The Attendee IS the Event

Occasionally I hear planners or suppliers talking about their experience with attendees as if the attendee is a complete inconvenience to them. Believe me, I’ve encountered my fair share of EGR (extra grace required) attendees. They present themselves in the form of those who reply to your email asking a question that you answered in said email if they would have taken the time to read it. They’re the repeat offenders who contact you every-single-time you have an event with some random question to the point you know their children’s names, favorite color, and always expect their call. They are the attendee who wants to be the exception to the rule and receive some fantastic discount just because they’re a nice guy.

However, as a planner, we wouldn’t have work if we didn’t have attendees. Our host organizations wouldn’t have a need to organize an event if they didn’t have people to gather. Yes, we are responsible for a long laundry list of tasks that need doing and projects that need managing, and we have specific goals and objectives to meet. However, along the way we can’t lose sight of who we are ultimately serving and why. Attendees have the ability to make or break an event with their attendance, word of mouth recommendations, and registration dollars.

Suppliers, without attendees, nobody’s visiting your booth on the trade show floor. You’re not booking any new business at the event. New contacts are not being made and no new prospects are added to your funnel. If we don’t appreciate attendees and focus more of our efforts on their experience and less on our own, we may find ourselves with too much inventory and not enough customers or too many rooms and not enough reservations. 

I’m not saying we need to take abuse from anyone, not at all. If an attendee is misbehaving, they should be treated with respect, but also asked to change their tune or call back when they can act in a more cordial manner. Sometimes a relationship with an attendee does need to be severed. But that’s a blog for another day. 

It’s important that we listen to the attendees, we understand their pain-points, we know their demographics, and we make ourselves aware of trends in their industry. We want to be able to offer relevant content that adds value to their life and help facilitate connections with other like-minded individuals who might be good resources for networking and information. Suppliers want to bring relevant products and services that will make their jobs more efficient or their lives easier. Planners want to recommend venues and locations that make sense for the demographics, time of year, and type of program being planned.

Many of the decisions throughout the sourcing and planning process are directly related to the attendees. Food and beverage selection is different for varying demographics, times of year, and which meal you’re serving. Number of sessions, choice of speaker and topic, and length of programming is also dependent on the attendees. Type of product and service suppliers as well as partners and sponsors also heavily rely on the information about the attendees.

So, even though sometimes we think that selecting the venue or meeting print deadlines or releasing the speaker line-up by a certain date might be the most important thing about the event you’re working on right now, consider this: if you’re not also keeping the attendee and their experience at the forefront of everything you’re doing, how long do you think you’ll be in business?

Why else would you want to keep the attendee at the center of your focus?
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