How to Build an Event That Sparks Real Conversation. Super Mobility Week Did it Right.
We have all been there. Standard events, long keynotes and panels, no interactivity. Outmoded and old-fashioned trade shows and conferences do little to help attendees learn or make deeper connections. They do even less to boost the brand of those organizations hosting them.
Super Mobility Week, made possible by CTIA, broke that trend and tried a new approach. We are proud to say that AMS worked side by side with CTIA to make this year’s event a unique success.
Read on for a not-so-humble brag about the work we did — and some tactics so you can replicate them at your own event.
Feature the Audience in the Conversation
SMW attendees are experts in their fields. They are driving remarkable innovations in mobility, connecting all manner of devices to the internet, powering safer cars, enhancing medical devices, and reimagining the way we interact with technology and each other.
Capturing their insight was critical. We started with a simple pre-event survey, distributed to attendees via email in the lead-up to the event. We followed up on survey topics and dug deeper with social polls on Twitter, launched at the event.
Then, we featured their insights. We gave event speakers the results of the survey for reference during their remarks. We created custom mini-infographics highlighting the results in an easily digestible manner for audiences. And we interviewed attendees on camera, asking them to share even more insights on the most popular topics surveyed.
Bring Data to Life
When SMW attendees walked into the main event hall, they were greeted by the Big Data Wall. This giant screen — almost 150 square feet in size — captivated the attention of those walking by.
It was important to CTIA that the wall be more than a flashy focal point. That’s why, throughout the event, AMS’s managing editors curated and featured data-driven insights and captivating multi-media elements.
Heat maps and data visualizations from SMW sponsors Social Radar and Mexia showed how attendees were moving about the event space — engaging with each other and using cellular networks. These partners tapped into the power of the event’s data, and their technology allowed users to see it in a visual way.
Each day, AMS created sharable graphics to showcase polling results, quotes from keynote speeches, and analyses of attendee sentiment. We also curated video from IFA, a mobility conference happening in Berlin concurrently with Super Mobility Week, allowing attendees to see global parallels.
Extend the Conversation
Events are a remarkable opportunity to make connections and share knowledge. But too often, they are just a moment in time. We worked with CTIA to extend the conversation and keep it going.
Before the event, AMS interviewed key speakers, asking them about the topics they would be addressing and gathering their thoughts on the most pressing issues in the industry. These interviews, posted on CTIA’s site, sparked engagement and social sharing from attendees, even before they arrived in Las Vegas.
After the event, we compiled the data, insights, and content we created into a dynamic Storify experience that gave SMW attendees a reason to come back to event content. This Storify page, currently being shared and promoted across CTIA social channels, is also aimed at those who were not able to attend this year, bringing them into the conversation while inspiring them to register for the 2015 event.
Putting it to Work for You
If you are planning a major event or conference, keep some of these tactics in mind. Used the right way, they can help drive the impact of your event even further, ensuring a lasting impact for those onsite and beyond.
