The Association Executive’s Guide to Pandemic-Proofing Your Live Events

During the pandemic shut-downs, association executives learned a lot about using digital channels to engage members, provide ancillary revenue streams with virtual events and sponsorships, and provide connection and networking remotely.

Now it’s time to apply those lessons by building a digital foundation that will not only support and strengthen your in-person events moving forward, but will provide an activation-ready platform should another disaster strike.

A digital hub on your association website can provide the stability, continuity, and conduit for member engagement that can amplify your in-person events’ reach moving forward and provide an essential backstop should a global or regional occurrence force an event shutdown in the future.

A digital content hub (sometimes referred to as a “knowledge hub” or “resource library”) is a fully branded, interactive platform on your association’s website that showcases curated, thought-leadership content from sponsors. The content is free for association members but requires a form completion for members to download the content. Members get access to a steady stream of high-demand resources, sponsors get intent-based leads for business development, and associations earn incremental revenue.

Some associations custom-build their digital content hub, while others partner with a third-party, like Lead Marvels, to manage the implementation and ongoing maintenance.

A digital content hub can also serve as a digital platform to strengthen an organization’s annual event before, during, and well after the two to four days over which the live event takes place.

Most associations that have returned to in-person events are still struggling to meet registration goals. One way to nurture early interest and boost registration numbers is to use your association’s digital content hub to build anticipation for the event.

Weeks or months prior to the event, associations can build a specific area within their hub to begin driving interest and deepening the value of the event for members and sponsors alike. Members can begin educating themselves on topics that will be covered at the event so they can deepen their overall learning experience.

And as an optional upgrade to a booth sponsorship, vendors can use the hub to promote thought-leadership content that aligns with event themes. By extending their visibility beyond the four corners of the exhibit floor while also generating leads well before the actual event, sponsors will maximize their event sponsorship ROI.

Take the case of APTA, for example. In the weeks leading up to its tri-annual EXPO, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) launched an event-specific area of its content hub where exhibitors could promote enrichment-based content to drive pre-event engagement.

“Our Knowledge Hub was a great way for us to start building anticipation for our event, now that we were finally going back to in-person,” said Jack Gonzalez, Senior Director Marketing & Sales at the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). “Plus, our exhibitors appreciated the ability to begin engaging with members weeks before the event started.”

When implementing a solution similar to APTA’s, another benefit for event sponsors is that they can add a scheduling capability within the content hub so that interested members can schedule time with them while at the event.

And associations can leverage the event-designated area within their content hub to offer logistical and promotional information (e.g., event programming, hotel info) as well as educational content to whet members’ appetites on topics that will be covered in the event’s educational tracks.

Many associations learned over the course of the pandemic how digitizing their events can reach audience and member segments they may never have interacted with before. Virtual events can engage members who otherwise would not be able to attend an in-person annual meeting. Associations can use their digital resource library as a one-stop portal for members not attending the live event to access real-time video streams of educational sessions. The footage of sessions and keynotes can also be archived for members on-site but unable to attend all the sessions they desire.

Hybrid events can also drive incremental event revenue. For example, live video streams of event sessions can be tucked behind a paywall for virtual attendees to access at a reduced cost, or possibly even pay for individual sessions on an à la carte basis.

Using a virtual tradeshow platform, event sponsors can set up virtual booths to showcase their own thought-leadership content, marketing collateral, and even interact with virtual attendees.

Your white labeled digital resource library, accessible to members through your association’s website, can be the single, centralized access point for remote members.

Events tend to generate an enormous amount of valuable content. After all, that’s one of the main reasons why members invest the time and resources to attend them. Unfortunately, all too often, once the event concludes, so does the utility of the content generated at the event. However, associations can and should leverage their digital resource library to extend the shelf life of their live conference. Once the live event has ended, for example, archived versions of the educational sessions along with copies of presentations can be featured for all members – both live attendees and those not present – to access at their convenience. And it can be repurposed in creative new ways to build new learning experiences for members.

Earlier this year, the SME (The Society of Manufacturing Engineers) partnered with Universal Robots to create the Cobot Knowledge Center, a new learning path for its manufacturing-industry audience on collaborative robotic automation. With the mission to provide an educational experience for the viewer on recent advances in automation, SME designated a specific area within its Resource Center to feature archived virtual events and supplement the events with enrichment content, such as white papers, video case studies, and podcasts to round out the learning experience.

“The partnership with Universal Robots gave us an opportunity to deliver a new educational opportunity for our audience on a cutting-edge topic they may not know a whole lot about yet,” said Dave O’Neil, VP of Media at SME. “Our Manufacturing Resource Center Hub was the ideal platform to host the experience because it is always on, always available and provided the kind of direct interaction with our online viewers that Universal Robots was looking for.”

Associations can adopt an approach similar to SME by repurposing content from their events, supplementing it with additional educational material when appropriate, and redistributing it to members through a digital content hub. It’s an outstanding way to extend the shelf life and value of event-generated content, while creating new and expanded sponsorship opportunities in the process.

While COVID was devastating in all too many ways, the pandemic has shone a bright light on the importance of associations to their members’ career success as a source of both educational resources and the vital career connections they need. Though live events have always been a key reason members join and remain with an association, recent experience has made it clear that it’s time to implement a digital backstop – and not just for when disaster strikes.

To learn more about how Lead Marvels can help you pandemic-proof your live events while providing incremental non-dues revenue, request a demo or visit https://leadmarvels.com/associations.