Success factors in driving engagement with your event audience

Event and creative agency Worldspan discusses the benefits and success markers of effective event engagement.

If there’s a buzzword that’s at the forefront of discussions about event formats and strategy, it’s the word engagement. From apps to social media, networking and collaborative tools, live engagement tools extend the life cycle of events. With a growing adoption of technology, solutions that were previously only cost-effective for larger audience sizes can now be deployed on a much smaller scale.

The basis of all engagement planning is, first and foremost, the fundamental recognition that events are made up of people and that the profile of your audience should drive the engagement process. With this knowledge, greater engagement can be driven by adopting tactics and levers, such as:

Recognition: Everyone likes to be recognised professionally. Competition among peers can drive involvement and the sharing of knowledge can be a powerful incentive to become involved.

Reward: Creating rewards for involvement can be a key inducement to participate, for some.

Involvement: Telling them how they ‘fit’ into the message and purpose of the event, showing that each has an individual role to play and seeking input creates a strong foundation for dialogue.

Personalisation: Tailoring communication and touch-points to the individual.

Entertainment: Living in a ‘digital’ world, any activity has to be stimulating, to build excitement and interest in the run-up to the event.

Inspiration: It is highly motivational to feel that you are contributing in some way to the greater good –particularly for millennials.

Deployed correctly and knowing your audience so that they work with them not against them, engagement tools can significantly enhance any event.

Worldspan works with organisations to drive creative event messaging and engagement with its range of bespoke technology. For more information, contact Jane Hopkins at jane.hopkins@worldspan.co.uk, call 01745 828400, or visit worldspan.co.uk.