There’s nothing quite like attending a well-organized, engaging, and high-energy conference. Whether it’s to improve your sales tactics or it’s all about your industry, you leave feeling amped and energetic; ready to apply your new knowledge to your role–and eventually take over the world.
So why is it that the farther out you find yourself from a conference, the less inspired you are? It’s all about retention: Most of the time, those positive conference vibes are short-lived because attendees start to forget what they’ve learned. It’s a major concern for conference and event organizers, and one that can be almost completely solved by the addition of post-conference microlearning. Here’s how.
Drip, Drip, Drip
Drip marketing is typically used to keep a product or service in customers’ minds by slowly “dripping” information, ads, and other reminders, usually through emails. The same tactics can be applied to some of the concepts, techniques, and talks that were presented at a conference. Pre-written messages can easily be delivered to email addresses, through social media, or even via video to help spark attendee memory retention and send them a burst of that same conference energy in their inboxes.
Role Call
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that all conference goers got the same thing out of the event. How attendees react is more closely related to their roles–how they think; how they act; how they can apply new concepts at work–than the industry in which they work.
Make sure that when you send post-conference microlearning, it’s highly relatable to each individuals’ role at their respective organizations. Contextualized eLearning is more likely to be opened, read, and retained than something that is industry, but doesn’t really apply right away. Silo attendees by role rather than organization, and you should experience higher retention rates.
Prescription for Learning
Big data is your friend in delivering small bite reminders and lessons after the conference. By tracking attendee activity, it’s possible to deliver prescriptive learning based upon the interest levels and areas for each unique person. Notice that someone keeps rewatching that video about customer service? Send an email with a few great gurus to follow on Twitter, a TED Talk that might be applicable, and a presenter’s quote from the conference. If another goer glued to learning about tech takeaways, a timely blog or update works well.
Time those lessons with a few tips for ways to put concepts into actions. A microlearning bite might come in the form of a daily challenge or a call for networking. When attendees are asked to put their new learning to practice, they’re more likely to retain information and turn it into real action at work.
When attendees leave the conference, it shouldn’t signify an end to their learning. By delivering microlearning bit by bit after the conference, that “event high” your attendees felt doesn’t need to go away once the speakers stop talking. Instead, find ways to keep new ideas, concepts, and techniques in the forefront of conference-goers’ minds and they’ll get even more out of the event.
