3 Ideas to Turn Your Conference Program Book into a Learning Tool

The conference program book traditionally serves as a resource for attendees to manage their conference experience. Event-goers can browse the schedule, note sessions of interest, learn about speakers and sponsors, and find important event details. But this program guide can do so much more.

During our time at conferences, we’ve seen organizations get creative in how they use their printed book to support learning,  facilitate networking, and increase engagement at their events.

Here are just a few examples.

1) From Conference Program Book to Workbook

Meeting planners are always looking for creative ways to reinvent the conference format to promote active learning and collaboration. Your program book can be used to support this strategy.

Instead of including pages for notetaking at the end of the book, turn your entire program book into a hands-on workbook.

Include activities from the speakers directly in the book, instead of as separate handouts. Or pose questions throughout the pages, such as One new thing I’m going to try is… or Three things I need to share with my colleagues back home are… This will help attendees think about how they are going to apply their newfound knowledge once they get back to the office.

And don’t be afraid to get fun and creative. Many of us admittedly draw and doodle while sitting in a meeting—not because we’re bored, but because, according to some studies, it helps our focus and memory. So, give attendees a place to doodle. Leave some whitespace throughout your pages and let them know that’s what it’s there for.

2) Pass the Book

Small group activities and breakout discussions during a conference session are one popular way to get attendees talking to and learning from each other. The downside to this format is that not everyone in the group participates equally. There will always be those few who happily speak up, the few who hang back, and then everyone else lands somewhere in the middle.

The “pass the book” approach requires every group member to contribute ideas.

During this small group activity, each member of the group takes a turn and poses a question, challenge, or situation to their group members they would like peer assistance with. Rather than providing ideas aloud, fellow group members take turns writing their answers in their fellow group member’s conference workbook. The discussion happens after all ideas have been captured. This is not only a unique way to facilitate small group activity, but it also gives each group member a more memorable take-home piece.

Want to inject some more fun into the conference? Take this same “pass the book” idea and give it a high-school yearbook spin that encourages attendees to sign each other’s program books and provide short notes and contact information. Done well, this can create a more meaningful relationships-starter than handing out a business card.

3) Supplemental Learning Material

Take learning beyond the conference by providing access to supplemental educational materials within the program book. Include QR codes that link to videos or related articles and session materials.

You can also turn this into an opportunity to increase engagement with your organization by including videos from your association’s key staff promoting and linking to additional educational resources such as training courses, webinars, and publications.

If you’re looking to make an easier transition from print to digital—while still providing the tactile experience of print—add a companion digital program flipbook to your conference content offerings. Digital flipbooks have become more relevant in recent years, as it’s now easier than ever to incorporate dynamic content such as embedded audio, video, and hyperlinks within printed text.

As you’re thinking about how to structure your next conference to engage participants, create more networking opportunities, and facilitate better learning, think about how you can re-invent and re-imagine your existing tools—such as the conference program book—to play a supporting role.

Tips for Designing an Inspiring Conference Program Book

The conference program book is more than an information piece for conference attendees. It provides the first impression of your event. Here are some tips to design a book that inspires and energizes your attendees before the first session starts.

The Role of the Conference Program Book

The most common purpose of the program book is to provide important event information for attendees, including the schedule, speakers, sponsors, floorplan, and may even include presentation abstracts or papers.

It also sets the tone for your meeting and the expectations for your attendees.  Do you want them to actively participate in sessions and interact with the content and each other? Will this conference challenge them or pull them outside their comfort zone?

The design of your program book can help promote and facilitate these objectives

What Inspired Program Book Design Looks Like: An Example from ASAE

asae xdp program book 360 live media
Photo credit: 360 Live Media, www.360livemedia.com

We’d like to give a shout-out to the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) and their Xperience Design Project.

This event for meeting planners provided new and innovative ways to deliver conferences.

The branding and promotion of the event certainly communicated this objective. But as an attendee, I didn’t fully understand it until I started paging through the program book. I could tell immediately this was meant to be a fun, energizing meeting.

This extraordinary conference booklet included design elements such as non-linear text, bold typography, graphic cues, and on-page interactive elements. Together, they made it clear I was expected to actively participate in my own learning.

I was excited to be there even before the first speaker took the podium.

The takeaway: All program books provide basically the same information. Challenge yourself to think about how you can present key event information in a way that makes a lasting impact on attendees.

 

Five Design Pro Tips for Your Conference Program 

First and foremost, your program book needs to be easy for any attendee to navigate. Think of it as user experience (UX) for printed materials. Beyond that, here are six aspects of your booklet design to consider.

1. Choose fonts and typography that match the personality of your event.

There is a documented psychology behind font choices and how they trigger ideas and emotions.

Serif fonts, such as Times New Roman, convey a feeling of class and heritage, making them appear formal.

Sans serif fonts, like Arial and Helvetica, convey a straight-forward, simple and no-nonsense attitude.

Modern fonts, like Futura, convey feelings of intelligence and chic style.

If your event were a person, how would you describe them? Are they trendy and chic? Funky and unconventional? Formal and traditional? The font choice you make throughout your program book should support the overall “vibe” of your meeting.

Don’t be afraid to go big and bold with font size in unexpected places. This is a great way to provide an assertion of key ideas and themes.

And it’s okay to mashup 2-3 fonts or typeface styles. It helps to make your book feel more dynamic and less monotonous. Just make sure that how you use these fonts has a purpose and is consistent throughout the book.

2. Use color and graphics in unexpected ways

Most organizations have an established brand identity that includes a primary color palette. Too often, this primary color palette dominates the program book design. The problem with this approach is that for the reader, the content tends to blend together.

Instead, use your primary color palette simply as a base. Incorporate splashers of contracting colors throughout your program book to highlight important content, make a bold statement, or break up large blocks of content.

To choose appropriate colors, the rule of thumb is to use a color wheel, selecting colors that sit directly opposite from each other.

Graphics such as images, vector art, or iconography can be used several ways, including:

  • To make a bold point
  • To help guide and direct the reader
  • To add texture and dimension to your book design

3. Leave space for interactive content 

One of the top trends in meeting design for the past several years has been providing a more interactive and collaborative approach to the learning process. Conferences are no longer a place for attendees to simply consume learning; they are active participants.

Your conference booklet can help facilitate and promote this approach as well. Sure, providing dedicated pages to take notes is always handy, but can you take it a step further?

  • Provide thought-provoking questions and space to answer them.
  • Include short workbook-like activities in your program book.
  • Give attendees space to draw and doodle as they work through new ideas.
  • Include QR codes that link to other resources like a short video

4. Maximize Branding Opportunities Wherever You Can

cesse conference program bookletOne of our own fan-favorite program books features a simple, but impactful change from the previous year.

The Council of Engineering and Scientific Society Executives (CESSE) incorporated tabs in their program book to make it easy for users to navigate.

Taking it a step further, they used what is often blank space to extend their event branding. The flood of bold color and graphics on what is traditionally a blank page helped to reinforce the perception that this is a high-quality, professional conference.

5. Find Inspiration Outside of Your Industry

Some of the most cutting-edge event designs come from cutting-edge conferences, such as Adobe’s 99U and the Facebook Developer Conference. Take a look at how they are presenting program information and then see how you might be able to scale the execution to fit your audience.

Your conference program book can—and should—do more than simply provide logistical information. By incorporating a more inspirational design you can help shape the attendee experience well before the opening session begins.

5 Reasons to Offer Online Conference Materials (Even If You Already Have an App)

Mobile event apps have become an important, and often expected part of the conference experience. When paired with online conference materials, you provide the perfect combination of usability and accessibility for your event content.

One question we get from customers is whether it’s necessary to offer both a mobile app and web-based access to the event schedule and session content. The answer depends upon your attendees, their preferences, and how they use technology. But it’s also important to understand that a mobile event app doesn’t replace online conference materials. It complements them.

Here are five reasons to keep your online conference materials

1. Web and mobile content serve different purposes

When attendees view your event schedule and session content online before the conference begins, they are usually starting to plan their event experience—including making the decision whether to attend. After they conference, they will usually hop online again to revisit favorite papers and presentations.

Conference apps, meanwhile, help drive the on-site event experience. Attendees use them to navigate the event schedule and logistics, and connect with other attendees. Event organizers use them to provide timely updates to attendees, increase engagement, and promote sponsors.

2. Online conference materials have a longer shelf life

Some attendees may start using an event app during the days before a conference begins to scope out other attendees and make appointments. But the majority of an app’s usage happens during the event. And most attendees don’t return to the app after returning home.

Online materials are viewed days, weeks, and even months after the conference wraps up. Attendees will revisit learning concepts from sessions they attended, and use it as an opportunity to seek out content from sessions they weren’t able to attend.

3. The online platform provides increased exposure for event sponsors

One of the benefits of having both a mobile app and online conference materials is you have an additional place to promote event sponsors and exhibitors. Within your online proceedings website or platform, include your sponsors’ banner ads, videos, company descriptions, logos, and other promotional materials.  And because everything is online, you can easily track and measure engagement for each sponsor.

4. Online content can be discovered by search engines

To access content in the app, an attendee has to already be registered for the conference. But what about those that haven’t registered yet? When you put your event content online, you increase the opportunity for it to be picked up by search engines and served to prospective new attendees who are interested in these same topics (as long as the content has been search-engine optimized, of course!).  You can still restrict access to content, like full technical papers, so that only registered attendees can view them. Just make sure your conference and session descriptions are on pages that can be crawled by search engines.

5. Online conference materials can become a source of non-dues revenue

Think beyond this year’s event. Start building a multi-year library of online conference proceedings and charge members or non-members for access.  You can select who gets to see what content from recent or past events and start building a new source of non-dues revenue for your organization.

Mobile app vs. online conference materials shouldn’t be an either/or scenario. They both serve very different purposes. Together, they can increase the value of your event for attendees and beyond.

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