EANS 2015 – Event Attendance Going Beyond Client Expectations
Enhancing and Increasing a Network to Boost Meeting Attendance
Client: EANS – The European Association of Neurosurgical Societies
Location: Madrid, Spain
Solution: Congress Management (PCO) Education
CLIENT CHALLENGE
What did the EANS Board want to achieve with this congress?
- To enhance networking and interaction amongst the attendees
- To guarantee an in depth learning experience
- To boost meeting attendance
THE SOLUTION
AIM focused on the existing network and worked to enhance it with the following strategy:
1) Derive benefit from EANS as well as the Local Organising Committee’s networks to address speakers and opinion leaders. Word of mouth by opinion leaders / respected persons within the discipline is a highly efficient tool that focuses the heart of a potential audience.
2) Together with the client we single out opinion leaders as well as individuals by using a range of methods including newsletters with scientific content, advertisements in neurosurgical journals, direct mail to heads of departments and, over all, networking with other societies to facilitate the benefits garnered from each other’s audience.
3) Listen to the client’s needs and act as a consultant to help them to achieve their goal.
AIM first had to determine with a SWOT analysis where the association is strong and where our contribution as consultants was required.
4) Listen to the industry’s needs and help them to achieve an extraordinarily good flow of people by making the Exhibition Area a lively and well-frequented spot, with the placement of the catering area in the middle of the industry exhibition and guiding participants into the exhibition area during the breaks. The Opening Reception took place in the Exhibition Area with a live show of the art of ham cutters reaching a high number of visitors.
5) Promotion
- Newsletter sent weekly to a database of 7500 neurosurgeons, up to 40% of recipients opened the congress newsletter on a regular basis.
- Website generated 21000 visits in total and, of this number, 75% were unique visitors..
- On-site promotion: 14000 brochures and 4000 promotional give-aways sent to around 80 congresses all over the world.
The result of an increase of participant numbers led to:
1) An overflow solution was provided with a live transmission in the session hall next to the main auditorium.
2) Huge interest by the industry resulted in a fully sold out exhibition area.
OUTCOMES
- 1300 attendees – exceeding our expectations of around 500 pax.
- 46 exhibitors with more than 450 square metres net of exhibition space sold, an increase of more than 50% compared to the previous Meeting.
- 7 symposia sold to the industry, which reflects an increase of 40%.
- 812 abstracts submitted, 42% more compared to the previous Meeting.
- 135 invited speakers with a total of 200 presentations.
- 98% of positive feedback about the organization.
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