Comment
Using sessions to make matches
TANYA PINCHUK DISCUSSES HOW TO USE DATA TO WHET DELEGATE APPETITE FOR CONTENT
AND TO INCREASE THE ODDS OF CONNECTING SUCCESSFULLY
he primary objective of a
conference organiser is to
help your audience achieve
their goals, be it education,
making valuable connections or
solving a specific problem. This
objective has become even more pivotal
during the current crisis that has
prompted conference organisers to go
virtual and still find ways to provide
what their audience is looking to
achieve.
A good matchmaking system is key
in achieving this; employed correctly it
can lead a person through a
problem-solving process. Let’s say they
are attending a particular conference in
search of particular information. If you
know what that is by recording
delegates’ job functions, or by looking
at their registration data, then you can
ensure they attend the right sessions.
This can be reverse-engineered for
PCOs of course. If you know which
sessions are proving popular, then you
can engineer your event to include
ancillary elements that cater to this
appetite – fan the flames of this
particular element of your event; you’ll
increase interaction and therefore
satisfaction.
How do we go about this? Begin by
tracking the interests of your delegates
via the sessions they have registered
for, and make sure you can categorise
this in a codified way, according to
subject areas or speaker categories.
Data taken from pre-registration
and other readily available digital
profiles will help you to match one
delegate’s provisional conference
programme according to their specific
interests, with others that have
expressed a similar interest. And by
Rather than
connecting people
according to what
they are, connect
them according to
what they like.”
Below:
ExpoPlatform
CEO, Tanya
Pinchuk
matchmaking people with sessions in
this way you can also introduce people
who are interested in a particular
session or speaker, or people who have
a greater likelihood of benefiting from
meeting one another. Rather than
connecting people according to what
they are (their personal attributes), you
are connecting them according to what
they like (their interests).
The challenge is to present
additional value to attendees without
compromising their enjoyment. But, by
either connecting or gathering
delegates online with aligned interests,
you can increase their chances of
interacting and discovering such
shared interests, which may lead to
fruitful interaction down the road.
ISSUE 106
It is unlikely that one linear
programme will cater to every
individual’s interest unless the scope of
your conference is very narrow. So, use
the data you have collected to provide a
programme that appeals to the median
while making allowances for those who
may not conform to type. Using the
digital space to host your sessions can
also enable you to introduce
alternatives more efficiently, as these
spaces can offer real value to the
audience in various engaging forms.
Matchmaking is all part of an effort
to introduce science to the art of
improving the chances of fruitful
connection. So, let us make sure the
right people meet each other at the right
sessions and increase those odds.
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CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD
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