In one of our recent posts, The 5 Top 2016 Trends In The DMC Industry, we mentioned the importance of creating an experience, not just an event. We talked about the need for Event Planners to get their attendees excited and give them a chance for a hands-on experience. One of the options often overlooked is special event transportation. In this post, we want to drill down on how to successfully engage your event guests- during, before and after an event.
Making your event interactive is more important than ever and creating a memorable experience will elevate your event from two dimensional to a 3D experience. While there are tons of ways to approach this, below are a handful of tips that helped create experiential events for some of the top Event Planners and DMCs we work with here at Brilliant Transportation.
How to Successfully Engage Your Event Attendees
3.) Social Wall
While there are other very important factors to consider when looking for the perfect space, the venue's layout can be critical to your event's success. The flow of traffic is an important factor to consider. Where will people arrive? What are the high traffic areas? For example: if registration is required for admittance to your event, an ample sized foyer is clearly needed. What about keynote speeches, smaller size activities, etc? The right room size for the amount of guests will make sure no one is left out in the hallway, unable to get in.
Nowadays it is almost a given that an event space has WiFi, but it can still become an issue. Having WiFi alone does not do the trick. How strong is the signal and how many attendees will potentially be online at the same time are questions you should ask yourself.
Having recently been to a large marketing conference I can tell you that the WIFI worked well until about 10,000 of us attended the keynote speech and started (or tried to start) checking emails and tweeting. Let's just say this: my one bar verizon cell signal worked better than the Wifi at the venue (which was very embarrassing, since the WiFi provider was also a sponsor of the conference.)
5.) Charity
A recent study found that "84 percent of Millennials made a charitable donation in 2014. Of those givers, only 22 percent said their donation was solicited through their company. Fully 78 percent made donations on their own." This shows that people want to donate to causes they believe in- so make giving back an integral part of your event!
Stand with Malala is a charity picked by Inbound 2015 marketing conference. Inspired by co-founders Malala and Ziauddin Yousafzai, Malala Fund's aim is to raise girls' voices and ensure every girl has access to 12 years of free, safe, quality primary and secondary education. Inbound promoted their upcoming documentary "He named me Malala", encouraged attendees to donate to the cause and engage on social media by sharing the hashtag.
Having a tough time deciding which charity to support? Use social media before your event to ask your attendees what they think. Create a contest and get people involved.
6.) Event Transportation
Many event professionals keep their interactions with attendees focused on the time during the event and within the event space. It is often completely overlooked how visitors get to and from the location. VIPs and other special guests would not only be extremely appreciative of a luxury car picking them up and dropping them off at their hotel, but the ride to and from the location is also a huge opportunity to create a memorable experience outside of the venue. Our recent blog "Event Transportation - Guaranteed Ways to Make Yours Stand Out" shows ways how you can create a unique experience and gives tips on how to make your chauffeured vehicles stand out with custom branding. Some of the Fortune 500 companies we work with have successfully used luxury Sprinter Vans as a mobile office, presenting new products to their clients while on route.
As you can see, the options to make your event (transportation) more productive and memorable are endless!
Now over to you- what is your experience from events you have hosted or attended? What worked and what didn't? Please comment below and make sure to subscribe to our blog.
