Personify has been a longtime partner of Blackbaud and we are pleased to return to bbcon this year. You can meet with the Personify team at one of our two education sessions or stop by booth #400 in the expo hall. We’re also the official sponsor of the headshot lounge so I encourage folks to get a new headshot taken for your website or social media platforms while you’re at the conference. 

Looking at the conference agenda and list of breakout sessions, there are a wealth of opportunities to gain knowledge and best practices. Here are some of the sessions that I’m most looking forward to attending: 

Emerging Tech Trends and Their Impact on Social Good 

Tuesday, October 15, 2019 from 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM 

Join Blackbaud product and innovation leaders along with Amy Shope Manzi from the American Heart Association as they examine technology trends and innovations affecting social good organizations and those who support them. We’ll give an overview of emerging trends and discuss how to prepare for upcoming technology changes. 

Educate, Empower, and Connect Your Constituents Through An Online Community 

Tuesday, October 15, 2019 from 2:45 PM – 3:30 PM 

Personify’s Benjamin Morton and Forté’s Krystal Brooks will share how to increase engagement and extend your organization’s programs with an online community. This session will provide tips that other nonprofits can implement while showing how Forté uses its community to empower women who are pursuing MBAs. 

Right Message, Right Person, Right Channel: Direct Marketing Analytics at the National Park Foundation 

Wednesday, October 16, 2019 from 11:15 AM – 12:15 PM 

Constant experimentation is how the National Park Foundation drives engagement through its extensive direct marketing programs. Join this session to hear from John Wilburn, director of direct response at the National Park Foundation, about how he’s using advanced analytics to drive strategy and deliver results.  

Connect Your Audience and Drive Engagement With An Online Community 

Wednesday, October 16, 2019 from 6:10 PM – 6:30 PM 

Personify’s Benjamin Morton will provide an overview of online communities and share how nonprofit organizations can leverage them to achieve success for their organization. Learn how the Canadian Cancer Society supports people who are affected by cancer via the Cancer Connection community and how Forté empowers women who are pursuing MBAs through the Forté Connect community, both of which are powered by the Personify Community platform. 

Peer-to-Peer Freakonomics: The Surprising Decisions People Make When Donating to Nonprofits 

Thursday, October 17, 2019 from 8:30 AM – 9:15 AM 

Peer-to-Peer Freakonomics will teach you to look at your fundraisers through the lens of consumer behavior. The topic was inspired by the 2005 book Freakonomics, which chronicled how ignoring conventional wisdom often results in better outcomes. Some of what you’ll learn will seem counterintuitive. 

If you’re planning to attend bbcon, learn more about the activities we have planned for the conference, schedule a meeting with our team and find out how you can enter to win a trip to PersoniFest 2020. 

The post What We’re Looking Forward to at bbcon 2019 appeared first on Personify.

If you’re an event organizer, you’re often a jack (or jill) of all trades. You spend countless hours working to deliver a compelling lineup of speakers and sessions, develop professional development opportunities to help attendees grow in their careers and make new connections, and recruit event exhibitors and sponsors that will appeal to attendees. But let’s face it—we couldn’t host a successful conference without the organizations that participate in our event including exhibitors, attendees, speakers, sponsors and more.

If you’re looking to build long-term relationships with the organizations that invest time and resources at your events (and I’m guessing that you do), it’s critical to recognize and appreciate their contribution and show the value that is associated with being part of your event. We’re sharing four ways that you can recognize event exhibitors in person, online and via mobile and social, and demonstrate value:

1. Create Dedicated Activities for Event Exhibitors

Your partners and vendors likely have many options to invest their limited resources (both their marketing dollars and their staff’s time). To make sure that you’re creating an experience where exhibitors and sponsors feel valued, create dedicated activities to help them connect with attendees and prove the value of your conference.

This can include an exhibitor happy hour and gamification of the expo floor where attendees compete to visit different exhibitors for prizes and raffle drawings. You could also host an exhibitor spotlight where companies promote their solutions and product offerings over the lunch hour. Another option is to host a get together aimed at new attendees and sponsors to help first timers make new friends and exchange ideas.

2. Drive Traffic for Event Exhibitors via Website, Social Channels and Community

When Personify exhibits at a conference, the reason that we do it is because we want access to the audiences that the organization serves and to be able to show attendees the unique value that we can provide to solve a challenge or meet a goal. Similarly, with your exhibitors, you can increase the ROI of the exhibitor experience by creating high visibility for their organization.

Make sure that your exhibitors and sponsors are featured prominently on your organization’s website with an interactive floor plan and a link to more information about the exhibiting organization. Create space in the editorial calendar for your social media plan and in your online community to highlight exhibitors that will be at your upcoming conference. And, make sure to backlink to the exhibitor’s website to drive up their SEO value.

Before, during and after PersoniFest, our social media team pushed out dedicated social and community posts for our sponsors and exhibitors to show our appreciation for taking part in our annual conference.

3. Celebrate Their Success with Your Constituents

In addition to providing a time and space in the agenda for folks to visit the expo hall, consider creating an awards program or an appreciation dinner to highlight constituents’ success stories. This not only allows your members, donors and volunteers to learn from their industry peers, but also provides an outlet for exhibitors and sponsors to showcase their solutions and partnership opportunities with your organization.

For example, we created the Persi Awards at PersoniFest to highlight client success stories from the previous year. When possible, we included mentions of Personify’s partners and exhibitors that worked with our clients to help them reach their goals.

One of the 2019 Persi Award winners is our client the Texas Hospital Association who undertook a massive effort to move their billing and collection processes in house. We shared, both onstage during the keynote and afterwards in the blog post recap, how our partner and Personify exhibitor Intellidata played a crucial part in their billing transformation.

4. Directly Connect Event Exhibitors with Attendees

It’s a common issue that I have experience when attending a conference. I’m looking for a technology tool that can help me do X, Y and Z but I’m not sure which exhibitors offer that type of solution and so I spend time wandering around the expo hall hoping to come across a vendor that meets my needs.

There’s a better way. Intelligent matchmaking enables an attendee to connect face-to-face with experts that have a solution for a specific pain point or challenge in their organization. As part of your pre-show strategy, attendees can share the types of solutions they’re looking for on the expo floor and exhibitors can respond before or during the conference about how their solutions can help.

While this list includes a few ways to improve your exhibitors’ experience, it’s certainly not an exhaustive list. If you’re looking to revamp your exhibitor marketplace at your annual conference or tradeshow, learn more about our solutions for event professionals.

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