If you have ever tried running a conference with an Excel sheet and a social media page, you probably know that while it might work, you’ll quickly hit a wall, especially if you are running a bigger event with multiple sponsors, speakers, and a large number of attendees to manage. We at Spiny Events did the same. As event managers, we’ve used all kinds of tools to host our events, which is when we realized that conferences need a specialized type of website.
Wondering why? Let us share.
1. Consolidated information in one place
Information is key for any conference before the event day, more so on the event day. Before the event, participants are considering whether to join your conference or not, and providing accurate, timely information can be the difference between them joining your conference or not. Who are the speakers? What is the price for the ticket? What are the available options? What are the conference themes? These are all questions racing through the mind of the potential participant. A website can seamlessly answer all of these questions in an easy manner. A separate section for FAQs solves basic queries of the audience. Unlike social media posts, where the audience needs to scroll and dig for information, a website makes it available in one single place. Navigation bars can help guide them through the maze.
During event day, a website can be a lifesaver. What are the changes that happened? Which room is the event happening in? Are there any delays? A paper schedule is of no use for conferences that are dynamic in nature. How many times will you print and reprint? What if you could make a small update on the site which would reflect on the participant’s screen in real time?—That’s what a website with Spiny Events is capable of doing.
2. Build credibility and authenticity
A website performs multiple functions. Apart from helping you better manage your information, a website builds your credibility and authenticity. Keep yourself in the shoes of your potential participant. Seeing a beautifully developed website with key details assures the participant that your event is genuine and authentic. In a world of scammer events that often use social media pages due to their easy setup, a website stands out. It sends a message to your audience that you are genuine and you care about the work you are doing.
3. Less clutter for your main business page
You might consider integrating your event into your main business page or website. While it’s good to have interlinks to direct your audience from your business site to the event site, loading all of your event details onto the main site itself can backfire. It can confuse your audience. Those who are visiting the main site may or may not be interested in your event. If you host the entire event on the main business site itself, the audience who is not interested might not even visit the main site for other purposes as they used to. Thus, having a separate site directs the interested audience group while serving the needs of even those who are not interested in the event but might still be interested in your business.
4. Support long-term vision
Investing in a conference site contributes to building your long-term vision. Your site can be used for post-event engagements like resource sharing, uploading videos, files, presentations, and PDFs from the conference. These resources can be hosted in your site for a long time, which builds a long-term relationship with your participant and audience. Likewise, adding past conference details on the site further boosts your credibility; it works as evidence of the work you’ve achieved, almost like a portfolio.
5. Sponsors get more visibility
You already know that visibility is crucial for your sponsor. But how can a website make your sponsors more visible? You can assign separate pages, headers, and footers in your website to showcase your sponsors. In case of multiple sponsors, you can separate the sponsor hierarchy. You can even add intros and details of your sponsors that participants can explore and learn more about. Adding backlinks to the sponsor site also helps them become more credible in the market. Only a professional website can do all of these.
6. Better support for hybrid conferences
The 2020 pandemic took virtual conference tools to everyone’s home. We no longer believe that we must be in the same room to share knowledge or receive it. This has skyrocketed the popularity of hybrid conferences. People can join from anywhere in the globe for a fraction of the cost; there are even virtual networking events. If your conference is hosting a hybrid option, a website will save you a lot of hassle by providing virtual participants with important information like timezone differences, signing up, and access links.
7. A must for multi-day, multi-track conferences
If your conference extends over multiple days and has many tracks and themes, a website is a must to provide a streamlined experience for your attendees. When attending a multitrack conference, it is easy for the participant to get confused about what is happening at what time and place. With multiple parallel sessions, you don’t want your attendees to miss out on the talk or program they specifically came to attend. All of this is possible through a professionally designed website that updates your participant about the schedule, time changes or room switches, any delays, and a countdown timer so they know how much time they have before their desired session begins.
Is budget an issue? Let Spiny Events handle that.
We know that developing a full-fledged conference website is a pricy endeavour. Building a website on WordPress or Webflow not only requires hiring someone with technical skills but might require additional budget for hosting, plugins, updates, etc. All of these can cost $2000 or more. But don’t let this price tag keep you from getting a conference site of your own.
At Spiny Events, we take care of all the technical details so you can focus on your conference experience and your participants, that too at a reasonable price. You can get a full-fledged conference site at just $129. No hassle, no coding, just a great conference experience!
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