Driving Engagement & Building Community: Holistic Attendee Experiences.
- Neil Hudson-Basing
- Jul 31
- 5 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
Neil Hudson-Basing shares how to maximise event engagement through impact-driven comms.
It’s been months of planning and you’ve just delivered a great event. The feedback was brilliant. Done & dusted. You’re onto the next… and repeat. That’s often the way it is for many event and community organisers but the reality is that this approach simply doesn’t build effective, long term or sustainable engagement, communities or impact.
Picture this scenario: An awareness day rolls around, you host an event, maybe even using an external partner like WCS to educate and inspire your teams. It's well received at the moment but then you’re left wondering, did it create lasting change? The honest answer is unlikely. Sound familiar? No shade… we’ve done it too! Personally, it’s something I’ve been guilty of during my almost 20 years in the events industry.
But we should know by now that the way we deliver and harness events as a force for positive change needs to shift if the work we’re doing is going to achieve the desired results. This gap between the success of a single event and enacting meaningful long term culture change is something we need to and can solve together.
We recently launched our 2025 DEI Communications Toolkit. It’s a three-step, actionable guide focusing on the importance of evolving our comms around DEI in order to get buy-in, work around internal walls and overcome scrutiny in the face of a polarized political climate and pressure to rebrand or soften DEI language altogether. It’s driven by both quantitative & qualitative evidence and if you haven’t, you should definitely check it out
This article is an accompanying resource focusing on tips & tools for amplifying the event experiences for your audiences to support you in your cultural transformation, inclusion efforts, and more broadly the employee experience.
Bring the audience in sooner. Ask yourself these questions…
Can the audience see themselves in the story you’re trying to tell? Either through the messaging, tone of voice or visual imagery? What you’re putting out there should be clear, inviting and make everyone feel included. Authentic collaboration & co-production is key!
Are you making it clear why the audience should attend, or what they’ll get out of attending? It’s ok to literally outline this in bullet points. We’re living in an information-overload era - attendees appreciate this being spelt out for them.
Up your comms and get people on board.
Schedule some keep warm comms and reminders via both email and social media to create hype.
Get creative. Ask your speakers to provide a punchy quote to feature alongside a headshot to showcase what attendees can expect to hear from them - it’s a great tool for storytelling and promotion.
Why not invite your attendees to submit questions ahead of the event? Get them thinking about their own voice and role in the story!
At We Create Space we’ve seen a boost in registration to attendance conversion with this and our average event attendance now sits at around 52% for free events.
Factor in building momentum from the start of your event planning. Invite attendees upon registration to share their LinkedIn profiles if they want to be connected with other attendees post-event.
It removes some of the onus & awkwardness of exchanging details during the event.
It’s a practice that bolsters your reputation for facilitating new connections and community building.
Plan out your calls to action, resources documents, save the dates and take-aways in advance, to create a more cohesive journey for attendees.
Think about how you’re going to present these. Is it in an email, a PDF or across both? Ensure it’s clearly broken down for ease of processing.
Be strategic. Embrace future planning. Move beyond seeing it as a ‘once & done’ or add on.
Prioritise post-event engagement as intentional rather than a ‘nice thing to do’. Always follow up… and follow up again.
Include a message of thanks and appreciation for their time, contributions & insights. Factor in the elements from above. Let them know the next steps. In terms of best practice, this should be done as soon after the event as possible, ideally the next day, whilst it’s still fresh in your attendee’s minds. Particularly if you’re asking for feedback.
Don’t be afraid to check back in later with a further request for feedback/recordings/additional information.
Provide assets for your attendees to encourage them to share in their pre- or post event reflections.
This might be an ‘I’m attending…’ template or pics/ a virtual screenshot of the event. We do this at We Create Space for a number of our events. It helps to encourage a sense of belonging and pride in what they’re doing.
Check in on what people are saying and be sure to share and comment on social media posts to let them know you appreciate their continued support.
Put event metrics to good use.
Make it user-friendly and snappy!
Ask questions that provide relevant information that you can action. E.G. Don’t ask about the platform if that’s something you can’t change.
Keep it short. Ideally around 6 - 10 questions that take just 2 - 3 minutes to complete. Use a variety of open & closed questions providing space for both qualitative and quantitative feedback. Mix up the formats - see our Community Events Feedback Survey as an example.
Make time to reflect on the feedback provided. You’ve given attendees the space to share - listen to them.
You’d be surprised by how often event organisers ask for feedback but do nothing with it. Prioritise reflecting on this with colleagues to establish what went well and what can be improved.
Put the findings into action. Use them to inform future themes for events, spaces for learning and opportunities to re-engage with attendees, grow communities and build on the impact. For example, we recently featured a live Menti poll during an event with our Leadership Collective to ask them directly what they’d like to see from us. The results didn’t match our initial assumptions but it’s reshaped where we’ll prioritise activity moving forward as an organisation that centres the needs of our community.
You don’t need to do all of these at once. Like habit stacking, you can focus on one at a time. See what works for you, your organisation and your audiences. Put into practice, these are simple but extremely effective ways of building, engaging and re-engaging your attendees, as well as curating event experiences that centre belonging, growth and safety.
Putting these changes into practice has not only yielded positive results but it’s given us a proven framework on our event offering. That’s not to say there isn’t more we can do to improve things. We should always strive to deliver events that are engaging, impactful and innovative. Having been in the events industry for a long time, I’m more than aware that event trends and audience behaviours shift and evolve over time… it can be unpredictable, especially since the pandemic.
However by allocating time for reflection, ongoing evaluation & consistently touching base with your community, you’ll put yourself in the best position to stay on top.
Reach out if you have any questions and let us know how you get on with these tips!
While you're here...
Did you know we consult with Businesses, ERGs and Change-Leaders providing bespoke corporate solutions? Through consultancy we design shared learning experiences, produce DEI insights and craft bespoke content that support individuals with strengthening their roles as change-agents within their communities and organisations. Find out more here.
We also organise FREE community events throughout the year! We offer a variety of ways to get involved - both online and in person. This is a great way to network and learn more about others' experiences, through in-depth discussion on an array of topics. You can find out what events we have coming up here. New ones are added all the time, so make sure you sign up to our newsletter so you can stay up to date!
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