The OpenWater Blog

How to Improve Conference Sessions (and Satisfy Attendees)

Your abstracts conference is going to be packed with countless sessions on a variety of topics. And while each session will vary in the content, the speaker, and how the materials are delivered, there are steps you can take to improve the sessions and make them more impactful for attendees.

Below, we explore 4 of the best tips you can follow to ensure your speakers are doing everything they can to delight your attendees, and you’re doing the same!

1. Create an Organized System

A key feature of any exceptional session is organization. Organization helps each event run well individually and facilitates an efficient conference from a broader perspective. However, staying organized can be difficult without appropriate systems in place.

The simplest way to keep each presentation and your entire conference organized is with an abstracts management system. Your presenters can make information available on the platform before and during your event and you can easily schedule each speaker to run as seamlessly as it should.

2. Account for Different Learning Styles

Conference attendees won’t process information the same. As such, it’s important that you make materials available in a wide range of formats to facilitate an interactive experience that is suitable for all audience members.

A key consideration here is going to be whether you believe visual or verbal learning works best for each session. Many will combine the two, but some presentations will also have one or the other that is more prominent. Of course, you should leave some discretion to speakers; but as conference manager, it’s important you step in where appropriate to facilitate the best possible experience at the conference itself.

3. Put Speakers and Attendees in Touch Before the Conference

Having attendees meet speakers for the first time at the conference can feel like a blind date: slightly uncomfortable and like you’re getting familiar with each other on a very basic level. If you put speakers and attendees in touch before your conference instead, the same won’t be true. In fact, many attendees may feel as if they’re meeting a new or familiar friend, depending on how much they know about your speakers and how much time they’ve spent engaging with each speaker before the conference.

The simplest way to connect your speakers and attendees is with a social media page. Or, if your speaker already has a social media page, you may want to encourage them to communicate with attendees via the page or even a designated social media group. In any case, you’ll want to get speakers chatting with attendees to answer preliminary questions or set the stage for the presentation to come.

4. Create an Online Content Library

Your speakers have a lot more to teach and share than what they can squeeze into their presentation. The simplest way to solve this problem is with an online content library. The content library is a great way to centralize presentation materials before the conference begins and after it’s over.

Before the conference, you can make the slides or handouts available so attendees can familiarize themselves with the material prior to arriving at the conference. After the conference is over, speakers can publish supplementary material that reinforces what was already presented. This high-quality content will also boost your organization’s SEO and add prestige to your brand.

Your Efforts Before and After the Conference Make the Most Impact During Your Conference

Whether you’re facilitating the beginning of the relationship between speakers and your attendees or making materials available after the conference, your efforts as manager will play a significant role in how attendees make the most of their experiences.

All that’s left for you to decide is how to adapt each tip above to suit attendee demographics and conference structure.

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