Before deciding dates, location and venue for a conference, meeting planners and suppliers must understand who should attend, why they would want to and what they’re most concerned about, social media specialist Paul Salinger told participants in a Sunday morning breakout session.
Salinger, vice president of marketing at Oracle Corporation, described a plethora of technologies to support meeting designs based on an audience’s specific needs and expectations. But he said the choice of technologies, like other tactical decisions, must be based on a clear picture of the different audience segments on site.
“There’s a context and a reason for every event or meeting,” he said. “The way you deliver value is by understanding what your audience really needs and delivering against those concerns. You have to flip the usual tactical approach to meetings and think about how to design them strategically.”
This shift takes place at a time when live and virtual worlds are converging, with organizations using video streaming, virtual environments, Telepresence and other technologies to broaden their meetings’ reach and extend the onsite experience.
“It’s very important to think about how you’re going to keep the conversation going after the event, how you’re going to facilitate the network that allows people to continue their conversations,” Salinger said, so that an annual conference becomes a 365-day activity.
Salinger described the planning method his company uses to catalogue all the internal and external audiences for a meeting, understand their macro and micro concerns and design programs and messaging to match.
“You have to think about what your audience strategy is before you can overlay the right technology to achieve those goals.”