Once a conference is over and delegates have returned to the office, what happens next can have a direct impact on how participants perceive the value of your event. It’s important attendees retain the tips, information and strategies you offered.
It’s even more important that they are able to apply what they learned. For these reasons, post event follow-up is one of the most important aspects of event design. However, it’s also one of the most neglected areas of corporate event planning.
Here are some steps you can take to achieve measurable ROI for your delegates.
Before your conference adjourns
- Give participants time to identify three specific tips, insights or strategies they learned and pinpoint how they will use them when returning to work. Ask them to write this information down, put it in an unsealed envelope and address it to themselves in the office. Do this after the last break – if you leave it until the end of your meeting, you’ll miss anyone who slipped out early.
- Go through the envelopes and make note of participants’ comments. Use this information when communicating the event’s value the next year.
After your conference
- Consider posting video clips with highlights from keynote speakers and breakout sessions on YouTube. Include specific tips for applying the conference content in the real world. Integrating these videos on your website and via social media are also great ways to widen the reach of your conference.
- A week after the meeting, send participants a summary of highlights from both general and breakout sessions. Be sure to include specific suggestions on how the tips, strategies and other content can be used on the job.
- Seek post-event feedback.Include the video clips and a survey, so participants can offer feedback about the meeting and you can make any subsequent improvements next time. Offer tangible giveaways to guarantee high participation. Ask for testimonials that you can use after the conference that you can use to promote future conferences.
- Two to three weeks later, mail the envelopes with the follow-up plans to remind participants what they learned and how they planned to apply it.
- Six weeks later, invite participants to share how they’re successfully applying what they learned and the benefits of using the strategies they learned. This is an ideal way to engage delegates again and might provide some success stories for you to publish on your company blog or magazine.
These simple steps will significantly boost the perceived value of your events, conferences and business meetings. EMS can help you design a follow-up strategy after each event, to ensure your delegates get maximum ROI from their attendance and choose to continue their learning journey with you.