Come Together, Right Now: 5 Way to Enhance Conferences

10/10/2011

Using Event Programs to Organize Conferences

The average number of people who attend a national conference tends to be pretty high. With any conference, the goal of the meeting is for people to come together and meet, share ideas and have the opportunity to learn from one another. A great way to enhance attendees’ ability to do this is to print event programs and distribute them at registration.

1. Introduce the Subject

Give attendees a starting point by including an introductory message in the event program. Use this opportunity to introduce any special guest speakers, general agendas, or anything else you want people at the conference to know about in advance. This way, everyone who has registered will have that information already, before the conference even starts.

2. Lay Out the Schedule

Allow the conference attendees to plan their schedules out ahead of time by laying out the conference schedule for them in the event program. Not only will they know then at what time they need to start their day, but also when break times are scheduled and when the day will be concluded.

3. Offer Recognition

At a national conference, there will inevitably be a number of people to thank and give credit to. Don’t leave these important persons out, give them the credit they deserve by listing their names in the event program. List the sponsors of your conference, volunteers that have given their time to help, or donors that deserve special recognition so that their names will be seen by all of the attendees.

4. Generate Profit

The event program can be used as an opportunity for advertising. Generate profit by contacting potential companies who might be interested in getting their name out there at a national conference, and ask them if they would be interested in purchasing ad space in the event program. This is a great way to benefit both the advertiser and those who put on the conference, in that the advertiser will get their company name heard by a large number of people, while the conference will have extra revenue in order to purchase supplies and other necessary items.

5. Plan for the Future

The conference has already been planned for this year, but what about next year? Get your attendees ready for the upcoming year by printing information about it in the event program. This is a great opportunity to keep people coming back year after year, and may even help to create a sense of community within the conference.