Written by Zac Olsen, CadmiumCD Product Specialist
An annual conference entails a great deal of planning, guiding, and creating. A strong and reliable website is an excellent tool for facilitating a great attendee experience for your conference. Attendees must know how to get to the conference, what to do during the conference, and after the conference convenes. Luckily, a well-structured website can be a complete guide for your conference. The following post can serve as a general outline and structure for building your website for a city-wide conference using CadmiumCD’s eventScribe line of products.
First and foremost, your attendees need to have a clear way of registering for you conference. We advise many of our clients to add a link to registration on the top of their website’s left navigation or home page for ease of access for attendees. The registration link can be directly linked to an external website or to a customizable static page created within CadmiumCD’s website module.
This page hosts more information about registration and other relevant links to the registration process. Furthermore, having registration information be accessible on your website can increase attendance, membership, or other respective enrollment(s) related to your conference. A registration page can also be a great starting point for guiding your attendees through the website to receive a terrific pre-event experience.
Through this guidance, attendees can gain insight on what programs will be offered, who will be in attendance, and other information regarding the venue.
Displaying a schedule of presentations and programs occurring provides the backbone for a conference, giving structure to attendee’s day and encompassing events. Your schedule must be accessible and display all information that is needed by attendees to ensure they are participating in the presentations and programs relevant to them. Various views of the presentations offered are also crucial in displaying the information in an organized and digestible manner for attendees.
First, a view of the conference schedule that includes everything happening during the span of the event is important in serving as an overview for what type of content is being offered and what times presentations are occurring. Next, pages exhibiting presentations by titles in alphabetical order and tracks are decisive ways to display information that helps attendees find the presentations they may want to participate in.
The presentation information that displays on an eventScribe Website can be automatically synced from CadmiumCD’s Education Harvester.
The Education Harvester is CadmiumCD’s staple product that organizes and collects [presentations information. This includes but is not limited to presentations, authors, unique distinctions, and presentation/course tracks. When a change is made to a presentation within the Education Harvester, the change will be reflected momentarily on the accompanying website. This characteristic makes onsite time and other data changes a quick and effortless task.
Depending on the nature of your conference, exhibitors can play an important role in driving engagement and attendees to your event.
Displaying exhibitor information and their respective booth information on your conference website is another great way to excite and guide attendees before during the event. Comparable to the presentation schedule and its display characteristics, the exhibitor information can be laid out in a parallel fashion.
This includes company, booth, and exhibitor category pages also accessible via the left navigation of the website. In addition to the exhibitor information on your conference website, using CadmiumCD’s eventScribe Floor Plan you can link your attendees to an interactive floor map to guide them throughout the exhibitor area(s).
Akin to the Education Harvester, the Exhibitor Harvester houses data related to all exhibitors and can be changed and reflected monetarily on a website as well.
Released in the summer of 2019, CadmiumCD’s Product Showcase is an add-on feature that allows you to highlight specific exhibitor products or services, and any additional materials needed to display the products (i.e. brochures, website links, and product images).
Items in the Product Showcase are also gathered in the Exhibitor Harvester and displayed on the website. Additionally, along with the website, Product Showcase information can be shared in the eventScribe app to make sure the information is not missed. Moreover, the Product Showcase is an excellent way to increase exhibitor related sales, grow exhibitor relationships, or increase traffic to your conference website and app.
The attendee’s experience around the time of your conference should extend outside the scope of the immediate location and events within the premises.
Including a page or two of hotel information, things to do in the area, directions, and other relevant topics is a sure way to make your attendees feel welcome and thought of before they even arrive at your conference. Furthermore, these pages can be an additional opportunity to share sponsorship links, materials, or display your organizations identity.
If an attendee has a good experience during you conference, they are much more likely to return for years to come and encourage colleagues to join them. That said the event website is a great place to start for creating your attendee’s conference experience.
Curious about what how an eventScribe website can help create a great experience for your conference attendees? Contact us for a free demo and we will be happy and willing to answer any questions you may have.
I started my college career at Harford Community College and graduated with a degree in Digital Design. The following semester I moved on to attend Stevenson University where I studied Visual Communication and Design. During this time I was able to acquire an internship at Devaney & Associates, Inc. creating videos, social media content, and assisting with design projects. CadmiumCD is my start in the professional world of customer relations and content management, and I hope to expand my skills and knowledge moving forward.
Outside of work, I love to ride mountain bikes, road bikes, go to the gym, drive, and take photos. If I am outside or exercising I am happy.