Don’t forget to use the hashtag - Engage your attendees to use personal technology at your next event

When it comes to engaging attendees at a meeting or event, it’s no surprise that technology plays a very big role. With social media booming and event apps offering tools for engagement within it, creating a strategy for engaging attendees is an important component to a successful event. One of the biggest missteps that organizers sometimes have is practicing what they ask attendees to do.

“The first rule that we often forget when attempting to engage attendees at an event is using the hashtag ourselves,” said Alex Plaxen, president and founder of Little Bird Told Media, via email. “We often tell our attendees to use it, but forget that we need to lead by example.”

Plaxen, who recently won the 2018 MPI RISE Award for Young Professional, also said engaging those that are using the hashtag also helps continue the conversation.

“You also need to monitor the hashtags and join the conversations you see occurring around your event,” he said. “This can be as simple as a like or retweet, but you have to take the time to engage.”

Event apps, such as Double Dutch, the company behind MPI WEC 2018’s event app, promotes attendee engagement through in-app surveys, live polls and real time Q&A during sessions.

When it comes to utilizing the technology to engage, it’s important to let attendees know the “how” and “why” behind it.

“We don't offer guidance and training,” said Plaxen about common mistakes people make when using technology to engage. “It's important to share the 'why' and the 'how' when introducing new technology. Why should the attendee use this technology? How will this benefit them?

“If you tell somebody to do something or use something they're always going to want to know the 'why' and 'how.' Technology is no different, but we often take for granted that a shiny new piece of technology is automatically something everybody wants to use.”

And for those who want to ease into engagement through technology, there’s one old-school method that has proven to be tried and true through the years. “Asking questions is a very simple way to engage that we take for granted,” Plaxen said. “Having places – posters, chalkboards, whiteboards, etc. – where we post questions to our attendees and give them the freedom to participate by answering the questions is an easy way to get feedback and find out what our attendees have to say. You can then think of new ways to continue those conversations in the future.”