The OpenWater Blog

How to Balance Attendee Experience and Revenue

Attendee experience and revenue are often thought to be at odds, and for good reason. Not only do attendees find and consume content more than ever before, heightening their expectations for conference experiences, but conference managers are expected to improve and do more with the same budget from years ago. This dichotomy puts pressure on conference managers to do more for less and while this is possible, it is still difficult.

All things considered, it’s still possible to maximize revenue while bettering attendee experience, regardless of your budget. The best way to go about doing so is to consider all of the major areas of your program and what you can do to cut costs without cutting the quality of the experience in the process.

Speakers and Presentation Content

Speakers are the backbone of your conference. After all, attendees are coming to your conference to see the winning abstracts presentations. As such, it’s unwise to cut costs for speakers or the accompanying content.

However, you may want to find sponsors who believe in the innovation of your organization and what you value as evidenced by the speakers who are presenting. Once you do, you can fund better speakers and maintain a premium quality attendee experience without spending more.

Attendee Engagement

Attendee experience is closely tied with engagement. However, it isn’t enough to have interactive presentation materials or simply supplement presentations with materials.

Instead, you should consider hiring facilitators who will make and push conversations following presentations to engage attendees and stimulate discussion. It’s important to have your staff do this throughout the conference so nothing is left to chance.

Technology Use

You’ve read in other articles why you need a mobile web app and the same can be said when you want to enhance attendee experience without spending a lot of money. Think about it: your attendees regularly rely on technology in their day-to-day lives and job. By integrating a mobile web app with your conference, you’re bringing this component to your conference while improving attendee experience in the process.

The best part is that depending on which abstracts software you use, a mobile web app can be designed like your website to increase brand consistency while promoting better user experience.

You Don’t Have to Choose Between Experience and Revenue

Experience and revenue may be at odds in certain areas of your program but it doesn’t have to be a “one or the other” situation. In fact, you can easily cut back on costs while increasing revenue if you invest in abstracts software and other tools to increase efficiency while freeing up time.

Next time you ask “Experience or revenue?,” instead think: “Why not both?”

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