International Confex Keynote: Why event planners should be moving away from only events and towards communities

In a session at International Confex, Day 2, delivered by Swapcard’s Julien Bouvier, event directorl; Mia Masson, content director and Chris Haddow, head of sales, the speakers set out concrete steps for event planners to follow when embracing a community model. They introduced Swapcard’s online platform Evolve – a resource designed to help organisers find solutions going forward. It was launched in May 2020 and Bouvier said the idea was to “create a sense of belonging, you can’t have a community without that, the audience need to feel they are apart of something bigger than themselves”. One key question asked was: what benefits can event organisers have from having a community model? “Event organisers benefit from having multiple touch points throughout the year, rather than waiting for that one big moment,” said Haddow, who added they can collect more data and benefit from an increased reach, allowing attendees from all over the world to be part of the community. The model also gives event organisers an increased ROI potential, Haddow noted. “A community is a group of people that are engaged with each other and with your brand. As soon as you lose your engagement, you lose your community. The engagement is the most important part for me,” Bouvier commented.