PCMA 2013 has a Record Hybrid Event While Enjoying Record Attendance at the Physical Event in Orlando
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013
Check out the rebroadcast January 30th 8am to 4pm CST by registering here.
The Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) annual Convening Leaders conference was held in Orlando in earrly January and although final numbers aren’t published yet, PCMA expects to crest the 4,000 in person attendance number while attracting another 700 more online with their hybrid program.
In a press conference, Deborah Sexton, executive director of PCMA noted that over 100 virtual attandees from 2011 had attended in person in 2012 and indicated that the PCMA hybrid was very helpful in pushing them to attend in person. The conversion for 2013 are not yet published though Sexton feels they’ll see an even greater conversion.
Remote attendance for the 2013 program was up almost 30% over 2012. Mary Reynolds Kane is the director of online marketing for PCMA and she indicated that their focus for the 2013 hybrid program was driving engagement and satisfaction with the remote audience. Her team did this by engaging in chat with everyone who joned the event and kept interacting with them via in-room virtual moderators. The general response has been very positive across the social media channels we have seen.
The hybrid audience represented more than 18 countries. “This year’s hybrid audience was bigger and more engaged than ever before,” Kane says. “With moderated discussions, hybrid attendees from around the world contributed their own questions and comments to spark conversations both online and on-site.”
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2 Responses to this article
Michael,
Good to hear and look forward to seeing the numbers. I can’t say I’m surprised. I don’t think any digital delivery of event content, during or post event, will impact a quality event. Actually it WILL increase attendance.
That thinking is inline with the thinking of most consumers – young and old. We want proof of the quality before we buy. Features like live chatting also get engagement going and shows to people the energy created by the topics being discussed.
A crazy idea for PCMA would be to release all of the 2013 recorded content for free about 6 months before next years event (about the same time as they start registration for 2014). Give people an ample sample of what they will get by attending. But nothing replaces being there.
Thanks again Michael
David
All true David. This is a great idea and I will forward to PCMA and see if they will consider. Perhaps they could do some type of research around this as well.