Strategic Event Audience Engagement Course
Course Overview
The Strategic Event Design and Execution course is designed to provide events industry professionals with the knowledge and skills necessary to develop and implement event engagement strategies. Led by experienced instructors Beth Surmont, Kimberly Hardcastle Geddes, and Megan Finnell.
The course is centered around strategic event design and audience engagement, covering key aspects of audience analysis, brand messaging, emotional engagement, budgeting, timelines, and post-event analysis. By practicing these elements of strategic event design with data-driven feedback, participants will enhance their abilities to plan, design, and execute engaging event experiences.
Who is this course for?
This course is ideal for event planners, marketers, and organizers. It is suitable for both corporate and non-profit event professionals, who are seeking to enhance their strategic event planning and design skills. Whether you are an experienced event professional, or new to the industry, this course will provide valuable insights and techniques to elevate your ability to design engaging events.
Beth Surmount, VP Event Strategy & Design
Beth Surmont is obsessed with events. With on-the-ground experience spanning more than 20 years in corporate and non-profit events and trade shows; and as the current Vice President of Event Strategy & Design at 360 Live Media; Beth is an influential designer in shaping what the next era of events will be. Her approach of audience-centered design combined with purposeful intention is the secret to creating meaningful and impactful events that advance the organization and accelerate the industry it serves. It’s Beth’s job to be a project manager, experience designer, content curator, storyteller, motivator, leader, behind-the-scenes cheerleader, logistics director, contract negotiator, researcher, trend analyzer, innovator, visionary, partner, builder, thinker, problem-solver, entrepreneur, and customer service specialist, sometimes all within the space of a single day. Beth was recently listed as one of BizBash’s 500 Most Influential People in Events for 2021.
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Megan Finnell
Megan is an award-winning event design strategist with a varied and diverse background in the performing arts and the delivery of large-scale conferences. With a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from TCU, Megan blends art and science in all her work. With nearly two decades in the event industry, Megan has taken a leading role in pushing the boundaries for crafting impactful face-to-face and digital experiences for organizations and their participants. In her current role as Director, Meetings & Conferences with Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) Megan has developed new methods of delivering deep human-to-human engagement, leading to her being honored as one of Smart Meetings Magazine’s Planners of the Year for 2019, PCMA Visionary Awards 2020 Event Designer of the Year finalist, PCMA Best in Class Speaker 2020-202 and named to Smart Meetings Magazine’s Standing Hall of Fame in 2021. Megan also sits on the Rocky Mountain PCMA Board of Directors as 2022 Immediate Past President and serves on the Meetings Industry Council and Visit Denver Customer Advisory Boards. Megan is a passionate musician, art advocate, mountain lover, and mom.
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Kimberly Hardcastle Geddes
Kimberly Hardcastle Geddes is an industry expert with a focus on education and strategic marketing. As the current president and chief strategist for MGL, Kimberly leverages her extensive experience to develop and execute effective communication and marketing plans. Her expertise in strategic planning, creative execution, and collaborative marketing makes her an invaluable asset to leading event management companies nationwide.
With a genuine passion for education, Kimberly brings her industry knowledge and instructional expertise to empower individuals and facilitate their growth.
View Kimberly's Profile
Design Engaging and Attractive Event Experiences
Learning Outcomes:
- Prepare the most effective strategy for your unique audience and target growth areas. We are taking the uncertainty out of event strategy and empowering you with a proven framework for success.
- Discover how to build a captivating brand and message that creates an emotional connection with your target audience and compels action pre-event and leaves a lasting impact post event.
- Understand the emotional drivers of your attendees and how to incorporate them into your creative marketing campaigns and messaging. Learn how to evoke the right emotions that speak directly to your audience’s desires and address their pain points.
- Effective Execution is the key to turning your strategic plans into tangible results. You will learn how to seamlessly align your event strategy with budgets, timelines and internal resources.
- Learn to measure results, adapt strategies based on performance, and conduct post event analysis to identify areas of improvement for future events.
Empower Your Event Strategy with Successful Event Marketing Tactics
Learning Outcomes:
- Identify the importance of strategic purpose, the value your event brings to your attendees in order to generate a more engaging and intentional event.
- Select formats that align with your attendees and understand their internal goals while considering multiple stakeholders incentives.
- Conduct research on target audience including: persona development, competitive scanning, focus groups, interviews.
- Measure and learn the success of the event using the 6 R’s Framework.
Design Better Experiences with Audience Feedback
Learning Outcomes:
- Identify internal assumptions and biases surrounding event strategy and learn how to challenge them with our 4 step data driven approach.
- Learn how to generate surveys that gather the data that is needed to validate your audiences preferences.
- Develop skills in creating themes from assumptions and turning them into survey questions for audience testing.
- Discover how to create survey questions that focus on data driven responses which will give you the knowledge needed to increase your attendees in future events.
Group Purchase
The Event Leadership Institute stands behind all of its content. If you feel you didn't learn what you expected to in this course, just let us know within 30 days of your last lesson and we'll give you a full refund. Click here to view our refund policy and full terms & conditions.
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