A STUDIED APPROACH: The Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) has grown the attendance of its annu- almeeting by focusing on newaudiences, including students. In turn, the students have attractedmore indus- try participation. “Students are future customers,” Executive Director Edward Schilling III says.
Putting It All Together Since 2008, attendance at the Biomedical Engineering Soci- ety (BMES)AnnualMeeting has grown bymore than 50 per- cent—from2,000 attendees in 2008 to 3,100 last year.That uptick coincideswith the tenure ofExecutiveDirectorEdward Schilling III, who came to BMES in 2009 from the Contact Lens Institute. That’s an enviable rate of growth for any event.Howdid
Schilling do it? “There’s no magic bullet,” he said. Rather, BMES has applied the nuts-and-bolts of basic marketing— combinedwith rethinkingwho comes to itsmeeting andwhy. Marketing efforts have included improved public relations, aimed at more effec- tively getting the word out that BMES hosts an important, impactful meeting. And for the first time, BMES has begun to communicate withmembers on social-
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media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, aswell as through regular, judicious email blasts,which are “very effec- tive,” Schilling said, “as long as you don’t overdo them.” Schilling also has expanded BMES’s outreach efforts,
which previously had been directedmostly at the peoplewho were already part of the organization’s circle.BMESmembers include researchers frommajor universities, government agen- cies, and biomedical corporations, as well as doctors and industry leaders in pharmaceuticals and prosthetic devices. The Annual Meeting hadn’t previously been viewed as a “quote unquote ‘sales meeting,’” but Schilling began reach-
ing out to themanufacturers of biomedical equipment to help connect themwith BMESmembers. Attracting more companies to the meeting also helped
draw more students, which has been another major growth area. “Forty percent of our attendees are looking for jobs, and themore companieswe can have at themeeting, the better,” Schilling said. “And students help attract companies, because [companies] are looking for talent.” He added: “One strat- egy I employed with industry is to say, ‘These students are your future customers. And if your company is fairly sharp, you’ll want to capture these future customers now.’” BMES also moved its Annual Meeting from hotel ball-
rooms,where it previously had been held, to convention cen- ters.Themove not only accommodated themeeting’s growth, but also created a shift in perception. “It caused a large change in how people viewed the professionalism of the meeting,” Schilling said, “and whether it was amajor event.” As Schilling’s approach to growing BMES suggests,
attendee acquisition isn’t just one thing; it’s everything. “What always amazesme is the incredible complexity and diversity of our jobs at this point,” Lippman said. “It’s a huge land- scape to try to cover.”
Barbara Palmer is a senior editor of Convene. The CMP (CertificationMade Possible) Series is sponsored by TourismeMontréal, www.meetingsalamontreal.com.