has access to planning documents and event management platforms. This keeps everyone on the same page while keeping your teams—and processes—organized and efficient. Cloud tools like Google Drive or Microsoft One Drive are good options to allow team members to work together on documents. You might also consider a joint project management tool. 

Above all, make sure you have regular in-person or virtual meetings to strengthen their involvement and your partnership for the event. These regular touchpoints keep sponsors in the loop about the event’s status and what’s needed from them. For example, you could set up biweekly fifteen-minute Zoom update meetings and a monthly hour-long coffee chat with each sponsor so you have multiple opportunities for making contact. This structure allows sponsors to share their questions, ideas, and concerns so they feel heard and respected.

(2) Include sponsor-hosted sessions

Sponsors want the opportunity to connect with your association’s members, and events are the perfect opportunity for them to do so. When sponsors can build relationships with members, it increases the likelihood that they’ll continue the engagement after the conference is over, boosting value for sponsors and your members.

There are a variety of ways to foster these connections at an conference, such as:

• Hosting a booth at a trade show or conference
• Moderating or participating in a panel discussion at an educational event
• Running a continuing education workshop
• Running an on-course game at a charity golf tournament
• Hosting a happy hour

For example, let’s say your student legal association is sponsored by a local law practice. You could set up an “Ask a Lawyer” segment where students can submit questions ahead of time and learn new insights from seasoned professionals in their field.

Not only do sponsors see valuable exposure in these options, but they also get to interact with your members. Consider allowing sponsors to take the lead in planning their involvement in these types of events. Frequently check in with them leading up to the event day to confirm the details and that it stays consistent with the event’s theme and provides value to members.

(3) Offer tailored sponsorship opportunities

Your association’s sponsors will have specific goals or outcomes in mind when it comes to sponsoring conferences and other events. You can help them meet those goals by working directly with them to create a tailored sponsorship opportunity that’s mutually beneficial and features options for their involvement. 

For example, if you’re hosting a hybrid event, you might craft sponsorship packages that include interactive elements for a sponsor interested in boosting their online presence. Include a live-streamed portion of the event, such as a specific speaker, that they can share through their communication channels. Or, if you’re holding a charity golf outing, for instance, work with the sponsor to see if they want to mingle with golfers before, during, or after the event. 

Whatever the case, it’s essential to keep lines of communication open and not take a one-size-fits-all approach. Be willing to be flexible and design sponsorships that fit everyone’s needs. 

(4) Provide exclusive networking opportunities

Networking is an excellent way for your members and sponsors to get to know one another and build lasting connections. And being able to market something as “exclusive” adds immediate value. Look for ways to build networking opportunities into your conferences. For example, you could host a meet and greet for new members, a post-golf tournament banquet, or a hybrid conference for a select group of members for members and sponsors to talk face-to-face. Ultimately, the goal is to give sponsors a chance to connect with your association’s members meaningfully. 

Sponsors might also be interested in obtaining the contact information of members who participate in an event so they can follow up with those who show interest in their brand, so build this option into your sponsorship offerings. 

Wrapping Up

Treat sponsors like true partners throughout planning and execution and stay on the same page. You’ll be in a good position for not only a successful event but also successful sponsor engagement. With the proper communication cadences and tech stack on your side, you can provide an unbeatable ROI for your sponsors and cultivate long-lasting relationships.

If you’re looking for a tool to strategically engage your members throughout your upcoming event, you’re in luck because you likely already have it in your toolkit: your website. 

Your association’s website serves as an all-in-one marketing, registration, and engagement hub that can help you boost attendee numbers and provide important information once your event kicks off. Plus, sharing compelling website content makes it easy to stay connected with attendees long after your event concludes. 

Let’s explore how you can use your website before, during, and after your event to drive high engagement levels and create a lasting impression on your attendees. 

Before the Event

Your website is a key piece of your association’s event marketing plan. Here’s how you can wield your website into a powerful marketing tool in advance of your event: 

Develop an event landing page

Create a dedicated landing page on your website that covers everything prospective attendees need to know about your event. Specifically, you’ll want to cover:

• The date and time of your event
• The purpose of your event
• Your event schedule
• Event location
• Expected attire
• Registration fee, if applicable

You’ll also want to spotlight the perks of attending your event to pique your members’ interests; for instance, you might bring attention to benefits like networking opportunities or notable speakers who will be in attendance.

For example, the National Association of Biology Teachers created an engaging landing page in advance of their upcoming 2023 conference. Here, they describe logistical details like the date and location, purpose of the event, and registration information. 

They also summarize why members should go, writing: “Join other leaders in biology and life science education for presentations from renowned speakers, interactive workshops, and the special NABT events that you can't get anywhere else.” This kind of emotionally compelling language shows the unique value in attending their conference, helping to drive more registrations. 

To entice prospective attendees even further, the National Association of Biology Teachers lists out special perks like special events and speakers. 

On top of including logistical details, make your event landing page visually appealing to keep members engaged. Follow these best practices to enhance your event landing page design: 

• Infuse your branding: To build trust with your audience and demonstrate that this event is being hosted by your organization, add your branded elements to your landing page. This includes your fonts, color scheme, messaging, and tone. You’ll also want to feature your logo prominently, such as in the top right or left corner, to catch your user’s eye. 
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• Use engaging visuals: Show pictures from the last event your association hosted or include a video of an association staff member explaining why attending this event is an absolute must. Visuals help to break up the text on your page and grab your readers’ attention. Plus, you can help prospective attendees visualize what attending your event will be like. 
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• Prioritize accessibility: Everyone who lands on this page should be able to readily access every element, from your text content to your visuals. Offer text alternatives so individuals with visual impairments can engage with your non-text content and use color contrast between your foreground and background so your text is easy to read.

Taking a look at the National Association of Biology Teachers’ event landing page again, you can see that they’ve incorporated their brand colors of green and blue, used an engaging design of a bridge and lobster related to Baltimore to grab users’ attention, and incorporated ample white space to create a clean and professional look.

Once you launch your event landing page, share it widely with your members through email, social media, and direct mail with a QR code. This will help to get the word out about your event and encourage members to sign up. 

Create inspiring blog content

Not all members will be regularly checking your website for new landing pages, but they might consistently read your blog, especially if you mention new posts in your email newsletter. A blog post about your event can help to boost awareness and spark members’ interests. 

For example, you can generate blog content about how your event will help members progress in their professional careers, provide a sneak peek of an engaging workshop, or ask members who attended this event in the past to author a post about their experience and why others should come. 

Offer a seamless registration experience

Rather than directing prospective attendees to an external website to sign up, centralize the entire registration process by embedding a registration form in your event landing page. This way, members can register as soon as they feel inspired by your content. 

Make sure to limit the number of prompts on your registration form so members can register for your event in just a few moments and have a positive user experience. For example, only require members to fill out their name, contact information, and billing information if they’ll need to pay for a ticket. Other prompts, like asking people how they found out about this event, can be made optional. 

During the Event

Your event has officially kicked off! To keep your members engaged and dialed into everything that’s happening, leverage your website to provide key event information. For instance, you might: 

• Share your program agenda on your website so members know what to expect each hour or day of your event.
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• Offer a directory of members in attendance or the contact information for your speakers so attendees can easily get connected with one another and network.
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• Create a discussion forum so members can jump into thoughtful discussions on your website between workshops and programs.

While attendees will have access to this information on your virtual event platform, it helps for members to know that there is a more familiar source of information available to them, too. 

To make this information exclusive to your attendees on your website, consider using a membership website builder that enables you to create a private intranet. Here, attendees can readily access a dashboard with information about your event. Let registered participants know in advance of your event how to log in to these private pages and stay looped into your event updates at all times. 

After the Event

Congratulations, you’ve wrapped up another amazing event! But, your hard work isn’t finished just yet. Post-event follow-up is a critical part of keeping participants engaged and eager to stay connected to your association, and a strong digital strategy can help. Use your website in the following key ways after your event: 

• Collect event feedback from members. It’s recommended to share a survey on your virtual event platform immediately after your event ends, but if members haven’t completed it, a survey can be triggered for them on your website after they log in. Ask attendees questions like “How would you rate your engagement on a scale from 1-10?” and “How could our events be improved in the future?” This will give you invaluable insight into how you can better tailor your events to meet your members’ interests. Plus, this shows attendees that you value their opinions and are committed to creating memorable event experiences.  
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• Share blog content with event highlights to allow attendees to relive the moment and pique prospective members’ interests. This is a great way to market the value of your association and encourage people to sign up for future events. Plus, you can keep your blog fresh—without any extra effort—by repurposing content from your event such as photos and videos. 
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• Post event archives like recordings from your workshops or transcripts from speakers’ presentations in your exclusive member resources. By doing so, attendees can revisit event insights. And, members who weren’t able to attend will have the chance to learn something new and derive value from your organization. 

You might also share a message on your event landing page that thanks members for attending and summarizes the key takeaways from your event. Make sure to also send personalized email communications that show appreciation so you can form strong connections with your attendees. 

Wrapping Up

From pre-event planning to post-event follow-up, your website can take your event strategy to the next level. Remember to keep your audience’s interests and expectations in mind as you roll out content so you can encourage them to register, follow your event updates, and stay connected to your organization long after the event.

Scaling your in-person user conference from a modest gathering to a large-scale event is a remarkable feat, when done right. One of the most critical aspects of this transformation is maintaining the quality of both content and speakers. 

Luckily for all of us, Lauren Olerich, Sr. Director of Events at Gainsight, has shared some super-important insights on how she’s been consistently delivering quality content at Gainsight’s user conferences right from the time they had about 300 attendees to their now massive 20,000+ attendee base.

The challenge of growing events

As your user conference expands, the task of curating high-quality content and securing exceptional speakers becomes increasingly challenging. Lauren acknowledges that there are no easy hacks for this process. Instead, it requires a significant investment of time and careful planning.

Here are 4 hacks that are essential to getting this right.

Hack 1: Build a strong foundation with tracks

To maintain the quality of your user conference, start with a solid track plan. Select new tracks that focus on forward-thinking topics, avoiding repetition from previous years. This approach ensures that the sessions align with the conference's goals and provide fresh insights.

Hack 2: Go the extra mile with speaker outreach

The way you carry out your speaker outreach matters a lot. While you can always conduct a call for speakers, don't hesitate to sometimes deviate from the submissions,

1. Balance the use of a call for speakers with proactive outreach to highlight exciting industry developments and customer stories that may not come through formal channels.
2. Maintain a balance between solicited speaker submissions and the insights provided by internal teams like product marketing and customer success.

Hack 3: Balancing personas and diverse content

Consider the diverse audience personas attending your conference, from executives to individual contributors and different professions. Ensure that your agenda caters to their interests, offering options in multiple tracks and sessions. Nobody wants to leave your event feeling like you just scratched the surface on a certain topic of keen interest.

Hack 4: Get leadership to review your sessions

One striking insight that Lauren shared was around how Gainsight follows is a thorough session review process. They review every single session multiple times, even involving their CEO in the process. This commitment to detail demonstrates their dedication to delivering top-notch content.

Whether it's an internal subject matter expert or a leader who can provide valuable insights, having someone review and provide feedback on each session ensures the highest quality content. It'll require extra coordination and a few back-and-forth moments, yes, but is it worth it? Totally!

Summing up...

Maintaining the quality of content and speakers as your in-person user conference grows is no walk in the park, but the payoff is unmatchable!

With diverse tracks, effective speaker outreach, and meticulous session reviews, you'll be able to ensure that your conference continues to provide valuable experiences to attendees, regardless of its size!

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While the average person might see a conference badge as just a name tag, to a conference organizer, it's an unsung hero, a networking cornerstone, a conversation catalyst, and an important factor in building a great event. Its importance in the conference world is second only to the Wi-Fi password.

In other words, a lot is riding on this unassuming piece of rectangle.

But there’s more than meets the eye to getting it right. It’s not just about slapping a name on a piece of plastic –  conference badge design is a delicate balance of art and functionality. 

In this piece, we’ll delve into how to design a conference badge that helps make the attendee experience a great one.

First, let’s get the basics out of the way. Follow the following best-practices to create a fun and functional conference badge.‍

5 commandments of conference badge design

1. ‍Attendee names: the bigger, the better
   
   By which we mean it should be readable from a distance of 15 feet. People should not need to put on their reading glasses to read the badge.

2. ‍And it should be easily readable
   
   In other words, please do not use all CAPS.
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3. De-emphasize the conference name
   
   You can assume that everyone already knows what conference they’re at.
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4. Give everyone another reason to look at the badge
   
   Extra details like interests or one’s hometown make for great conversation starters.
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5. Lean into the event theme
   
   Incorporate theme colors, symbols, or slogans to make it distinctive. Remember that attendees often keep badges as mementos.

If you use the commandments mentioned above, you should be able to create a great-looking badge.

But there’s still more you can do to elevate your conference badge. Read on.

Designing badges that drive dialogue

Just follow these tips:‍

1) Include ‘Ask me about ____’ or another talking point

Let attendees add a little personality to their badges by including a couple of topics of interest or areas of expertise where they're open to collaboration. This lets other attendees get a glimpse into their passions and these serve as potential conversation starters. 

The questions can be professional and/or fun, such as ‘My hidden talent is…’, ‘The emoji that best describes me is…’ or ‘My go-to karaoke song is…’ making it easier for attendees to ask a follow-up question or respond in kind.

But if you don’t have enough space on your badge or need to prioritize other information, you can simply make other smaller badges with this prompt that attendees can wear alongside your official badge.

2) Let attendees add flair

Let attendees add items or objects to badges that employ visual cues, with color coding being especially effective. This approach allows attendees to be swiftly sorted into interest groups, making it easy for them to spot and connect with like-minded individuals.

For instance, badge ribbons can be used to highlight the individual’s role at the conference - as an attendee, guest speaker, sponsor or organizer. These can help attendees quickly identify and connect with the people they’re looking for.

Different ribbon colors can also be used to show how many years an attendee has been to the conference, providing an easy segue into discussing their conference history and experiences. If you're new to the conference and spot a fellow newbie's ribbon, it's a natural conversation starter, making introductions less daunting. On the flip side, if you notice a seasoned attendee's ribbon, it's an opportunity to delve into their wealth of past experiences and get valuable insights into the event.

Stackable stickers are another great option to add to badges too.

3) Incorporate a QR code

A QR code badge simplifies the check-in process (it took only 90 Mins for all of the 672 attendees at Catalyst by Partnership Leaderships to check-in + get their badges) and it can be programmed to include quite a lot of extra attendee information. Details such as social media handles or a link to a company website can be easily exchanged via the QR code, boosting networking opportunities and engagement at the event.

Not to mention, using a QR code allows you to provide more information without taking up space on the design of your badge.

4) Don’t forget about the flip side of the badge 

All too often, badges flip around when you're walking around the venue, which can lead to missed opportunities for connections and conversations. To maximize engagement, consider printing relevant information on the backside of the badge, ensuring that details remain visible from any angle.

Or at the least, use it to share the conference agenda or the layout of the venue.

To sum up

Don't underestimate the power of a well-designed badge. It's the small touch that can lead to big connections and make your event truly memorable.