We are changing the way organizations market their conference—one conference at a time.
1. We perceive that conference marketing is one arm of an organization’s holistic messaging for fulfilling their mission. We embrace conference marketing efforts that will enhance an organization’s strategic messaging and fit within the organization’s overall goals.
2. We believe that a marketing plan is a schedule of strategic activities that will guide behavior. We will achieve conference marketing success by following a roadmap that leads to a desired destination. We affirm that a marketing plan is a well-researched strategic map that addresses the role, appearance and tracking of all marketing efforts.
3. We will adapt our marketing plan based on past history, current needs and future goals. We value impact and success over tradition. We will develop new means to work within industry trends and cultural shifts to remain relevant and vision-focused.
4. We will promote value over venue when developing a conference brand mark. We will position ourselves as experts with valuable resources and information to share with like-minded professionals, instead of positioning ourselves as tour guides. Through multi-media and strategic communication we will educate potential attendees on why they should attend.
5. We acknowledge repeat attendance is not a given. We will not rely on history or any other external force to be the reason for success or failure. Instead we will trust our own efforts to drive success. We will treat each conference as its own experience, and will work from the ground-up in generating attendance numbers.
6. We accept that late registration is a fact, not a trend. We will not ignore cultural shifts. Instead we will work with them to make our marketing plan even stronger and more effective. Adding new means of communication and changing the schedule of communication are musts.
7. We will gather feedback and use it. We will not make uninformed guesses at what our target audience desires, instead we will ask them through surveys and track the effectiveness of our efforts. We will use their answers to develop strategies and actions.
8. We will use social networking to reach out to all attendees. We will learn new ways of communicating through social networking to engage in meaningful, effective conversations with individuals before, during and after the conference.
9. We agree that greater conference attendance will advance an organization’s mission. We will use our marketing efforts to increase opportunities for organization’s to fulfill their mission, and have a greater impact on their members.
10. We will recognize that doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results is tenuous. We will not engage thinking that supports ineffective habits. We will transform our habits and works based on research, the audience’s needs, and our vision. We will test our efforts to ensure that we are putting energy into projects that produce quantitative results.
11. We will have a vision of growth for conference attendance and commit the energy to implement necessary changes. We will not accept excuses or utter the word “can’t” when faced with a challenge. Instead we will be flexible towards change and open to learning for the sake of growth and success of every single conference.
It is time for organizations to realize they must approach each conference as a unique event, with unique offerings and unique value, instead of marketing every conference the same way year after year. We can draw a parallel from how large corporations successfully launch new products. Are they using the same marketing plan from five or ten years ago? Definitely not. They create a new plan and a new vision for each product, with targeted marketing efforts in each of their markets. This is how organizations who desire greater attendance need to market their conferences in order to help them fulfill their organization’s mission.
