Continue the conversation past the final applause
Events are costly, not just from a financial POV but from resource, time and stress! Let’s be honest though, when done well, there’s nothing quite like it – everyone together, senior leaders sharing their vision with the business, employees sharing their wonderful work, the energy, the excitment…
Then the curtains close, everyone goes home and that’s it. Weeks spent on refining the message, creating content, logistics… how can we ensure that audiences not only retain the key communications from the event, but act on it? The conversation needs to be kept alive, but how? Here are three ways you can do just that.
Wrap content that extends event ROI
Event sizzle video
Do you have a team capturing content of the event? More importantly than just shots of people having a good time shot on a shaky smart phone, are you hearing from attendees? We talked about the power of human connection in a previous post – find out first hand what attendees key takeaways were. What landed? What are they excited about? Keep the buzz going! Multiple day event? Have a team onsite to edit a video that you could show at the end of the event, and prove ROI whilst the audience is still in the room.
Cascade Packs
Make the most of design and content collateral by creating event-branded cascade content featuring quotes from senior leaders, photography and recaps on key themes and messaging. Additional online interactivity could signpost to replays of event content.
Whether a PDF or microsite, the information can be cascaded down through managers to their teams and used to keep the conversation going.
HTML emails
Ah the humble email. Still a very useful tool in sharing core messaging and thanking people for their attendance. It’s a gentle reminder the morning after the event. Fill it with links to further information – photo gallery, video replays, the cascade pack or the event sizzle video, reinforcing key messages and keeping the conversation alive.
It doesn’t stop there!
You’ll always have people that for whatever reason, couldn’t access the event. For example, it may not always be financially viable for a fully remote team to attend. They deserve better than a hastily written intranet article and a few pictures…
As mentioned, events are a considerable expense so sweat the messaging/creative/content/collateral as much as possible, keep the conversation going and drive action. When we produced an onsite video for Adobe’s flagship sales event in Excel London, not only did the audience get to hear from their peers at the end of the event, but the video served as a vital tool in keeping the messaging alive way past the end of the event. Give us a shout if you’d like to hear more.
