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8 ways to encourage user generated content at your events

User generated content is an easy way for brands and companies to expand their marketing reach with little to no hands-on effort. With the prevalence of social media, companies can easily share content that their audience creates. The power of this is that their audience effectively becomes an endorser for the company, without payment having occurred. This also means the company gains trust amongst its audience.

So how can you translate this to encourage user generated content at your next event? Here are 8 tips.

Create a hashtag

Create a relevant hashtag with your delegates prior to the event and if it’s annual, make sure you include the year so your delegates don’t accidently post about a different event. For example, if you are hosting the National Safety Conference 2019, your hashtag might be #natsafetyau19.

Create a social media wall at your event.

This consists of a large screen, or wall that you can project onto and is linked to popular social media feeds like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. The wall should focus on your event hashtag or handle and see all the pictures, tweets and status updates your delegates are posting live throughout the event.

Create a selfie wall

Different to a social media wall, this consists of a physical frame or backdrop featuring your event hashtag, theme colours and anything else that will clearly identify your event. Attendees can then take a selfie with the frame to add to their own social media pages. As added incentive to take a selfie, you may wish to allocate certain times your delegates can get a photo with a superstar speaker. Having the chance to get a picture with an expert in their industry is a great incentive to get involved, and effectively promote your event.

Run a contest

This is a fun way to encourage your attendees to upload their own pictures and videos of the event. You could run the competition like a treasure hunt and the first person to post a photo of a certain exhibition stand, for example, could win free tickets to next year’s event. If you change the competition frequently enough, this will encourage your attendees to continue posting photos and videos for their chance to win.

Create an interactive conference program

Encourage your attendees to get up and take part during the presentations. Whether it be by sharing their opinion alongside an industry expert or running a roundtable, give your attendees a reason to take pictures or videos and connect with one another. This is the perfect opportunity for the ‘humblebrag’ where you delegates can say “look where I am and look what I did.”

Theme your event

Theming allows you to create interesting concepts, images, colours and shapes that your attendees are bound to want to take photos of. If you choose to have a theme, you can promote it through your audiovisual elements, dress code, invitations, programs, marketing, decor, entertainment, food and music. For example, an Alice in Wonderland theme might include a big screen with a looped video of Alice falling down the rabbit hole. Your tables could have teacups and red roses as centrepieces.

Hire awesome entertainment

Impressive entertainment can really set your event apart from the rest. By choosing highly visual or sound focused entertainment, you can give your attendees something to video or take photos of. You might consider hiring comedians, puppeteers, magicians, dancers, trapeze artists, balloon artists or DJs. Encourage your attendees to share the photos or videos they take on your social media pages to get the word out.

Leverage influencers

If you have held your event previously, you will already have social media followers. Turn these followers into influencers by encouraging them to write a review on your social media page about their favourite part of the event. Sharing their feedback is a great way to encourage new people to attend and shows your past attendees you value their thoughts and opinions. This feedback can also help you learn and create a better event.

AVPartners is an in-house audiovisual specialist for hotels and event venues around Australia. We can help to bring your event alive with a theme and can support the technical needs of your event. If you would like help encouraging user generated content at your event, contact us today.

5 tips to encourage guests to attend your next conference

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One of the biggest challenges when hosting an event is ensuring you have enough guests attending to make the event worthwhile. Here are 5 tips that can help you to boost your numbers at your next conference, without the last minute ‘free-ticket’ scramble.

Consider the timing of your event

It’s important to do careful research when considering what time of year to hold your conference. To encourage guests to attend, ensure there are no other competing conferences, events or holidays that may draw your delegates away from attending.

To avoid conflicting events, the first step is to conduct some research looking for other conferences, awards ceremonies and gala dinners that may be of interest to the industry. Take note of when they are being held and when there are reasonable gaps.

Secondly, think about busy holiday periods, like summer when people are inclined to travel and also any holidays that are industry specific, for example bank holidays for those in finance or school holidays for educators. Steer clear of those.

Next, consider how long you want your event to run for. While you may have a lot of content to cover, it may not be practical to host a week-long affair. You will need to consider the cost of venue hire and how much time your potential delegates are likely to get off work.

Offer early bird pricing and reward last year’s attendees

If this is an event you have held previously, an easy way to encourage attendees to register is to offer a returning delegate discount. This is a good starting point to gauge early interest in your event.

You may also wish to offer discounts for colleagues working at the same company. For example, if two delegates from the same company register (at the same time), a third can come for free!

Alternatively, ‘early-bird’ pricing for keen attendees who register far in advance is another way to draw a baseline of expected numbers. If you get good takeup for your early bird pricing, either your discount is too good to refuse or your attendees believe you really have something exciting and important to share.

Invite a high profile speaker or entertainer to present

Whether it be a celebrity in the industry or an actual Hollywood celebrity, getting a notable person involved in your event is sure to boost event registrations as your attendees want the opportunity to see and meet this high-flyer.

Remember that high flyers may ask for payment to be involved in your event, so if you plan to go down this route, make sure you factor that in to your budget.

They may also only be available at certain dates or times, so either consider this when choosing a date to host your event or make sure that your agenda is flexible.

Use reputable suppliers for your catering, audiovisual and venue needs

Choosing well-known suppliers for all your event needs, demonstrates the professional calibre of your event.

Some suppliers work in-house, like AVPartners, so they have strong knowledge of the venue you have hired and will be well connected with staff. This means aspects around setup may be integrated, creating a more cohesive event. For example, if you are choosing to have a theme, the way the room is dressed and the lighting and sound utilised to reflect this theme will be in sync.

Having a strong understanding of the venue is particularly useful for audiovisual suppliers as they will know the quirks of lighting and sound inside your chosen venue. With strong venue knowledge, they can set your lighting at the appropriate height and sound at the appropriate level to achieve best results.

Likewise, if you have any type of query, it’s easier to be pointed towards the right staff member who can assist. Using seasoned suppliers also means you have strong support should something go wrong.

Promote your event using social media

Social media has the ability to reach far and wide very quickly. It’s easy to create a social media page advertising your event and have interested people share this and talk about it. People are far more likely to be interested in an event if their friends are attending.

It’s worthwhile encouraging attendees to get involved in a conversation on social media as a way to promote the event. Or better still, provide your attendees with a ‘sneak peek’ of what they can expect to see at the event. Perhaps a short video of a speaker or photos from a past event. This is a great way to create excitement around your event and it’s easy content for your attendees to share and hopefully entice others to register.

AVPartners are the in-house audiovisual specialists for a range of hotels and event venues across Australia. Contact us so we can assist you to boost your delegate numbers at your next conference.