here is a greater degree of granularity now for conference organisers to explore their audience and their journeys with the help of event technology software . And integrating these new technologies and approaches in the client proposition offers a chance to invent new ways of embracing the communities served - the key to the recovery and continued success of the global events industry .

Here are ways that can help organisers discover more about their audience and engage them more effectively :

Cater for communities within communities

The conference audience will contain a number of ever-evolving micro-communities . Explore the available data to find out what differentiates and defines them , who they want to meet , and the kind of content they ’ re consuming . Large brands considering the

launch of smaller ancillary events may have more reason than before to cater to the specific needs of these sub-communities .

Companies with a content or media site are testing their audience all the time . Every article is a way to test and learn , and by observing the way in which the audience interacts with the content , organisers can work towards creating a number of distinct audience member personas .

No two communities are alike

Find out what are the main two or three business objectives for a sponsoring brand . Their priority is usually to bring in the buy-side audience for procuring people in a particular field .

But bear in mind that a procurement executive may be looking at completely different content programmes depending on where the conference is being held and what they are hoping to

Below : Tanya Pinchuk , ExpoPlatform CEO

Another challenge is producing and channeling the right kind of content . There ’ s a lot of clever AI out there that can produce and funnel copy into a community , even prompting the community to contribute , but success is unlikely without an editor to present the manifesto for the industry .

As Expoplatform ’ s chief growth officer Luke Bilton comments : “ The one per cent rule of internet culture states that 90 % of the community is composed of ’ lurkers ’; people who consume the content but do not contribute . Nine per cent are going to be contributors , and just one per cent will be content creators . In B2B it ’ s probably less than that .”

A good editor will help to crystalise the interaction that follows the publication of useful content .

Conclusion

It ’ s important to supply the community with content that abides by good editorial principles – just as a good conference is defined by good production principles – and increase the chance of the audience seeing the event as the physical embodiment of that community .

“ By observing the way in which the audience interacts with the content , organisers can work towards creating a number of distinct audience member personas .”