Creative Event Follow-up Ideas to Reach Your Conference Attendees
Image: Plaisterers’ Hall London Conference
Ever hosted a successful conference, but felt like the event just ended without much ceremony? If your event delivered everything it set out to, then your attendees are probably hoping to hear more from you with a timely follow-up. Sending out a thank you email is a good start, but how can you make it stand out and not get lost in the shuffle of an overwhelming inbox?
Here, we’ll figure out how, with inventive follow-up ideas to help you stick in the minds of your guests, long after your event winds down.
Personalise your message with AI
We’re on the verge of an AI revolution. What better way to utilise it than to personalise messages to your attendees?
Tools like Emolytics use facial recognition technology to measure attendees’ emotions during events, while others like Crystal analyse social media and other publicly available data to generate personality profiles. This data can then be used to make future events even better.
Looking to deliver a recap of your event to guests? Tools such as Summarizebot (used by Google and Microsoft) use text, audio, and video content, to create summaries of conference sessions and send them out to attendees via email. This is also a useful tool to give potential guests a taste of what your events offer.
Using AI to personalise events allows for a simpler, more effective approach to following up your conference, engaging your audience and expanding your knowledge of cutting-edge tech at the same time.
For a simple approach that isn’t too time-consuming, try personalising your messages using ChatGPT. You can easily use what you know about your audience (their industry, role, location, events they attended) to craft a message that resonates with them.
Give attendees a reason to give feedback
Getting feedback from your attendees can help future-proof your event strategies. However, it’s easy for surveys to get lost. With people leading busier lives, you may need to dangle a carrot to get the response you want. That’s where incentives come in.
You could create a survey to gauge your attendees’ thoughts, with a prize going to a randomly selected winner. Whether it’s a weekend retreat or a simple gift card, incentivising your survey this way is a surefire way to increase your response rate.
By incentivizing feedback, you’ll not only get more responses, but you’ll get quality feedback that helps you shape future events in ways you may not have considered.
Share content from the conference that people may have missed
Let’s face it. Not everyone will be able to attend every presentation at your conference. There may be guests who can only attend for a short time or others who want to attend multiple presentations that may be running at the same time. Whatever the reason, your attendees could easily miss out on valuable content that may be useful to them.
This is where a great video strategy and use of social media or even a privately hosted series of videos can come in handy. Your attendees will love the chance to catch up on what they missed – especially if everyone else is talking about it.
Pictures, videos, and articles covering the sessions from your conference are all brilliant for spreading the word. With enough support they may even go viral, helping to promote your next event without you even lifting a finger.
Sharing content means not only keeping the conversation going but also delivering value to people who may not have the chance to attend. It also acts as promotion for your next event – capitalising on the momentum of your conference.
Host a post-conference meet-up or networking event
Conferences can be an opportunity for attendees to network and meet useful new contacts. Hosting a post-conference networking event helps to keep the conversation going.
Inviting attendees, speakers, and sponsors to a casual gathering means they can continue to network and discuss the event. This also works as an added extra to your conference, with guests associating your brand with going above and beyond to deliver value.
Additional experiences like these not only provide a platform for attendees to connect, but also create a sense of community around your event. Creating an inclusive environment like this means attendees are more likely to attend future conferences – feeling valued and involved.
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Getting creative with your conference follow-ups means you’ll both stand out and provide useful content to your attendees. Whether it’s using AI to give guests a personalised thank you or hosting a relaxed post-conference catch-up, feedback from these ideas can be the fuel that your next conference runs on!
