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Attendee interaction is crucial to the success of any event, whether it’s a large-scale trade show, a corporate conference or a small networking or educational event. The connections attendees make at these gatherings can shape their overall experience and determine the event’s impact.

However, fostering meaningful engagement isn’t always straightforward. Many event planners struggle to overcome social barriers, create inclusive opportunities for interaction and ensure attendees leave feeling enriched. Thankfully, there are practical strategies planners can use to turn passive attendees into active participants, including innovative icebreakers, thoughtful space design and technology-driven tools.

“Not everyone is an extrovert,” says Barbara Gould, CMP, senior marketing and events specialist for The Alliance in Madison, WI. “You have to think about the personalities of the people coming to your meeting and how they’re going to feel just walking into the room.”

Overcoming Common Barriers to Interaction

It’s up to planners to first consider the common barriers that prevent attendees from interacting — including physical challenges, language barriers or just personality differences — and then devise strategies to help overcome them. Some attendees might feel shy or unsure of how to start conversations, according to Tamara Jesswein, senior corporate event manager of marketing and communications with HID Global in Austin, TX. “Overcoming these barriers involves creating a welcoming environment and providing clear opportunities for interaction,” she says.

“If somebody is an introvert, you want to give them things that help them strike up conversations,” Gould adds. While often overlooked, name tags are an important and obvious communication starter. Although commonly used at events, they may not be effective if they are difficult for other people to read. That’s why Gould recommends that planners use large fonts (for the attendee’s first name, at least) and avoid lanyards that might flip around, making them difficult to read.

There’s another simple way to help identify people and their different roles at the event. “At large national conferences, we color code our badges so people can easily see who’s an exhibitor, who’s a medical professional and who’s a vendor,” Gould says.

Planners use a number of strategies to help attendees feel comfortable engaging. Photo by Lindsay Ann Snyder / MPI

Successful Icebreakers and Networking Activities

Interactive games, group activities and structured networking sessions are just some of the tools Jesswein uses to ensure that attendees mingle and interact with each other. At one recent tech event she organized, “Get to Know Me” buttons were handed out for people to wear as conversation starters.

“We collected their information during the registration process to create the buttons that they wore throughout the event,” Jesswein says. “(The buttons) led to a significant increase in networking. Attendees reported feeling more connected and engaged.”

Gould has used a similar “Ask Me About” icebreaker game at some of her events. “Not everyone is going to be interested in talking about the same thing,” she says. “But if I’m a healthcare provider, maybe ask me about health plans. Or if I’m a broker, ask me about benefit plan design. These different things can easily help people strike up conversations.”

Timothy Arnold is a regional vice president with Hospitality Performance Network – HPN Global, and he says his company’s annual conference usually incorporates fun activities that attendees can take part in together to build connections with each other. At this year’s event, attendees were invited to play in a friendly dodgeball tournament, while past activities have included pool parties, axe throwing and even a private concert at the famed Red Rocks Amphitheater in Denver, CO.

“Our annual meeting is, in my opinion, the best meeting of the year because everything is structured to have interaction with attendees,” Arnold says. “We’ve done so many different things over the years that have all been about engagement, just getting people comfortable and making friends.”

To break the ice, Arnold has given event attendees random playing cards and then had them find five other people to assemble the best poker hand. He has also passed out slips of paper with half of a song title on them, directing participants to go find the person with the other half.

“It’s not anything earth-shattering. It’s just meant to get people out of their shell a little bit,” Arnold says. “I never liked expecting alcohol to be the only social lubricant that people have.”

“Our corporate motto is ‘relationships matter,’ so we do a fantastic job of putting people in the position to build relationships, not just sit there and go through some dry education session,” he says.

Planning micro-events — like a breakfast or happy hour — before or after the actual gathering is also helpful in getting people to engage, according to Gould, who says she remembers a Visit California event she attended where planners used a bingo game based on state trivia to get attendees to interact. “They gave away prizes, and it was a fun way to learn about the different cities and connect with the people at my table,” she says.

When people can work together on shared activities or to solve challenges, it helps get them to interact. Gould says she’s considering setting up an area at her next event where attendees can work collectively to build United Way Impact Kits. “It’s a fun way for people to have conversations while they’re doing good and putting kits together for the community,” Gould says.

Leveraging Tech for Engagement

Technology is playing an increasingly important role in enhancing attendee networking and engagement at events. A wide range of apps and other interactive tools can provide attendee directories, live polling, Q&A platforms, discussion boards and additional features that encourage people to connect with others who share their same interests and goals. EventMobi and Eventify are two examples of such apps, designed to increase engagement among attendees at events through challenges and games.

Gould says she remembers going to an event where planners relied on an app called JabberYak to help attendees build connections with each other. Using AI, the app asked a series of questions to learn more about Gould, then it helped connect her with others who had similar interests.

“It helps you find your people,” Gould says. “You can set appointments and post event photos. It also lets you have leaderboards, so the more you post, the higher you rank …”

Planners can also suggest that vendors interact with attendees through challenges and social media. For example, Arnold recalls one sponsor encouraging eventgoers to take selfies with certain people for a chance to win a $500 gift card.

Designing Event Spaces to Foster Interaction

The layout of your event can help, or hinder, attendee interaction. Open spaces, comfortable seating areas and strategically placed networking zones can encourage interaction among guests, Jesswein says.

And according to Arnold, it’s important to have a natural flow from a general session to breakout rooms, so if attendees leave for some reason, they return and don’t disappear into their rooms. “If you can keep them in the space and keep them engaged, you’re going to have a great successful conference,” he says.

Planners can encourage attendee interaction by offering a variety of seating options, such as soft seating, highboy tables and areas for small conversations between three or four people, Gould says, adding: “Nobody wants to sit in a ballroom and be lectured at all day.”

After joining The Alliance, Gould moved the networking reception for the company’s annual event from the ballroom at the Monona Terrace in Madison to an area right outside the ballroom where there were windows looking out over Lake Monona.

“We also created some breakout rooms just to get people out of the ballroom and moving,” she says. “Just the fact that they had to leave the ballroom, go across the hall and find other places to sit and grab some coffee while they were switching rooms allowed for a lot of extra interaction that may not have occurred before.”

Gould also considers attendee interaction when planning the lunch breaks at her events. She says she has found that a “choose your own adventure” luncheon — one that involves different stations serving small plates — helps attendees mingle more than traditional sit-down meal. “They’re not stuck at a table for the whole hour,” she says.

Measuring the Success of Engagement Strategies

So, how do you measure the success of your engagement strategies? You could send out post-event questionnaires to get attendees’ opinions, but Arnold says the best metric is the repeat business you get at future events.

“You can send out all the surveys you want, but at the end of the day, who comes back next year is your best metric of success,” he says.

While Jesswein encourages the use of surveys, she believes that attendee feedback, participation rates and the overall atmosphere of the event are good indicators of whether your event’s engagement strategies were a success.

Gould admits she hasn’t had a lot of success with surveys and says she bases success on what she sees for herself during the event.

“You can just feel the energy in the room if people are enjoying themselves,” she says, adding that use of social media hashtags can also give you an idea of whether you’ve been successful in getting attendees to interact at your event.

Not every engagement strategy will work for everyone. Gould says that when she planned events for real estate agents and brokers in the past, she always made sure to have a backdrop where people could take selfies and post them to social media. However, this same approach doesn’t work as well with the insurance audience for which she now plans meetings. “There are different strategies you can use, but you really have to know your audience,” she adds.

Creating opportunities for attendees to connect at events is both an art and a science. With the right mix of thoughtful planning, fun activities and smart technology, planners can transform an event, turning a simple gathering into a unique chance for attendees to collaborate and build new relationships with their peers.

The key is understanding your audience and using approaches that make them feel comfortable, curious and ready to interact. Whether you use creative icebreakers, well-designed spaces, innovative technology or all of the above, little touches can leave a big impression on attendees and get them excited about returning to your events year after year. C&IT