The project team included colleagues from across the business, in the Benefits and Services team, Events team and Brand Communications team. We also worked closely with our Content, PR and Online Community teams to promote the event and increase member engagement.
Introduction
Branding in the registration area
The AAT Annual Conference is our largest CPD and networking event. We aim to enhance the event every year and we set four key goals for 2016: engage with more members, deliver new topics, add exciting features and improve the event experience. In order to reach these goals, we focused on creating a diverse programme, securing expert speakers and sponsors, and promotion the event with an effective marketing campaign.
Discovery
As the AAT Annual Conference is the main event of the year for our professional members, it’s essential that it is seen as a valuable and rewarding event. It needs to deliver excellent networking opportunities, and workshops that help our members in all aspects of their career, improving both their technical and soft skills.
It also needs to include extra features to make sure it stands out from other events that run throughout the year. While the conference attracts a large proportion of returning delegates each year, we’re also aware of the need to attract new attendees and this is something we focused on in 2016.
Objectives
The goal of the AAT Annual Conference is to provide an engaging, thought-provoking event that equips members with knowledge and skills to drive their career forward.
We agreed four key objectives for 2016 that would differentiate the conference from previous years and make it a success.
Deliver more new topics to our members to expand their knowledge and skills.
With over 50,000 professional members, we wanted to appeal to a broader spectrum of our members at every stage of their career. We also wanted to feature market-leading sponsors, who would both enhance the content of the event and increase revenue for new event features.
Add new features to maximise learning and networking opportunities.
The conference needed to reflect the increasingly diverse needs of our members. We also wanted to ensure that returning delegates enjoyed a new event experience.
Engage with more members, helping to invigorate the event.
The conference has always enjoyed a high level of returning delegates. This year, we focused on engaging members who hadn’t previously attended, with the aim to attract a total of 260 members.
Improve the event experience at every touch point to create a personalised, memorable experience.
As our event programme expands, we wanted to make sure our flagship event stands out and improve on the delegate rating achieved the previous year.
We also had three engagement and financial targets:
Gain 260 registrations (238 registrations achieved in 2015)
Generate £30,000 in sponsorship revenue (£20,000 generated in 2015)
Achieve an 8.5/10 delegate satisfaction rating (8/10 achieved in 2015).
Timeline
The key phases & activities that took place between September 2015 and June 2016
Activities
Approach
The project team began by reviewing the 2015 event feedback and brainstorming ideas to enhance the event for 2016. We then agreed our four key objectives and confirmed who was responsible for each of the key areas.
Benefits and Services team – programme creation and sponsorship management (along with our media partner)
Events team – all logistics, contracts and venue management. Also responsible for gathering speaker and sponsor biographies and session outlines, for use in marketing collateral.
Brand Communications team – managing all on and offline promotional activity, liaising with the Content, PR and Online Community teams as necessary. Also responsible for all event collateral and branding, including the AAT Annual Conference event app.
The project team met on a fortnightly basis to discuss programme, sponsor, venue and marketing updates. A weekly update email was also produced by the project team and sent to all stakeholders, which included registration numbers vs. targets and information on upcoming promotional activity.
Programme
Networking at the AAT Annual Conference
We introduced an optional networking session at the beginning of the conference, which was very popular with delegates.
We secured some of the popular speakers from 2015 to return for 2016. We then sourced new subject matter experts to create a diverse programme with brand new soft skill and technical workshops.
We also ran our most popular sessions twice, as this was suggested in the 2015 attendee feedback.
Sponsorship
We produced a sponsorship brochure for our media partner, who then secured market-leading sponsors Xero and Sage along with nine other exhibitors.
Logistics
Plenary session
We returned to the same venue that we had used in 2015 as it was popular with members for its central, convenient location. However, we secured a larger area of the hotel, which enabled us to deliver extra workshops and a larger exhibition, with features such as drop-in theatre sessions and a professional photography area.
Delegates provided feedback on the parking, accommodation and refreshments in 2015, which we took into account in our 2016 planning.
Event experience
Personalised programme and notifications
We aimed to make every aspect of the event member-focused, from registration to the closing session.
All delegates received a personalised programme featuring their selected workshops and FMAAT Premium members also received VIP check-in and an exclusive gift.
We also created a free app to enable members to network, access resources and receive personalised reminders.
Innovation
The personalised programmes, VIP registration for senior members, and live screen displaying #AATconference tweets were well received by delegates and helped to improve the event experience.
The expanded exhibition area, with the drop in sessions and professional photography area was also popular, and rated higher by delegates than in previous years.
The app also had high levels of engagement and was used by 77% of delegates to access presentations, connect with other members and ask speaker questions. We were delighted that attendees rated the event 8.9/10, which improved on the 8/10 achieved in 2015.
Marketing
We produced a month-by-month content plan to help us schedule promotional activity for the campaign. This was segmented by audience type and included:
Event promotion
Articles and blog posts in monthly newsletters
Dedicated emails to launch the event, promote the early bird extension and announce the final programme
Adverts and editorial in our bi-monthly magazine
Social media posts
A regularly updated website featuring a promotional video
Direct mail sent to previous attendees
Handouts for other AAT events.
Challenges
Timings were our biggest challenge. We were keen to announce the complete programme (including session descriptions) as early as possible in 2016, but this relied on receiving the necessary information from third parties who were working to their own deadlines. After understanding the time constraints that some of our speakers were under, we decided to change our approach and share programme updates on a regular basis on social media and on the website, rather than delay promotional activity by waiting for all programme details to be confirmed.
Achievements
The project team was able to successfully surpass all 3 engagement and financial targets for the event.
Bookings
Despite a 10% ticket price increase, the event achieved 268 bookings. This was a 12% increase on the 238 bookings the previous year and 3% over the 260 booking target. We also had over 100 members attend who had not attended the previous year, demonstrating the increased reach of the event.
Sponsorship
The event generated £50,000 revenue from sponsorship - a 150% increase on the previous year. For the first time in the event’s history, we secured two headline sponsors and three content sponsors. The sponsors hosted a total of two keynote sessions, four workshops and four drop-in theatre sessions, which were well received by delegates.
Delegate rating
Delegates rated the overall event at 8.91/10. This improved on the 8.03 achieved the previous year and also surpassed the 8.5/10 target. The positive feedback stemmed from the diverse programme, the new exhibition features and the overall smooth running of the event.
Evaluation scores and paid registrations were the two most important targets for this event, as we want to both grow the event and enhance its value to our members.
We also set ourselves a goal of improving delegate engagement via the app. Increased promotion of the app meant that it received 27,146 page views during the week of the event – a 19% increase on 2015. It was used by 77% of delegates.
We also explored new ways to encourage delegates and sponsors to use the #AATconference hashtag, and over 400 tweets were sent before and during the event.
Improved delegate experience and engagement
Delegates rated the conference 8.9/10, compared to 8.2 in 2015.
92% said they intend to return again in 2017.
More delegates joined the conversation, with 412 #AATconference tweets sent – a potential reach of 2.1 million.
App users made 27,146 page views during the week of the event – a 19% increase on 2015.
What would we do differently?
After the 2016 event had taken place, the project team met to review its success and share ideas for future. We agreed to shorten our promotional period for 2017, as this would use less staff resource and would also mean we were not trying to promote the event in December – which is not a strong month for member engagement.
We also wanted to enhance the gala dinner – we will achieve this by introducing our new AAT Professional Member Awards as part of the evening programme in 2017. This should also increase the reach of the Conference to a wider section of our membership.
Feedback & Testimonials
Attendees
“Overall it was excellent as always and very relevant for licensed members.”
“It was my first time at the annual conference having only recently become a full member in January. I really enjoyed meeting members and learning new things. I am already looking forward to next year’s conference.”
“Great way to keep up with your CPD while meeting like minded individuals and getting out the office.”
“Although I had considered it many times before this was my first visit. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was informative, excellently planned and such a lovely friendly atmosphere. I will come again next year. Thank you very much.”
Exhibitors
“We really enjoyed the event. We had great conversations with Partner & End User leads and existing Users.”
“@markfarrarAAT congratulations to you and the team for an excellent conference. One of the best I’ve attended.”
