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Each year, check printer and financial-services firm Deluxe Corp. identifies three words to define how it wants the nearly 700 executive attendees at its annual Knowledge Exchange Expo to feel. It then devises experiences, services, and activities that will bring the words to life. One year, those words were “welcome, engaged, significant.” To make the banking executives feel welcome from the moment they arrived, Deluxe arranged to have chocolate chip cookies made on site and brought to the registration area. The freshly baked, tasty, aromatic cookies were such a hit that they are now a much-loved annual tradition.
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Symantec Corp. knew customers who repeatedly attended its regional ManageFusion events represented a valuable customer community. “Customer loyalty is important to us at Symantec,” says David Hunt, a vice president of marketing for Symantec. “We wanted to find a way to provide repeat customers a higher level of experience at our events, and give them a greater incentive to keep attending.”
Each year, the nine international conferences held in locations from Las Vegas to Singapore attract IT managers and administrators who want to learn about Symantec’s technology, network with their peers, and discuss industry trends.
To reward and cultivate relationships with repeat attendees, Symantec launched a Customer Alumni Program at the 2006 Las Vegas event. Through the program, Symantec customers who have attended at least three previous ManageFusion conferences get a discounted registration rate, preferred seating at keynotes and other event functions, pre-registration for hands-on labs and conference sessions, an exclusive breakfast with Symantec executives, plus a gift and a pin designating their membership in the group.
In 2007, about 5 percent of attendees participated in the alumni program. Hunt says, “The people who take advantage of the program really appreciate what we do for them. The little perks make a big difference.”
 
Dana Sargent, manager of Cerner Health Conference, and her five-person event team used to spend a lot of time answering calls from other Cerner Corp. associates during the month leading up to the big event, where employee involvement is a key part of the health-care IT company’s strategy.
To minimize the calls but still prepare associates for the event, the team started an online Associate Toolkit. The toolkit includes a Frequently Asked Questions document, which the team updates religiously; an updated attendee list; information about promotions; event collateral, including invitations that can be personalized; and the event playbook, a document that explains the event theme and messaging in detail.
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The toolkit works mostly because of the team’s diligence in updating it and their insistence that employees use it. If Cerner associates call with questions, the team first asks them if they have checked the Associate Toolkit and invites them to call back if they don’t find their answer.
In addition to the toolkit, the event team conducts a series of what they call Illumination Sessions: meetings for associates participating in the Cerner Health Conference that can be attended in person, via conference call, and even broadcast on demand. Cerner also provides an extensive on-site-support manual for associates who help staff the event.
Since the company initiated it in 2004, Cerner’s toolkit has been a big success. “By 2006 there was a dramatic difference in the number of calls, and those calls are almost always prefaced with, ‘I checked the playbook and it wasn’t in there,’” Sargent says.
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Once a year, thousands of eBay’s most loyal sellers attend eBay Live!, the company’s flagship event, to meet VIPs, learn better selling techniques, and above all, to celebrate being a part of the eBay community. More than 10,000 people registered for the San Jose, CA-based online auction company’s 2007 event.
 Four simple tactics do some heavy lifting to make attendees feel like part of the vibrant community at eBay Live!:
1. Collectibles. For each event, eBay creates custom, commemorative pins. Attendees compete to see who can collect them all, and even sell them later on eBay. Part of the success is the lively distribution: Each year eBay chooses “pin music,” a song which they play over the event’s loudspeakers when event staff give away pins at random times throughout the event. At the 2007 event, eBay handed out 96,500 pins to the tune of Kool & the Gang’s “Celebrate.”
2. Sincere applause. One of eBay’s objectives for the event is to show appreciation to its sellers. To tangibly demonstrate this appreciation, eBay makes attendees at the closing gala feel like celebrities as they enter the ballroom. Two facing lines of eBay staff form a “clapping tunnel” at the entrance, all clapping and cheering wildly as the sellers walk in.
3. Musical flair. To add to the culture of the community, eBay employees formed their own band, “Listed Sister,” which plays at the opening keynote and other events throughout eBay Live!. Another employee musical group, an a cappella ensemble called the eNotes, roams around the event singing eBay-style remakes such as, “You Don’t Leave Me Feedback Anymore.”
4. Priority passes. By purchasing a $150 Priority Pass, attendees can skip long lines at events, receive a special eBay Live! roller
bag, and attend a special luncheon and Q&A with eBay bigwigs, including CEO Meg Whitman. In return, eBay gets to hold court with some of its most committed customers. In 2007, 750 attendees purchased the pass.
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To IKEA, home is where its products are. On Sept. 20, 2007, IKEA Systems B.V. held a press event to kick off its new brand campaign: “Home is the most important place in the world.”
For the campaign, the Swedish furnishings company switched focus from individual products to the importance of home. The 200 media representatives who attended entered the venue to find a cozy living-room setting, completely furnished with IKEA’s latest products — and helped themselves to comfort food, beverages, and popcorn.
IKEA then showed its new TV commercial and revealed photos that will be featured in a new “America at Home” book. The event host, comedic writer and actor Amy Sedaris, performed a monologue about her own life at home before introducing a documentary about seven families, who explained what their homes mean to them.
After the event, coverage appeared in dozens of national media outlets.
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 To be a rock star at Sun Microsystems Inc.’s annual worldwide developer conference, JavaOne, you don’t have to play the guitar, spike your hair, or trash your hotel room. You do have to earn near-perfect marks on your speaker evaluations for both technical content and speaking ability.
Since 2005, Sun has awarded its most highly rated speakers at JavaOne with the title of JavaOne Rock Stars. Over the years, 72 speakers have earned the special distinction of Rock Star.
In addition to the title, Rock Stars get their names and bios on the event Web site along with a video of their star-making seminar, a PDF of presentation slides, and a summary of the session. Sun’s marketing department also produces a series of articles for its Web site called “Meet That Rock Star” that profile the top-rated speakers.
Sun began the program as both an incentive for speakers and a promotional tool for the event. The program lures current and prospective attendees to take in JavaOne’s most valuable content, which encourages future attendance.
Since the program began, says JavaOne conference manager Alovina O’Neal, “the quality of presentations has increased, as well as the technical depth of the content. Speakers appreciate being named a JavaOne Rock Star. Their companies promote them as a JavaOne Rock Star; they blog about being a JavaOne Rock Star.”
Because of their success, Rock Star sessions are often repeated in subsequent years, becoming quite popular presentations — some with standing room only.
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