By Becca Shanks, Creative Services Director, Sledge
Conferences represent a powerful opportunity to bring people together and align them with company messaging, build internal connections, gain insights against a backdrop of wider company and industry learnings, and deep dive into specific subject streams.
From packed agendas to multiple product showcases, they feature a lot of moving parts, and while clients have intentionally moved away from passive learning in these settings of late, their annual event objectives don’t shift a whole lot year on year: they typically want to connect, engage and excite people, but are reluctant to change the format.
There are a number of reasons for this fear of doing things differently, and four in particular that tend to pop up time and time again. Organisations want a copy and paste approach as it’s what they’ve always done and it’s seemed to work, the previous year’s event was a real hit so there’s concern around evolving what already resonated with people, many components need to be squeezed into one agenda so there’s little room for movement, or they’re simply worried about going over budget.
While these are all valid reasons, the thing is, no one really wants to attend the exact same event time and time again, and so instead of settling for second best and rehashing what’s been done before, it really is the responsibility of the agency to push clients further.
Even if the brief is essentially the same each time, the value of an agency lies in reminding client teams of their objectives, encouraging change, bringing creative solutions to the table that continue to transform and elevate the existing format, and pushing creative further so this can be achieved.
Working within a static brief: it’s all about balance
In most cases a conference doesn’t need a complete overhaul, it might – and most likely will – mean incremental enhancements over time that both add to the delegate experience and connect to organisational goals, such as:
- If the agenda doesn’t allow for a lot of wiggle room, consider finding pockets of time within it to add something unexpected. This could take the form of a wellness break, interaction and games, recognition, or a different form of content to change the tone.
- We’re often confined by existing brand guidelines, yet there are ways to get creative while working within them. Take the content approach – moving away from traditional presentation and panel set ups and exploring the unusual, such as theatre, immersive art, light shows, interactive games and story-led video can engage and excite.
- The event venue might need to stay the same, but there are still opportunities to keep things fresh in the space. This could involve shifting away from traditional conference seating, adding in a drinks’ reception, or moving the main stage into the centre of the room to facilitate more organic conversation, better connect speakers and attendees, and enhance learning.
Three key barriers to change
While these examples are all well and good, it can be difficult for conferences to undergo any form of transformation if clients fear their event might fail as a result. It ultimately means their culture doesn’t reward change, and there is no room for risks to be taken. The solution? It lies in trusting their agency team, who have years of experience trialling different methods, and giving them a little creative freedom to do their best work.
Secondly, if agencies are seen as transactional suppliers and not true partners, we tend to be subject to shorter lead times. This doesn’t allow for much creative ideation and in turn, enhancing, as given the tight timelines our focus has to be purely on delivery, and missed opportunities emerge. It highlights that purposeful collaborations are where clients get the most value out of their agencies.
Finally, large organisations means many layers of approval. I’ve seen it time and time again that companies want to be viewed as cutting-edge and mid-level event managers are genuinely excited about what’s to come, yet once ideas make it to the top they are stripped out or watered down. There’s a disconnect between what clients think they want, and what they actually want, yet in this era of distraction, it’s the unique and different that will win.
Evolve or perish…
So the saying goes, and while we all know that physical connection is a basic human need, people also expect an element of the new.
Passive events are a thing of the past and attendees need to be brought into the content. This means looking beyond the norm and designing events for specific audiences is what will bring change, connect people, excite them, and result in a more memorable experience overall.
Organisers that don’t evolve what they deliver will be left behind, and the onus is very much on the agency to not only advocate for this, but bring clients on the journey with them every step of the way.
