A Hook, a Theme and a Dream: Engaging with Event Attendees

Running an event, it's absolutely crucial to think about your audience and the message you want them to absorb and resonate with. 

When we sponsored the World Food Championships event last year, there wasn't a core message. Our existence was the message so to speak. It was "we're Bar Keeper’s Friend and our shit is AWESOME. You should try it!" Not much of a theme, am I right? 

This year, of course, we DID have a theme: "Every Great Kitchen Begins with Care." I can't personally take credit for it (maybe a little. LOL) because my initial idea was "Every Great Kitchen Has a Bar Keeper’s Friend." It could have worked pretty well. It was catchy and personified the cleaner in a friendly way.... and that's it. It was punny, but not effective. One of the broader messages we've been including in our strategy is that Bar Keeper’s Friend plays a role in how we care for the things that are precious to us. We care for our craft, our kitchen tools and of course, we care for the people we love. That message needed to resonate with our audience at the World Food Championships... and I didn't really "get it" until it was close to time. 

Back in 2016, I was doing event coverage and social media promotions for PERQ at #DSES - or the DrivingSales Executive Summit. Part of what made the event so successful was the THEME: "Lead Forms Are Dead." Everyone in attendance wore color coordinated shirts (and fancy TOMS shoes) with the theme's tagline, the booth itself was themed, the scheduled interactive experience demos were themed and our featured speaker incorporated the theme as well. It was cohesive, it was catchy and it got people interested in our software. People would ask "why are lead forms dead? What does that mean?" When curiosity is piqued, it gets people to listen. In the case of WFC, it meant connecting with attendees in relatable and emotional way. 

When I was tasked with coordinating WFC, those previous experiences from DSES didn't really come to mind. I think I was so laser focused on event coverage then and sending folks to our booth that I missed the big picture. My work WORKED because of the core message.

If we could do the event all over again, I would implement everything I learned back in 2016 and, of course, all of my learnings from the last few months. There probably would have been a broader, more obvious expansion of our theme. More thought into our hashtag. More thought into how we would have shown up visually. Maybe more thought into how we'd promote ourselves. Would we have leveraged OOH advertising had we solidified things sooner? Who knows?

Leading exhibitor event logistics was easily one of the most fruitful learning experiences of my entire career. I look forward to seeing what we can cook up in the future!

What was your experience like planning an event for the first time? Let me know in the comments!