Challenge 2: Personalisation and Engagement – How to Maximise?

Executive Summary

Personalisation is key to creating memorable and impactful event experiences. However, achieving effective personalisation and maintaining high levels of engagement can be challenging. This white paper explores strategies to enhance personalisation and engagement by leveraging creative practices, understanding audience diversity, and finding the right balance between data collection and user experience. The ultimate goal is to make attendees feel included, valued, and engaged, while providing them with a unique and tailored experience.

Introduction

Personalisation has become a buzzword in event planning, yet many planners struggle to strike the right balance between offering tailored experiences and maintaining high engagement levels. Personalisation is often hampered by the lack of persona building right at the beginning of the planning process. Without clear attendee personas, event creators may fall into the trap of using generic approaches that fail to resonate with the audience on a personal level.

Event planners must now go beyond traditional methods to meet the evolving needs of diverse audiences. This requires understanding attendees on a deeper level and employing creative solutions that go beyond standard approaches. In this paper, we will address how event creators can maximise personalisation and engagement while overcoming the challenges that come with it.

Key Challenges and Issues

Moving Beyond Corporate Centric Creativity 
Traditional approaches like relying on corporate creatives and scribes may limit innovation. Instead, event planners should explore more diverse and creative practices by collaborating with different types of creatives outside the corporate environment. This can lead to more engaging and memorable experiences.

Grouping attendees based on similar mindsets or demographics can create echo chambers. Instead, create diverse groups where different perspectives can be shared. Engaging with the audience beforehand through surveys and discussions will provide insights into how best to organise these groups.

Event audiences are often made up of companies with unique goals. To ensure the event is relevant, surveys can be used to gather data from attendees, but it’s important to strike a balance. The more targeted the questions, the better the outcome, but too many questions can overwhelm participants.

Gathering too much data risks deterring engagement. Event planners should limit their questions to those that will directly impact the personalisation of the event. Asking too much upfront may overwhelm the audience and discourage participation.

Keeping surveys short is essential to engagement. With so many competing priorities, it is already difficult to get attendees to participate. Fewer, targeted questions can ensure maximum engagement and still yield valuable insights.

Attendees want to feel special. Offering exclusive experiences, like wine tastings or VIP sessions, can make attendees feel valued and included. This sense of exclusivity fosters a higher level of engagement and satisfaction.

Event planners often take a “one size fits all” approach without considering how attendees prefer to engage with content. For example, neurodiverse attendees may have different requirements, yet most events do not take this into account. It’s essential to adapt event formats to suit various preferences.

While mobile apps are often provided at events, many attendees do not use them. Networking apps, for example, may offer custom features, but without immediate value or clear incentives, attendees may skip downloading them altogether.

Offering incentives, such as exclusive wine tastings or high value networking opportunities, can boost engagement. However, the experience must be seamless, with fast internet and an easy to use interface to avoid frustration.

Event planners must be mindful of asking questions that are relevant to the audience. Asking for irrelevant personal information can create a negative emotional response, which will harm engagement levels.

It’s important to craft questions and engagement strategies that elicit positive emotional responses. Attendees should feel included, not interrogated. Planners should ensure that they aren’t asking attendees for too much personal information or questions that feel invasive.

Providing content or activities that are unique and thought provoking will encourage discussions among attendees. Creating experiences that attendees want to talk about, both during and after the event, helps foster organic engagement and long term connections.

Proposed Solutions

Go beyond the typical corporate creatives. Consider working with artists, performers, or content creators from various backgrounds. Their unique perspectives can bring fresh, engaging ideas to your event that captivate a broader audience.

Before organising attendees into groups, collect insights through short surveys to understand their backgrounds and interests. This will ensure groups are diverse and encourage deeper conversations. For example, grouping based on different industries rather than similar job roles can spark more dynamic discussions.

Ensure that the data collected is directly relevant to personalising the event. Keep surveys short and to the point, asking only the most critical questions that will help you tailor the event experience to your audience.

Offering exclusive activities or sessions can increase engagement. Whether it’s an invitation only VIP reception or a high end experience like a wine tasting, providing attendees with a sense of exclusivity can elevate their overall event experience.

It’s important to understand the diverse preferences of your attendees. Incorporating neurodiverse friendly formats, offering different ways to consume content, and tailoring the information delivery to suit varying preferences will ensure all attendees feel included and engaged.

If you are using a mobile app, make sure it provides real value. Apps should offer features that are crucial to the event experience, such as easy access to schedules, exclusive content, and real time networking opportunities. Without clear incentives, most attendees will not download or use the app.

Provide incentives for attendees to engage, such as exclusive sessions, networking opportunities, or contests. For example, offering fast, easy access to premium experiences can encourage more downloads and interaction with event apps.

When collecting data, ensure the questions are relevant to your audience. Avoid asking too many personal questions that could create discomfort. Focus on questions that will enhance the attendee experience.

Craft engagement strategies that elicit positive emotions. Be mindful of the tone and content of your questions to avoid creating a negative emotional response. Attendees should feel valued and appreciated, not scrutinised.

Offer content and activities that attendees want to talk about. Whether it’s an unusual speaker, a surprising activity, or a provocative panel discussion, giving people something unique to discuss will keep them engaged and talking about your event long after it’s over.

Conclusion and Next Steps

Personalisation and engagement are two of the most challenging aspects of event planning, but they are also the most critical for creating lasting impressions. By incorporating diverse creative input, understanding the unique needs of attendees, and striking the right balance between data collection and user experience, event planners can create more impactful and engaging events.

The next step is to implement these strategies and continuously refine them based on feedback from each event. Understanding how to personalise without overwhelming the audience will be key to maintaining high levels of engagement and satisfaction in future events.

The ICEXPO has opened the door to new ways of engaging with delegates, exhibitors, and stakeholders. The question now is how we turn these insights into actionable change. By implementing the proposed solutions, event creators can elevate the role of events within the broader marketing strategy, ensuring that they are seen as essential components rather than optional add-ons.

Register to join an ICECHAT session here to continue this conversation and contribute to the development of a “good-better-best” strategy that will shape the future of event marketing.