At one time or another, every medical meeting planner has feared empty chairs at their event. We’re sharing five tips you can use to boost attendance and ensure those seats are filled.
Get Input
When planning your meeting or event, think about your audience and their wants and needs. It can be helpful to review past survey data and with enough lead time send out a short three to five question poll to prospective attendees. Getting feedback can help you customize your meeting and increase the likelihood that you will be delivering meaningful and engaging content professionals will want to attend.
Marketing Is Everything
Essentially, your meeting is a product that you want to sell. Once you start thinking of it in that manner, you will realize that marketing is a key component to ensuring increased attendance. Your team should come up with a comprehensive outreach campaign conducted via print, email, social media, and the web. A strong marketing push can help generate lots of positive buzz.
Start Engagement Early
Be sure to give plenty of lead time to allow attendees to ensure they can fit your meeting into their schedule. Reach out to previous attendees directly with a special invitation to register. The more personal you are, the better chance you have of turning the contact into a registration. Even if someone does not register, invite them multiple times. Professionals in medical fields are often very busy, so rather than being annoyed, they may appreciate the reminder to register. You might even consider offering a loyalty or ‘refer a friend’ program for returning attendees to encourage repeat attendees.
Make Registration Simple
Work to make your registration process as simple and easy as possible. In a busy world, medical professionals have little tolerance for a lengthy registration process. Online registration is a must and the fewer required fields, the better. Once you figure out how to make your registration as fast and easy as possible, be sure to tout that in your promotional materials.
Build In Social Time
While attendees are primarily interested in learning, networking is also important. Build in opportunities for social time before or after sessions, with light snacks if possible. Be sure to advertise these informal meeting opportunities to help attendees maximize their experience.
Increasing attendance at your next medical meeting is important for your company’s future success. While increasing attendance may seem daunting, it can be done. Once your event has happened, be sure to send a thank you to all who attended to make sure your guests feel appreciated and ensure repeat attendance at your next meeting.
The expert producer team at Innovative Entertainment is filled with ideas on growing attendance for both meetings and events. Learn more about how we can help you book experienced keynote speakers, expert talent and world-class performers, contact us today.
