Using video in your event marketing is a great way to give potential delegates/attendees/sponsors a teaser for what's to come... or to endorse your conference.

With video coming up in blended search results, this is a great way for your conference and event to be found online.

Here are a few video ideas to get you going for your conference or event:

1. Showcase your conference location as a destination:

Are you going to a captial city of Australia? 

For our event websites, we like to add text and images to our about the destination webpage... but why not also embed a video highlighting the beauty of the conference destination?  Often you can find these videos from the media library of your destination's tourism bureau.

This way, potential delegates can  visually engage across all mediums.  This is especially great if you have international visitors.

Here is an example of a promotional video of Brisbane that we may embed in our 'About Brisbane webpage':

What a great way to have the text on the page talking about the great weather and lifestyle in Brisbane, and you have a video to prove it!

2. Promotional video for your conference or event:

Do you hold an annual conference?  Why not get a videographer to film your conference this year so you can have footage for a promo video for next year's event? 

Here is a great example we found of a promo video for South by Southwest (SXSW):

 3. Interview the speakers:

Asking speakers for a few minutes of their time to answer a question that may have not been covered during the presentation or panel discussion gives delegates another opportunity to engage with the event and a great value add.

Check this with the MC, facillitator and speaker. They may be excited to be involved with this additional opprtunity.  It's great exposure for them too!

We have made our first foray into video for events - here is a video for one our monthly Networx events 'Blogging & Video Marketing for Business':

As the event organisers, we didn't want to just film the event's panel discussion from start to finish and make it publicly available.  Having a video with 'never-before-seen' footage gives the event attendees fresh content, and a snapshot for people who weren't there.

4. Interview the attendees or delegates:

Client testimonials are important for any business for endorsement; so filming attendees give their tick of approval for the event can be invaluable.

Here is an example of an attendees' feedback video reel that we found from the SES Conference:

If it's an annual conference or event, it's a good idea to include the attendee's name and company name in the video graphics.  Try to get first-timers!  They have a wonderful enthusiasm and genuine excitement for the conference.

Adam Franklin recommends that "once the testimonial is done, keep the video recording and ask if they give you permission to use that video on YouTube and for marketing purposes. This is way easier than worrying about signing release papers!"

Tips for your planning:

1. Speak with your conference organiser so they can budget for a videographer.  It's easier to factor in a videographer in the planning stages.  Potentially the audio visual company knows a good videographer; it may work out better if it's all streamlined.

2. Get a professional!  It is worth the investment in dealing with a professional video production company.  It is one thing to film the conference, but you need a professional to look after the post production too.

3. Make sure you have a video marketing brief! This may be an appointed person on the organising committee. 

4. Remember that it needs to be hosted somewhere!  Ideally, I think it should be on an YouTube channel and shared/embedded from there.  This is so the number of views can stay in one place and you can keep track of it all.

If this is an annual conference or event, why not secure the URL for your conference or event's YouTube channel.  You can make the settings private until you're ready to launch. 

If you have other various marketing videos for your association or organisation's YouTube channel, it could be added to there.

3. Have a plan for where you'll be putting your video. Will it be on an event-branded YouTube channel, email newsletter, conference website or Facebook page? Share, share and share!

All the best with your videos, give it a go, and don't look back!

Posted by Lisa Ma, June 07, 2011 in ARTICLES | TIPS