How to drive event success

Congress is a sell-out after CWT Meetings and Events comes on board to increase registration figures

Pre-event planning

A professional association for engineers called in CWT Meetings & Events to support it in creating a successful campaign to ensure its ticket sales target for a major new event was met. It had set a challenging goal of 2,500 delegates for its first global congress. Four months before the event was due to take place in London, the association wanted to review the current strategy to ensure it had good return on investment, including strong attendance figures.

the association partnered with CWT M&E to:

• Review registrations with a view to approaching the goal of 2,500
• Revamp the event website
• Provide marketing advice
• Market to potential delegates

Challenges

A detailed review highlighted the need to create a distinct identity and purpose for the event. It was imperative that the congress content be finalised in order that potential delegates could be targeted with information relevant to their interests. Individuals and businesses needed to be attracted to the programme and understand the value of attending.

Solution 

A member of the CWT M&E team became the project coordinator and was the single point of contact for everyone involved. Collaborating with the client, she was responsible for ensuring all elements were progressing towards a common goal.

The association set out a vision for the event, its purpose and who it was aimed at. This became the springboard for creating a programme covering topics that would appeal to specific delegate groups from different countries or areas of industry.

CWT M&E collaborated with one of our partner design agencies to create a new look and feel for the congress, ensuring that all emails, website content and other materials were aligned in terms of branding, the target audience and the event's aim. This included a brochure to send to prospective attendees.

The event website was revamped to make it more impactful and the registration form was simplified. A new email campaign containing key messages was launched.

"Coming in part-way through a project means accepting that not everything that you would choose to do is viable but being realistic in working with what you have. We were able to create an impact by applying our expertise and creativity to what was already in place," said CWT M&E account manager Amy O’Rourke.

As registrations soared, it was recognised that additional support would be needed on-site to manage the extra delegates. CWT M&E again partnered with the association to set up a successful onsite registration process and ensure all attendees felt well looked after.

Result

The event was a sell-out. Three weeks before congress, registrations hit 2,500 and further hopeful delegates were turned away.

"In a short time, we've worked together to turn this event into a roaring success. The congress was perceived really well in the industry and will now be repeated every three years," said Amy. "In future, we will be involved from the outset."

For the first time in the association's history, it experienced the benefit of employing an agency onsite at a live event. This freed up its own staff to engage with delegates and concentrate on delivering great content.

Back