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Are you using the very same template from last year and the year before to plan, produce or mange your corporate or association event?

Let’s hope not!

Whatever your meeting or conference is about, it should not be the same year after year. Your industry, the needs of your attendees and the delivery of information, both live and virtual have changed exponentially.

Think of the many ways that you can plan your meeting.

For instance, the content can be driven by your attendees through Crowdsourcing, an innovative idea, much better than sending out a survey. You will get your potential attendees interested far in advance and in addition, this enables you to create relevant content for everyone. Not sure exactly what that is? Here’s a good website with simple examples: http://ow.ly/5Gykb.

You may think that you can’t use this methodology for whatever reason, but you can! It is worth the thought and planning ahead to be able to create a program that is important to your attendees, isn’t it? It’s also worth the thought and planning to use crowdsourcing to entice more people to attend, isn’t it?

If your concern is loss of control, you need not worry. Just as in any type of face to face discussion, there is a facilitator. You may have outcomes that you think are really good, but conversely, you might be quite surprised at the innovative and creative thinking that can take place that would bring your conference to the next level.

For those worried about low attendance at your conferences, well, why not try to let your potential attendees participate long before the conference, via the many social media formats available. Create a Facebook or LInkedin Group. It can be created as a closed group, by invitation only, thus making the shared information only for the eyes of your association, corporation, etc.

Talk to your stakeholders. Dare to try something different. Dare to think different.