I usually get questions from event organisers on how to make their events better. Especially when you are running a conference series that you want to attract people from a certain industry to, it is extremely important that you are able to build you conference brand as one of the best in that industry. But the question that is always lingering is: What makes a good conference?

It important to think of conferences as a service. As it is with most services like going to a restaurant or spending a night at a hotel or getting a haircut, what really makes it so good is how its consumer feels about it. As a conference organiser, this consumer is your attendee. You want them to feel satisfied (if not ecstatic) with all aspects of your event starting with the value they are receiving in return for attending, which translates into the content of the different sessions you have set up and how they measure against your attendees’ expectations.

The other thing with your conference is your structure. To what extent does your conference allow for other goals the attendees might have- for example networking. This is one of the main reasons I go to conferences, and if the only chance I have to network is over a lunch table, there would be less value for me to in this regard and you will lose the points I would give for networking opportunity. That’s why I like events that have more interactive structures (at least for some of the sessions), which allow me to get to know more and more people that I would be interested in meeting.

Other issues such as organisation, timeliness, friendliness to the needs of the attendees (eg. the great debate on wifi etc…) also count in how I would evaluate the conference. If I am coming from out of town, I would appreciate some entertainment or other chance to go around the city. If it is my first time in a certain city, I usually consider joining an organised event/tour that conference organisers would have planned.

That’s why, If you are creating a conference that you would like to repeat the next year and attract more people, you have to understand from your attendees how you can make it better. I feel really sorry for some organisers who have my email address and don’t try to ask me what I thought about their event or how they can make it better. Especially that with online registration tools, like Ezents, it is so easy to communicate with those who attended and get them to reply and evaluate your conference. It is such a waste of your database if you don’t use it.