Unconventional wisdom for Creating Conference
Programs as Value-Added Marketing Tool- by Joan Mansbach, President, Mansbach Creative

What two facts about marketing today do we know for sure? First, we live in an age of information hungry marketers, the other is the critical importance of being customer-centric and delivering a positive experience at every touchpoint.

So how is business approaching these two marketing benchmarks?
Conference and seminar programs are cropping up as the answer to engaging and educating customers and clients. This intelligent marketing tool is fast becoming the good will ambassador across a wide variety of industry. The reason is perceived value for both the presenter and attendee. Today, value is the premise behind successful marketing. Initiatives are being planned based on their value to the target audience, both short and long term.

Rather than staging huge seminars with hefty registration fees, hotel accommodations and power packed schedules, corporate America is thinking measurably smaller, hoping to foster a “feel-good” intimacy among attendees. Many organizations are adding seminars to their industry trade shows, in addition to utilizing their own corporate conference rooms to hold these programs.

Offering clients a seminar as an education component to a trade show or as a stand alone is both smart marketing and good business. It’s reliable, relatively inexpensive and creates a positive experience that bonds the customer/client to the product/service.

Producing a successful conference program, one that will excite attendees and give them the “take-away” that’s most meaningful, requires the producer to get inside the heads of the attendees and thoroughly understand what’s important to them for growing their business. Presenting subject matter that’s fresh and interesting is exceedingly important.

Finding and securing relevant speakers can be challenging, but with the help of a good outside resource, it is doable. Interestingly, it is not always necessary to pay speakers. However, having the ability to offer a token honorarium does help to make the speaking opportunity more desirable. It takes ingenuity, resourcefulness, a complete grasp of the overall conference topic and the ability to ultimately secure speakers whose agenda is not about self promotion.

When looking at the criteria for developing a successful conference program, a budget should always be top of the list. The budget determines many factors for the framework of the conference program. Working with a conference planner to produce the program will facilitate a well run, effective seminar.

The planner creates an overall umbrella theme for the program, generally based on current topics of interest in the business arena, such as maximizing marketing tools, utilizing public relations to create brand awareness, economic issues, trends, best customer practices, new technologies, and so forth. Timely, relevant information brought to the fore by leading professionals has inherent value and is a welcome hiatus from the day-to-day business routine.

While it isn’t imperative, it is helpful if the conference planner you work with has a good grasp of your industry. Planners will secure the speakers and work with them to ensure germane subject matter, and guard against duplication of content. If providing food is part of the program, the planner can generally handle that aspect as well. Some planners can also provide copy support for the marketing materials used to advertise and promote and the program.

The planner may also assist with securing sponsors. This may require an additional fee since sponsorships are a very specific area of expertise. Sponsorships are an excellent vehicle for generating dollars toward implementing the program. Equally important, sponsorships cultivate relationships with vendors, create cross promotion opportunities and can lead to win-win marketing opportunities for both participants. Price your sponsorships realistically with value to the sponsor in mind. Recognize your sponsors and give them appropriate thanks.

If the conference is fairly small in scale, it’s a good idea to appoint an internal person as organizational liaison to work closely with your conference planner. The organizational coordinator is generally responsible for the technical and operations aspect including podiums, microphones, A.V. equipment, room set up, etc.

Basic Check List for Creating a Conference Program
- Establish a budget
- Secure a venue
- Consider location, accessibility and size
- Identify a resource to serve as Conference Planner
- Your seminar schedule:
o Avoid religious holidays and state or national holidays.
o Be sure other groups in your industry have not scheduled an event when you want to run yours.
- Site Inspection
 Is there an Audio Visual company on site? If not, how will you obtain equipment?
 Learn your speakers AV requirements, microphone preferences, etc.
 Is there a business center (if not, what arrangements can be made for last minute copying or faxing?)
 Find out if any renovation is scheduled and what impact it might have on your meeting.
- Inviting attendees & Promoting Your Seminar
 Create an unusual announcement/invitation with an RSVP vehicle
 Prepare an event program hyping the seminar and detailing the speakers bios
 Simple timed mailings serve as reminders
- Sponsorships
 A good way to price sponsorships is to offer different tiered pricing with the most expensive sponsorships having the most benefits. Here are a few ideas.
1. Sponsor names and logos on your conference website
2. Print company name and logos in pre-conference brochures and on-site programs.
3. Custom signage
4. Acknowledge sponsors during general sessions

Being a great marketer means staying ahead of the pack. You don’t really need a crystal ball—it should just look like you use one. In our competitive landscape, using a conference program as part of the marketing mix can give your company credibility and a competitive advantage by establishing affinity, engendering loyalty and serving as the value-added you want to give your customers/clients.
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Mansbach Creative is a marketing/communications consultancy specializing in the luxury lifestyle arena; with special expertise in fine jewelry, fragrance, fashion, home furnishings and table top industries, as well as working with women owned and women led businesses. Mansbach Creative produces tangible results for clients, ranging from established corporations to entrepreneurial sole proprietorships, developing smart marketing that enables them to leapfrog the competition, differentiate and position themselves to build their product or service as a brand, gain awareness and ultimately impact sales.