By launching hybrid events, the American Public Works Association and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering increased both in-person and online attendee engagement.
W
hen the organizers of the American Public Works Association’s (APWA)
International Public Works Congress & Exposition sought a way to break down barriers between their education program and show floor in Anaheim on Aug. 26–29, the approach that general services contractor The Expo Group (TEG) suggested — a hybrid event — took them by surprise. On the other hand, adding a virtual
component to its two annual 2012 meetings — the ASHE Annual Confer- ence & Technical Exhibition, July 15–18 in San Antonio, and the International Summit & Exhibition on Health Facil- ity Planning, Design & Construction (PDC Summit), March 4–7 in Phoe- nix — seemed a more straightforward
solution for the American Society for Healthcare Engineering, which wasn’t seeking to grow in-person traffic as much as to extend its live event educa- tion to a remote audience. Looking strategically at their overall
goals, both APWA and ASHE deter- mined that their trade-show floor and attendee-marketing efforts could ben- efit from digital event-technology solu- tions, said Dana Freker Doody, TEG’s vice president of corporate communica- tions. Both organizations worked with TEG to broadcast education right from the show floor.
DRIVING TRAFFIC In order to create a buzz and get attend- ees moving to and around the exhibits all day, APWA held special education
Broadcast News ASHE’s ‘Continuing the Conversation’ interviews at its booth drew both on-site and online audiencies.
programs in a streaming theater that TEG created in the show hall. Live interviews conducted by virtual host Emilie Barta kept both audiences — in- person and online attendees — engaged. David Dancy, APWA’s director
of marketing, said that post-event attendee and exhibitor feedback on this initiative was overwhelmingly positive.
“We had over 50 percent of attendees tell us they thought the program was a success, driving more attendees to the expo,” he said. “And people spent more time there as a direct result of the program. Importantly, the exhibitors in our survey recognized this uptick.” Dancy said that APWA will be looking at more digital opportunities in the future, including bringing exhibitors into the program with short demos or interviews that can help expose the online audience to available products while providing more education. Freker Doody said that strategy —
“bringing in key players for short bursts of conversation” — is one she recom- mends to show organizers, whether those key players are supplier partners or keynoters. “We’ll invite one of the conference speakers to come in, maybe after his session, and sit down with an interviewer for 10 or 15 minutes,” she said. “He’ll hit the highlights of his pre- sentation so the online audience gets a bit of a movie trailer to the conference. And the physical audience gets a more intimate, follow-up Q&A period with a speaker of interest that they had to come to the show floor to see.”
EXPANDING THE AUDIENCE With approximately 3,000 of ASHE’s 11,500 members attending each of its