Events have a big impact. When you capture the content you will make the event even more useful for the participants.
By sharing the content of your conference you can reach the people that were not there. In that way you may interest them for your next events or for your business (content marketing). But how can you turn your event into content?
Erik Peekel (Aaaaha! The Actor Factory) and Cecilie Pedersen (Conferize) share the tips they presented at The Meetings Show in London.
What is conference content?
Level 1/ Most organizers share the PowerPoint's or handouts of keynote speakers after the conference.
Level 2/ At most conferences the participants will contribute their knowledge and experience in interactive sessions. If you publish the results of these sessions, it is more likely that they will have an impact.
Level 3/ This content is all about the atmosphere. How did the participants perceive the conference?
How can you boost the impact of your event?
- Involve and activate your attendees
- Share the content with all invitees
- Reach a broader potential audience (via business) press or via ambassadors/viral and Google)
- Make your conference NEWSworthy
7 ways of capturing conference content
1. Handouts / reports
- Make powerpoint slides available as a reward for filling out evaluation. Use for example slideshare.net
- Think about SEO (Google) when uploading content (use keywords and descriptions)
- Create whitepapers on attractive topics
2. Video report
- The best example of great and viral video content is TED.com, but it takes a big budget to create good videos of each speaker
- News item: It is much easier to create a short news item of your event. In 90 seconds you show the highlights, which is very usable for promoting your next event.
- Make use of youtube.com. It is optimized for all platforms like smartphones and tablets.
- Think again about SEO and use keywords and descriptions for Google.
3. Wall-report / business cartoonist
- An image says more than a thousand words.
- Humor makes the message stick.
- The wall report covers facts and emotion (fun).
4. Magazine
- Turn your conference into a glossy magazine.
- An editor, illustrator, photographer and designer create a magazine on the spot so you can send the magazine to the participants on the day after the conference.
- Or do it yourself using an easy webtool like custmz.com or instantmagazine.com
5. Live mindmapper
- A live mind mapper is a person who draws a mindmap of your session.
- Project the mindmap on the screen to add structure to brainstorms.
- Send the participants the mindmap as a practical and to-the-point document for action
6. Twitter reporter
- A twitter reporter actively involves your target group on twitter.
- It's a basic way to turn your conference into a hybrid event.
7. Platform
- Use an online social platform to collect and share your content in one place and allow your audience to interact and debate.
- See the example from The Meeting Show on Conferize
Additional recommendations
- Keep it short and useful.
- Follow up as quickly as possible (the week after the event).
- Limit the frequency of sending out messages.
