The Problems Attendees Experience at Conferences
Members love to talk about their conference experience during in-depth interviews. We spend a lot of time talking about their conference experience because the conference is where most members get the most value.
Looking at the responses across more than three hundred interviews of very engaged members, a handful of typical weak spots in association conferences emerge:
If you don’t have me at registration, you’ve lost me
Members remember those first experiences well. They remember if they felt prepared to attend. They remember their experience at registration. They recall how they were welcomed (or not). They reflect on the website, app, signs, program book, and badge quality. Members often decide right at registration if they will get value out of the conference.
Ideas to try:
Train the registration crew to offer a genuinely warm, welcoming experience.
Direct participants to designated conference “tour guides” who are ready and willing to answer any questions, which will help get new attendees oriented and poised to participate.
Send a consistent weekly email to participants before the conference with details about what to expect, how to pack, where to go, how to select sessions and more.
I’m a sponsor or an exhibitor, and I feel like an outcast
Sponsors and exhibitors understand the value they bring to conferences, but increasingly they don’t see the value coming back to them. These industry partners want to feel like real partners, not just the wallet.
Ideas to try:
Include sponsors and exhibitors in the attendee experience.
Personally, thank sponsors and exhibitors in both one-on-one conversations and publically.
Identify ways for sponsors and exhibitors to work with event organizers to increase value to participants beyond the standard sponsor offerings and exhibitor booth.
I’m a long-time member, and I’m bored with the sessions
Long-time members feel like they have been there and done that. There is not much new for them to learn at many conferences. Overall the sessions seem very simple. They come to the meeting to renew old friendships. Some find once they’ve formed their friendships, they do not need the conference to keep the relationship alive.
Ideas to try:
Involve long-time members in collaborative discussions about the future of the industry.
Offer curated time for those more experienced to talk about and get feedback on non-standard or complex issues.
Find ways for long-time members to mentor newer members at the conference in a meaningful way for both the long-time and newer members.
I don’t use what I’ve learned at the conference back in the office
Many conference attendees go to every session. They fully participate in the conference and keep up a fast pace. Each day goes like this: Listen, Learn, Eat, Learn, Learn, Listen, Drink, Talk, Eat, Bed. This fast pace does not slack when they arrive back at the office. Back home, they dive right in to chip away at the backlog. Not only is there little time to reflect on what they learned, but they also often find it hard to adapt the methods of other organizations, a likely larger company, to their unique organization.
Ideas to try:
Include reflection time during the last session block of the conference.
Invite participants to post-conference virtual debrief and working session meetings.
Check out Samantha Whitehorne’s extraordinarily helpful article AssociationsNow: Help Attendees Apply It Back At the Office.
Receptions are awkward
“I’m not a joiner” might be the most used phrase I hear when members are talking about conference receptions. Finding someone to speak with at the reception can be awkward, and we don’t like it. Some attendees opt out of receptions. When networking is the key benefit, some participants opt out of the conference.
Ideas to try:
Combine learning and networking by hosting participatory roundtable discussions and working groups.
Introduce curated networking, don’t leave connections to chance; help those who need to meet – connect.
Focus networking time on an activity or a group goal, i.e., hiking a mountain, participating in a brainstorming group, or late-night scrabble meet-ups.
I’m a first-time attendee, and I don’t know how to navigate your conference
First-time attendees don’t know what to wear, so they look at photos for clues. They don’t know what to take or how to prepare. First-time attendees don’t know which sessions they should attend. They worry about missing out. They worry when they don’t know the jargon. All this worry makes it hard to engage.
Ideas to try:
Design a first-time attendee program.
Invite first-timers to a pre-conference orientation.
Assign willing first-time attendees a more experienced buddy.
The topics I care most about are not on the agenda
A respondent said something like, “if I have to sit through one more session on social media, I am going to stick a fork in my eye.” What she wanted were more conversations around leadership. “How do I start planning now to help my organization thrive ten years from now? How do I cultivate a high-performing leadership team? How do I help everyone else prioritize, so we start accelerating the things that matter most?” This respondent’s professional development wish list is not universal. Some attendees do want to learn about social media. Some want to discuss advanced issues, while others need to learn the basics. We struggle with incorporating the right mix of topics.
Ideas to try:
Deeply understand your attendee’s challenges, wants, and needs.
Let attendees vet the speakers by allowing them to vote for the sessions they care most about.
Appeal to a critical membership segment and design the conference just for them.
I am not meeting people like me
I came to this conference hoping to find other professionals who care about the same issues I care about. I want to meet others in the same situation I am in, dealing with the same problems I have, and who feel the same way. Or I want to meet others who have found a solution to my problem. Or I want to connect with other professionals with similar backgrounds or experiences. So far, I have met people like me by luck or accident.
Ideas to try:
Try a buddy system to match former attendees to new attendees by similar characteristics.
Use one session block to set up small curated roundtables to discuss niche challenges.
I am not implementing what I learned at the conference
At the conference, everything sounded great. Some of the speakers had ideas that were relevant and applicable. Others had great food for thought. The meeting got me excited to try new things. However, when I returned to the office, I quickly got caught up in my everyday duties and soon forgot about the conference. Now I feel too far removed to go back and visit the stuff I once felt so optimistic about.
Ideas to try:
Many keynoters have a tactical workshop that is an extension of their keynote. Instead of asking them to give it as a session at the conference, ask them to present it in a virtual event to attendees in a month.
Curate an online community where attendees, speakers, and hosts can continue talking about what they learned, explore how the concepts might work for their association, and celebrate others for taking action.
By eliminating any big or small problems participants experience with the conference, we can provide superior value to members by making the conference the gateway to everything else the association offers.
