#EventPlannersTalk

How to drive attendee engagement at events – case study TweetWall Pro

Posted on March 17, 2015

#EventPlannersTalk began back in August 2014 on Twitter and today is the first point of contact for everyone interested to join future Twitter chats and live events.

Chatting with you weekly on Twitter was a natural fit to team-up with TweetWall Pro and use their platform for #EventPlannersTalk (both online and live). TweetWall Pro provides an interactive platform to use during events to drive attendee engagement in real time and generate buzz. For event goers it is a fun and interactive experience, and let’s admit it – you like seeing yourself on the big screen. For organisers it is an excellent tool, too, because they have the opportunity to collect event story, see all the contributors (even the ones not attending the event), most popular tweets, top contributors and total outreach.

In addition to that, it provides comprehensive post event analytics for organisers, which they can use for feedback and comparison with previous events.

Setting up your event feed

Don’t worry, it is not too “techy” and everyone can manage to set it up for their event, also TweetWall Pro team can help you out. It is very easy to use the platform but in order to make the most out of it, it is recommended to spend 1 – 2 hours initially to understand all what you can do with it. TweetWall Pro provides an excellent training and support on skype and can help you out with setting up the event but if you want to do last minute changes it is good to have an overview of all function.

When setting up your event you can choose more than one hashtag to show on live stream. For #EventPlannersTalk live event, for example, I have also included #EventPlannersTalkLive hashtag, just in case someone uses it. It is good to keep in mind that the audience sometimes uses industry hashtags, such as #eventprofs, and not only of your event so you might want to include these, too.

One of the best functions is that you can duplicate your event so no need to set it up every time from scratch.

Design

You can choose and optimise the live feed according to your needs – colours, animation, tag clouds etc. Something I will definitely spend more time on before the next event!

#EventPlannersTalk live event tag cloud

Moderation

Before your session goes live, you have to choose whether you want moderation or not. Moderation means that you can block tweets which are not relevant to your event, or you can add users or words to the filter which you don’t want to see on the screen. Additionally, if you do have a manual filter option on, you can still set up the filter for priority users who can bypass all filters and moderation. If you decide to go with manual moderation it is recommended to assign someone to manage it.

If you think that your feed can be easily cluttered with promo tweets and you want to avoid it, moderation is definitely recommended. If you don’t moderate your feed spam tweets will distort your analytics report.

Sponsors

Good opportunity to mention your event sponsors and you can do it by integrating their photos, logos or videos on the wall.

Gamification

To make it more fun and engaging for attendees, in the end of the event you can select a winner randomly or reward top event contributors.

Analytics

When you close the session you get immediate access to your event analytics including all tweets, most popular tweets, top contributors etc. which is very comprehensive and available both on your dashboard and in PDF format and can be shared with your audience via social media.

#EventPlannersTalk Twitter statistics from chat on 9th February Experience vs. Academia

#EventPlannersTalk live event analytics

It was very beneficial using this platform and I will keep using it. In my opinion, to make the most out of this tool, best is to use it for multiple events to be able to compare results and the level of engagement over time. But most importantly, listen to the conversation and see what attendees are sharing, or if they are not sharing “enough”, how can you encourage them to share more and engage with your event and each other.

Sharing with you all this experience I can’t wait until the next #EventPlannersTalk event! To stay updated on all latest Twitter chats and live events, you are welcome to join the weekly chat on Twitter every Monday from 9-10pm UK time (Except on every first Monday of each month when #EventBlogChat takes place).

I would love to hear your thoughts on how to engage event attendees on Twitter and how to reward top contributors.

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Education

Popular Event #Hashtags on Twitter and Instagram

Posted on July 27, 2014

What hashtags do you usually use when you want to connect with fellow event professionals on Twitter and Instagram to stay on top of event news, or to find the best venue or catering for your event?

In this post I decided to gather the top hashtags event professionals use to connect and gather information.

Maybe the most common and international is #eventprofs. We use it to promote events, when we tweet live from conferences, to share event jobs, events we organise, blog posts and basically everything related to events and event management.

#Eventtech is another popular hashtag, and as it indicates, it’s all about tech. Be it an event app, registration system, event management software or ticketing platform, you can find all the resources when using this hashtag. In addition, event start-ups are also using this hashtag to promote their products and events.

#Eventhour is a twitter chat for event planners, venues, suppliers, event students and everyone in the events industry. In general, the hashtag is mostly used every Wednesday between 9pm – 10pm GMT, when the twitter chat takes place but can be used during the week to interact with the event community. Everyone is welcome to ask questions and start a discussion on any event related topic. Unfortunately, some companies abuse this chat to promote their products. Personally, I rarely click on the links promoted during this hour and regard it as spam. Instead, companies shall use this hour to interact with the event community, engage and contribute to discussions.

#EventAlley is an interactive live talk show for the event industry that takes place every Wednesday at 6pm GMT. Every week they host a guest and discuss new or current topics. Participants are encouraged to ask questions on twitter and express their opinions on the topic. The show is less than an hour and all the episodes can be found on their YouTube channel.

#EventBlogChat is a twitter chat for event bloggers and planners every first Monday of each month at 9pm GMT. It’s a new chat, started three month ago and gives an opportunity to the international event bloggers community to network and share best practice. Every month there will be a topic and five questions around the topic. The chat is run by myself and Caitlin from ‘I’m a Damn Student, What do I Know?’ blog.

#Eventjobs is a popular hashtag for everyone looking for jobs in the industry and often used by event recruitment agencies or agencies to promote available positions. It’s a good hashtag to use to make research if you’re looking for a job or if you are looking for event planner.

Both Twitter and Instagram encourage using hashtags and you can even create your own hashtags if you decide to use them on regular basis (for example, I use #themiceblogrecommends on Instagram to promote venues I like and trust). Because there is a 140 characters limit on twitter, in general I will use one to two hashtags on this platform. On Instagram, on the other hand, there is a limit of 30 hashtags, so I tag the photos with all relevant hashtags.

Other hashtags used by industry professionals are: #EventStudents, #EventPlanner, #MeetingProfs,#EventPlanning, #Catering, #EventDesign, #MICE and #BrandActivation.

Do you have a hashtags to add? Please share in the comments below.

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Education

1st ever #EventBlogChat to kick-off on Monday, 2nd June

Posted on May 31, 2014

The 1st ever #EventBlogChat, twitter chat for event bloggers worldwide will take place every first Monday of every month from 9-10pm GMT.

Launched by two event bloggers Caitlin Kobrak from I’m a damn student, what do I know? (@blogbykobrak) and Irina Trofimovskaya from The MICE Blog (@themiceblog) the chat will be around topics relevant for corporate and freelance event planners and bloggers.

Chat objectives:

Share know-how and best practice
Bring together the international event bloggers community and facilitate networking
Have fun

Every month a topic will be introduces with 5-7 questions around the topic.

The topic for the first chat on 2nd June is “Your Event Blog – Introduction”

Q1 – Introduce yourself and your blog.

Q2 – Where are you from?

Q3 – Do you have an individual or corporate event blog?

Q4 – Why did you start the blog?

Q5 – What other social media channels do you use to promote your blog?

Q6 – What would you like to see on this chat?

Use the #EventBlogChat hashtag during the month to connect and find event bloggers and tweet us your questions and suggestions at @EventBlogChat

See you on Monday 2nd June at 9pm GMT.

Irina & Caitlin

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