Five Tips to Make Your Conference The Best One Ever

Five Tips to Make Your Conference The Best One EverAll of us would like our conferences to turn out successfully. After all the work and time spent arranging the day perfectly, everyone wants to make

All articles
Five Tips to Make Your Conference The Best One Ever

Five Tips to Make Your Conference The Best One Ever

All of us would like our conferences to turn out successfully.

After all the work and time spent arranging the day perfectly, everyone wants to make sure their event will be memorable and hopes for it to become a recurring one.

Here are five tips for planning a conference that will make yours memorable!

1 - Try using short videos to promote your event

Have all your guest speakers make short promotional videos for your conference and use them to promote it beforehand.

If you are able to do an inspection of the site in advance, make a few small videos to advertise all the venue's, the location's, and the region's features, i.e., the food, the entertainment, and the other amazing facilities.

Post your videos on Youtube and Vimeo to gather plenty of attention.

2 - Take care

Appearing like an amateur can ruin your entire conference.

Eager sponsors always want more to get back more for their buck in our troubled times, and this can make the planning part of a conference of central importance.

Try getting your MC or event facilitator to interview sponsors on a couch on-stage instead of letting them take center stage which can turn your event into a tedious or even flog-like experience.

The wrong or right business conference speakers is able to make or break your conference, so it's best to get coaching for them and and to ensure you get to see their slide deck for yourself well in advance of the event.

Take a look at the “TED commandments for speakers” for many great tips for up and coming speakers – less text and more pics, for one example.

3 - Use technology and find tech team to volunteer

Some of your oldest conference goers will have a smartphone but will not know how to use it well!

To help them you can arrange for some of the younger guests to show them how to use apps like Facebook, Twitter, Trip-It, or Linked-in.

You can even give your volunteer "tech team" badges or t-shirts and set up a table as a help desk with a few phone chargers on hand.

Also you can set up a picturesque spot for photo opps with a large conference sign or a celebrity speaker and you will get tons of guests taking pics and promoting your event for you online.

4: Use star power

The best way to make your conference flourish, establish your brand, and attract more guests is to invite a celebrity speaker.

Well known speakers can attract a lot of media attention and social media mentions in order to get the message out.

There are a number of smart and creative ways to afford a famous speaker, such as putting on a VIP luncheon or other event, or even simply by finding a sponsor.

Have a talk with your ICMI consultant to learn more.

5: Door prizes

Your guests will love anything they can get for free, and the majority of professional speakers will be willing to offer prizes, for example an e-book or webinar as a follow-up to the ideas delivered in their speech.

Try asking your speakers for some prizes like this or other giveaways or extras to see what they come up with.

Conference planning

If you'd like to receive more information about planning a successful conference, or book David for your own conference, please contact us today!

I recently organised a series of digital marketing workshops with David and audiences of time-poor small business owners.

To say their time spent with him was valuable is an understatement. Their post-workshop feedback forms rated his presentation at the very top end of the scale and for all the right reasons: his deep understanding of their business needs, his expertise in applying e-marketing techniques such as blogging and Google AdWords to help drive sales, and his friendly, interactive and humorous style.

I would not hesitate to work with David again, and in fact I’m actively looking to make that happen.

David was absolutely wonderful – he is a very insightful and engaging professional speaker. Just what we needed in a speaker!

Would hire him again – no questions

.… David has had rave reviews from all our clients

Questions

Conference planning questions

Promote it with short videos, run it like a professional, find a volunteer tech team, add some star power, and give away door prizes.

They give people a taste of the speakers and the venue before they commit. Ask every speaker for one.

YouTube and Vimeo, then share them on your social channels and in your emails.

Avoid anything that looks amateur. Small slips make sponsors and guests wonder what else was missed.

Have the MC interview them on a couch instead of letting them give a sales talk. It keeps the room awake.

Yes, well before the event. It's the easiest way to spot a talk that won't land.

TED's tips for speakers. One example: less text and more pictures on your slides.

Ask for volunteers. Students and tech-savvy members are often happy to help in exchange for a free ticket.

Something always breaks. A microphone, a laptop, a slide that won't play. Someone on hand to fix it saves the session.

A well-known name on the program that gives people one more reason to book.

They help keep people to the end, and they add a bit of fun to the day.

Great speakers and a smooth run sheet. Then give people one moment they'll talk about on the way home.

Make the first one so good people ask about the next. Then follow up while they're still talking about it.

Looking amateur, and sponsors who turn their slot into a long sales pitch. The wrong speaker for the room comes a close third.

Yes. And film a few short videos while you're there to promote the venue, the food and the location.

Give them real value for their money, like an on-stage interview, without turning the event into an ad.

Someone who keeps the program moving, links the sessions together and keeps the energy up between speakers.

Watch full-length footage, check their slides early, and brief them properly on your audience.

Yes. His keynotes are practical, funny and tailored to the audience. See the speaking page.

Yes. Panel and MC work is one of his formats, and it's quoted with your event.

Work with David

Ready to put this into action?

Book a keynote or consulting session and your team walks away with strategies they can use straight away.

Have David Speak Consult With David
Have David Speak