Open Forum

Happy Monday! I hope that you all had a great weekend! It's time for our next Huddle of the Week post!

With rising expectations and tighter budgets, events are continuing to evolve. Virtual events have permanently changed in-person experiences, and organizations are reassessing their event technology to deliver more engagement and impact. A great attendee experience starts long before the event begins. They are expecting a seamless, personalized event experience. Gathering data on attendees helps to deliver this personalized experience and gain greater insights.

Questions for you:

• How have your event programs evolved over the last few years?
• What new expectations are you seeing from your attendees?

Want to learn more about how virtual events have changed in-person events, how and why organizations are choosing in-person vs. virtual events, and how organizations are handling event data and reassessing their technology? Register for our upcoming webinar – Building a More Connected Event Strategy: Insights from REAL Marketing & Event Leaders- today!

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts in the comment section below!

#HuddleoftheWeek 

#VoiceIt

#Creating/ManagingEvents

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Megan Clark
Assistant Team Lead, Online Community Marketing
Cvent
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Hi Megan,

• How have your event programs evolved over the last few years? I think each year they continue to get more visually impressing. Less focused on the actual experience and more on the wow factors.
• What new expectations are you seeing from your attendees? The wow factors and innovation are always high expectations in a society built on technologies. 

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Katie Dreifus
Registration Manager
PwC Management Services LPUnited States
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• How have your event programs evolved over the last few years?
  • We started doing webinars, thanks to COVID - they proved to be very useful in getting interest from people who had previously never attended an in-person event.
• What new expectations are you seeing from your attendees?
  • People are much more cognisant of an event being "worth their time" to attend, so content has to be compelling. If they don't come away learning something new (and getting them further down the funnel), it's been a waste of time. 

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Lori Wildman
A: Event Planner
DuCharme, McMillen & Associates, Inc.United States
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Questions for you:

• How have your event programs evolved over the last few years?  From a hotel/venue perspective registration and room blocks are full and well attended!  Many last minute or short term bookings high demand. 
• What new expectations are you seeing from your attendees? From a hotel/venue sustainability and local sourced organic products 

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Colleen Beck
Director of Sales & Marketing
The Westin Tampa Bay
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• How have your event programs evolved over the last few years? Being a tech company we're definitely always looking for better ways to bring in technology from better general AV screens to interactive elements to a smooth technology driven reg process.
• What new expectations are you seeing from your attendees? Ways to keep people more connected and engaged. Ways for people who might not otherwise connect find a way to connect. Almost like they want tinder for business meetings.

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Rachel
NJ
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• How have your event programs evolved over the last few years? In our post covid landscape we are doing many more internal meetings that we did prior to covid. Many of our colleagues are fully remote, so internally we have shifted to making fewer meetings - more meaningful.
• What new expectations are you seeing from your attendees? Networking time. Allowing colleagues to have time to get to know each other and learning together.

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Beth Vriesen.
Events Technology Administrator
Associated Bank Corporation
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We have seen more interest in a mix of virtual and in person events based on feedback from attendees. We definitely offer more remote events which engage a wider audience of participants from a larger geographic area compared to events in person. Even when in person events have strong attendance. 

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Jason Yakencheck
Topic Leaders
ISACA Greater Washington, D.C. ChapterUnited States
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