If you are planning on holding a conference, then having an effective conference website is very important. For many of the people who are attending or thinking about attending, it will be their number one source of information about your various events. For that reason alone, it is very important that you do not get anything wrong. If you do, it could jeopardize the whole of the conference and it could leave you with a very damaged reputation at the end of it.
Here we will look at some of the things you should avoid when you create your conference website and why it’s so important you do not fall into any of these traps.
Failing To Keep Things Updated
When you are planning a conference, you will have many things on your mind. There will be guest speakers, meeting rooms, times, and locations that all have to be juggled at once. This is why quite often things can change at a conference, sometimes at the last minute. Perhaps a speaker you have booked is unable to appear because there are sick. Maybe the hotel you have booked a conference room with has moved you to room 2 instead of room 1. There are a lot of things that could happen and no one needs to be kept abreast more about developments than the people attending your conference.
If you fail to update your site when changes occur, then maybe people could end up arriving at your conference and find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even worse, some people may have come specifically to see one guest speaker, only to find that this person will not be making an appearance. Those people would quickly feel like they have wasted money traveling to your conference and even booking a hotel room.
Whenever even the slightest change occurs, you need to update the conference website. You can ask visitors to sign up for email alerts about certain events so then people remain informed. You can even create a social media page so then you can update your followers about any changes that may occur. Make sure you do everything you can to keep your audience up-to-date on everything that is going on. Otherwise, you could quickly develop a reputation for being unprofessional and unreliable.
Not Having Enough Information
When people are attending a conference, they want to be able to find all the information they need on the conference website. In some cases, they shouldn’t even have to look at the venue’s website to find out where meeting rooms are or if there are any rooms available in nearby hotels. Just like when you are running any kind of website, being comprehensive and having all the information your visitors need in one place is beneficial for both yourself and the people who are attending.
The one thing you do not want to do is offer a distinct lack of information. Having the venue on the site is probably the most important thing, but after that, there is still a lot of other key pieces of information that have to be included. Such as directions so then people traveling know how to get there, the conference schedule so people don’t miss the events they really want to attend, and what the facilities will be like at the chosen venue. If you fail to provide these important pieces of information then it can leave most of your attendees stuck with no idea what they will be walking into when they arrive.
When this happens, chances are most of them will end up emailing or telephoning you in order to get more information from you. If you are unable to give them what they want when they talk to you, then they will in all likelihood decide that it is not worth their time and effort to attend your conference that seems to be shrouded in mystery. Even if you do have all the information, the last thing you want to be doing is replying to emails and talking on the phone all day about all the details about your conference. It’s much easier for you and the people attending if they can find all the information they need on your conference website.
Ultimately, if you are able to keep your conference website updated and full of all the information your visitors will need then it should be fine. Naturally, you will get people emailing you now and then asking for specific pieces of information, but it is preferable to a barrage of questions because the website gives no answers. It’s also important to remember that you should never leave anything to the last minute. This most definitely includes updating the website. Whenever anything changes, update the site immediately so then people visiting will be able to change plans or alter their schedules within plenty of time. Then you will have a conference website that will suit your plans for an organized and thoroughly enjoyable conference.
