Topic Generation for conferences and events

Generating new ideas, coming up with new topics and identifying new markets are key to running and growing a successful events business. But many companies stay with tried and tested events, often missing out on great new opportunities. With competition more intense than ever, it is vital that your business constantly regenerates itself and keeps up with your target market.

Outline

Knowing your target market and mapping your universe

• Defining the pyramid of your market
• SWOT — its use and application in topic generation
• Mapping your market
• Gaps in the subject matter of your courses. Where are they?
• Where is the competition — are you letting others take part of your market?
• Client analysis:
  • Which clients spend most money, and why?
  • What are you doing to maximise client spending?
  • Which competitive events do they attend — why?
  • Where are potential new clients?

Maximising the potential for developments from existing events

• Analysing and learning from delegate lists
• Reviewing marketing analysis and understanding how it can inform topic generation
• What the competition can tell you

Generating ideas from traditional and social media

• Identifying and monitoring the media, press, TV and internet
• Monitoring new associations, media launches and international bodies
• Learning from telesales: putting in the right structure to capture all potential topic information
• Generating new topics from social media

Using the market as a dynamic source of topic generation

• Making full use of delegates, speakers and sponsors at your events
• Maximising the use of online customer survey tools to research new markets and test topics
• Building advisory boards to maximise market knowledge and access top-level know-how
• Pro’s and con’s of using blogs and other social networking tools

Geo-cloning your conferences

• Evaluating which topics are suitable for export
• Assessing relevant markets and key considerations for launches
• Modifying events for target markets

Motivating your team to originate new ideas

• Putting in place structures to ensure topic ideas aren’t ‘lost’
• Incentivising the team for viable new ideas
• Coaching your team into topic generation

Establishing criteria for evaluating new topics

• Developing a topic viability checklist
• Testing new topics — qualitative / quantitative — using your ‘gut feeling’
• Evaluating the role of risk in topic generation