The funniest thing I’ve heard from stage is…
“Firstly, it’s so good to see our fondest customers, closest partners, friends and colleagues all together at last.” Secondly, if I have to spend one more day with my husband and children…”
For context, these were opening welcome remarks at a client event, the first return to in-person following the long UK lockdown period.
It was a collective sigh of relief, a much-needed release of anxiety and a superbly executed line that brought everyone together in a moment of shared experience.
I’ll never forget that moment, or the line.
It did however signal a fundamental change.
Attending events in the foreseeable future would be a privilege.
Demands on our time would no longer come from work alone.
We quickly became used to spending time together as a family. We learned how to better balance working from home and home life, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
Human interactions with customers, partners and colleagues we sorely missed were aptly replaced by those with our families.
Yet no-one predicted how quickly we’d return in-person events.
Or the sense of loss we’d felt.
On one hand, today we can safely say we’ve returned to normal.
On the other, one fundamental change remains.
Demand for our time, our interest, our attention is massively heightened.
A rapidly increasing number of events is vying for a finite number of attendees.
As event marketing technology improves, hyper-personalisation will create unprecedented demand for our time, our interest and our attention.
So, how can planners more effectively compete against other events for audience attention?
At this point, if I still have your attention, you might well have asked yourself this question before.
And either working internally, or guided by your agency partner, you’ve prioritised a long list of tactical changes and adjustments to your pre-event communication.
The greater the adjustments the more effective the change, right?
Wrong.
Just do this one thing.
Learn more about your audiences.
Gain valuable insight into audiences’ needs and create events that respond to those needs.
Everything else, the tactical adjustments, simply falls out as a result.
· Event messaging, tone and language
· Event marketing content formats and channels
· Event programme
· Event programme format
Compelling, relatable, responsive and targeted.
This fundamental change, the increasing demand made on our attention is here to stay.
If you’re not yet actively ‘competing’ for attention. You should be.
If you’ve not yet reframed your events to restore work/life balance and time with family. Do so now.
If you’re not talking about this. You’re talking with the wrong agency.
Ten Thousand Hours works closely with clients operating in increasingly competitive markets. If what we do to help our clients’ guarantee greater numbers of attendees at their events would be of interest, then we’d love to chat.