Don’t take the buffet approach. Don’t try to meet everyone’s needs. “We have to figure out our target attendees first — what makes them tick, what energizes them — and then create an experience for them,” Hurt said. A good place to start this research is with your organization’s board. Poll those professionals, Hurt said. “Say, ‘You are our target market. What invigorates you?’” Then, have staff use that information to create a conference plan.
Use a metaphor. How do you want your event to feel? “Do you want it to feel like a funeral home or a celebration?” said Hurt. Using a metaphor to help plan an event makes it easier to create a sensory experience. For example, if you want the event to feel like a state fair or a class reunion, you can think about what attendees see, hear, smell and feel at those events.
Look at loyalty. Attendance is not an effective measure, Hurt said, because this year’s attendee might not attend next year’s conference. Instead, planners should focus on “your repeat loyal attendees,” he said. Identify the top 20 percent of sponsors, and identify what these sponsors want and need. “If you lose them, or you lose the top 20 organizations that send the most attendees, you are in big trouble,” Hurt said.
Promote the benefits of change. Even though we don’t always think we like change, it does our brains good. But as you make changes, let your audience know change is coming. It is essential, Hurt said, to set attendees’ expectations. Tell them through a website, marketing materials and social media that “this is not Grandma’s conference,” said Hurt. At the same time, in the midst of change, create options so people can “plug and play as comfort level allows,” said Hurt. “Create experiences where people can feel safe, feel like they belong, feel empowered and befriended.”
Don’t go it alone. Meeting planners can’t operate as a Lone Ranger when it comes to making changes. “They need a team of champions to help bring change,” said Hurt. In addition to like-minded staff and organization leaders, that team could include a professional facilitator, a neutral party who isn’t affected by the way things were done in the past and by organizational politics.
