Customer Events

I came across an interesting blog post today at Chelsey Jean on the Durham Scene. She brings up the cyclical problem that conference planners and conference attendees face more and more often these days: planners on tight budgets have to charge more for events, so attendees decide your event is not worthwhile to attend, which means you need to raise costs even more to cover low attendance numbers, and so on and so forth.

If you want to keep registration numbers high at your conference, you'll need to convince attendees of its value. Make your conference too good to resist. And, as Chelsey points out, value is not always based on your event agenda alone. She blogs, "They will want to know, 'Do they have a local baseball team?,' 'Are there any yummy Thai restaurants?,' 'Can I get some Christmas shopping done while I'm there?'"

I completely agree! Certainly the bulk of an attendee's decision will come down to the value of what your conference offers in terms of education, training, networking, etc. But think about it: you've been invited to an organization's annual user conference that may teach you a few new things. Or, you've been invited to an organization's annual user conference that may teach you a few things, plus the planner told you that the destination is home to a new four-star restaurant, a museum featuring work by that artist you've been meaning to check out, a three-level shopping plaza full of your favorite stores...you get the idea.

In the end, you may not even have the time to explore the conference city as you would on a leisure trip. But doesn't the idea alone start to push you in the direction of registering "Yes"?

That's one of the ideas behind resources like the Cvent Destination Guide. Whether you're still narrowing down meeting destination options or you've already chosen one, it's important to have some background on what a city can offer not just your event, but your attendees and their guests, too. Where can spouses and children go during conference hours? Check out the Family Activities we list for each city.

In the evening, where can attendees catch dinner and a show? What are the best nightclubs and bars for the younger set? You can find all this in Entertainment and Nightlife sections presented on each destination.

It's all there for you in profiles of over 100 cities worldwide. The Destination Guide is a free resource that saves you time spent researching a meeting destination. So the next time you want to know what kind of value your event can offer to an attendee outside the boardroom, make sure to visit the Cvent Destination Guide.