Creative Planners Employ a Combination of Marketing Strategies to Fill Hotel Blocks

Ask Lagging registration numbers can make any conference planner wake up in a cold sweat at night. But with some creative thinking, a little background work, and a combination of marketing tools, some planners report sleeping peacefully well in advance of the event, secure in the fact that registration numbers will meet—and surpass—expectations.

Attendance marketing has become increasingly important to conference planners as travel and training budgets decrease, attrition fees mount, and conference steering committees find themselves working harder and harder to convince members and users of the value of attending a conference.

Michele Gendreau, conference chair for the National Association of College & University Food Services (NACUFS), said her group felt the squeeze of reduced travel funds in the college university market and decided to act boldly to encourage early registrations. The result was a room block that reached 124 percent of projections.

“We had to take a drastic jump and offer a big discount,” said Gendreau. “We increased the cost to register by $100, but if they registered (in the block) by a certain date, they saved $80.”

In addition to the discount, Gendreau said she believed that a combination of factors could be credited for registration increases.

“The success is in the mixture of location, theme, marketing and timing,” she said. “We promoted the conference through a ton of email blasts, a magnetic postcard, a video that rotated at the regional conferences, and really emphasized the fact that the conference would all be under one roof. And the location (Las Vegas) had so much to do with it, too. But even compared to our Orlando meeting in 2002, our numbers were really high this year.”

The National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED) also achieved a jump in member attendance at their 2004 Annual Meeting, a 30 percent increase vs. the year prior. NAED attributes this success to a combination of factors including special support from the chairman of the conference, Tom Cloud.

“He took it upon himself to educate our members on the importance of attending the conference because it helps with career advancement and education,” said Becky Burgess, CMP, Director of Meetings and Conferences for NAED. “He wrote several articles for The Electrical Distributor (TED) magazine, such as ‘Top 10 Reasons for Not Attending the NAED’, which disputed some of the reasons people give for not going.”

Burgess also noted that content for the meeting was geared to increasing profit, which was a crucial element of the conference’s success.

“We hit the nail on the head with the hot topics of our educational sessions,” she said. “We really addressed assisting our attendees with specific challenges they are facing.”
A popular location, San Francisco, plus some enticing marketing of the event also impacted attendance.

“We had a very fun tradeshow geared towards champions since our theme was ‘Champion the Channel’ (of Electrical Distribution),” she said. “We promoted a World Series theme for our EXPO and partnered with a charity that brought in retired professional baseball celebrities. It was a big draw.”

According to Burgess, as distributor registrations increased, the group responded by distributing email blasts that included the registration lists to encourage others to
follow suit.

An increased emphasis on marketing and a great location were crucial elements in filling the room block for the Association of College & University Housing Officers-International (ACUHO-I) as well, which had reached 115 percent of projections for the 2004 conference in Montreal.

“Our last several meetings were outstanding. In fact, we were turning people away last year for Las Vegas,” said Gary Schwarzmueller, Executive Director Emeritus for the association. “We had several years where we didn’t go to very glamorous places. Going to commercial venues has made all the difference.”

In 2002, they chose Orlando for the conference and opened the block a full 365 days out. The result was an increase of 69 percent in attendance versus the prior year.

“We weren’t prepared for the response—early on, we were 40 percent ahead of projections,” said Schwarzmueller. “We opened two additional hotel blocks and sold everything out.”

The board also recruited a new group of volunteers who developed an elaborate ongoing marketing plan and spent twice what was budgeted, said Schwarzmueller. It was such a success, the group trimmed a little from the plan but implemented much of the same strategy for their next conference in Las Vegas.

According to Schwarzmueller, they continued to support a year-long marketing plan complete with a dynamic logo, four-color postcards, registration brochures and magazine ads, broadcast emails, and web support. Plus, they once again opened the room block a year out.

“Opening the block early was not part of the marketing plan, but I believe it was integral,” said Schwarzmueller. “We sold out early again and had an enormous surge at the end, too. It was a fabulous financial success. Personally, I think it was good marketing.”

Another key component of the plan beginning in 2002 was to parallel the early open block with the early development of the conference program, which was offered to registrants online in a searchable database.

“It allowed people to go to their boss early on and sell the value of attending,” said Schwarzmueller. “We also emailed updates to our mailing list on a regular basis to keep it top-of-mind. When we send a reminder note, we always get a flood of responses.”

These groups prove that it is never too early to plan for next year. And those planners who learn from past results, while exploring new ideas to enhance their marketing plans, are seeing increasingly positive responses from their attendees and don’t loose sleep from fear of attrition charges.