Leverage technology, personalization, visuals and more to maximize impact
Capturing the attention of target audiences is harder than ever in today’s attention economy. A term coined by Nobel laureate economist Herbert A. Simon in 1971, attention economy refers to a wealth of information making attention a scarce and valuable resource.
In a digital-first world, the attention economy is only worsening as the sheer volume of information competing for mind share continues to increase. The attention economy creates an imperative for meeting and event planners to elevate their events from effective to unforgettable. Events that leave a lasting impression have the power to increase brand loyalty, build stronger relationships, create brand advocates, and boost momentum for the next event.
Creating unforgettable virtual and hybrid events requires keeping meeting and event attendees engaged from start to finish. To achieve this requires the right technology, a personalized approach, the integration of visual elements, a focus on interactivity, and the use of data.
Here’s a more in-depth look at these actionable tips for creating unforgettable meetings and events to secure the win in the attention economy.
Make It Easy
Organizations can leverage virtual event technology to make meetings, events, and conferences easy for participants from beginning to end. This technology removes the friction from event registration and scheduling, facilitates networking and interaction, and makes it easy to engage with event content. There should never be an app to download or continuously update. Click and go is what attendees appreciate.
Using this technology, companies can seamlessly connect with people across the globe and deliver more engaging, immersive, and memorable experiences than ever before.
Make It Relevant
Unforgettable events create an experience personalized to an audience’s unique needs and preferences. That requires an understanding of target audiences gained through comprehensive research and the development of personas that delve into their demographics, industry sectors, and specific pain points and challenges.
Knowing the target audience inside out allows planners to effectively tailor content and create event experiences that resonate and provide tangible value. Participants get the most out of events that deliver relevant content and actionable insights that create a lasting impact.
Make It Visual
Visuals enrich meetings and events and can be a powerful storytelling tool to capture attention, making content more understandable, relatable, and persuasive.
Advances in digital event technology platforms make it easy to present visually appealing images and infographics, videos, live demos, and interactive presentations, providing highly immersive and engaging experiences that help make meetings and events more unforgettable.
Make It Interactive
A common denominator in unforgettable events is interactivity. Integrating interactive elements into meetings and events captures the audience’s attention and helps them connect with the event in a more meaningful way. When audiences have the opportunity to participate in an event, they feel like part of the production, and that creates a memorable impact.
Interactive elements like polls, quizzes, Q&A sessions, and breakout rooms keep boredom at bay by ensuring audiences are actively participating instead of passively listening and losing focus.
Polls are a great way to gauge audience thoughts and engage them immediately. Interactive quizzes add an element of fun and competition, keeping the audience invested in event content. Q&A sessions allow real-time interactions, making participants feel included and part of the conversation. Breakout rooms can be used to provide networking opportunities, allowing participants to connect with each other and build relationships.
These interactive elements enhance engagement, create unforgettable experiences, and provide valuable audience insights and data.
Make the Next Event Even More Memorable
Capturing event participant data can help organizations make their next meeting or event even more memorable.
Digital event technology platforms with integrated analytical data and reporting features are great tools to help event organizers measure event success and identify areas for improvement. Organizers can use these features to analyze audience preferences, behaviors, and engagement patterns. Data like this provides a snapshot of the entire event lifecycle, revealing what worked well, what should be tweaked, and what should be repeated, allowing event organizers to optimize future events to drive better interest and engagement and, by extension, make them more memorable.
Attention is a scarce commodity in today’s information overload, digital-first environment. Meeting and event organizers who want to capture that hard-to-come-by attention must level up their events, transforming them from effective to unforgettable. That means making meetings and events more relevant, visual, and interactive, while focusing on capturing event data to help make the next event even more unforgettable.
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Catie Henderson is the Director of Product Management at GlobalMeet, a leading virtual event technology company with a scalable, flexible, and secure hybrid event streaming platform built and supported by experienced event experts. Catie has a decade of experience building, innovating, and establishing product development life cycles and solutions for organizations across industries including, education technology, finance, health, SaaS, and event technology. Driven by her passion for creating products people love in an environment where people succeed, Catie is determined to elevate GlobalMeet’s contemporary product development processes through a customer-centric approach.
