Previous Page
plenary ‘It’s a Gut Feeling’ + DigitalNow THE INTERSECTION
Keeping a Pulse on Your Meeting G
rabbing audience attention, gaining their interest through interaction, convincing them
to return to the conference next year, arousing their desires by giving them the information they crave, and leaving them with a valuable takeaway — these are the five key factors to effectively engage attendees, according to Michael Floyd, regional vice president for PSAV Presentation Services. “Start with the actual attendee,” said
Floyd, who is interviewed for “Audience Engagement,” the latest video in The Intersection Series: Where Technology Meets Inspiration (pcma.org/theinter- section), presented by PCMA and PSAV. “You want to reach out to the base that has previously attended the conference, or who have pre-registered for the con- ference, to understand what they want.” By dividing pre- and post-conference surveys into demographics based on age, experience, and occupation, plan- ners can provide a more tailored experi- ence for individual attendees, ensuring that they’ll walk away satisfied and eager to return. “You start with the end in mind,” Floyd said. To create that sort of tailored experi-
ence, the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) makes a list of its top 40 ideas for each conference, then chooses five topics for each specific demographic
that it believes will draw peo- ple in. The five ideas used to hook pediatric hospitalists, for example, may not be the same for another group of attendees. “While a lot of it is survey-based,” said Michelle Kann, SHM’s senior manager of meetings, “we look at topics being discussed on Twitter and HMX [Hospital Medicine Exchange], which is our online community.” SHM’s surveys also
include broad questions concerning what tablets and smartphones attendees will bring. “It’s so that we can get a feel for what type of technology will be on site,” Kann said, “so we can match that technology with what we’re trying to do.” At its Hospital Medicine 2013 con-
ference, held May 16–19 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Maryland, SHM received more than 2 million impressions on Twitter — a record-breaking number. On-site staff members constantly monitored crowd energy, conversations happening on Hospital Medicine’s mobile app, and its Twitter feeds, Kann said, “to make sure we’re getting a pulse of what attendees are liking, and what they’re not liking.”
Floyd says that one of
the best ways to determine whether you’ve touched on all five elements of audi- ence engagement is by the number of people who pre-register for the next year’s conference immedi- ately following the event. Kann agrees. “My goal as the meeting planner,” she said, “is to really make the attendees want to be there, be engaged while they’re there, and because they were so engaged, they want to register that year for the next year.”
And while statistics are important,
planners can always go with their gut. “It’s kind of a feeling, too,” Kann said. “When you come back from the meeting, you can tell whether it was a successful meeting and the attend- ees liked it, or whether you need a major improvement. It’s a gut feeling, from being there and being in the excitement.”
. — Sarah Beauchamp
Watch this month’s Intersection video: convn.org/ways-to-engage
TIPSTER What a Tease
Sam Lippman had a simple way to tease the closing keynote speaker at the Exhibition & Convention Executives Forum (ECEF) at the JW Marriott Washington, D.C., on May 29: He brought him onstage just before attendees broke for lunch to offer a sneak peak at his presentation. “Included in the contract with
every ECEF closing keynoter is a five-minute preview — before lunch — of their afternoon talk,” said Lippman, who produces ECEF. “And this surprise teaser (it’s not listed on the pro- gram) gives attendees a compelling reason to stay until the end of the program to hear the rest of the speaker’s talk.”
18 PCMA CONVENE JULY 2013