How Events are using Education to Anchor Attendance, Extend their Reach, and Generate New Revenue

Economic and geopolitical uncertainty is influencing exhibitor and sponsor spending, along with attendee participation. At the same time, Gen Z and Millennial attendees are shifting demographic majorities with high expectations for personalized, unique, and engaging experiences.

Regardless of the situation, your audience still needs a way to learn. Savvy organizers are recognizing the opportunity to use education as a strategy to anchor in-person attendance, extend their reach, and generate new revenue.

But, the competition is fierce. Your audience has more options than ever to easily access similar education online or at other events. Meaning, you can’t rely on your typical playbook to set your education experience apart and accomodate a diverse range of multigenerational and multilingual attendee demographics.

Change is inevitable for continued success. Here’s how events are doing it without stretching their team or budget:

Encourage in-person attendance, increase attendee value, and extend your reach

Live-Streaming has been a common solution to reach those who can’t attend your event in-person. But, it can be tough to justify because of the additional work and costs required to deliver two experiences at once. It also creates a competing alternative against attending in-person.

Instead, software can economically record your sessions for post-event engagement. This model increases attendee value and creates FOMO to encourage in-person attendance while still extending your audience reach and revenue opportunity. But, at a fraction of the cost. Additionally, recordings cater to the new generation of attendees who want to access learning anytime, anywhere. All without stretching your team or budget.

Are you currently recording sessions or have you tried in the past? Read the article: Why Nobody Buys or Watches Your Session Recordings (And 6 Ways to Fix That)

Make education inclusive for International Attendees

While your international attendance might only be a small demographic, it could still make or break your event. Regardless of travel and visa challenges, most events overlook education inclusivity and accessibility for international attendees. So it’s typically not a surprise that international attendance at sessions is low.

In most cases, hiring interpreters and translators isn’t financially feasible. But, software can easily broadcast multilingual live captioning directly to your in-person attendees' digital devices. You can promote the solution as part of your value prop to attract international attendees so they feel seen and included. As an added bonus, it also covers ADA compliance for hearing impaired attendees. Recordings are also another value add for international attendees that allows them to engage with your content from afar.

Want to learn more about broadcasting multilingual live captioning? Read the article: 4 Things Event Organizers Need to Know About AI Session Transcription

Deliver an unforgettable experience to attract all generations

Your sessions face tough competition. Attendees have several options to easily access similar competing education (even within your own organization) online and at other events. Most organizers focus on session programming. But, it doesn’t differentiate their attendee learning experience from the competition.

The new generation of event attendees expect more than just handouts from your sessions. If you’re recording them, you’re ahead of the game. But, recordings miss an important opportunity for attendees to engage with your content during sessions. Popular learning tools that your attendees use in their day-to-day, such as interactive AI note takers, can deliver a unique experience and ensure they don’t miss important information. These tools can also transcribe your recordings to make it easy for attendees to efficiently find value post-event.

How does your session experience compare? Read the article: Is Your Event Education Experience Stuck in the Stone Age?

Measure real engagement to determine attendee ROI

Attendees are being more selective about the events they attend and how they spend money. Their ROI becomes increasingly more important to ensure retention and decrease expensive acquisition costs. We know that education is one of the main reasons they attend. Knowing the details that keep them coming back are top priority. But, surveys and attendance tracking can’t measure real session engagement and what content actually impacts attendee ROI.

Measuring how attendees interact and engage with your educational content uncovers the real reason "why" behind attendee ROI. Interactive learning tools allow you to track note-taking, reactions, and favorites to see your highest performing topics, segments, and sessions. This previously unobtainable level of actionable intelligence tells you what to program, repurpose, and promote so attendees choose your event and keep coming back.

How are you measuring programming success? Read the article: Why Your Session Success Metrics Aren’t Telling the Whole Story and What Actually Matters

Put tactical strategy into play with actionable solutions

Everybody talks about attendee engagement but they haven’t had a real way to actually measure it. The tools are now available for you to facilitate and measure tangible engagement to create the ultimate education experience.

Click the button below to see how.