Your corporate event is a huge investment—not only in cost but also in time, effort, and staff hours. In
contrast, over 72% of event organizers report that their leadership supports their in-person event strategies, and almost the same percentage struggle to demonstrate event ROI to stakeholders.
What are some ways you can maximize your event’s ROI? Using your event to capture valuable content, you can keep your event working for your company’s goals long after the event ends—music to your leadership’s ears. Here are five ways to turn your corporate event into a content-producing machine.
While over 72% of event organizers report that their leadership supports their in-person event strategies, almost the same percentage struggle to demonstrate event ROI to stakeholders.
1. Think about creating year-round marketing material
If you’re like most event marketers, you’ve got a plan to capture content to post on social media during the event itself—but what about your marketing throughout the rest of the year?
With a little planning, you can use your event’s onsite professionals to plan for future content, too. When else will you have professional photographers, videographers, audio engineers, and media teams all in one place, along with your leadership, employees, important customers, and VIP partners?
Consider having photographers take headshots for employees so that your website and company org charts feel cohesive. Think about filming video testimonials to capture powerful customer stories. For example, one Stagedge customer used their event’s onsite studio setup to film video interviews for upcoming marketing campaigns. If the tools are already there, use them!
With a little planning, you can use your event’s onsite professionals to plan for future content, too. When else will you have professional photographers, videographers, audio engineers, and media teams all in one place, along with your leadership, employees, important customers, and VIP partners?
2. Take advantage of your whole team being in one place
Your annual corporate event is probably one of the few times when your whole team is together: employees, partners, leaders, and more. Take advantage of this moment to emphasize core messages and build stronger community bonds. Your event could be the perfect time to:
Announce major initiatives, projects, reports, or organizational goals to keep the buzz going about your company and helping people feel “involved” in the company’s future,
Recognize customer or employee achievements with awards or other honors to foster a community of positivity;
Feature a Q&A session with company leaders to address attendee questions and build awareness and a sense of transparency for leadership goals; or
Host exclusive meetings for VIP attendees to connect with corporate leadership to strengthen future partnerships.
3. Convert event sessions into accessible evergreen content - and leads
In-person presentations can be incredibly valuable and informative, but their reach is limited. To expand your audience
beyond the conference room, capture that content for on-demand videos, slide decks, and webinars. With 75% of event attendees reporting that on-demand viewing is valuable, you’re allowing participants to review concepts and make deeper connections to your speakers and brand. And by posting live sessions as recorded webinars, you also allow greater access to your event, especially from international employees or those in different time zones. Adding closed captioning, especially in multiple languages, increases this accessibility even further.
Consider marketing these recorded sessions later as gated content—i.e., behind a lead generation form—to create more opportunities to generate new leads. For internal corporate events, informational sessions can be leveraged for onboarding or upskilling content for future or current employees.
4. Generate written content—blogs, case studies, and more—from presentations
Your presenters are sharing valuable insights during the event—why not use that content to extend the conversation via the written word? By writing about the event’s key takeaways, highlights, and lessons, you can share this important knowledge with a wider audience.
Thought leadership: Consider thought leadership pieces, like blogs or e-books, stemming from expert panel discussions and keynote presentations.
Customer case studies: Did a customer share a memorable story at your event? Adapt the narrative into a case study that you can use in future marketing materials. Since they’ve already spoken about it publicly, it should be easy to get approval—and it’s free PR for them.
Deep dives: Sometimes, nitty-gritty details don’t make it into a prime-time presentation, but can still be valuable. Consider going a few levels deeper into relevant content in an article or blog on your website.
Informative documentation: Curate presentation notes, transcripts, and background information to create informational packets on an important topic. You can distribute this to customers or employees as relevant to help deepen understanding.
Did a customer share a memorable story at your event? Adapt the narrative into a case study that you can use in future marketing materials.
By repurposing event content into meaningful written resources, you can position your company as a leader in your space, boost opportunities for SEO, create new marketing materials, and enhance a deeper understanding of key themes. Make sure your event keeps on giving!
5. Solicit feedback from attendees to gain insights
With your attendees onsite and collectively engaged, this is the perfect time to capture targeted feedback. As customers or employees are listening to a presentation or participating in a workshop, share a poll or survey—about the event, topic, or company in general. Consider using second-screen solutions to solicit attendee feedback. You can use these insights for company reports, to track longitudinal trends, and to implement action plans to improve those metrics.
Creating Long-Term Value from Your Event
Your event is a unique, expensive, and time-consuming effort. Today, 55% of organizers are managing event budgets of more than $500,000, while 22.3% have budgets of $1 million or more. If you’re not taking advantage of this moment to generate professional content that will work for you—all year long—you are leaving dollars on the table.
Working with a trusted partner helps ensure you are taking advantage of all of the content opportunities your event offers. With over 45 years of experience bringing events to life worldwide, Stagedge understands that a successful corporate event goes beyond logistics; it requires a strategic approach to match your vision to a full-scope strategy that delivers long-term value. Our team will collaborate with you at every step of the process, looking for places to maximize value and create extra content. Contact Stagedge to learn more.
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Stagedge: Creating Immersive Experiences for nearly 50 years is proud to be one of Boston's premier full-service event production companies dedicated to conceiving, creating, and executing immersive brand experiences through live, virtual & hybrid events, domestically, and worldwide.