Open Forum

We are continuing to create new opportunities for our sponsors in the virtual space.  I am interested in hearing how others have managed a virtual coffee break sponsor.  What does your sponsor receive in exchange for this level of sponsorship?   Similarly, have you or your sponsors offered e-gift cards (Starbucks, etc.) to your attendees?    Any input on what has worked well is appreciated!
#PromotingYourEvent

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Heather Darrow
Conference Coordinator
Cornell University
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Hello Heather, 

As always when asking attendees to engage with sponsors, the issue is how to get them to do it. Here are some ideas for doing so in the virtual setting: 
- allow sponsors to make short announcements at the beginning or end of the regular content, such as "Join our virtual coffee break at X time to learn about Y." If cuing video content is too cumbersome, it could even be a slide at the end of the session. 
- give attendee incentives, such as door prizes (the starbucks card always works!) or engagement points if your are using gamification for your overall event.
- make sure the sponsors are offering engaging content. Rather than have them pitch, could they sponsor a trivia game or networking event in which they'll demonstrate what their product or service is? 

Best,

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Béline FALZON
Conference Program Specialist II
California Teachers Association
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I love Belize's idea. 

The way I have gamified is to have each Exhibitor think up a question to which only the Exhibitor has the answer. I used CrowdCompass in the past at Live-in-person events, and the attendee would have to get the answer from the Exhibitor, and since CrowdCompass challenge answers are via photos, they would have to snap a selfie with the exhibitor holding the answer and upload it to complete the challenge.

You can still use this "get the answer from the Exhibitor" tactic, and you can award more points for visiting certain exhibitors, i.e. the Platinum ones. I am still learning the nuts-and-bolts back end of Virtual Attendee Hub, so I'm not sure how to award more points via the VAH for visiting certain exhibitors. 

My effort is to drive not just traffic into an Exhibitor booth, but conversation and connection.

I hope this helps!

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Brenda Ainsburg
Channel Program Manager
brenda.ainsburg@siemens.com
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
United States
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I love the gamification idea! I also recently attended an event in which if you visited a sponsor's coffee break and watched their demo, they would email you a free whatever ($10 Starbucks e-card, etc.). Of course, also make sure that you are providing your sponsors with those attendees' name/title/email/company so that they can follow up!

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Lori Wildman
Senior Marketing Manager
DuCharme, McMillen & Associates, Inc.
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Getting the attendees to interact with the sponsors is always tricky haha. We've gamified it where they collect points after interacting with the sponsors and the more points they have the more likely they are to win a few door prizes. We've also had sponsors sponsor sessions, so they start some of the smaller sessiosn then turn it over to the speaker or they get shout out's within the general session. We have also had them sponsor 'mixers' and or conference breaks and they host a small session/ event those worked out pretty nice.

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Coy Rushton
Graphic Designer
Primary Residential Mortgage
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