Events of all kinds — large or small, for CIOs or developers — are a lot of work, and they can be expensive, too. But they’re an important part of engaging with clients and prospects. So, how do you get more bang for your buck?

STEP 1: ATTRACTING ATTENDEES

Pick the right topic

The foundation for a successful event is choosing a topic that resonates with your audience’s priorities. Whether you cover a lot of ground at a high level or drill down into practical detail depends on who you want to attend, but either way you need a bit of variety — not just in terms of topic, but in terms of perspectives, too. Few people will want to come all the way to your event just to hear your executives, partners, customer references or techies speak. Bring in analysts, journalists, clients and well-known figures to put a different spin on proceedings and attract more attendees.

Choose your title carefully

Is it intriguing? Memorable? Suitably strategic (or tactical)? Most importantly, does it reflect the content you’re actually presenting? The last thing you want is for an attendee to give up a day only to find that your event didn’t keep its promises.

Invite, invite, invite

With all the hard work you’re putting in to developing content, don’t neglect promotion. Get a compelling invitation created — one that really shouts about the value people will get from attending. And remember, it’s just not about you want to tell them: lots of people will go to events because they give them an opportunity to mix with their peers.

Tip: Giving plenty of notice is obviously important when you’re trying to get a slot in a busy diary. Offer incentives for prompt responders. And as the day approaches, don’t be shy about sending reminders, it will really help to reduce dropouts.

Make it clear when the event is, what’s on, and who it’s for — leave them no questions or objections. Whether you send an electronic or printed invite is largely down to personal choice, but we’ve found that people in more senior roles &mdash especially those outside the IT department — respond better to a printed invite.

Tip: Following up on invites is critical. You can use telemarketing, but in our experience account managers are more effective. If it’s an important event, get your directors and VPs on the phone — especially if you’re organising a high-level event.

Use your allies

Partners are usually keen to contribute to events as it’s a way of getting their name out to your audience. A tie-up with a relevant industry publication can really help bring in the numbers, but be aware that what you gain in quantity you may lose in quality.

STEP 2: RUNNING A SUCCESSFUL EVENT

Choose the right venue

Would you want to trek to some insipid hotel in the middle of nowhere for a conference? Us neither. You may have to spend more to get an appealing venue that’s near good transport links, but it’s worth it. The best presentations in the world are worthless if nobody shows up.

Target sessions to different kinds of people

All events should have an overarching theme, reflected in the event title. And the big keynotes or closing sessions should have general appeal. But in even the most tightly targeted groups you’ll find people with different interests, representing organisations with different priorities and levels of maturities. If you have a large enough group of attendees, and enough space and speakers, use breakout sessions to drill down into specifics and let people choose their own agenda.

Tip: In the last couple of years we’ve noticed a huge growth in the number of customer case studies at events. It started with analysts, but now all sorts of companies are doing it. Getting existing customers up on stage to advocate your services is a fantastic way to overcome objections, but remember our advice on case studies.

Match peoples’ roles to their skills

This may sound harsh, but choose your presenters based on their presentation skills — not their position or technical knowledge. We’ve sat through some interminable presentations from people who really know their stuff. Having the right presenters will make a big difference to the success of the event. There are plenty of other roles to fill: host, roundtable chairperson and seminar leaders.

Use interactivity to engage

Events shouldn’t be a series of lectures. Build polls into your sessions, and host technology demonstrations, workshops, networking sessions and roundtables as well as standard presentation formats. Doing so will keep the audience involved and give you some valuable customer insights.

PollDaddy is a cheap (even free) online service that lets you incorporate audience polls in your presentations. Attendees can text or tweet their responses and the results will be displayed in your presentation almost instantaneously. We’ve been using it for a while and had fantastic feedback.

STEP 3: LEVERAGING THE INVESTMENT

Plan for the next day

Loading attendees down with literature won’t always be appreciated, but everyone likes to know that they can take something back to the office to share with colleagues and refresh their memory. You will win serious points if you give attendees access to presentation files, related brochures and documentation online during and after the event. Creating an event portal is also a great opportunity to solicit feedback and encourage group interaction.

Make sure that your account managers know who attended and who registered but didn’t show up. And share anything that you’ve learned from the event and follow up activities.

Publish your findings

Write up the event findings and publish them on your website and in your newsletters. Doing so helps spread your content to a wider audience and raises awareness of your future events. This is where a tie-up with a publication could really help. And if you found anything interesting in your roundtables, polls and other interactive sessions, publish a press release or use it in your newsletter.

Take advantage of the gathering

We all know how useful multimedia content can be, but it’s expensive to produce. It’s rare that you’ll have so many experts, executives, partners, customers and other important people together in a room. Take the opportunity to record content much more cost effectively than usual. There’s no need to be flashy — just a couple of minutes on a key topic will suffice. You can use the videos on your website, in longer videos, in presentations and elsewhere.