How the CompTIA “ChannelCon” Hybrid Event Keeps Growing 4 Years In A Row

Four years ago, CompTIA contacted Interactive Meeting Technology/SocialPoint to help them deliver their first online event. The goal was to deliver an online, educational event to at least 100 attendees and have them remain online for at least two sessions.

CompTIA had nearly 1,000 registrants and over 300 attendees that first year.  Four years later, their attendee numbers have skyrocketed to well over 4,000.

This is how we did it, through a strong collaboration between us, the vendor, and an engaged and motivated client team.

20 Ways To Increase Event Attendee Engagement With Event Technology

Using event technology to poll attendees is only the beginning of what you can do to create more attendee engagement.

Event technology, event apps and audience response apps offer several new and improved ways to create conversations with your audience.

Here are some of the things you can do: poll, play, create, capture, share, vote, survey, comment and smile. Yes, smile, because you can share photos too.

With all of these capabilities at your disposal, here are 20 ways you can use event technology to create attendee engagement experiences

MEA Quickly Adapts To New Marketing Strategy With Easy SocialPoint Trade Show Game Platform

New Marketing Goals Prompts Desire for New Interactive Trade Show Game

When Midwest Energy Association (MEA), a consortium of energy delivery industry organizations, decided in 2017 to completely change their go-to-market strategy, they decided to retain SocialPoint games – but with a different SocialPoint game to fit their new goals.

“We had success in 2015 and 2016 using SocialPoint’s Challenge Bar Trivia game,” said Lindsay Robertson, MEA Marketing and Communications Director. “The Trivia game worked well to attract and retain attendees, when our goal was to present everything we offer.  But, in 2017, we made a strategic shift at trade shows, so we needed a different approach.”

How To Combine Gamification with Content and Experiential Marketing

Pardon the sports metaphor, but our interactive trade show games are a marketing buzz word triple play!

If your marketing department has plans to implement Gamification, Content Marketing, or Experiential Marketing, 3 of the hottest trends in B2B marketing today, you can get the benefits of all three at once with our interactive games.

Let’s look at how our digital games are at the convergence of all 3 trends:

1. Gamification

According to Wikipedia, “Gamification is the application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts …. to improve user engagement …”

What Is Audience Engagement For Events?

At their best, events are an explosion of content and ideas where we craft meaningful stories and create community.

However, events are also where we too often load everybody up with as much coffee as we can give them and then send them into a big, dark room with rows and rows of chairs to watch the CEO’s presentation up on a big screen!

Most attendees stop paying attention after 10 minutes

As an event professional, you probably know that most attendees stop paying attention after 10 minutes! We polled event professionals at a recent webinar, and 85% of the participants knew that attendees lose their attention after just 10 minutes.  And yet, so many meetings don’t seem to take that key fact into account when creating their conference content and agenda. (Read 20 reasons people attend conferences)

THE GAME GUIDE: New E-book Helps Exhibitors Make Their Interactive Trade Show Games Even Better

New e-book THE GAME GUIDE: The SocialPoint Guide To Interactive Trade Show Games

We wrote the book on successful interactive trade show games. And you can have it for free.

THE GAME GUIDE: SocialPoint Guide To Interactive Trade Show Games, is a 52-page book you can request by clicking here.  This new e-book can help you:

  • Understand better how interactive trade show games can significantly boost your trade show marketing results
  • Gain insights into the key drivers of success in implementing your interactive trade show game, so you are even more likely to have a great first show
  • Tailor your interactive trade show game to best fit your marketing goals, whether you want more booth traffic, greater engagement, client education, better lead management, or more sales.
  • Drive even more booth traffic through pre-show and at-show promotions
  • Train your booth staff to derive full value from your games

THE GAME GUIDE contains solid advice for any exhibitor considering interactive trade show games – not just ours.  Whether you are considering your first game, or have already used them for years, this e-book will give you new insights that will ensure your next game is even better.

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Looking for Interactive Booth Ideas? 5 Ways Digital Trade Show Games Are Your Best Idea Yet

If you’re like many exhibitors we talk to, you’re done with doing a dull trade show booth.  You want your booth hopping with the action and engagement that comes with an interactive experience.  That’s why you’re on the hunt for interactive booth ideas that help you get people talking.

But while there are lots of ways to make your booth more interactive, unfortunately they won’t all help your company advance its trade show and marketing goals.

Here are 5 criteria for choosing a trade-show-marketing-driven interactive booth idea – and how our digital trade show games meet them all:

J. J. Keller Takes 1,100 Leads At SHRM 2017 Using Challenge Bar Trivia Game, Nearly Double Their Goal

Challenge Bar Trivia game a good match for meeting J. J. Keller’s trade show goals

When Mike Monson, Senior Trade Show Specialist for J. J. Keller, wanted to boost attendance to his booth at one of his top 3 annual shows, he found more success than he expected with the Challenge Bar Trivia Game from SocialPoint.

As a leading supplier of workplace regulation compliance products and services, one of J. J. Keller’s top 3 markets is Human Resources, which for many years means exhibiting at SHRM in a 20 x 20 booth.  “We’ve exhibited at SHRM for a long time because SHRM is very influential in the Human Resources market,” said Monson.  “This year our goal was to reach as many attendees as possible.”

How to Promote Your Virtual Prize Wheel For Even More Booth Traffic

When you include a SocialPoint Virtual Prize Wheel in your trade show booth, you’re going to get more booth traffic.  People will be attracted to the cool-looking, moving digital screens, and the chance to win prizes.

But hey, if you’re like most exhibitors, you want even more traffic! To get it, follow some or all of the following 7 steps, to more aggressively promote your prize wheel game:

1. Signage

Use bold, large text in your exhibit graphics above where the game is played (either on a flat screen monitor or on one or more iPads) to let passing attendees there’s prizes to be won! “Spin To Win” or “Play To Win” or “Win A Free ______,” if you are giving away a significant main prize. Consider using color in the graphics that makes these words stand out from the rest of your booth.

10 Questions Senior Leaders Should Ask Their Event Audiences But Are Afraid To

We live in the participation economy. We have phones in our pockets that are one tap, click or voice request away from finding anything that we want to know on the Internet.

When I look around, I still see events struggling to integrate and use technology to tap into the power of their attendees to create content and conversations. So, why are we still stuffing people in chairs in rows quietly for hours on end in our events? Why are we still using the lecture model?

Today, senior leaders have a unique opportunity to use events as a transformative tool for their organizations. More specifically, they have the opportunity ask hard questions, tackle unsolved problems and use events as a tool for collaboration.