Two ways to make virtual conferences engaging
Combatting Zoom fatigue with attendee cohorts and sponsor activities
Not going to lie: it’s been an, um, challenging time to be in the conference business. I’m sure the reasons are more than obvious. And if I hear (or say) the word “pivot” one more time, I’m going to barf.
That said, it’s also been a wonderful time to be in the conference business. I’m an idea junkie, and when you’re forced to virtualize a conference, you have no choice but to try out new (and dare I say innovative) ideas. I’m excited to share the two we’re putting in place for this year’s virtualized Enterprise Experience conference (August 31-September 3).
Idea #1: Attendee cohorts for maximizing engagement
Another expression that’s starting to turn my stomach: “Zoom fatigue”. I don’t know, folks: pre-COVID, did we talk about “in-person fatigue”? (Don’t answer if you’re an introvert.)
The problem isn’t Zoom. The problem is that most experiences that happen to take place in Zoom, including conferences, are tedious. How do you make the conference experience less tedious?
We’re taking a cue from Mystery Science Theater 3000. (Seriously.) Enterprise Experience 2020 attendees will have the option to attend the entire conference in cohorts of around ten people who share a common interest. They’ll get together in Zoom before the conference starts and, aided by a facilitator, meet each other and establish their shared goals for the conference.
They’ll then spend the conference together, discussing the sessions and getting to know each other even more, in a private Slack channel. Once the conference wraps, they’ll reconvene with their facilitator one last time in Zoom to revisit their goals, see what they’ve accomplished, and if they want to continue learning together. Our goal: cohort participants will walk away with at least two or three fantastic new industry contacts, not to mention having engaged far more deeply in the content than they might have in person.
Cohort participants will walk away with at least two or three fantastic new industry contacts.
What sort of common interests will cohorts form around? We’re thinking along these lines:
- Shared backgrounds (e.g., a cohort of information architects who work in the enterprise, another of interaction designers, user researchers, etc.)
- Shared verticals (e.g., a cohort of UX people who work in healthcare, another from fintech, or government, or agencies, and so on)
- Shared identities (e.g., Latinx, BIPOC, LGBTQ)
- Shared contexts or challenges (e.g., scaling research, working in agile shops)
- Career level (e.g., entry-level practitioners, seasoned managers)
- Shared languages
- Team members (i.e., all from the same company)
We may even support randomly-assigned cohorts for attendees for those who like living on the edge.
Will attending a virtual conference in a small cohort work? We’ll see; the devil is in the details. But if it does, we think it could be revolutionary, because by combining learning and networking, cohorts could turbocharge both.
Idea #2: Brokering a match between sponsors and attendees
Last March, we were put in the position of (here comes that horrible word) pivoting another of our conferences, Advancing Research, to virtual in about two weeks. Oy.
Among the many challenges we faced, two were especially sticky:
- Keeping attendees busy and engaged during breaks; and
- Not losing any of our sponsors, some of whom were wondering why on earth they’d support a (newly) virtual event.
Fortunately, we managed to kill both birds with one stone. We partnered with our sponsors to create activities for attendees during those breaks. After all, sponsors have brilliant people on their teams, and they’re often working on the same challenges as attendees. In fact, they’re often the experts on how to solve the industry’s most gnarly challenges—so why not offer them a platform?
And boy, did those sponsors step up to the plate. Roughly ten sponsors came up with over 40 (!) activities for attendees to choose from during breaks, using our basic remote tech stack (Zoom lounges, private Slack channels, and virtual whiteboards). In effect, sponsor activities comprised a rich parallel track of optional activities that complimented the main program.
Quantity aside, the quality was incredible. “Hey, can I access the recording of that sponsor’s session?” said no conference attendee ever. Except those who attended Advancing Research. The activities ranged from social—like Handrail’s after-hours UX Trivia Contest—to educational, like Mailchimp’s “Whodunit” forensic examination of how different user research methods help explain where users dropped off during their onboarding process.
“Can I access the recording of that sponsor’s session?” said no conference attendee ever. Except those who attended Advancing Research.
The sponsor program worked because the content was strong. But it also worked because we opened up sponsor activities to a much broader audience at no cost: the thousands of people who are already members of the free Advancing Research community that Rosenfeld Media curates. So we were able to promote our sponsors to a qualified audience that was about ten times larger than our conference audience, and delivered all parties great value.
For both Enterprise Experience 2020 and October’s DesignOps Summit, we’re taking the same approach: guiding our sponsors in creating engaging, virtual-friendly activities, providing a platform for hosting those activities, and promoting them to both ticket holders and the much larger communities that correspond to each conference. What’ll be different is the execution; as we have more than two weeks’ turnaround time and a lot of experience under our belts, it’s so much easier to imagine and design for optimal sponsor/attendee engagement.
I’d love to know what you think of these ideas and if you’ve tried something similar, and what your big ideas are for virtual events—whether you’re an attendee, sponsor, speaker, or organizer. Add comments (or questions) below, or send an email to conferences@rosenfeldmedia.com
