5 ways to increase attendance & participation at your events

If you are charged with organizing or promoting a conference on your non profit website or company website, use any or all of the ideas below to generate interest, drive registration and keep the momentum past the conference:

1. Email Marketing
   Start with at least an email per week to keep your attendees engaged or until you have some serious traction with social media. Don't just ask to register, add value content like an article or a blog written by one of the speaker.
   
   
2. LinkedIn Groups
   It's free and super easy to set up. Just a quick email promoting this and see conversation start between members. You will need to start several topics but you will be surprised on how much people will interact. It will also be a great source of ideas & suggestions for what your audience is looking for...or not. Hearing about how much they are looking forward to hear about this or that is invaluable. Surveys are great, but a casual conversation between people could be very revealing.
   
   
3. Share your photos on Facebook
   Facebook is a great platform to share photos, that's what people do most of the time anyway. Allow them to comment and add their own.
   
   
4. Post of presentation quickly
   You can post them on your website or use Slide Share but do it quickly. Post them on the same day is awesome, 1-3 days after the conference is acceptable, 1-2 weeks later is too late. I'm still waiting for the presentation slides of a conference I attended 2 weeks ago, quite honestly, I've lost interest.
   
   
5. Make & Post videos
   You can now take a quick video using a flip cam or simply by using your mobile phone and post it in a record time. Videos are a very powerful tool to communicate, and it's easier than ever to do so. We use a company called 12 Stars Media, you upload your videos, they make it pretty and send it back to you. It's easy to use and affordable.