Five Reasons for an Event Social Network
CrowdVine started with only one mission, make it easier for people to meet. But the more we’ve been involved with conferences the more great uses we’ve found. We’ve heard from many attendees that a social network makes a dramatic difference and that they couldn’t imagine going to a conference without one. Here’s why:
#1 Networking That Works
No matter how appealing the next four reasons are, this is still the killer feature. A major slice of your attendees need to get value out of networking in order to justify the trip. A conference needs three things to give that networking value: great attendees, time to network, and a way to connect the right people. Most conferences only provide the first two, so attendees need to be both brave in approaching strangers and lucky in that they approach the right strangers. A social network solves this fantastically well. Attendees can mingle online before the conference starts and then show up recognizing faces and having setup meetings.
#2 The Right Content to the Right People
We added an integrated conference schedule and agenda builder to our social networks in 2007 and it’s become a standard feature for everyone in this space. Agenda builders have been available for years, but there are two things you get by having them integrated with the rest of your conference community. One, you can see where the buzz is, which sessions are popular and with whom. Two, you can discuss the content of those sessions beforehand.
Knowing what’s buzz-worthy helps attendees make better decisions about which sessions to attend. Getting a discussion going beforehand gives attendees familiarity with the subject. It also gives speakers familiarity with the attendees and a chance to adjust their material accordingly.
#3 Buzz
If you give attendees a great experience they will talk about it after the event. But you really want them talking about your event before the event. To do that you have to give them something valuable early. That leads to higher turnout. People may even join your network before they register.
There’s a big difference between a potential attendee seeing your conference advertisement in a trade journal and thinking “I’d like to attend” versus joining a community, marking which sessions they want to attend, and being greeted by other attendees. That difference is a real commitment to attend. There’s even science to back this up. A person’s follow through increases 70% if they are part of a community with a similar goal. Not everyone in the network has to be a registered attendee at first. Giving people on the fence a chance to participate will bring them through the doors.
#4 Communication
I’m constantly amazed by the number of small problems that get resolved by having a place to gather. People will coordinate ride shares. They will create ad-hoc gatherings. They will share trade-knowledge. They will give restaurant and travel tips. These are simple things that just needed some communication lubricant in order to work out. With a social network, attendees can make their experience better without any work from you. (This does not make meeting planners less valuable by the way, it frees them to work on other parts of the event.)
#5 Save Paper
Most events create a lot of print materials in order to share the conference program, updates to the conference program, and a list of conference attendees. You can stop this. Conference social networks provide a vastly better version of the attendee directory. They also have the conference agenda which you can keep up to date. When you delete or move a talk, that change will show up in an attendee’s personal schedule. CrowdVine even has a mobile optimized version that works on any mobile phone. At the very least you should be promoting these alternatives to paper and gradually reducing your print runs.
If your past experience with social networks seemed like a waste of time, then you’ve been hanging out on the wrong networks. A conference social network may be a trendy technology, but it’s solving fundamental problems with your event. Attendees get this and we routinely see more than 50% of the attendees using our networks. Now what are your reasons for wanting or using an event social network?