Why Some Events Sell Out and Others Don’t (2011 session notes)

Why Some Events Sell Out and Others Don’t

Facilitator: Traci Browne
Scribe notes: Sarah Vining

• Make invitation only, first come first serve
• Build the reputation and the people will come
• Ego building, make them feel VIP by invitation only
• Charge a lot or just charge; in general more likely to show up
• Monday morning events, low attendance
• Couple of people to decide that the event is brilliant, they’ll tell everyone (i.e. attendees who blog, video-blog, tweet from the event; hire 10 people to do it for your event)
• “Celebrity” hit a blog on your event – you become lucky!
• Events on Tuesday/Wednesday (due to travel) or Wednesday/Thursday (in-city event) creates bigger attendance

What do Event Professionals Need to Know about Mobile Applications? (2011 session notes)

Facilitators:  Ashish Jain, a2z Inc. & Danalynne Wheeler, Sybase
Scribe: Danalynne Wheeler

Questions to Ask Yourself When Deciding to Build an App (and what the requirements should be):
– What is the need for this app – what do I want to get out of it?
– What does my audience need / what will they use?
– What devices does my audience use / how many & what types of apps will I have to build?
– Approximately how many people do I think will use the app (usually a small percentage of attendees)
– Do I want/need to track usage or any specific information from the end users?
– Do I want this app to tie into other systems, such as registration, session information
– How much do I want to spend (how much budget do I have)?
– Will I be able to reuse this app, or use it as a base to tweak/build upon for future?

2011 event evaluations

Don’t take our word for the quality of this event. Here are our event evaluations for 2011 completely uncut and uncensored

by Adrian Segar

As is customary for Conferences That Work, we are publishing all the (anonymized) evaluations for EventCamp East Coast 2011. So often, this information is restricted to conference organizers. I think this kind of transparency is important for any event, as it provides participants with feedback on how their experience compared with their peers, publicizes the positive and negative responses to the event, and sets the stage for the whole conference community to discuss ways to make future events better.

Let’s start with the ratings for the various sessions. I have amalgamated the ratings for the peer sessions.

Evaluation ratings	Roundtable	Peer sessions	Personal Introspective	Group spective	Informal discussions
High	79%	73%	62%	70%	80%
Medium	21%	24%	23%	20%	20%
Low	0%	3%	15%	10%	0%

And here are participants’ comments on various aspects of the conference.

Pre-conference communications

Really loved the SMS text updates. This was very useful.

I felt there was a lot of communication regarding travel needs and what I should expect from the conference. There was also some reading material but not too much!

Loved getting the text updates!

Good

Timely and had the info I needed when I needed it.

Loved the text messaging.

I appreciate the communication prior to the event. It was helpful to receive emails about airport information, check-in, attire, etc. before arriving on site. At some conferences, there is absolutely no communication until you arrive on-site. Thank you!

Pecha Kucha: Build connections, gain business and personally grow by using the EIR social media strategy

Here’s Jenise Fryatt‘s Pecha Kucha presentation Build connections, gain business and personally grow by using the EIR social media strategy that she gave at EventCamp East Coast on November 5, 2011.

Pecha Kucha: Risking your hybrid event

Here’s Paul Cook‘s Pecha Kucha presentation Risking your hybrid event that he gave at EventCamp East Coast on November 5, 2011.

Pecha Kucha: Designing meetings for the virtual brain

Here’s Andrea Sullivan’s Pecha Kucha presentation Designing meetings for the virtual brain that she gave at EventCamp East Coast on November 5, 2011.

Pecha Kucha: A journey inside the mind of a conference producer

Here’s Traci Browne’s Pecha Kucha presentation A journey inside the mind of a conference producer that she gave at EventCamp East Coast on November 5, 2011.