Highlights From ACCE Events & Communications Conference

Chamber communications and events professionals face a growing number of challenges, cutting through the inbox clutter and creating memorable event experiences. Nearly 100 chamber professionals met in Tulsa, Oklahoma for ACCE’s Events & Communications Conference to share the latest trends and best practices.

Here are some takeaways and highlights from the conference.

Ask Questions
Before launching a new marketing campaign, ask probing questions to define your scope of work, key strategies and calls to action. Alicia Chilton, director of marketing at the Greater Des Moines Partnership, shared a list of questions her team uses when building marketing strategies:

• Why are we doing this?
• What if we stopped doing “X”?
• Who could be our champion?
• What is the data telling us?

Asking questions up front will help sharpen your campaign’s focus and strategy.

Vibe Check Your Awards Night
The Wichita Chamber’s Chelsea Dyer and Samantha Camden shared resources and ideas to freshen up awards nights to bring back that sizzle. Use member preferences to prioritize event spending.

• Instead of paying for extra entertainment, extend your cocktail hour for more networking time.
• Keep award winners a surprise to elevate the excitement level and the emotional pull.
• Stay on schedule with pre-recorded acceptance speeches.
• Make your event truly a celebration by not tacking on any other events to it, like a pre-event board meeting.

Cultivate a New Sponsorship Mindset
Sponsors increasingly want meaningful opportunities that align with their goals and move the needle on making an impact. Cathi Hight, president of Hight Performance Group, explained they want to be seen as thought-leaders and share their expertise and solutions. Invest time in sponsor development. Understand their motivations and nurture partnerships to develop customized opportunities that achieve mutually beneficial goals.

AI can be your friend.
Still using the same old event descriptions, but only updating a word here and there? You’re not alone. Kaytee Lorentzen, marketing & communications manager for the Greater Bloomington Chamber, relayed her experiences using ChatGPT as a launching pad for writing social media captions, event descriptions, emails to members and even finding market research. For the best results, consider the following when creating your prompt:

• Who is your target audience?
• What are the key messages you want to convey?
• Define the scope and message format, bulleted lists, short paragraphs, character limits, etc,
• Describe your preferred tone or “chamber voice.”

Thank you to all of our attendees and our event partners: Livability Media, Yodel, Collective Edge and Eventeny.

Mark your calendar for next year’s Events & Communications Conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, October 16-18, 2024.