Question

Topic: Strategy

Innovative Customer Event Ideas

Posted by Anonymous on 1/17/2014 at 7:56 AM ET 250 Points
we have our every 2 yearly customer event coming up in June and we are looking to change the format.
We are looking for innovative ideas to get the delegates engaged in advance of the event and during.
Most events these days are presentations with an area for stands for demos etc.
The event lasts for 2 days, we will have a plenary for presentations and a full afternoon of technology showcase of our products and solutions - we are a software and services company.
Does anyone have any tried and tested ideas around livening up the plenary session and some cool ways to give a technology showcase a new edge? many thanks in advance for your replies
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Mike Steffes on 1/17/2014 at 8:24 AM Accepted
    Think of some things you could do that would actually benefit your customers.
    Maybe there is a very common problem they would appreciate seeing solved...something.
    Just a showcase of your products isn't all that beneficial to your customers' real needs.
    Use this event to really give your customers something, if possible, something they'll talk about.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 1/17/2014 at 8:25 AM Accepted
    Have people live vote (via text msg) for the various presentations (to see live audience thumbs up/down)
    Give audience members short slots to talk about THEIR business/technology
    Solve an audience's technology needs using the assembled technology/brain power of room
  • Posted by Moriarty on 1/19/2014 at 11:34 AM Accepted
    Well, as the member who's got the best qualifications to be the futurist - I will state my piece.

    What worked for you before? What did not - and in both cases, why? My point is that you're an established company with an established customer base. Your job is to please them because that means profits - so do please listen to the things they tell you.

    Even if they tell you something's wrong!

    Now you've got until (say) early April to get this untangled, right? So how about asking customers what they liked in the past, and what they'd like to see. The other option is to do a little Moriarty Magic, that is to say, I'll put my other hat on and do some futurology instead of marketing. They have more in common than most people realize - and there's nothing like the pathetic "the past is no guide to the future". This is serious stuff that is based on a clear understanding of how your best clients behave.

    Put another way, if you supported a football team in your childhood, it's pretty likely that you'll like them in 10 years time. IF you didn't like Brussels' sprouts as a kid, it's pretty likely that you'll not like them in 10 years time. Sure, all things can change - and on a whim! The point is that in 100 cases, 75 of these occurrances will be true. So it's more of a statistical likelyhood than firm fact - it is enough however to plan for an event in June. And that's not even 10 months away.

    Are you with me?

    You can also work out what your best customers like (which always has a lot to do with what you do best) and run an online Adwords (PPC) campaign to find out what these people are interested in. This will take you a couple of weeks to determine, if you can get an Adwords consultant who can rig you up a sensible campaign of this kind.

    Does this say anything to you?
  • Posted on 1/20/2014 at 1:59 AM Author
    Hello everyone, thanks for your input...
    I think I need to clarify this a bit further - in terms of the content this is OK we have what we need (based on advisory boards and customer feedback) - what I'm after is a change in format, that is how we run the plenary session. Rather than presentations do you have any other type of format that creates more of a wow and also produces more interaction? baring in mind that this is director up to C level attendees. thank you.
  • Posted by Moriarty on 1/20/2014 at 4:37 AM Member
    Well, in any situation of this kind, it's best to tailor it to your client's needs. Be they directors or dustmen - they're all human. Only Directors have different needs and aspirations from dustmen.

    Plus, your directors won't want anything too different; they like continuity.

    Another thought - do your target audience LIKE interacting? If so, in what manner do they like doing this, and to what extent? Knowing this will give you a much better idea of what will make the changes worthwhile for your audience.
  • Posted on 1/20/2014 at 7:31 AM Author
    Over the number of times that we have conducted this event / forum there has been various levels of interaction, be it at the plenary or through the technology showcase. We have had voting based on questions from the speakers, we have had ticket tombolas offering prizes through a draw that you could only enter if you went round each of the demos, we have had workshops that were decided by an online survey.
    I'm looking for concrete examples, ideas that you have seen at other events that you thought worked quite well or even an idea you haven't tried yet. For example, I saw a presentation last year where the presenter invited someone up on stage and then they were "acting" as the passenger for his company and he took them through a scenario - it was clever, funny and interactive and worked very well.
  • Posted by saul.dobney on 1/20/2014 at 8:48 AM Accepted
    The audience presumably comes to be educated, to get some new ideas and try out some new software and to meet contacts. For technology audiences something whizzy to see - so monster tech with the biggest/fastest kit. Or something related eg a chance to sit in an F1 car or play with some fancy piece of hardware - eg a drone or 3D scanner and printer, or arcade game. Advice desks where you get to sit down one-on-one to discuss a problem with a service guy (with beer if appropriate). A feature 'market' - ask for suggestions for new features/ideas, then delegates get voting tokens that they can 'spend' on the features they want to see either at a booth, or spreading the possible features around the demo areas (with leaders, trenders showing on a large presentation board). The fastest customer test - where customers go head to head eg for a drawing program the fastest to create a certain picture. Or your engineers in a hack-challenge. Vox pops in the keynote speech so it's not just one voice. Music, lasers, smoke machines, lighting effects and reveals. Stooge hecklers. Staff flash mob....
  • Posted by cookmarketing@gmail. on 1/20/2014 at 12:25 PM Accepted
    Have two break out sessions, teams of 4-5...one if how to best use your products...change teams...what do want to see/use next
  • Posted on 1/27/2014 at 2:26 AM Author
    thanks for the recent posts!
    Saul is getting close to what I'm looking for...
    Break out sessions have been tried in the past but the audience is not the audience that likes to sit in a workshop and discuss it seems that this is not what director level and up are keen to do and its difficult to get them to share ideas.
    What I'm looking for is a new way to present in the plenary session where there is a captured audience, we could have voting for certain questions from the speaker or we could integrate a panel discussion that choses people from the audience by drawing their names from a hat - a bit of a risk perhaps. We have the specific subjects/topics in mind and the 2 days will be split up into 4 segments including the tech showcase. There wont be many engineers there from the audience - mostly commercial people.
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