While planning a conference, you want to make it a successful event. Savvy event organizers and forward-thinking event planners know that strong engagement now paves the way for future events, turning first-time guests into lifelong supporters.
How do you measure audience engagement? Tools like event management software for associations can help you track audience engagement at conferences, like you would with other KPIs. We’ll dive into the numerical and observable ways you can track and measure engagement at a conference in the rest of this article to help you achieve event success.
How Do You Describe Audience Engagement?
Audience engagement is the degree to which event attendees are actively participating and interested throughout your conference. An engaged crowd does more than fill seats; they share ideas, network, and ask thoughtful questions, actions that naturally enhance audience engagement for everyone. Each interaction creates memories and yields valuable insights you can apply when planning the next agenda. Bonds strengthen when guests learn something new, meet future collaborators, or feel moved by a presentation that resonates.
Generally, attendees who engage more get more out of the event. Every time they participate in activities and feel involved, it creates memories they can take away after the experience that show they got a lot out of it.
Whether learning something new, meeting new connections, or feeling moved by a presentation, those aspects give your guests something they can feel good about after the conference ends.
Audience Engagement Examples
To help you identify it, here are some examples of things conference attendees may do that show they’re engaged:
- Completing polls, surveys, or questionnaires: You may release polls, surveys, or questionnaires before, during, or after your event to collect your attendees’ opinions and ideas. When attendees complete each one, it shows they’re engaged and actively involved.
- Activity participation/completion: Participating in and completing activities shows that attendees are getting involved at the event and staying interested in what you have to offer.
- Social media interactions: Are your guests tagging your brand on social media or interacting with posts about your conference? It’s another sign that your audience is actively interested in what you’re doing.
- Asking questions: Audience members asking questions during presentations shows they’re actively listening and want to know more. You can even help facilitate this through digital tools like a live audience response system on an event app that makes it easy for attendees to contribute their thoughts.
How Do You Measure Audience Engagement?
Measuring engagement usually requires digital tools that can help you track key data related to participation and interest. Event management software, also called an event management system (EMS), can help with this.
A great place to start is numbers that are generally straightforward to track, such as:
- Attendance
- Event app installs
- Survey/poll completions
- Number of questions asked through the event app
- Material downloads
- Event hashtag usage on social media
You can then take these conference measurements and use them as data points in your engagement strategy. For instance, you can take the percentage of poll completions out of the total number of attendees. If only 20% of attendees are completing polls, it may show you need to work on engagement in that category through more interesting topics or by making more effort to encourage participation.
Implementing QR Codes To Track Engagement
QR codes placed at activity stations record participation instantly. Guests scan a unique code, and the system logs the touchpoint, providing a fun incentive system that rewards exploration and supports maximizing audience engagement. Tie each scan to an achievement badge or prize to keep momentum high.
To do this, you would set up a unique QR code at different activity stations throughout the venue. Then, guests can scan it when they get there to track it in the system.
It can help to integrate this with an incentive system that sets up rewards for participating in activities. That can encourage guests to scan the code to log activity.
How To Tell If An Audience Is Engaged
In addition to data points, you can look for qualitative conference feedback and visual cues to know if your audience stays engaged. Some observable attributes of an engaged audience are:
- Note taking: Taking notes during presentations shows that audience members care and that you’re covering information they want to refer back to later.
- Eye contact: Audience members making eye contact or looking directly at the speaker is another key sign that they’re paying attention.
- Body language: Other elements of body language, like sitting upright, nodding heads, or smiling, can all be signs of an engaged and interested audience.
- Chat reactions/participation: In virtual or hybrid conferences where you may not be able to see all attendees reacting at once, taking into account commenting or sending emojis in the virtual chat can be a good way to visually track engagement.
How To Measure Audience Understanding
Audience understanding is another evaluative tool you can use alongside engagement to see how much information your attendees took away from the conference. Some ways to measure it include:
- Quizzes: Short quizzes about key information covered during the event or specific presentations can help gauge how much your audience learned.
- Follow-up discussions: You can facilitate follow-up discussions on your event app or website, where your attendees can respond about what they learned, new skills they’re excited to use, or how the conference impacted them. It’s a great way to see specific details that stood out to attendees.
- Practical exercises and live demonstrations: You can use activities at the conference to allow attendees to put what they’ve learned into practice and demonstrate it after completing a project. This can help measure understanding while getting the audience engaged at the same time.
How Eventscribe From Cadmium Can Help Measure And Increase Conference Engagement
Eventscribe is a complete event management system for associations and nonprofits that offers tools for each stage of event planning.
Within the full suite of tools, you’ll get a comprehensive analytics system to help track key data, including metrics related to engagement. You’ll be able to see all your essential KPIs in one place to know where you did well and what you could improve upon.
On top of that, Eventscribe can help with:
- Increasing event engagement with tools like interactive polls, live Q&As, and gamification
- Creating a smooth registration system
- Launching an event website and app
- Managing speakers and presentations
- Automating logistics planning
- Organizing abstract submissions and reviews
- And more
Click here to book a demo and find out how Eventscribe can help you create more engaging and impactful events.
