Tools to enhance attendee engagement

Event-marketing strategies are mainly focused on attracting the attendees with an aim to enhance the footfall. While increasing the event’s visibility is important, attendee engagement is another necessary aspect which usually gets less attention. The ill-effects of poor attendee engagement aren’t obvious in the short run, but in the long term, they poorly affect the retention capacity of the event. Even during the event, a poor attendee engagement strategy might result in bad ROI in spite of significant footfall.

To tackle these issues, event professionals are constantly looking for various means to enhance attendee engagement. Thanks to technology which has helped in devising cost-effective and efficient methods for the same. Here are some trending tools that can really help event professionals in their endeavour to engage attendees.

Social media

If there’s one place where it’s easiest to engage attendees, it’s social media. The increased popularity of smartphones has brought smarter means of engaging people. Various types of contests can be run on social media platforms to create the buzz for the event. For instance,  organisers can easily utilise onsite displays to ask attendees to log in, which can be followed by selfie contests and live streaming. As social media is an open-to-all platform, some attendees might not be comfortable to update their event experience there. To tackle this issue and to make it more intent-driven and targeted, organisers are utilising event apps to enhance the engagement of a targeted community which also provides the app with personal branding. 

Charging Stations

While it may not sound to be an exciting way to engage attendees, but it has its own perks. It’s a good option to provide attendees with a relaxing area with charging stations. After all, events last throughout the day and it may get chaotic for the attendees. Moreover, charging stations can also be coupled with networking zones. This allows attendees to interact among themselves, meanwhile, they can charge their gadgets in the break amidst sessions. You can also equip charging stations with many accessories so that attendees can interact with them in a relaxed mood. Given the popularity that charging stations have been gaining recently, many organisers have started using them as promotional platforms for various brands which opens up new revenue streams for the organisers. 

Kiosks and Digital displays

Digital displays and Kiosks have empowered attendees in many ways. With the introduction of touch screen displays/kiosks/tablets etc, attendees can easily navigate through the event and plan their day accordingly. Exhibitors can also use such touch screen options by allowing the visitor to virtually interact with the brand. Touch screen interaction increases the chance of lead conversion as visitors engage with the brand without added external pressure by the sales representatives. Based on the extent of virtual interaction made by the visitor on such displays, the sales team can easily plan their roadmap ahead. 

Enhancing experience

Gone are the days when the experience was limited to vocal and visual interaction. These days, technology has been implementing new ways of creating an experience. Though expensive, technologies like Augmented and virtual reality can do a lot to interact with visitors in a unique and interesting way. In this era when the average attention span is on its way to plummet to its bare minimum, engaging the audience with traditional methods is not the best deal for sure.

As events are focusing on enriching attendees’ experience, Augmented and virtual reality technologies can help not only creating in brand awareness but also in growing the overall sales pipeline. 

Gamification

What else can be more engaging than games? Be it Wii or PlayStation, you can always rent gaming tools to engage your attendees. You can also initiate the gaming on their personal tablets, smartphones to make it handier for them. Gamification of events doesn’t only boost the engagement but it also enhances the interaction among attendees. Also, gamification isn’t just limited to games in a literal sense. From presentation to feedbacks, anything can be made more engaging with a touch of gaming format. This helps the organiser create an audience response system (ARS) which makes a long-lasting impact on the audience. Like Virtual reality, games are also a great way to generate leads as visitors will be more willing to share their personal information when given a chance to play the game. 

Attendee engagement consists of a long cycle which starts from the moment an attendee registers himself online till feedback and even beyond. A sincere and strategic effort in attendee engagement can do wonders and the impact can be seen over the editions. With more personalisation and accuracy, attendee engagement tools are likely to bring more positive surprises for event professionals.