I recently attended a major conference for a large hospitality company. I’ve been involved in the production of this annual event since the early 1990s and watched it grow and evolve each year. This year about 6000 people attended and I couldn’t help looking at the throngs of attendees and wonder, “Why are you here?” So I did what I do – I talked to people and asked. Here’s why people attend your events.

This was far from a comprehensive, scientific survey but here’s what I learned. See what you think and how this matches your experience.

15 Reasons Why People Attend

1.   Information
2.   Networking with new & old friends
3.   Share experiences
4.   Be a part of a community
5.   Discuss common problems & solutions
6.   Try new things and learn new skills
7.   Learn best practices
8.   Influence others
9.   Earn continuing education credits
10. See a vision of where the company or organization is going
11. Learn about new trends, ideas & concepts
12. Listen to industry experts
13. Meet with suppliers or customers
14. I had to go; it was required

It’s The Experience

Interesting thing, no one mentioned the theme, food, speeches, hotel rooms or various parties and activities.

People attend events to learn from and network with like-minded people who share common interests. They come for the people, content and the experience!

 They come for the personal, active experiences. I think there’s some important insight we can gain from this informal list. The people who attend any event or meeting, regardless of the size, expect to do things for themselves. They view “attendee” as an action word. They expect valuable experiences that’s aren’t a 1-3 day marathon of dark rooms, folding chairs, PowerPoint presentations and being force-fed random information.  To them content isn’t all the creative, speeches, presentations and videos.

They would rather have 1-3 days of diverse opportunities to select powerful content that’s relevant to their specific needs and find practical ways to use the information immediately. Instead of general sessions, workshops, presentations, videos and orchestrated activities, each day would provide time for people to share information, network, talk to each other and collaborate with subject-matter experts instead of just listening to them.

I don’t know about you, but that’s the kind of event I’d be honored to work on and excited to attend. In short, it’s personal, active experiences that attract people to meetings and events. So it’s up to us to make sure we provide them.

If you want to know more about meeting audience needs and creating amazing audience experiences just click on CONTACT US and get in touch.

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