CASUALLY SPEAKING: Michael Harms, senior business analyst at People Report, present- ing at the company’s Workforce Symposium Summer Camp. The conference used social media as a primary way to connectwith prospective attendees, and its relaxed “camp” theme and dress code not only offered atten- dees a change of pace, but illustrated one of the event’s central messages: Social media is changing theworkplace.

Socialmedia also can formthe backbone of an attendee-

marketing strategy, as it does for the People ReportWork- force Symposium Summer Camp, which was first held in Dallas in June 2010. Designed to complement human- resources company People Report’s 16-year- old, invitation-only annualmeeting, Summer Camp carried its theme—one popular with the tech industry—all theway through to the dress code, which was shorts and flip-flops, saidMelissa Papaleo, the company’s director of events and industry partnerships.TheHR- and marketing-themed camp covered topics including recruiting, training, and leadership development, as well as integrating socialmedia into business practices. PeopleReport built amicrosite for the event, separate from

CERTIFICATIONMADE POSSIBLE

Don’t Forget the Basics But let’s back up. In the current climate, “social-media experts are like a golden retriever in a big family,” Lippman said. “They get lots of attention and love. But one thing that really gets people’s eyebrows up in the air at the Attendee Acquisition Roundtable is when we talk about the tried-and-true techniques. You can get so tied up in the latest technology, you forget about the basics.” Sharyn Collinson, Fixation Marketing’s

managing director, agrees. Some of the tools that are most effective in building and main-

taining attendance are sitting right in front of us, she said, but we’re not using them to their fullest potential. Take mailing lists—whichCollinson considers an organization’smost valu-

its corporatewebsite, that included SummerCamp’s agenda, list of speakers and attendees, registration, and video. There was no direct-mail or othermarketing budget. Papaleo said: “We used social media as a strategy to get more people in the room.” The event’s speakers—all of whomwere active in social

media—were a critical component in marketing Summer Camp. “The averageKlout score for speakerswas above 45,” Papaleo said. “These are key influencers in their area.” (Klout.com measures — on a scale of one to 100 — the amount of influence exerted by individuals and companies on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.) And influential theywere—particularly in attracting atten-

dees forwhomthe conferencewas a good fit. SummerCamp has been a resounding success, Papaleo said, with 100 per- cent of the 250 attendees who attended in 2011 indicating that they’ll be back next year.

54 pcma convene September 2011 www.pcma.org

KEEP YOUR TOOLS SHARP: Sharyn Collinson,managing

director of FixationMarketing, advises organizations to

executewell on the basics, even as they strive to inno- vate. “Some of the tools that

aremost effective are sitting right in front of us—butwe aren’t using themto their full potential.”