TIPS: Hosting a developer conference
Be unique
- You need useful speakers and valuable content for the attendees.
- As a developer conference, providing access to real people that know code is essential to making the attendee experience really valuable.
- Put thought into the sessions and create valuable workshops. Attendees go to learn "hands-on" so they can get instant feedback.
- You could let attendees hire rooms to host their own sessions.
- Create opportunities for attendees to demo & share their work with other attendees using a demo-zone and kiosks.
- Surprise attendees with new ideas that you haven't let them know about to keep everything fresh.
Get sponsors
- A recent event with the Lone Star Ruby Conference had just under 20 great sponsors. Thats smart!
- Work with existing partners to create an event that they want to be involved in. It's a smart move to start working with partners early, focus on exciting content and make them an important part of the event. You can even integrate them into sessions, Q&A's and workshops instead of them donating things.
Use social media
- Use social media to connect attendees and get buzz.
- Set up a Twitter account and a Facebook event page. We have posts about how to promote with Facebook and Twitter.
- If possible, speak to great bloggers so that you can create great content for them for them to want to write posts.
- Social media is great to spread your news, which is important for reaching potential attendees.
- Use a smartphone to create videos about the conference build up, so that people have something to share and get excited about.
- Stream the Twitter feed so that everyone can see the buzz and chatter in real-time.
NEWS: Launching a bundle of new tools and updates
Today, we are excited to launch new tools for you to use with Eventzi. As we promised during our pricing update, we have been able to build new features to help you sell more tickets.
You can read more about each feature from the list below:
Cheers,
Scott
NEW FEATURE: Discount Codes
We’ve just released a new feature called Discount Codes. This was one of our most requested features and we are excited to see how people will use them.
NEW FEATURE: Track Links
We’ve just released a feature that lets you Track Links. We create automated tracking links to your event page, your exported ticket box or event page, showing visits and orders from those links.
You can also create your own unique links that are brilliant if you have promoters or if you promote on different social networks. You can create a unique link for each promoter and see who gets the most sales. You can test which social network generates the most sales and you can double up on your efforts based on the stats. This is a powerful tool and can really help you make more sales.
NEW FEATURE: Custom event page background
We’ve added the ability for custom event backgrounds in Eventzi. It really allows you to make pages unique and personal.
We’ve integrated uploads into the existing background picker that is found at the bottom of the Edit Page for your event. The uploader fits in with the background thumbnails.
NEW FEATURE: Eventful
We have added a hidden little gem for all public events. Whenever your event is published, we submit your event to eventful.com.
In Eventful's words:
"Eventful is a leading digital service connecting consumers with entertainment and live events. Over 17 million people rely on Eventful every week to find out what's happening and decide what to do; from movies, concerts and sports to family fun and nightlife. With a comprehensive movie showtimes section and over 4 million local events to enjoy, Eventful provides the world's most comprehensive selection of local entertainment content. Eventful serves its users across multiple platforms including online, iPhone and email programs, all of which deliver highly personalized content to each user."
NEW FEATURE: Ask Questions
Being able to ask attendees questions during are the registration process was our most requested feature at Eventzi. For many hosts it was a "must-have" feature. We now let you collect information from attendees using text, drop options and checkboxes.
You can use our standard quick questions or create your own custom questions.
If you need to collect meal preferences, t-shirt sizes or anything else, you're sorted!
NEW FEATURE: We ♥ SendGrid
We are bringing better ticket delivery to Eventzi with SendGrid. We are upgrading to a world-class email delivery company which has some amazing customers gushing about them.
E-tickets will have a higher delivery rate and will be delivered into your attendees inbox quicker than ever.
We can track an amazing amount of data about each e-ticket, helping us to help you if there are ever any problems.
NEW FEATURE: Mailchimp integration eek eek
We are giving you a new tool to help with email marketing! Our Mailchimp integration provides a smooth way to get the word out with personalised email invitations. Infact you can use it to send updates or post-event surveys.
Inside Eventzi you now have the ability to automatically export your current and future attendees straight into Mailchimp. Its really easy. You can learn more about using our Mailchimp integration here.
They have brilliant pricing options including free and pay-as-you-go. Sign up here to get started.
Eeeek Eeeek EEEEEEEK!
