There’s no getting away from it, organising a conference, is complicated. There are lots of moving parts. So many things to consider and often not a lot of time.
We know it’s the details that make an event great though. Those areas where you’ve concentrated on making something perfect for your attendees.
I wanted to share five really simple things you could do that will have a huge impact on the experience of your attendees.
Improve the Usability of Your Name Badges.
Why do you give people name badges at events? It’s probably to make sure you’ve got no freeloaders.
Why are they useful to attendees? To help them remember the name of someone they’ve forgotten or to spot people they’d like to speak to. Yet the badges at most events are tiny, with minuscule fonts that might be on brand but are a nightmare to read at distance.
We take a different approach, that seems to work well for us.
Our badges are huge. A double sided sheet of A6. We do get comments about how huge they are, but making them bigger makes it much easier for them to be useful.
We also use the font Blue Highway. This is not one of our brand fonts. It’s a free font based upon the fonts used on American road signs. That means it’s designed to be clearly read from a distance.
If you can’t read the name of the attendee from 20ft away, we have failed on our badge designs.
Also think about what extra information you could put on the badge with the extra space a bigger badge allows. In the past we’ve included Twitter handles. Sometimes people are more familiar with people’s names on Twitter than their ‘real name’.
Though don’t be afraid to exclude things, on badges whitespace is your friend!
Programme More breaks.
I’ve struggled with this one over the years. I’ve always wanted to cram as much content into a conference as I can, so I was always nibbling away at the breaks.
Then I had a proper read through our feedback. I got the message that the opportunity to network was one of the main reasons people attended our events. So we made more time for exactly that.
Having healthy breaks does mean when a speaker inevitably runs over time, there is still plenty of time for attendees to stock up on caffeine, fresh air and industry gossip.
Arrange More Power Sockets
You can spot who the conference veteran is. They are the first person in the auditorium scoping out the seat nearest a power socket. They will even get charging early in the day to ensure their fully juiced for the whole day.
The reality is at most events your audience will be spending time on their mobile, tablet and/or phone. They will want power to keep them charged.
You can never have enough power sockets at a conference.
Use this opportunity. There are some great off the shelf charging solutions and it’s a great thing to get sponsored or branded.
Send out a ‘What to Expect’ Email
Early on in my conference organising days it amazed me the number of emails I used to get about dress codes. I was organising marketing conferences not gala dinners. It’s one of the things people legitimately get concerned about in the run up to events.
One way to fight this anxiety in your delegates is to send round a ‘What to expect email’ a few days before the event. Talk about dress codes, what types of food and drink are going to be available, whether there will be wi-fi etc.
Think about every small question your attendees have asked ahead of your events. Turn then into a helpful piece of communication. You’ll save your attendees a lot of mental energy fretting.
Schedule Tweets to Pre-empt Problems
There are certain problems we know we are going to have at our events. People arrive early, they can’t find the wifi password, their running out of battery and are looking for a charger.
We know to expect these things so ahead of an event we schedule tweets covering exactly these issues.
It leaves us the time to concentrate on other things on the day but allows people on the back-channel to answer their own questions. You’ll also find other attendees retweeting these ‘Public Service Announcements’. Spreading the message for you.
In Conclusion.
A successful event is all about the details.
These are just a few of the things that have helped make our events more successful. Useful badges, more networking time that you might expect, extensive power sockets, allaying people’s fears with a what to expect email and pre-scheduling tweets to pre-empt problems.
You probably do lots of your own, I hope these tweaks will help you run your event better.
