Association industry partner Omnipress announced today the release of Conference 2.0™, a conference-based social networking/content site designed to enhance the learning and networking experience of attendees before, during and after the event.
“Meeting planners have seen the benefit of using social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook to promote and enhance their events, but when you’re using so many platforms, it’s almost impossible to compete with the existing social media noise for your attendees’ attention,” said Paul Wehking, Omnipress Vice President of Sales. “Conference 2.0™ brings all the interaction together on one focused site with features specific to events that are controlled and branded to the event.”
Wehking also indicates, “Unlike other social networking sites that are built just for matchmaking, Conference 2.0™ incorporates the session materials, assists attendees in building itineraries as well as reads in attendee’s blog and Twitter feeds making it a centralized place all accessible online or through their phone.”
Omnipress Director of Online Marketing, Chris Uschan indicates, “Social networking for meetings isn’t just a fad – a networking site using Conference 2.0™ technologies will soon be an essential social media tool for conferences and workshops.”
Uschan indicates there is potential huge benefit to associations and conference leaders. “By leveraging this new power from Conference 2.0, attendees will have higher satisfaction leading to increased renewals and referrals. With the Twitter integration, it can lead to increased awareness and attendance as well as earlier registrations. And incorporating sponsors into the community, there is another channel for sponsorship/exhibitor revenue,” says Uschan.
To create a Conference 2.0™ experience, Omnipress first collects and organizes speaker materials. Then they combine the session content with social technologies and provide engagement marketing tactics to increase site traffic and activity providing attendees the ability to:
– Find and set up meetings with other attendees who share similar interests
– Review the session materials online and interact with speakers
– Create conversations to discuss conference topics and other logistics
– Create a personalized itinerary of sessions to attend, colleagues to meet and exhibitors to visit
The platform was a combined development project with Pathable who has robust technologies and knowledge specific to social media and conferences. “The collaboration was a success from day one,” indicated Jordan Schwartz, CEO of Pathable. “We both share the vision where the event, the attendees, the conference materials and subject matter experts all are combined in a secure community where ideas, content and matchups can be facilitated and shared. Following that, the integration became easy.”
Wehking continued saying, “Conference 2.0™ tools were designed to engage attendees before, during and after an event, and the sites also have built-in features that allow conference organizers to analyze the interactions and plan for better events. Meeting planners can track the site statistics to determine the hottest topics, discover the best presenters and possible future conference leaders, as well as identify areas for improvement. Conference 2.0™ is one of those tools that becomes more valuable at each event.”
Resources:
Conference 2.0™ online event communities
Using Social Media for Events – Survey Results
Omnipress provides a suite of services to the meetings and training industry including:
– Online abstract and final paper collection
– Conference recording
– Meeting materials in print and on CDs and flash drives
– Online and ecommerce based archives
– Conference 2.0™ online event communities
More than 800 associations and meeting professionals trust Omnipress to provide sensible solutions and apply best practices to their unique conference needs each year. Omnipress is known for getting the job done right and on-time while making customers’ jobs easier and their organizations look good.
