The Enhanced Digital Content (EDC) program from A2Z Events by Personify can help your exhibitors extend their reach, generate leads, and gain customers. We offer a few different options for organizations to take advantage of EDC depending on their organization’s size, internal resources and needs.  

What is Enhanced Digital Content (EDC)?

EDC is a tool that enables exhibitors to create robust online profiles in the exhibitor console within the A2Z Events platform. This customizable profile allows exhibitors to add product information, show specials, press releases, video galleries and more. Think of the profile as an exhibitor’s content-rich digital booth that is available before, during and after the event.  

EDC enriches the event experience for both attendees and exhibitors:  

• Attendees can access exhibitor profiles before the event to plan out which booths they want to visit and connect with exhibitors before stepping onto the show floor. Additionally, the EDC tool benefits attendees unable to attend the event in person to interact with exhibitors digitally and recreate some of the in-person experience. 

• Exhibitors have increased visibility to attendees and potential customers at the event. They can elicit more show leads by promoting show specials, giveaways, etc. on their digital profile to increase the percent of folks that visit their booth in person. By creating a robust online profile, exhibitors can turn the conversations with attendees from “What do you offer?” to “I’m interested in this product I read about on your profile.” 

How Does Enhanced Digital Content Work?

There are a few different ways that an A2Z Events client can leverage EDC. Personify has an in-house Digital Engagement Team (DET) that will manage all aspects of the EDC program on behalf of clients. The DET works with you to make sure your exhibitors and attendees have a seamless user experience from program setup to marketing, post show reporting and analysis. They generate additional revenue to A2Z Events clients at no cost to them by offering online marketing opportunities to their show’s exhibitors through the Enhanced Digital Content Partnership Program (EDCP).  

Alternatively, an A2Z Events client can purchase the EDC functionality and manage it themselves if they have the resources and bandwidth. 

Why is Enhanced Digital Content Valuable to Exhibitors?

Nothing is worse than going to an event as an exhibitor, spending time, money, and resources to generate few or poor-quality leads. We find that exhibitors who add rich content to their online profiles typically generate 3X more profile visits, have more meaningful engagement, and gather a higher number of leads.  

The ability to showcase their company through enhanced content galleries gives organizations higher visibility over a longer period of time, as opposed to only a physical exhibitor booth.  

Exhibitors and attendees can also utilize the matchmaking feature in their profiles. By selecting what they are seeking to get out of the event, attendees will be matched with exhibitors that offer relevant products or solutions.  

Attendees will be able to prioritize the booths they visit, and Exhibitors in return will receive more engaged attendees. This allows for both attendees and exhibitors to maximize their time at the event and optimize their experience by finding their event match! 

How EDC Makes an Event Successful and Profitable

I’ve mentioned how EDC benefits exhibitors and attendees, but what about the event organizers? Well, having happy people who are able to meet their lead and revenue goals will keep coming back to your event year after year, improving your exhibitor retention rate and providing guaranteed revenue from their booth.  

Additionally, when you leverage our DET, you can save significant time and resources when planning and executing your event. 

 Utilizing the customized marketing our team provides, your event is elevated, from the website to email campaigns to event implementation. The DET team will also help adapt your strategy mid show if needed and at the end of your event you receive a post-show report with statistics and revenue breakdowns.  

Want to Learn More About Enhanced Digital Content?

If you’re interested in learning more about what A2Z Events can do for your next event through EDC, feel free to reach out to one of our team members. They’ll be able to answer any questions and build your strategy for digital success. 

The post Enhanced Digital Content: Increase Exhibitor Visibility and Grow Event Revenue appeared first on A2Z Events.

Although virtual events definitely require different planning components than in-person, there’s at least one factor that stays the same for both: capturing event feedback. It’s always important to know how your attendees felt about the event you hosted, especially when you may be trying something new like switching to a virtual platform. Gathering data directly from your attendees will help you create insights into the various aspects of your events, and inform your strategy going forward!

The good news is that capturing feedback from both in-person and virtual events looks pretty similar. However, there are a few key distinctions that you should consider when capturing virtual event feedback.

First comes the type of questions you ask. Here are some good virtual survey questions to make sure you’re gathering the right information:

• How would you rate our virtual event? This is an essential question to get a general idea of how people perceived your event. If you’re doing something new, like going virtual, it’s important to know exactly how people feel about it.
• How accessible was the virtual platform? Especially if you’re hosting your virtual event on a new platform, you want to know how easy it was for your attendees to use to see if there were any pain points in accessing the materials. Alternatively, you could ask how easy it was to navigate the virtual platform.
• Did you feel like you got everything you needed out of the virtual event? This is a critical question in understanding what shortfalls may occur with moving to a virtual event vs. in-person. Your attendees could have helpful feedback about things you can change, or if they tell you that are parts of in-person events that they felt couldn’t be recreated virtually, then you can use that knowledge for planning events going forward.
• Is there anything we could have done to make the virtual experience better? This is an open question and can invite responses about various aspects of the event: timing, pre-event information, schedule, etc. Being open to constructive criticism is always key to improving your strategy and moving in the right direction.

Second, there are a few tips for best delivering your surveys post-virtual event:

• Mention the survey during the event: This is where marketing comes in! Have a speaker or two reference the survey that’s coming at the end of the event to get it in your attendees mind and let them know how important their feedback is to you. This will also prevent them from logging off immediately when the event is over.
• Get it out soon: The best time to get event feedback is when the event is still fresh in the attendees’ minds! Since you already have their attention, drop the link to your survey at the end of your event. Thank them for attending and encourage them to provide feedback so that you can take to heart to improve next year’s event!
• Follow up: Don’t be afraid to include the survey again in a follow-up email. The best time to send this would be 3-5 days after the event. Pro-tip: Send a separate thank-you email to those who already responded to the survey, and don’t include the link.

There you have it: post-event feedback, virtual-style. You’ll love that you have this information straight from your attendees, keeping their preferences top of mind!

The post Data Driven: Best Practices and Questions to Capture Virtual Event Feedback appeared first on A2Z Events.

Virtual events have made one thing a whole lot simpler: recording and sharing conference content! With a simple click of a button, everything from a webinar to a full conference can be recorded, uploaded and available to attendees.

How do event planners turn this innovation into an income opportunity? We know that event profitability is on your mind – a poll conducted last June by our friends at EventMB found many event professionals struggling to pivot into profitability with only 25% in the black. However, the same study reported that 7% exceeded their original expectations based on in-person events.

How can your virtual event content help you exceed your event projections? We have a few ideas:

Before Your Event

Exclusive Preview Content

Getting people to commit early (aside from early-bird registration) is always a challenge for event planners. Consider using content to help you get a steady stream of registrations earlier. With a conference pass, you can grant access to preview webinars or a signed copy of a keynote speaker’s book. Conference attendees will get a jump start on thinking about the annual conference topic, making conversations and interactions at the conference even more meaningful to them.

Start with Swag

Swag is such an essential part of the event experience due to its ability to extend the life of the event long after it’s over. Virtual event swag is no different. In addition to sponsored gift cards and the like, it’s a good practice to bundle exclusive content with your swag. Think about what content sponsors or speakers could add to physical or virtual swag bags: Access to a journal article? Webinar to explain a new publicly-available data set? Offer special content packages to VIP attendees to help get those high-level registration types sold out quickly.

Sell Subscriptions

Can you apply a subscription model to virtual events this year? Subscriptions are typically seen as a pricing strategy, but we’re thinking of their opportunity to create a community attracted to exclusive content. Traditionally, subscribers have had exclusive or early access to events, getting them closer to the top players in the field. By organizing your slate of events early in the year, you can create a pricing structure to maximize subscribers. Give your subscribers exclusive perks like special events or a newsletter.

During Your Event

On-Demand Recordings

Scheduling issues can make it impossible for everyone to see every segment of an event live. A great way to further monetize your content during your event and after is to offer these segments on demand. Charge for a self-serve portal where attendees access conference content or download it.

Daily Recap Emails

Attendees hop on, hop off, and watch sessions on their own time – it’s a natural behavior at a virtual event. Keep attendees engaged by sending an organizer compiled daily recap email that hits their inbox at the end of each day. Give them a flavor of what they may have missed and what to expect tomorrow. Email recaps can be a great opportunity for sponsors and a great use of your emcee’s voice – especially when they aren’t getting the facetime like they are used to at an in-person event.

After Your Event

Make Content On Demand

Now is the time to make sure all those recordings of your live event are uploaded and available to your attendees who paid for access. Use our virtual event platform after your event is completed: attendees will be able to access content, reach out to a conference representative, contact a favorite sponsor, or revisit the directory. Be sure to remind attendees of these benefits with a simple email.

Build a Community

Using content to bring people together throughout the year can help foster a sense of community. In some ways, your conference can be the kickoff of a great community of like-minded people! Consider hosting monthly webinars and exclusive events. Facilitate small group chats between members with similar interests throughout the year. This will also help get the word out about registration for your next conference.

Repurposing Content for Paid Products

Many topics can be covered at conferences and webinars that are of interest to others outside of the intended field. A resourceful planner can further monetize that content by bundling the recordings with transcripts and turning them into stand alone informational products. These can then be sold to your attendees or completely outside your membership.

We believe that recording and sharing conference content is one aspect of virtual events that will stick when we pivot back to in-person. Good practices around the monetization of your digital content will be a major revenue generator for the foreseeable future.

We have more ideas about how to help bring in additional revenue with your content so contact us today.

The post How to Charge for Content Before, During and After Your Virtual Event appeared first on A2Z Events.

You aren’t alone. Let’s review some of the ways you’re probably like most event planners:

• Your event sponsorship package grids changed two or three times by December 2020
• You wrote and rewrote and rewrote again a major sponsor solicitation 15 to 20 times before sending it
• You were pleasantly surprised when sponsors signed on to a unique package that didn’t exist in an in-person event

With our experience helping planners host 200+ virtual events since the beginning of COVID-19, we’ve uncovered new opportunities to monetize sponsorships that aren’t possible or obvious for in-person events.

Virtual Event Sponsorship Packages with

Even though events are now virtual, best practices haven’t changed when it comes to signing sponsors: Book your sponsors early in the planning process. Offer a mix of marketing, speaking, exclusive, and SWAG opportunities to get in front of attendees at the event. Conduct ways for sponsors to reach out to attendees after the event is done.

And just like in-person events, we suggest building your sponsorship packages with tiers, starting with the most basic and going all the way to the most exclusive.

Let’s review different opportunities to get in front of attendees so you can build your custom sponsorship packages!

Virtual Event Sponsorship Opportunities

Broadcasting Your Sponsors

Imagine being a sponsor at the event and seeing your brand featured in a custom video background for the keynote speaker, throughout the virtual event platform in banner ads, and at an interactive tradeshow booth.

This is all possible on our virtual event platform. Put sponsor brands on the event homepage, banner ads throughout the platform, virtual tradeshow room, and the log-in page.

Thought Leadership for Sponsors

Sponsors can also get in front of attendees by introducing keynotes or speakers. These introductions can easily be recorded and uploaded before the live session. If the sponsor is supporting many sessions, encourage them to reach out to multiple team members to record introductions so that attendees don’t see the same one over and over again.

You can also offer conversations facilitated by representatives from your sponsor. These sponsored sessions can be added to the conference agenda so all attendees can see them or be positioned as a bonus for higher-level registration types.

Skip the Walking with Virtual Tradeshows

Virtual tradeshows allow attendees laser-focused visits to virtual tradeshow booths and the ability to schedule one-on-one meetings (all while avoiding the crowds of a convention center!) Get a birds-eye view of who is in the room – something we could only dream about as in-person conference attendees.

Sponsors can have premium placement, larger virtual booths, and other features that get them more exposure in the “room.”

Unique Exclusive Opportunities

This is where event planners shine: brainstorming unique sponsorship opportunities. Think about ways your attendees get excited as a community. Are they passionate about a t-shirt design competition? Do alumni groups have receptions at night? Think about how you can incorporate sponsors into these conference traditions to keep them alive in a virtual event.

Some ideas we have?

• Sponsored push notifications

• Having one event sponsor “take-over” the event (priced accordingly)

• Sponsored SWAG gift boxes sent to attendees

Event Debrief

In your event evaluations, you may find that attendees still are hungry for information. If you weren’t able to address a specific need during the event, no problem! Sign on a sponsor for a webinar or virtual workshop illuminating a topic that was raised in evaluations, discussions, or break-out groups. Sponsorship for an event on a popular topic could be very valuable, especially if the audience is extremely targeted.

Learning for Next Time

Virtual event platforms are built to measure. Remember one of your first assignments as an event planning intern – counting attendees? That’s automated in virtual events!

Event planners, associations, non-profit organizations, businesses, and educational institutions are now able to provide sponsors with rich customer data. This information can lead to better opportunities for premium relationship building over time.

Next year when you update that sponsorship grid, use data to make informed decisions and prove ROI to sponsors. Here are just a few metrics you can measure:

• Number of Attendees
• Social Media Reach
• Leads Captured
• Clicks on Sponsored Ads & Logos
• Tradeshow Booths Visited
• Presentation Downloads
• Attendee Engagement
• Survey Results
• Downloads after the Event Ends

Keep Innovating!

As you can see, monetizing virtual sponsorships offers a rich opportunity for out-of-the-box thinking. Want to talk to people who thrive on helping event planners and organizations gain financial rewards from events? We’d love to help.

The post Designing Smart Virtual Event Sponsorships appeared first on A2Z Events.

Here are six virtual event ideas to consider incorporating into your next virtual conference:

Maximize Virtual Keynotes

One of the lynchpins of conferences is the keynote speaker. Virtual keynotes can be very effective if you shorten presentations to around 20 minutes; minimize the use of slides; expand the Q & A to facilitate audience engagement; and promote the virtual question feature during the talk to capture comments and questions. This is also an excellent opportunity to involve sponsors by allowing them to introduce the speaker and moderate the Q & A session.

Engage with a Virtual Exhibit Hall

Virtual exhibit halls can be highly effective and actually improve qualified leads for the exhibitor, as well as provide important information for conference attendees. Use video to showcase products and services. Collect digital business cards for conference drawings. Schedule webinars or share a demo. Meet virtually one-on-one with interested prospects. Include a FAQ link on the exhibitor page. These are just a few ideas that virtual event planners can use to get the most out of the online environment.

Bring on the Bling

What is a conference without free stuff? In addition to virtual business card drawings by exhibitors, consider sending out a swag bag in the mail to registered attendees before or after the conference. Find a sponsor who will provide a memorable and gorgeous tote bag. Or on a more serious note, have the keynote speaker offer a one-on-one consulting session as a premier conference prize.

Create Networking Opportunities

One of the primary reasons people attend conferences is to network. Many attendees of virtual conferences say that this format actually can be surprisingly productive because it levels the playing field in terms of access. A few event ideas to enhance opportunities include creating special interest meet-up spaces; hosting evening networking cocktail parties; providing detailed attendee directories so people can reach out and schedule meetings; and developing a “need help/give help” virtual room so attendees can promote their services and find others to help them.

Collect Virtual Testimonials

Set up a virtual space at your conference to collect written and video testimonials about the event or your company and organization. People enjoy sharing their views if it is easy, and you will have wonderful content for other marketing efforts and future conferences.

Make It Fun

The success of Airbnb’s online experiences demonstrates that people can have loads of fun virtually. So share some fun with conference attendees. Consider engaging a magician or mentalist. Have a virtual concert. Incorporate cooking or drink-making lessons. Hire a virtual yoga or dance instructor. The ideas are endless, and the talent is out there.

The post 6 Virtual Event Ideas for Great Conferences appeared first on A2Z Events.

It’s true that some of the activities you would normally execute in-person just aren’t possible with a virtual event. That said, there are a ton of ways to translate those activities into a virtual experience, or execute something completely different!

Here are a few attendee engagement ideas

Giveaways

This idea helps with TWO virtual event needs: engaging attendees and sponsors. Ask your sponsors to provide prizes, whether it’s a gift card or a physical item, to raffle off at the end of the day. (Keep their attention longer!)

You might also consider one Grand Prize Giveaway where the more an attendee engages throughout the day, the more entries they get into that particular raffle.

Trivia

Trivia is a great virtual engagement go-to — it’s easy to execute, fun for attendees to participate in, and yet another way to work in more sponsor engagement (let them submit questions) and/or educate your audience.

There are a lot of trivia platforms out there, but to narrow your choices we recommend finding one that makes it easy for attendees to join from their phone so they can continue viewing the livestream (presumably, with the trivia questions being shown) while they play along. Kahoot and Crowdpurr are two platforms to look into.

Social Media Contest

Like with any event, you want to encourage your virtual event attendees to share their experience and takeaways on social media. (Great for attendee engagement and demonstrating just what non-attendees are missing out on!)

The ability to chat

Giving attendees a way to chat with each other is a MUST. Allowing interaction during sessions isn’t disruptive in a virtual environment like it would be if you were together in person — and in fact, it could lead to more ideas and discussion that wouldn’t have been held in-person at all. Just be sure your staff is prepared with a few ways to kick off conversations!

Group activity

Send out pre-packaged cocktail kits ahead of time and have a bartender make it during one of your breaks, or have a chef come on and make their favorite appetizer. This will help break up the day of learning with more interactive, fun activities they can participate along with.

The post 5 Virtual Event Attendee Engagement Ideas appeared first on A2Z Events.

As I have started my virtual meet-ups, webinars and as the host of the Planet Leadership Podcast I have asked, “If you could go back to the second week of March before the COVID-19 lock-down, what would you do differently?”   

While I would have expected most event professionals to say things like “purchased the pandemic insurance cancellation rider” or “update their playbook to include such a catastrophic event” (or at least “buy more toilet paper,”) the first answer has been around cherishing those face-to-face interactions with colleagues, friends and family a little more. Having watched my daughter hug her grandmother (with masks, of course) and cry, having not seen her in person in months, it hit home even more.  

It only makes sense. We are driven professionally by those same motivators of face-to-face interactions that we naturally crave.  

Take Action

While we are all working to figure out the future of events in the online, in-person and hybrid worlds, I want to challenge us all to take the time to reimagine our events. We cannot continue to lick our wounds and hope for a better outcome. Hope is not a strategy since we will most likely be co-existing with COVID-19 for the foreseeable future. 

Let’s DO some of the things we have all talked about (myself included as an event organizer) forever. Year-long engagement is something every organizer has wanted to maximize for their events. Ironically, our in-person success has hindered moving this from the wish list to the to-do list.  

What is a Community?

It is essential to broaden our definition of a community to incorporate all channels – events, social networks and online communities. Much like events, communities can be social places to learn, network, conduct business and share information or education. They create a place that allows constituents to interact with two trusted sources – an organization, association, or event they have an existing relationship with and their peers.  

That trust creates a safe place for participation. And fortunately for organizers, audiences (of all types and ages) are already conditioned and accustomed to using digital tools to feel more connected and engaged. According to Statista, Facebook (a type of community) has 22% of female and 15% of male users that are over the age of 45.  

Why Now?

People want or need to solve problems. Now more than ever, it is why they seek out events, networks or online communities. For event professionals, in-person experiences were the primary moment to fulfill this need. For decades, events have successfully connected audiences with content (education), and commerce (buyers and suppliers) and their peers with little interruption or decline.   

Every activity has been driven around engagement in such a limited amount of time, typically 72 hours. The dramatic and sudden inability to meet in-person because of COVID-19 has highlighted the risks associated with placing the full weight of a successful engagement strategy on a singular activity – meeting in-person and the potential rewards of having a highly engaged community around your events.  

Delivering Value

Having conducted hundreds of focus groups with attendees and exhibitors, the biggest requests of these audiences is two-fold. One is the desire to be more involved in shaping the event and the other is extending the event beyond the few days that people are together in-person.   

Why? Because every audience invests a lot of resources, time, and effort to travel and attend an in-person event. Any way all audiences can feel more “invested” and “engaged” in your event, the more value (and satisfaction) it will drive.  

On the education side, a community allows engagement with speakers and other attendees around the topics and issues important to the audience. Post-event, and even more importantly, learners want a forum to unpack those learnings and extend the value of the educational content. 

For exhibitors and sponsors, the ability to connect and showcase products and services before the event generates greater brand awareness and creates even more meaningful in-person interactions on your show floor. 

But Wait, There’s More

While it is cliché, there are so many other positives to list here by creating an events community.  

I recently hosted a discussion on these topics:

• Education– How to leverage educational content and speakers for increased engagement, higher session satisfaction and improved attendance for webinars and virtual and hybrid events.
• Networking– How to foster genuine and meaningful networking among various affinity groups, on relevant topics as well as products and services (from your exhibitors and industry partners) before, during and after your events.
• Increase Attendance – How events communities boost attendance and drive earlier registration with less marketing resources.
• Revenue – How to monetize your community and involve key exhibitors and sponsors in the development, growth and success of your community.
• Market Intelligence – Understand the real-time information, analytics and data that event organizers can now have at their disposal with an events community.

So, let’s take this “pause” and start to think about how you can create a year-long event community. Not only will you find that it will increase engagement and satisfaction, but you will also better support all your event formats, virtual, hybrid or in-person. 

Watch Now

The post Stop Talking. Start Doing. Community Engagement for Events appeared first on A2Z Events.

5 Offerings for Online Event Sponsorship Packages:

There are countless ways to offer revenue-generating online event sponsorship packages that are highly effective and trackable. While the true number of event sponsorship package options is dependent upon the software platform that your organization uses to deliver your event online, these are the most widely used options to get you started!

1. Session Sponsorship

The first quick and easy sponsorship package you can offer is to sponsor an individual session or panel. You can up the ante by having the speaker mention the sponsor at the beginning of their talk, especially if the speaker has personal experience using the sponsor’s product.

2. Video Advertising

Traditional “TV” advertising — it seems everything comes full circle nowadays, and that’s especially true with the evolution of event sponsorship packages. You can leverage video advertising in a lot of different ways, including both short and long form video ad space.

You could start and end your sessions/panels with a 10–15-second ad. Alternatively, you could break up your 90-minute keynote speech into two 45-minute segments with a 3 minute “prime time” advertisement. Encourage your sponsors to give attendees a time sensitive opportunity with an urgent Call to Action — something along the lines of giving attendees a 20% discount on the product but it expires two days after the event.

3. Logo Placement

Logo space is one of the simplest, yet most lucrative, packages you can offer. By giving dedicated space to a sponsor on the homepage, the hub of activity, they will be visible to everyone who is tuning in to stream your event! You could also include all sponsor logos in an “Our Partners” section with each logo linking to the individual sponsor’s website. This is really easy to achieve when you have the right software for your virtual conference.

4. On-Demand Content

Were some of your interested attendees unable to make it to the event? Perhaps there was only a single session they were interested in? By recording your virtual event, you can offer individual sessions/panels as on-demand content to your attendees. Depending on how many downloads you project (or have historical data to show), you can use this strategy to upsell a sponsorship package since the content will be receiving more views than a one-time event.

5. Stretch Goals

Use stretch goals as a way to get your event sponsors to help you promote your event! By creating unlockable goals based upon attendance numbers, you can create a win-win for both you and your online event sponsors (i.e. 1,000 attendees = 20% off product X and 1,500 attendees unlocks a FREE eBook).

Another way to achieve this is when a sponsor signs on, have them agree to leverage social media to plug your event 3 times per week for 3 months leading up to the event. This way, you will receive increased registration revenue and the sponsor will have more visibility due to a larger audience.

How to Sell Online Event Sponsorship Packages

Key value propositions:

Reports

Make sure that you’re providing measurable reports that demonstrate sponsorship ROI. With a virtual event you can track how many people actually log in to view the content (and often, which specific sessions they view). This gives you an advantage over old-school in-person events where there are less measurable ways to know the impact of sponsorship. This is one of the many reasons why hosting a virtual event (or a hybrid event that’s both in-person and virtual) is a great way to maximize both your and your sponsor’s bottom line.

Insights

Piggybacking off reports, it is your responsibility to show creative insights that might not necessarily be readily apparent from broadstroke reports. For example, you could look at the engagement data of a session that included a video from a sponsor. Did learners drop off, or stay on? Ask your sponsor if they saw an uptick in interest on their end directly after — is there a correlation? If so, you can leverage this soft statistic when demonstrating the value of your online event sponsorship packages.

Long-Term Value

You can double down on event’s ROI abilities by offering online event footage on-demand once the event is finished. This means that advertisements continue to have value longer than they normally would. If your content is gated, only highly relevant audiences will pay to view the sessions. This means that you’re able to deliver highly targeted, and thus more valuable, ROI.

The post How to Deliver the Best Online Event Sponsorship Packages appeared first on A2Z Events.