In this episode, we take a deep dive into the importance of constructing a narrative for a conference, focusing on the attendee journey from initial awareness to ticket purchasing and beyond. We discuss the significance of understanding the audience, their motivations, and goals to create an event that meets their needs, and how this leads to better content, presenter selections, and overall event experiences. 

We also explore the crucial role of marketing and attendee communications in the event planning process, emphasizing the need to understand who the attendees are and their motivations for attending the event. By focusing on the attendee journey, we can create a more engaging and valuable experience for them, using targeted marketing strategies and effective communications. 

Finally, we examine the importance of delivering on the promises made throughout the attendee journey, ensuring a positive conference experience. We discuss the significance of attendee feedback, combating browser tab overload in virtual events, and providing engaging content to maintain audience attention. We emphasize the value of fostering connections between attendees and the impact it has on the overall success of the event. Join us as we share our insights and experiences in crafting successful conference narratives and attendee journeys.

Highlights

(0:00:10) - Constructing the Narrative of a Conference

(0:13:34) - Attendee Journey in Event Marketing

(0:23:29) - Creating an Engaging Attendee Experience

Constructing the Narrative of a Conference

In this episode, we explore the importance of constructing a narrative for a conference and how to create a compelling attendee journey. We discuss the significance of understanding the audience, their motivations, and goals to craft an event that meets their needs. By identifying the audience and their priorities, we can create better content, presenter selections, and overall event experiences. We also cover the importance of considering the attendee journey from the initial awareness stage to ticket purchasing and beyond, as well as how to successfully pivot an in-person conference to a virtual event. Ultimately, a well-crafted narrative and attendee journey can lead to increased attendee satisfaction and confidence in the event.

Attendee Journey in Event Marketing 

We dive into the crucial role of marketing and attendee communications in the event planning process, emphasizing the need to understand who the attendees are and their motivations for attending the event. By focusing on the attendee journey, we can create a more engaging and valuable experience for them. This involves using targeted marketing strategies to raise awareness, evaluating commitments, and showcasing the value of the event. Additionally, we stress the importance of not neglecting attendee communications, as they are essential for setting the stage for the event and ensuring attendees are well-prepared and informed.

Creating an Engaging Attendee Experience 

We examine the importance of delivering on the promises made throughout the attendee journey and ensuring a positive conference experience. We discuss the significance of attendee feedback, combating browser tab overload in virtual events, and providing engaging content to maintain audience attention. The conversation highlights the need for a concierge attitude and having a dedicated team focused on the attendee experience. Finally, we emphasize the value of fostering connections between attendees and the impact it has on the overall success of the event.

Next episode: Defining conference success

Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated by Podium.page using AI and has only been lightly edited for clarity.

0:00:10

N: Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Kickass Conferences Talk Show. I'm Nessa Jimenez, the Operations Manager at Kickass Conferences. 

I: And I'm Isaac Watson, Executive Producer. 

0:00:23

N: So today's topic is constructing the narrative of a conference. Alright, Isaac. So for you and I, like, that totally makes sense. That phrase is very obvious, what it means. But I don't think so for maybe someone that's watching us or listening to us. Right? So why don't we start just defining that?

0:00:46

N: When we talk about a narrative for a conference. What does that mean? 

I: Well, you're absolutely right. Not everybody knows the jargon that we use. That we've come to know and love.

0:01:00

I: So for me, an attendee or a conference narrative is about the journey that an attendee goes on from the very beginning of them encountering what your event is, all the way through to hopefully attending it. And then what are they gonna do once they're done? That is this whole kind of story arc that we have influence over as event designers and producers that can help bolster that experience all along the way. So when we're talking about the narrative, we're talking really about thinking through those different touch points that a potential attendee originally at the outset is gonna have, as well as every every point along the way to interacting with your event: buying a ticket, getting excited, preparing themselves and then actually experiencing the thing. 

N: Yeah. we talk about an attendee  journey. It's pretty long. It's not just like the event itself. Right? Like, there's this whole process, and we'll talk a little bit more about that later. But Yeah. So basically, what the question that we tend to ask when we start working on something is, like, what's the story? What's the story which I tell? What is here? And that's really important. And I would even say, especially for you and your role, that's sort of the most heavy lifting.  So why don't we break that down a little bit?  Why do we care about a story? Why does there have to be a story in the first place? 

0:02:36

I: I think the story is important because at the core of what we do. It is about the attendees' experience more so than the organizer's experience. The whole reason conferences exist is to gather people together. And so I think part of where we start with that is having a deep understanding of who that audience is, what their motivations are, what their goals are, why they might even care to attend an event. 

N: Mhmm.

I:  If you don't have a deep understanding of that, I think it's really hard to craft something that they will be willing to participate in. Yes. I think a lot of people have a tendency to let their own kind of their own priorities and their own motivations get in the way, and then they work backwards and they're like, oh, well, we're gonna do this thing, and it's gonna be an event. And this is why we're doing it, and then we're gonna go find some people who wanna do it too, and they're working backwards to identify who those people are. If you start first by identifying the audience, understanding who they are, and why they wanna attend and what they need, then you can build something from the start that meets those needs rather than trying to shove a persona into a framework you've already developed. I think an example of this that I can give that's a little more concrete is we worked with a client starting last year to help produce a conference.

0:04:20

I: The event is called Clarity. And the person who organizes it, Jina, has self organized the conference to this stage for four years. It was an in person conference. And she built the event around the design systems community and conceived through the entire event as a way for people working in design systems which is a subset of the design industry and focuses heavily on UX and UI design to come together and share best practices. So she brought us onboard last year to help produce the events.

0:05:01

I: And what did we do at first? At first, we set out to define;  What is this thing that's already been around? Why has it been so popular? And let's meet some of the people who are hell bent on attending 

N: Yeah. 

I: Because there are really die hard long time attendees. And so for us, it was about doing the work to seek out that knowledge, to understand these attendees and what they wanna do. So we had calls with long-time attendees. We talked in-depth with the client about the origin story. Why did Clarity even start? What inspired you to create this thing. 

N: Yeah. And what are some of the things that people get out of it? What keeps them coming back?

0:05:57

I: And through that, we learned that one of the reasons it's been successful is that it's not focused on a specific tool or product. It's focused on how people within that you're working together and how they're working on projects, it's focused on this relatively novel sub-industry of design systems that's really only been called that for the last five years or so, maybe six years. And looking at how this community within design is growing and shaping and influencing the products and the services and the things that the consumers use every day. So if we had not done that, we wouldn't have had any idea how to help the speakers develop their talks because it's subject matter that we were new too. But we also wouldn't have been able to understand how an attendee makes a ticket purchasing decision or how an attendee decides what's exciting and enticing content for them or what their priorities are professionally. 

N: Yeah.

0:07:12

N: We did interviews, but we also did a community survey. And I think the combination of those two was super helpful in helping us define why people care. Why does this matter? Because it became super apparent that they consider themselves like a family, a phrase that kept coming up was family reunion. I wouldn't associate family reunion with design systems on my own. You know what I mean? But since we interviewed people, we actually spoke to people who care. I think at least two of the people we spoke to had been there every single year. That really did have an influence on the brand.

0:07:58

I: I think it was especially important to do that foundational work of truly understanding the audience and helping identify that journey that allowed us to successfully pivot the conference to an online event. I think that, especially for something that was in person for four years, and growing and really strong, making that decision to go online was not something we could take lightly. 

I: Mhmm. And it wasn't just a matter of finding a virtual venue. It was really about understanding, in this crazy pandemic time where everybody's zooming, everybody's meeting virtually. Things popping up left and right. Why would someone choose to take three days to attend this particular conference? 

N: Mhmm. 

I: At this moment in time. And with that framework in mind, that allows us to make really excellent decisions around the tools, around the content, around the presenters, all that kind of stuff. 

N: Yeah.

0:09:09

N: And having to do the event virtually, made the story even more important because we don't have the same tools as an in person event. just the fact that there's bodies in the room that influence that energy, that has something, that means something. And without having that, we really did have to hyper focus on, ‘this is the story we're trying to tell’, and this is the story that we need to beam through the computer screen. So I would say in virtual, it's even more important because you don't have that spatial experience. Say in person. 

I: Exactly. And, you know, there is a lot to be said about that in-person energy that you know, person to person connection, and it's really hard to reproduce or achieve that same kind of connection in an online environment. But you get a lot closer to it when you do have that deep understanding of why someone is there and why they should care. If you can base your decisions and your content planning and everything around that, you're gonna be a lot closer to hitting those needs. 

N: Yeah.

0:10:21

N: So the attendee journey is; Why does anybody care? Why do I care? 

I: Pretty much. 

N: Pretty much. So tell me about that. You already mentioned it a little earlier. Let's go into the parts of this journey and how that plays out.

0:10:38

I: So I think that there are a lot of people who just approach conference planning in particular as thinking about the days of the actual event. 

N: Mhmm. 

I: And they may be thinking a little bit about the days preceding. You know, people flying to a particular venue or arriving for an opening reception or things like that. Maybe you think a little bit about the couple of days afterward like, what are people gonna take away from this? That's all good. But the attendee journey really does start at the very beginning when they're first encountering your event from an awareness standpoint. And so that attendee journey plays into your content and marketing strategy

0:11:27

I: Really keeping in mind that you know, decisions to attend a conference these days, especially if it's something they're expected to pay for -- 

N: Yeah. 

I:-- are not taken lightly. There's a lot of opportunities out there. People can attend everything that they may want to. And so they have to be very careful about making that decision. We found that time and time again. And I I think that this is shifting dramatically because of the pandemic and because of the virtual title wave that has crashed down around all of us.

0:12:00

I: But with in person events, generally, we found that from a prospect attendee, if you wanna think about it in lead generation terms, really requires, you know, was it something like twelve to eighteen positive interactions? 

N: Yeah. Because it used to be seven, but now it's worse. Yeah. 

I: It takes a lot to get them to a point where they feel confident making a purchasing decision or making an attendance commitment decision. And if this is around the business industry, you add that layer of  manager approval,  time off,  is this on company time? Do they have to travel? What's the amount of financial commitment? All of these are factors that influence the attendees' journey. And if you can think through all of those points along the way and craft your marketing and the information you're communicating and your attention to those details, in a way that helps them understand that this is something that you care about, then they're gonna see and they're gonna read that. It's gonna come through loud and clear that this is thoughtful and intentional, and that's going to bolster their confidence in what you're producing and get them closer to not just that ticket purchasing decision, but closer to having a good experience at the event. 

N: Yeah. Absolutely.

0:13:34

I: And in our inner planning process, even though, obviously, not everyone that hears about the conference is going to attend that conference. Right? But we include them as an  attendee. We give them that label because we still have to tell them a story even if they don't decide to purchase for whatever reason. Right? Because they're still part of that community. They become part of that audience. And if they're not coming this year, but they're still following you on social media. And they're still looking at the emails you're sending out, the pictures coming from this event.

Oh, they definitely are, and also they might not attend, but they share it with other people. They might not end up being a paying ticket attendee, but they still need to be part of that process. 

N: So let’s talk a little bit more about the marketing though, because I feel like that's the part of the story that's actually the longest in terms of time because the conference might be three days. But this other part is like six months. 

I: Right. Yeah. 

N: So let's talk a little bit more about that. 

0:14:47

I: Great. So, like I said, it starts with that foundational work of understanding who the attendees are and what their motivations are, why they care about the event. That information is gonna be critical toward your marketing strategy and how you actually apply what you've learned, in a way that then gets disseminated back to them. 

N: Yeah. 

I: Most people who market events are used to the drip method of teasing out content. You start maybe announcing a few speakers and you may have some sponsors to announce and then you have some more speakers, maybe there are workshops, and things like that. And, of course, then you also have the tiers of tickets you have. You have a super early bird. In your early bird, and you're regular. Right? So, there's a natural rhythm to sending out that information. But if you ignore the attendee journey along the way, it just comes off as a megaphone.

0:15:54

I: And so you wanna consider, okay, where along the journey are we? As you know, we have to start with awareness. Right? So people need to know about the event. They need to know the basic details of when and where it is. And that plants the seed. Then they wanna know a little bit more information. Then they're gonna wanna go through the  commitment evaluation; is this the right time? Do I have time to attend this? Can I get the time off? Can I have the budget to travel? Is it in my time zone if it's a virtual event? All those kinds of things. Do I need to run it by my boss for approval? Things like that. And then they also need to evaluate the value of what you're offering.

0:16:47

If you can't communicate that, beyond just a speaker name and a schedule. I think people are putting a lot more scrutiny around, ‘what am I going to learn from this? What are my takeaways?’

N:  Yeah. Because, again, the big question, why do I care? Like, okay. Great. You have the speaker thing. You put their name and their picture. Okay? And why do I care? What am I getting from this person? Great. You threw a schedule up. Why does that matter to me? Does this schedule accommodate  my schedule? 

0:17:30

N: With the speaker, who is this person? What do they have to do with the things that I wanna hear? And what am I gonna get from hearing this person speak? Because, and I would especially say with the pandemic, it's not enough to have a “big name”. 

I: Right. 

N: Yeah. They're a famous person. But what are they gonna give me? Okay. Especially if there's no potential for meeting this famous person. 

I: So everything like you've already mentioned, there's that undercurrent of you know, we're sharing this information. We're sharing what this is. With the undercurrent of. This is why you should care. This is why we did this. This is why we did this for you, and this is why it serves you and not just a list of names.  And I feel like, going back to the example of Clarity, one thing that we learned last year through the virtual pivot is that there was a lot more scrutiny around this.

0:18:42

N: Mhmm.

I: We had people asking us questions. Will I learn x y or z? Because my manager's not gonna approve it if I don't. Is this all just gonna be inspirational talks? Or is there gonna be some technical stuff as well? 

N: Yep. 

I: So going into this year, as we've kind of leveled up the game around our marketing strategy and put some investment there, we're starting to work with the speakers to identify what those outcomes are.

0:19:15

I: What are attendees going to learn from what you have to say? Not just a talk title, because you can make up a talk title that would appeal to anybody. At the end of the day, It doesn't matter where the talk title is if the attendee didn't actually learn something. 

N: Yeah. 

I: We wanna focus on it. What are they going to learn? Why should they care about this? Why is this relevant in this context? Those are the types of things that people are interested in. And if you can help communicate those in your marketing and in your attendee communications. That's going to help both convince people to attend, but also help them set the right expectations for what they're gonna get out of it. 

0:19:59

I: There is a slight distinction but a parallel life, if you will, to marketing and attendee communications.  And I could go we could record an entire talk show about my pet peeves with attendee communications or lack Yes. Because so many people, maybe this could be the next time. But so you've done a lot of work around the attending journey that's great. You've got some really thoughtful marketing put into place. And let's say someone buys a ticket, whether they are an early adopter who's been before and already has that value that they've gotten out of it, and so they're in it or whether they're a late arrival -- 

0:20:49

I: -- and the last minute ticket buyer.  How are they going to know what they need to know? And I think a lot of people completely neglect attendee communications. And so that is part of the journey too. So that and that's, like, you know, marketing you have conversion at the ticket purchase or the registration. And then they are now attendee. And so what are you doing to help them continue along that journey?

0:21:27

I: You know, we have this whole sequence of emails that we send out for our clients that are focused on helping set the stage, literally, for the event, whether that's helpful information they need to know, more details about the speakers, maybe it's speaker profiles. Maybe there pre pre-event networking opportunities. All of these kinds of things are really important to keep attendees paying attention and preparing adequately for the event.

0:22:02

I: Because if you just neglect them, and then you come back and you're like, bam, I've done the event. Yeah. It's like, wait. Wait a minute. And then they're gonna have whiplash. ‘I was not prepared for this’ and that's gonna change the entire journey. So do not neglect attendee communications. They often will have similar content to the marketing, but you cannot let somebody who's bought a ticket fall by the wayside and just ignore them until the actual event.

0:22:35

N: And that is a great segue to the last part of our conversation, because we've talked about the beginning of the story, the marketing phase. Right? I would say that's the call to adventure. Like, if the attendee is the hero, we're calling them to adventure. Right? They've made the purchase. They've taken up the call. So now, we're like the person that helps the adventure. The person that helps the hero. So we're wise sage with the information or the skills to teach to help them all. They've accepted. They've made the decision. They have the ticket.

0:23:29

N: So it is our responsibility to prep them for the events, and that's where that attendee communications comes along. Because it's really gross, to sell somebody a ticket and then completely drop them and forget about them and not care because you got what you wanted. Right? Which was the ticket sale. 

I: And that's why, because you're so right, that's why it's such a pet peeve for me too because it reads as, ‘okay. Yeah. I got what he wanted, and I'm done with you.’ You're supposed to carry them home. 

0:24:01

N: We've talked about the attendee communications. We've prepared them, and now it's the actual payoff. Deliver on the story that we've been telling this whole time, which is conference time. We've done all the groundwork we've crafted for the journey, it's showtime. And now it's all about delivering everything you've promised so far. And a lot of people forget what they promised along the way. 

0:24:33

I: It's about making sure that you’re paying attention to the attendees and making sure that they are getting what you're hoping they get. Like, no one can produce in a vacuum. Right? You have to get attendee feedback to be able to respond to things especially if you're doing something, like, pivoting to a virtual event. There are a lot of considerations at play. Have you thought about how to combat browser tab overload? And distractibility. Competing for attention. That's gonna be very different than getting them physically in a room and essentially locking them in place for thirty or forty and turning off your lights. Right? And asking them to silence their phones and things like that. Right? So paying attention to that kind of stuff is really important. And some of that comes in the attendee communications as your level setting, your expectation setting, helping them make the most out of it. And so there's a certain aspect of kind of concierge attitude of making sure that you have someone, or some people on your team, who are dedicated to that attendee experience.

0:25:48

I: In the case of Clarity, last year we pivoted to an online event. We actually brought in two MCs. One focused on being kind of the speaker host and introducing people and having q and a session but then we also had an attendee MC, an attendee host that was focused on the in between times. Connecting the sessions to each other, facilitating activities or games or things like that and keeping people engaged and actively participating in the event rather than just watching a livestream video. Posting in a chat, for example. There's interaction. And 

0:26:25

I: -- you make a great point of delivering on the promises. Don't tell me that this conference is gonna blow my mind. Don't tell me this conference is gonna change my life. That is gonna transform my career, and then I show up, and it's like two really bored people, awkwardly sitting at their computers, and they don't know what to say next. I've been to too many of those. Okay? Like, I have trauma. Alright. Because how many have we gone to where  the marketing is fantastic and then at the actual event, there's absolutely zero interaction with the audience. It's like I might as well just be watching a video.

0:27:07

N: Deliver on the promises because this is the big shebang. This is the show. You've told this story all along, don't drop the ball now. And, sadly, a lot of people get to the conference and they do drop the ball. And that's why attendees leave super disappointed and angry, and they'll post really angry things on social media, but it's because the promise that was made through the story, it just didn't happen. And that's not cool.

0:27:35

I: And I think that comes through in a couple different ways. It could be, having people who are not great at facilitating. It could be being hands off about the content development and your presenters. It could be something as raw as technical quality, production quality. Right? If you have a rough stream or bad starts or your audio's off, things like that, that can go a long way to damaging issues.

0:28:07

N: I mean, I remember during day two of clarity. We had a random issue where the livestream got out of sync with audio and video. And we scrambled, of course. Everybody let us know in the chat, and we scrambled. There's no time in the chat. Like, anything goes wrong, that's when the chat explodes. And we were able to fix it within a few minutes. But it felt like an eternity.. And thankfully, it was during kind of a pre show moment where it wasn't like core content. But that kind of stuff, technical issues happen. But I think the general population's tolerance for quality control was a lot lower.

0:28:57

I: Anything that you can do to smooth your run of show to make your content flow well to keep in mind you know, bathroom breaks and have backup plans if the video doesn't work or things like that. All that kind of stuff is gonna contribute to that journey during the show in making sure that the attendees feel paid attention to and cared about and valued as participants in the event. I feel like the best online conferences are where the hosts are holding the audience's hand in a way. They're guiding them through the experience. And that's important because you are not in the same room with these people. There isn't that sense of community because I can't look around and see two hundred other people.

0:29:56

I: I think the other thing to keep in mind from a journey perspective is that especially with an online event. So nearly every online conference these days is gonna have a live stream and they're gonna have a live chat accompanying it. Those who choose to engage in a live chat are going to be the most active and vocal people. That's also where the highest tendency is to go off the rails or to turn into what some attendees call shit posting. And to some extent, that's fine. But I think it's important not to let the experience of those actively in the chat necessarily sway how you're paying attention to the other attendees. And that's tricky because online events remove the feedback loops. Right?

0:30:56

I: The biggest point of concern that we hear working with speakers when we talk about pre-recording or doing a live performance of the talk in an online setting is that they can't read the room like they can in a theater or an auditorium or a conference room or whatever. Losing that ability to pick up on body language, to pick up on to to hear audible reactions, whether that's a laugh, whether that's a sigh, whether that's a pause. Right? Like, you don't get that online. And so even though we don't get that, I think that means it's even more important to pay attention to the unseen attendees, to pay attention to social media. Some people are gonna feel more comfortable posting about the event with a hashtag on Twitter, then they are contributing to a frenzied chat that's getting a little out of hand. Or getting a little overexcited. Yeah.

0:31:57

N: Connecting it back to the attendee journey and the attendee experience. It's not just about your content and what you're throwing at them. It is also about that person's opportunity to meet other people. To experience something in a group, not just a livestream with no opportunity to interact. I will defend the chat, basically. That's what I'm saying. So we're pro chat. 

I: Yes. And I think that the one thing that we learned or another thing that we learned about Clarity last year is how much a community was desperate to connect with each other again. And that same kind of environment may be harder to achieve in the future, especially as the pandemic winds down, fingers crossed, and we start gathering in person.

0:32:58

I: But do not underestimate people's desire to connect with each other and make sure that you are planning to make space for those connections to happen within your program. We don't want it to just be back to back talks with a chat. There has to be ways for you to facilitate networking or one on one meetings or, you know, there are ways to have social experiences in an online format, especially to help bond the attendees with each other. Where the attendees are finding their buddies and feeling like they're with their people, that contributes to their journey as well and contributes to that positive experience. 

N: Absolutely. Absolutely. So now we're at the end of this journey. The conference has happened.

0:33:46

N: And in my notes, I wrote down ‘why does this matter?’ So why don't we  end the episode on that thought; why does the narrative that we've constructed, Why does this journey matter at the end of the day? 

I: I think it matters because the entire reason that we have events is for those people. You could not hold a conference if there were no attendees. You just can't. I mean, if you're basically just putting people up on stage to share a message, hey, guess what? You can have a TV show or a YouTube video or whatever, Great.

0:34:30

I: The whole point of organizing an event is to bring people together, to bring audiences together, to share an experience. If you are not putting intentionality and thought and craft into that attendee journey, then you're failing your audience and you're failing your event. 

N: I agree. 

I: How’s that? 

N: Wow, because I didn't tell you beforehand I was gonna ask you. Good job. 

I: You know I feel strongly about this

N: Yeah. Yeah. We can tell. Alright. So thanks so much, Isaac. Thanks everybody for listening. If y'all wanna find us, we're at kickassconf.com. And, yeah, We'll look forward to hearing from you and seeing you next week. 

I: Thanks, Nessa.