Association events are large undertakings for both your staff and members. While your staff must organize the event’s logistics, promote it, and ensure everything runs smoothly, members must find time in their busy schedules to attend and dedicate several hours (or even days) to your organization. The common denominator is that both groups have a stake in your events and want to make the most of the experience.

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Therefore, one of the main challenges event professionals face is engagement. The pressure of maximizing attendees’ time and attention forces event organizers to be creative with their event strategies and put engagement at the forefront.

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As Liz Lathan, Co-Founder and CMO at Community Factory and Chief Community Officer at Club Ichi, explains, “Our attendees find their cell phones more interesting than our events. We need to change how they engage by educating stakeholders on cognitive, behavioral, and emotional engagement.” Let’s review some strategies you can implement to create engaging events that hold attendees’ attention and boost member retention.

1. Offer relevant content.

Start by taking a closer look at your event’s content, including planned speaker sessions, panels, and workshops. Does it speak to members’ needs? Is it different enough from the content of past events, or does it include recycled information? Does it align with current industry trends?

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Since content and activities will take up most of attendees’ time during the event, make it engaging by tailoring it to your specific audience. Survey attendees using your event registration software to ensure your content reflects their interests, needs, and professional goals. You may ask questions like:

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• What are your primary goals for attending this event?
• What topics would you be interested in discussing during the event?
• Are there any industry trends you’d like to see represented in speaker sessions or workshops?
• Are there any speakers from our past events you particularly enjoyed? Which ones?
• Are there any specific skills you hope to gain by attending this event?
• What challenges are you facing in your role that the event should address?

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Then, analyze attendees’ responses with your team to create an event schedule attendees will be excited about. For example, Getting Attention’s membership marketing ideas guide explains that if environmental conservation is currently a focus for your organization and attendees, you may host an “environmental clean-up and educational seminar” to further participants’ knowledge in this subject area.

2. Facilitate networking opportunities.

Networking is often a top reason why members attend association events. Meeting with others in the industry can spark new professional connections and help members gain new knowledge to implement in their roles.

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Make networking easier by facilitating opportunities during the event, such as speed networking, roundtable discussions, and dedicated networking zones. Additionally, EventMobi explains that you can use your conference app to encourage networking via appointment booking. Here’s how the process works:

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1. Attendees create profiles on the event app with details like their name, contact information, and employment information.
2. Attendees browse and search for other attendees’ profiles.
3. Attendees request to schedule meetings directly from each other’s profiles.
4. Attendees receive notifications for meeting requests and can choose to accept or decline.
5. Attendees can chat within the app before they meet.
6. Attendees can meet in person or virtually to network.

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In the chaos of a conference, this functionality can streamline the initial stages of networking, making it easier to connect with like-minded individuals. Plus, handling event communications and appointment booking within an event app can make your event more environmentally friendly by eliminating the need for printed materials.

3. Foster a sense of community.

Associations use the term “member” for a reason. Making attendees feel like members of a broader community can keep them engaged during the event and help them see the continued value of participating in your membership program.

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Foster a sense of community during the event by:

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• Offering social activities. Not every second of your event has to be narrowly focused on professional development. Build camaraderie with purely social activities like a welcome reception, happy hour, or icebreaker.
• Celebrating member achievements. During the event, show members your appreciation by recognizing their accomplishments. You may even give out awards to members who have hit a membership anniversary milestone or have made significant contributions to your community.
• Providing volunteer opportunities. Offer free or discounted registration to attendees who volunteer during the event. Attendees can help out and feel more connected to your organization while still enjoying the event. You may have volunteers work the check-in desk, troubleshoot technical issues, or scan fellow attendees into speaker sessions.

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Although your event may be focused on a specific topic, remind attendees about everything your organization has to offer. Highlight upcoming events and engagement opportunities so members can take advantage of other community-building efforts.

4. Incorporate interactive elements.

Get attendees actively involved with event activities so they can steer their own event experiences. Interactive elements make your event more memorable and meaningful, encouraging attendees to return in the future. For example, you may incorporate the following components:

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• Gamification. Use challenges and leaderboards to motivate participation during events. These challenges should support your event goals, such as encouraging networking or boosting sponsor return on investment (ROI). Reward challenge completion with points and distribute prizes like gift cards to winning attendees.
• Live polls and surveys. Allow attendees to immerse themselves in event material and provide real-time feedback. You can then analyze and share the responses with sponsors, speakers, and exhibitors.
• Live chat and Q&A. Encourage attendees to share their thoughts on different topics and sessions with each other. They can also ask speakers questions anonymously through your conference app.

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Facilitate these opportunities with your event management platform. Familiarize your team with setting up these features on the backend and instruct attendees on how to access them on your event app.

5. Enable post-event engagement.

Don’t let the event experience end prematurely. Keep the fun going by offering post-event engagement opportunities.

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Use your event management system to build a year-round event community. Enable attendees to post on a live feed, using the platform as a form of social media to share their key takeaways from the event and spark further discussions.

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Upload session recordings and transcriptions to the platform so attendees can revisit them. You can also collect content from attendees by encouraging them to send photos and videos they took during the event. With attendee permission, feature this user-generated content (UGC) across your social media channels, email newsletter, and website to recap the event.

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While you can assess the outcome of your efforts by measuring how many attendees return for your next event or analyzing event app engagement metrics, you can also survey attendees to gather more in-depth insights into your strategy. 

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Ask them about their engagement levels during the event and if there’s anything you could do in the future to provide a more memorable, attention-grabbing experience. Then, record their responses and implement any valuable feedback into your next event planning process.

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