More Time, More Impact? How to Make Multi-Day Events Work for You
When planned and executed correctly, events that run for several days can offer top networking opportunities, boost audience engagement, solidify brand awareness and generate plenty of great content.
But the longer the event, the more preparation it requires. And the more hurdles that can pop up along the way. Significantly, multiple-day events are hard on the production and operations teams, who often end up putting in 12-to-18-hour days that include early setups, last-minute fixes, attendee management, and evening receptions.
That’s why many of our clients prefer to outsource their multi-day event planning and execution. Some of the multiple-day event formats we consistently work with include:
2 to 3 full-day conferences with keynote sessions and panels, often with an additional requirement for private meeting rooms.
1 and a half day events. These usually start with a welcome drinks reception the night before the conference, or end with an award ceremony or gala dinner the night after the main event.
Grey Dog Tip: There are cost-saving implications for running 1.5-day events. When your event takes place over 2 days, you need to book your venue for 3 full days to be able to set up properly. With 1.5-day events, though, you can book the venue for 2 days and use the ‘extra’ time to set up.
Want to dive deeper into event planning? Check out Grey Dog’s Secrets to Flawless Events and our handy event planning guide.
Production and Operations Challenges
In terms of production, one of the key aspects to keep in mind when hosting any conference is designing the agenda in a way that engages the audience – this is especially true for multi-day events. Olivia, our Head of Strategy, suggests dispersing the most popular panels over the different days to avoid any lulls in engagement.
Often, multi-day events cater to audiences that may overlap in some but not all their areas of interest. This means segmenting the audience properly and designing an agenda that will keep them in the room, even when certain panels or sessions seem less relevant to some of them. This is where close coordination between production and operations becomes essential. If attendees are not in the conference room, how is the operations team keeping them engaged? Our Events Executive Vanessa Dobre has a few ideas:
Catering: You need to mix things up to keep attendees engaged and satisfied. Try different menus, snack options, and even different catering areas, so it doesn’t feel repetitive. Doing it properly also means more coordination with the venue coordinators, staff, caterers, etc.
Interactive networking: Networking apps, topic-based roundtables, speed networking sessions, private meeting rooms, live Q&As and virtual polling all work well. The main goal is to facilitate meaningful connections between attendees.
Immersive experiences: Creating engaging touchpoints throughout the event keeps attendees invested and interested. We often use large-scale touch screen TVs for real-time promotional material and immersion into live product demos.
Put people first. From the initial registration interaction to welcoming delegates at the door, putting people and sentiment at the heart of the event will guarantee attendees want to stick around.
For organisers, multi-day events aren’t just longer, they require a whole different level of coordination. It’s about s
taying flexible and making sure every day still feels fresh for both the team and the attendees. Other organisational challenges the on-site team faces include:
Check in: At multi-day events, some delegates might only arrive on day two, or even day three. As a result, your registration desk needs to stay staffed and ready throughout the event. This impacts floorplans and staff requirements.
Sponsors: Not every sponsor will be involved for the full duration of the event. That means branding, signage, and floorplans can change daily. It also impacts setup and teardown schedules, AV needs, and even catering, in cases when a sponsor is hosting a reception.
Multi-purpose rooms: One space might be a main stage in the morning, a workshop zone in the afternoon, and a networking lounge that evening. This translates into a lot of moving parts: overnight resets, fresh floorplans, updated signage to guide attendees, and daily briefs to suppliers, crew and venue staff.
Marketing Challenges
While the logistics of longer events are mostly managed by the production and operations teams, there are some aspects the marketing team should take into account in the lead up to the event:
Getting the language right in EDMs, website content and reminder emails so that delegates are encouraged to sign up for the full 2 or 3 days.
The above ties in with the importance of promoting the benefits and highlights of each event day equally.
When an event caters to multiple audiences, the marketing materials need to consider this to generate interest and achieve maximum attendance throughout.
On the flip side, audience segmentation can be tricky. If you have a strict separation of messaging, you might get a similar separation in attendance. Our Marketing Manager Jennifer Wilde suggests “when writing copy, try to make it as inclusive as possible. The goal is to 'unite' the audience.”
In terms of website content, it’s important to make sure that information is clearly laid out and easy to understand. This includes making it easy for delegates to differentiate multiple days within the agenda, for example. Collaboration between the marketer and the operations team is essential to get this right.
Even accounting for all the above, from a marketing perspective there is a huge benefit to multi-day events. It usually means marketing teams have more speakers, panels, sessions and other aspects to promote during the lead up to the event. Finally, the amount of content that multi-day events generate means you’ll have better materials for post-event interaction and wrapping up.