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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.

Are smartphones helping or hindering your event?

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Whether we like them or not, smartphones have become an important part of our daily lives. They are used to aid with various tasks including shopping, getting from one place to another, scheduling plans and setting reminders.

People spend hours each day scrolling, checking emails and social media notifications. Wondering what this means for your event? Chances are most, if not all, of your attendees will arrive at your event with smartphone in tow. They are hard to ignore. So it might be time to address the elephant in the room – the sea of smartphones in your event space.

So are smartphones just another distraction for guests to be swallowed up by? Or can they help with your event outcomes?

The disadvantages

There is no doubt that smartphones can be distracting. They can divert attention away from your event sessions. Disengaged guests won’t experience your event for what it is, potentially harming your re-attendance rate.

If you were to have a no-smartphone policy at your event, your guests would certainly have fewer distractions and might be more engaged throughout the event. Whether this is a realistic and productive request is less certain.

The advantages

Smartphones have become a huge part of events. When it comes to event planning, there seems to be a smartphone app that can help with every aspect of organising and running an event. Whether it’s organising ticket sales, sharing your event agenda or facilitating a networking platform for guests, there’s an app for pretty much every stage.

There are several apps on the market, both free and with subscription costs, including Eventbrite and Ticketbud for ticket sales, Whova for attendee networking and Pathable for developing and sharing your agenda – just to name a few.

Smartphones also provide your event with an opportunity for marketing and promotion. Never underestimate the power of your guests taking selfies at your event, using your event hashtag online, live tweeting or checking-in on social media.

If you can’t beat them, join them

Smartphones are an integral part of everyday life. While they might be distracting and addictive, they can serve the really important purpose of helping you reach your event outcomes. They can be used to simplify logistical tasks, engage guests and build an awareness for, and at, your events.

So, if your main objective is to run a seamless event with good occupancy, it might be time to embrace what smartphones have to offer.

If you would like advice on social media for your next event, the AVPartners team can help. Contact us today.

The secrets to a successful event hashtag

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Hashtags have become an important way for event planners to create a buzz around events. Think of the last conference or event you attended. Chances are a hashtag was used. So what exactly are hashtags and why have they become so popular in the events industry?

A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by a hash sign (#), which makes it a searchable link. Most commonly used on applications and social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, hashtags give users the ability to organise or ‘file’ online conversations. When a user clicks on a hashtag, they are able to view all other discussions which use the same hashtag.

Why use a hashtag for events?

An effective hashtag can improve the reach of your event. It can help build anticipation surrounding the day, drive more ticket sales and boost awareness for your brand. An event hashtag also helps drive engagement throughout the event itself. Attendees can post about your event using the hashtag to signal that they are part of the conversation about your event.

There are 4 factors that make a great hashtag:

1. Unique

An effective hashtag will be unique to your brand and event. This will ensure that your event and brand doesn’t compete with other unrelated posts which use the same hashtag. Before settling on your hashtag, make sure to do a quick search across social media to make sure it hasn’t been used before. Examples may include #GFWS2018 or #vividtaronga which are time or location specific.

2. Succinct

Short hashtags are effective because they are memorable and get to the point quickly. They also remove room for typo errors, particularly when your event guests will be required to type the hashtag out.

3. Playful

Depending on what you’re trying to achieve, a hashtag which is playful and uses a bit of light humour may do the trick. A good example of this is Red Bull’s #PutACanOnIt campaign. The campaign used the catchy hashtag #PutACanOnIt to encourage people to take photos of their Red Bull cans in interesting locations. This strategy encouraged engagement amongst their audience and successfully created a buzz around the brand.

4. It has no hidden meaning

This is a really important one. Triple check your hashtag before sharing it. Remember, your hashtag will display without breaks between the words, so new words might form in the amalgamation. Check for any embarrassing words or messaging that may have been created. While you will want to build reach, you won’t want to bring attention to your event for the wrong reasons!

Broadcasting your hashtag

To really make the most of your hashtag before, during and after your event, it’s important to include it on all of your promotional materials, and make sure it’s in full view for guests throughout the event. Use audiovisual (AV) technology to keep your hashtag front and centre throughout your event. By projecting your hashtag on your stage, screen or even on the walls of your event space, you can encourage real time conversation about your event on social media. With your hashtag in full view, your event guests will be encouraged to include it in their tweets, live videos and other social posts.

Contact us today to set up the AV at your next event.

How can social media play a part in your event?

When social media is incorporated into an event, it can be hugely impactful and influential, generating immeasurable event awareness before, during and well beyond the event.

There are a number of different ways to incorporate social media into your event; we’ve put some of our favourites together to help you get the most out of this technology:

Use social media to promote your event

Using social media to promote an event builds a buzz before the event, attracts attendees to your event and increases the level of engagement at the event. But promotion shouldn’t stop once the event has passed; social media can also be used to extend relationships with customers afterwards.

Popular platforms for brands promoting events and building communities include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and many more.

Use smartphones and social media to help with event planning

When planning an event, smartphones and social media can be used in several ways to ease some aspects of the planning process. Event planning apps can keep you on track and there are also several apps you can use to coordinate ticket sales.

Have a social media wall at your event

Another good idea to incorporate social media into your event is to have a social media wall, harnessing the power of social networks such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. This gives all attendees the opportunity to participate and be part of the conversation and fun.

Encourage audience involvement during the event

By giving your audience ways to participate and interact such as through social media, it can help keep their focus and attention on the presentation. More and more events are incorporating interactive tools such as event apps, real time polling, surveys and messaging so presenters, sponsors and event organisers can open up the dialogue, share information, and receive and answer questions instantly.

What are your favourite ways to use social media at events? Let us know!

How to use a social media wall at events

Creating excitement and engagement at events can sometimes be a little tricky, especially if people are burying their faces in their smartphones. So if everyone is using their phones anyway, why not make it part of the event?

A good idea to incorporate smartphones into your event is to have a social media wall, harnessing the power of social apps such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. This gives all attendees the opportunity to participate and be part of the conversation and fun.

What is a social media wall?

A social media wall is effectively a digital screen or screens which display different social media channels and feeds. You can opt to have your social media wall across multiple screens throughout your event, ensuring many people see it, or have one main one as a large feature wall.

How do they work?

Social media walls work by displaying one or more social media channels and feeds, in real time. You could have the Facebook feed of the speaker on there, the Twitter feed for the event hashtag, or the Instagram feed of the event sponsors. The options are endless!

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Make sure you #hashtag

You can create an event hashtag that gives your event attendees a way to be a part of the event, so that their posts, photos and updates appear on the social media wall. It fosters a lot of fun and engagement between attendees, and it won’t be long before they are grouped around the screens, excitedly waiting for their post to be shown!

For this to work effectively, you must have a simple and on brand event hashtag, that your attendees can use on their posts so they can easily be found on the various social media channels. Some examples of event hashtags are: #ANZgala2017 #NewtownFestival #JoandTomWedding

Make sure the hashtag is short enough that it doesn’t use up too many characters (especially for Twitter), and not too obscure that it doesn’t read easily or make sense.

Start conversations

You can utilise a social media wall to ask questions at the event, or spark light debate. All attendees can get involved and post their opinions, ideas or replies simply by using the event hashtag.

Update your attendees

You can also use the social media wall for event updates, keeping everyone in the loop and up to date. This is extremely helpful at large trade shows or festivals where information might change throughout the event.

If you’re keen to maximise engagement and interaction at your next event using social media walls, contact us today!

How to improve brand exposure at your event

Regardless of the type of business you are in, holding an event can be a great way to improve brand awareness and get some attention on your message. Whether it’s a holiday party, an awards night, a launch or a fundraiser, holding an event gives you personal interaction with your guests and can work wonders for brand exposure.

Here are some ideas on how you can improve brand exposure at your next event:

Use subtle brand placement

From having your logo printed on napkins, to making special drinks with you brand colours, to using lighting techniques to blanket the room in your brand colours, the options for brand exposure and a unique event experience are endless.

Give guests a gift

You might want to offer a promotional bag for guests to take home with them, as these branded gifts can be a great way to say thank you and leave your guests feeling spoilt by your brand.

Create an event website

You don’t necessarily need a specific website for your event depending on its size, but you should at least have a dedicated event page on your website that is updated regularly. Not only will this ensure that people have the most up-to-date information regarding the event, but a decent webpage can speak volumes when it comes to brand perception. You can also use the page for photos after the event.

Use social media and an event hashtag

You can use your social media channels leading up to, during, and after the event to create a buzz, build brand exposure and keep the excitement going.
Before the event, use social media to tell people about the exciting things they can expect at the event. During the event you can post updates and photos, and afterwards you can use it to keep your event’s message and your brand in front of people. Creating an event hashtag is important so that you can engage people, and if they are searching for your event, they can find all posts under that hashtag, for example #AVPfundraiser2016
Incorporate audiovisual technology

There are so many different ways you can use audiovisual technology to increase your event’s wow-factor. At AVPartners, we can use lighting techniques to project patterns or your logo on the walls and floor, along with using your brand colours in a variety of ways.

You could also have a digital social media screen where your guest’s social media posts get chosen to appear on the screen. This encourages people to post more social media updates at the event in the hope that their post will be shown.

Have an event photographer

Having a photographer at the event is a no-brainer, as you will want to have the guests and their enjoyment captured. You can add the photos to the event’s website or page, and this will encourage people to visit the website after the event to see the photos of themselves. If you allow them to download the photo, you could have it watermarked with your logo so they can remember your brand positively.

If you’d like us to help build your brand exposure at your next event, contact us today!

How to integrate social media into your event

When social media is incorporated into an event, it can be hugely impactful and influential, generating immeasurable campaign awareness before, during and well beyond a physical event.

Here’s how to integrate social media into your event effectively:

Plan your event with social media in mind from the outset

Finding out how your audiences use social media, which channels they visit, the content they engage with and the conversations they are having there – otherwise known as social listening – can provide valuable information to tailor a social media strategy for an event.

Clever social media interaction with attendees prior to an event can also work to enhance the event experience. Attendees can also be incentivised with social media based competitions that engage, increase relevance and build anticipation.

Provide good, relevant content

For social media to be successfully incorporated into an event, delivering content that is worth sharing is key. Participants will share exclusive, insightful and expert information, but also fun and entertaining material. Early planning will ensure this content is relevant and accessible.

Facilitate participants to become advocates

Here are some ways you can encourage engagement and advocacy with participants:

  • Select a simple hashtag and consistently promote it
  • Post live on different social channels throughout the event
  • Incorporate innovative technologies, such as event apps with social media integration, that make it easy, engaging and fun for attendees to share

Social media can take your event to the next level. Ensure you receive the right advice and are fully aware of the technologies that exist to leverage it properly.

This article originally appeared at Business Events News.

5 ways to use social media to promote your event

Using social media to promote an event attracts customers and increases the level of engagement. But promotion shouldn’t stop once the event has passed; social media can be used to both build a buzz beforehand and extend relationships with customers during and afterwards.

Popular platforms for brands promoting events and building communities include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube, and the tips below incorporate ideas for each of these.

1. Be active on social media

Encourage greater engagement with your audience by posting regular updates about your event on the social media platforms they use. Ask your audience which events or which speakers they would like to see and offer early bird discounts to build rapport, then make sure you keep the conversation going by sharing posts about the event and responding to people’s comments.

For example, a brand could ask attendees to check into the event via Facebook and post images while there. A Facebook event page can also be used to promote upcoming events with text, images and video that the audience can like, comment on and share with their own networks.

Secret events for those who connect with your brand via particular platforms, such as Facebook or Twitter, are a great way to reward audience loyalty and generate good word of mouth.

2. Make it easy to share your event on social media

Who doesn’t love telling their networks what they’re up to? After all, social media is full of updates from people sharing what they are doing at any given moment – and your event attendees are no different.

Help your audience tell the world about the event by pointing to your social media profiles, building discussion about the event on forums, publishing speaker’s social media profiles and publicising any associated hashtags. This exposes the brand to a wider audience than attendees only, and spreads the promotional message further.

3. Embrace real time

Include using social media during the event in your promotional strategy. Twitter is an excellent real-time tool because you can see what people are saying about an event right now by searching for the event hashtag.

Have someone monitoring social media during the event and share updates and photos (if applicable) via social media, retweet others’ tweets, regram others’ Instagram posts, and encourage attendees to do the same. You can also point to what is happening in the near future, such as a Friday afternoon happy hour that starts as the event finishes.

4. Social media is not just for younger staff members

Many think social media is the domain of Gen Y and younger, but that is not true. Your events will appeal to attendees of all ages, so it makes sense to encourage a range of staff members to be involved with promoting your event via social media.

Another reason to consider age when it comes to social media promotion is the experience that is needed to understand and manage the online community you’re looking to build. Ensure whoever is involved in promoting your brand via social media has been trained in the correct usage of each platform.

5. Advertise on social media

Social media is a big part of many people’s lives now and affects so many consumer decisions, so advertising on the platforms your audience uses will reach further and build your brand’s influence.

The impact social media has on repeat business is a major one, so use these tips to start building a relationship with delegates and then extend that relationship afterwards for ongoing custom.

This article was originally published at eTB News.