What Do Sponsors Want From Virtual Meetings? – Ask JP #025

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06/23/2020


There’s one question that I’m getting from you all over and over and over again and it goes something like this, “What do sponsors want in virtual meeting platforms that are being rolled out right now? What kind of deliverables do sponsors want in a virtual meeting?”
Here’s what they want:
Data
We can no longer get away with, “Hey, we’re going to send you the list of attendees with their names and company.” It’s not going to be good enough. No one’s going to buy that. They want data such as name, company, and contact information to start. They will also want information about the attendee journey: how they participated in the meeting, what sessions they attended, did they visit the virtual exhibit hall, did they download video or white papers, and so on. The ability for the association to collect whatever information is available from the platform and provide it back to the sponsor – or collect it and then provide it for other advertisers and people like that down the road in segments –  is going to be absolutely critical.
Thought Leadership Opportunities
Your sponsors want thought leadership opportunities: bonus sessions, break outs, webinars leading up to the big event, etc. They have good content and they want to deliver it. Many of the associations that are developing virtual meetings are allowing that to happen when, in the past, they didn’t do it at their in-person meetings. Please take advantage of the thought leadership because many of your sponsors want that.
Networking Opportunities
Sponsors are looking for opportunities to have face-to-face meetings. Many of you are evaluating virtual platforms to see how robust their virtual trade show offerings are and how you can develop and facilitate one-on-one meetings. Sponsors want the opportunity to meet because they’re missing that piece of the face-to-face events. Sales folks are missing the opportunities that face-to-face meetings used to provide them. They’ve out of prospects to send emails to or make phone calls to. They need a platform and you are the facilitator of that.
Virtual Platform Navigation
Your partners need your advice and help in navigating virtual platform that you choose to use for your events. You’ll need to provide information and tutorials on how to best optimize your virtual platform. It is critical for them so that they can continue performing.
Hope this is helpful.
 
We’re happy to help with any of these areas! Check out our Virtual Event Sponsorship Program that was designed to help association pivot from in-person event sponsorships to inventory best suited for virtual platforms. 
 
 
 

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