2 INTRODUCE NEW PRICING TIERS AND PACKAGES 3 OFFER TAILORED OPTIONS “Moving to virtual and hybrid events is opening up more opportunities than constraints for us,” says Zoie Jansen, events manager at Vancouver’s Pacific Dental Conference and trade show, which attracts 15,000 delegates in the dental industry. “This year, people attended the event who normally would not. Initially, our thoughts were about decreasing our sponsorships, but we were able to increase them because not only did we offer the potential to reach a larger audience, but we could provide more metrics to sponsors so they could see their ROI.” For example, if sponsors want to reach dentists and not hygienists, Jansen’s team could make that happen by ensuring that push notifications, email blasts and swag bag offerings went to targeted audiences. Event platforms allow planners to track and gather valuable data, monitor messages and see the click-through ratio to evaluate effectiveness. “The pull version is space at my event, but you do the work: Be active in chats and do your own promotion to pull people in,” he explains. “The push version is I’ll put your logo into sessions, create interactive networking opportunities and push your brand to make sure you get direct exposure to people, rather than people trying to discover you.” Pre-pandemic, the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) hosted the CANSEC trade show, attracting 12,000 international registrants to Ottawa annually. In May, instead of hosting a virtual exhibit hall, CADSI created the Canadian Defence Marketplace, a global B2B video networking event with various sponsorship options. “We modelled our packages on our existing live in-person events, but altered the deliverables to meet an online platform: Instead of your logo going on a sign, it went on the screen,” says Lesley Musker, manager, event operations. “We really do well with an à la carte menu where we custom curate as we go. We have a wide variety of price points as well.” “You still need to keep your price integrity in check; you might be able to drop it by 10% or 20% because you’re not buying extra signage or branded napkins, but the lack of the in-person handshake is replaced with equal value by a wider audience when you go virtual and global.” As brands become more familiar with hybrid event formats, many are open to creative options if planners can demonstrate the overall value of the event and provide interaction with both in-person and online attendees. Since many brands are allocating funds to hybrid event sponsorship, encourage new sponsors to get involved with your event by offering budget-friendly chances to reach your delegates, such as running polls, games, product demos or Q&As targeted at remote and in-person audiences, sponsoring virtual sessions or including a logo on your live stream. Classify tiers with a push-pull differentiation, suggests Vaez. Musker notes that just because a sponsorship package is adapted from live to digital or hybrid, that doesn’t mean less work for planners. Autumn 2021 | Ignitemag.ca | 29
