Partner content.
Leslie Robertson, CEO, Open Audience, reflects on what makes a successful event – from audience profiling to audience participation.
I write this as we plan the final stages of our first ‘Open Audience’ Webinar of the year. When you read this, it will be over, but I wanted to share my thoughts as we close in on the big day.
Called ‘Engaging Pharma’, it’s an integral part of our marketing plan for Q2. We’re putting ourselves out there as ‘the’ event audience engagement technology experts in the pharma industry, and so we must walk the talk. We’ve been delivering pharma events since 2015, but it’s funny how running your own event brings things sharply into focus and helps you ‘walk in your clients shoes’.
Right now, these are the things that are on my mind:
Getting the right people to attend
There’s no point delivering a brilliant webinar if the right people aren’t there, so we’ve really focused on profiling our audience. LinkedIn allowed us to tightly target our audience and knowing exactly who they are, has allowed us to make our content even more relevant. With great event branding, we’ve pushed out a campaign on LinkedIn, sent personal messages, used PR, and mailed out through our CRM system. We’ve had a great response. So far, so good.
Delivering value
Our reputation and our obligation mean we must deliver genuine value to the people who are giving up their free time to join us. So, we asked them ‘what are the biggest challenges you face when engaging Health Care Professionals at Pharma events?’ Their feedback has enlightened us, and we’ve planned our content around their issues. Now we’re confident we can deliver great ideas and real insights to support our delegates moving forward.
Time constraints
With only 40 minutes available, we can’t cover everything, so agenda design is ‘everything’. We’ve homed in on their three biggest issues. With our experienced panellists, combined with our input, we should be able to give our audience a 360-degree tour of each of the three problems. Although it’s not a deep dive, it’s substantial enough to be meaningful.
Does audience engagement matter?
As an audience engagement company, we obviously encourage interaction, but does it really matter? I say a massive yes. People don’t expect to be ‘blah’d’ at anymore, and delegates join to learn from the speakers and panellists, but they also learn from each other – so dynamic engagement can only enhance their experience. Input/feedback alongside participation in Q&A sessions, allows us to read the room. With great technology and our experienced technology team, we can easily direct the event focus to make it even more compelling for our audience.
It’s not just about the technology
We are technology specialists, but we’re not all about tech. OpenMeet is our comprehensive platform with some really helpful engagement tools, but it’s the team, not the tech, that will make this webinar a success. Their technical excellence, depth of experience and partnership approach means I’m confident everything will go smoothly. I also value their knowledge of pharma events and audiences, and their understanding of pharma compliance.
So, I’m feeling positive. We’ve got our key objectives and we’ll use OpenMeet’s measurement and analytics tools to measure the touch points and our return on engagement. Now I’ve talked the talk, it’s time to walk the walk.
