Event Marketing Management

An international nonprofit organization was planning a global four-day event in Geneva, Switzerland that included a two-day conference, a gala dinner, and the establishment of a hall of fame with an induction ceremony for the inaugural class of award recipients. Since the organization was lean in terms of in-house staff, the client contacted McKinley Marketing Partners recognizing a need for an additional experienced event marketing management resource to help execute the many marketing and logistical aspects of the event.

With only 90 days remaining before the event, the client needed someone to assist the event director with all aspects of conference planning and execution including, but not limited to:

• Creating a project timeline including key milestone dates, tasks and activities
• Identifying gaps in planning and securing needed resources
• Coordinating with staff, vendors, and venues to ensure all tasks are completed on time and within budget 

Solution

McKinley placed a marketing consultant with over 15 years of event marketing and marketing communications experience.  The consultant accomplished many milestones for the organization, which included:

• Hall of Fame Establishment

• Established the Hall of Fame (HOF) as its own brand

• Developed and executed the HOF award program strategy, including award selection, production, and distribution
• Collaborated on run-of-show schedule for induction ceremony

• Served as point of contact for HOF recipients, coordinating travel, and accommodations

• Coordinated Remote Participation

At one of the first planning meetings that the consultant attended, the idea was presented to add a remote participation component to the conference.  The consultant volunteered to take the lead on this element of the conference.  She conducted research, formulated a strategy and received the client’s approval to execute her plan.

She built an internal team to develop remote participation guidelines and instructions for the hub hosts and moderators.  They trained the remote moderators on-site in Geneva and set up Livestream broadcast feeds of selected conference sessions on the organization’s website.

It was suggested that remote participation would be considered successful if it engaged 200 to 300 remote participants and four or five chapters would host remote viewing events.  Exceeding all expectations, efforts yielded 12 remote hub locations, representing almost every continent, and measurement metrics confirmed over 1300 unique sign-ins to the remote website over the two-day conference.

• Managed Application – EventMobi™

The consultant was tasked with investigating a new conference application to determine its suitability and relevance at the conference.  She decided to implement EventMobi, an interactive mobile app that runs on any mobile smart phone or tablet device.  This app allowed users to view the program guide electronically, saving substantial printing costs.

Usage rate of the app exceeded all expectations with over 90 percent of registered on-site participants installing the app.  Over the course of the conference, the app registered more than 3,000 pageviews over the two primary conference days.

The positive results experienced with EventMobi have led the organization to expand the usage of this app at subsequent events with equal success and savings.

• Post Conference Satisfaction Survey

Given the consultant’s extensive experience in the design and implementation of customer satisfaction surveys, she accepted the project management responsibility for this element of the conference.

She provided the content and organizational design of the survey instrument and contracted with a research company based in Switzerland to program and launch the data analysis and reporting.

Early results of the survey indicated a response rate in excess of 40 percent, and an overall satisfaction rate of 97 percent, ‘Very Satisfied’.  Over 90 percent indicated that they would be likely to repeat attendance at future association events.

The consultant placed on the project worked with a diverse group of interim and full-time staff globally positioned and focused on a common goal – creating a successful event.

“The McKinley Marketing consultant we hired exceeded our organization’s expectations. McKinley delivered a consultant who fit well in my department and the organization as a whole.  The consultant worked in our office full-time and was very communicative, which made it easy to work with her. Overall, she had an excellent attitude, great work ethic and strong event marketing management experience.”

– VP, Strategic Communications and Planning for an International, Nonprofit Organization