Speakers Platform: Increase Attendance at Your Next Meeting-Guaranteed!


			You are here: --> Meeting Planners --> Feature Articles Increase Attendance at Your Next Meeting-Guaranteed! by Sue Hershkowitz-Coore, CSP More Information About the Author: Click Here for the Sue Hershkowitz-Coore, CSP Home Page If you had a magic wand that enabled you to increase the attendance at your next meeting, would you use it? Would you like the members who attended this year to be your PR people for your next event? Would you like to increase your meeting`s success and its profitability? By now, you`re probably wondering what snake oil elixir it is that I`m hawking! Not snake oil at all! It`s understanding the principles that other industries, companies and organizations use successfully and applying those strategies to the design, communications and follow-up of your meeting. Meeting Design A successful meeting is one designed to increase the profitability, success and potential of your attendees. In an attempt to figure out what your attendees need and want, well meaning committees and executive teams depend on the evaluation sheets from the last meeting. This may be the worst possible way to create a successful meeting. Throw out your evaluation sheets. They`re useless. You either get so few back that the sample is not worthy of review, or the results are skewed with offers of free coffee mugs, registration or t-shirts. You can`t possibly trust the results you get. It`s time to stop evaluating how you, the committee, the association executive, or the meetings department did, and time to start focusing on what they would have liked and what helped-or would have helped-them to create greater success in their business. Design your next meeting around answers to questions like: What would you have liked to have seen/done/learned from this meeting? What do you need to see, do, learn, hear, participate in, at the next meeting to help you create greater success in your business? What are your customers telling you they need from you? How can we help you learn it, do it, provide it? Use the "You-Attitude" Throw out those end of meeting evaluations unless you are asking the attendee, attendee-focused questions! For years, in my workshops and keynotes, I`ve emphasized the idea of using the "You" attitude. Focus on the other person and what he or she stand to gain. Create interest by focusing externally-on your reader-rather than presenting your information from an internal self-centered standpoint. Here is an example: The Widget Association Mid-Summer Annual Conference is internally focused. Retitle the meeting from their perspective: How to Position Yourself for Success in the Worldwide Widget Marketplace (and in small print) At The Widget Association Annual Conference. Instead of a cute theme selected by committee, or by a president with a personal agenda, like, The Magic of the Moment, generate interest and enthusiasm by weaving the theme du jour with what matters most to your attendees. A meeting brochure that talks about a theme of Selling Widgets Magically-Twelve Jam Packed Sessions to Help You Increase Leads, Referrals and Profits is much more likely to grab their attention-and their registrations. And don`t stop there! Call your members a month after the meeting, and call others at three months, and some at six. Ask them what they remember from the last meeting. What have they done differently as a result of being there? Advertise those successes. For those who don`t remember a thing except that the final banquet was fun (ask them what made it fun to them, what would make it even better?), ask them what they would like to remember when you call them next year, after the next meeting. Design your meetings around their needs. Create memorable experiences for them and you won`t need a magic wand to increase your attendance. Your members will be there-and they`ll bring their friends. ©Sue Hershkowitz-Coore, CSP - All Rights Reserved. Sue Hershkowitz-Coore, CSP will help you create a memorable meeting! Your attendees will laugh while they learn what they must do to enhance their business potential and their personal success. Contact Speakers Platform to learn more about the motivational keynotes and educational workshops she provides to help you reach your meeting objectives.