In partnership with eTouches, Social Tables' Community Manager, Laura Lopez presents 3 ways you can build a thriving, active events community.

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3 Ways to Build a Thriving Events
Community
Laura Lopez
Community Manager at Social Tables
Melissa Lombardi
Marketing Associate

2. Event communities aren’t built overnight; it takes time to
engage your audience – a critical component of developing
true relationships with them.
● Face to face isn’t going away.
● Events are all about experiences. How can your
community support that?
● Engaging with your community has never been easier.
Why are we doing this webinar?

3. By the end of today’s webinar, you’ll learn…
● How to get to know your community, inside and out
● How content plays into building your event community
● How empathizing with your community can help increase
their ROI (and potentially, future event attendance)
Learning Objectives

4. About Me
I love events! I love community!I love tech!

5. Who makes up your events community?
● Attendees: past, present, and future
● Sponsors
● Brand admirers
● Everyone that makes an event happen: caterers, planners,
venue/ property, audio visual technicians, and more!
Getting to know your events community

6. What kind of events do they attend?
Things to consider: meetups of your local PCMA, NACE, or ISES
chapters, check out the event hashtag
How do they decide the kinds of events they attend?
Things to consider: topics of interest, speakers, programming
(networking opportunities, educational opportunities)
Getting to know your events community

7. Attend the events your community goes to.

8. So, what exactly is content?
Content is the information or experiences directed towards
an audience.
Content can be delivered through different mediums, like TV,
video, print, social media, or live events.*
How can content build community?

9. But wait… that sounds like building an events community!

10. What kind of content should I use?
● Social media
● Blog posts
● Video
● Email
● Snail mail?
How can content build community?

11. Before your event:
Use the event hashtag
Pre-event surveys: what do your attendees find most valuable?
- Speakers? (Feature them in your communications)
- Networking events? (What opportunities will there be at the event?)
Hardcopy invite
How can content build community?

12. During your event:
Live social media walls
Engage, engage, engage!
Video testimonials filmed at the event
Photobooth + event yearbook = networking in disguise
How can content build community?

13. After your event:
Thank you for attending emails
Post- event slide decks, info for next year’s event ;)
Leverage your influencers and blog
Videos
How can content build community?

14. Remember when you noted what your community likes/ doesn’t like?
Empathizing with your community will help build better events.
Journey mapping
Social media audit via hashtag
Post-event surveys
Bottom line: it involves listening, putting
yourself in your attendees’ shoes then taking action.
How empathy plays a role in building community.

15. Get to know your events community by being a part of it.
Use content as a way to celebrate your events community
members, both outside events and during them.
Leverage empathy as a means to listen to your community (and
build better events).
3 Key Takeaways

16. Questions??

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More questions?
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