Comments on: How To Write Killer Conference Session Titles That Attract Attendees

By: Craig Hadden - Remote Possibilities

Craig Hadden - Remote Possibilities — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 21:32:08 +0000

Olivia Mitchell has a great post about writing presentation titles: http://www.speakingaboutpresenting.com/content/presentation-title/

My own contribution is this: Involve your audience in the title by using a 3-word model called Question/Action/Mention.
http://remotepossibilities.wordpress.com/2011/11/23/answer-peoples-key-question-first-framework-part-1a/#involve_people

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 21:23:41 +0000

WE need your type of motivation at our conference;do you have any availabilty in August 2012? This is fantastic information.

By: How To Write Killer Conference Session Titles That Attract Attendees | The EDUCAUSE Speaker Concierge Collection | Scoop.it

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 18:59:25 +0000

[...] How To Write Killer Conference Session Titles That Attract Attendees [...]

By: Mike Kemp

Mike Kemp — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 07:10:54 +0000

Hmm! While I agree with you, often your approach is sound if you have gained some credibility with your proposed attendees. If you are establishing your product and or service, it may be worth taking your presentation live. This, combined with online presentations, may be just the right mix of ingredients to create enough interest. Whereas, one stand alone approach will not be strong enough, nor will you gauge a response or any feel for the prospective attendees without pre engagement and commitment. Sure. you may not be able to influence or reach your entire audience. However, you can certainly influence a vast majority during your campaign by taking yourself and your key executives to the street.

By: Howard Keele

Howard Keele — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 02:21:45 +0000

I too have cause for disappointment when it comes to generating the interest, easy when it is in house or specific to a content area that is of importance, but fee paying conference are a different matter. The integrity of the facilitator and the organization must be establish in order to gain the attention. Without this, it is just another conference and probably will have family and friends attending. Now this in itself is a good approach to gaining some credibility, but like every business the timing and strategy must be planned and precise.

By: Nine Essentials To Keep Your Presentation From Becoming A Corpse | Helping improve your annual meetings, conferences & education

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 15:51:59 +0000

[...] presentation needs a strong title that causes an emotional connection with the reader. Instead of “Fundamentals Of Customer [...]

By: Jeff Hurt

Jeff Hurt — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:57:48 +0000

@Midori
Great question. Whose job is it to write the session description? Ultimately, it should be the presenter’s job as he/she knows the content better than anyone else. However, I think whoever is securing the speaker, the meeting professional or the education director should work with the presenter to craft the best title, session description and LOs.

@Maddie
Wow, 85% of the time the title didn’t match the presentation? That would definitely lead to distrust in the speakers and conference marketing material. Ultimately, the conference organizer is to blame for selecting speakers that don’t present what they say they will present. It is a reflection on them and the organization as well.

So how do we stop deceptive conference titles? By asking the conference organizers to include in the evaluations questions like “Ddid the session title, description and LOs match the actual presentations?” Then the conference organizers should stop using speakers that don’t deliver what is promised based on attendee evaluations.

One way around this challenge is to reach out to the speaker before the conference via email, social media or the conference ecommunity. Ask them for a little information on their presentation. Yes, it’s more work on the attendee’s part. Ultimately it is the attendee’s responsibility to control his/her own learning.

Where’s the FTC Bureau of Conference Attendee Protection when you need them? We could use such a group to monitor unfair and deceptive advertising and marketing practices of conference presenters. Maybe it’s a new association committee?

By: Maddie Grant

Maddie Grant — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 04:21:40 +0000

I admit I’m a little jaded on this topic. While I agree with you, I have recently been disappointed at least 85% of the time that sessions I go to did not live up to their titles and I should have trusted my gut and gone for the boring sounding ones with the better speakers. From now on I’ll go to things where I know and trust the speaker, pretty much regardless of topic (serendipity and all that). I’ll also avoid anything that has “game playing” or “share with your peers” in the description. Yuck.

By: Midori Connolly

Midori Connolly — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:27:59 +0000

So then who is the best team to write the session descriptions? The speakers sending in the proposals? Or a marketing department?

Or, better yet, maybe the conference organizers could actually include these suggestions and some education in their call for papers. That would perhaps lighten the burden on a content team of having to rewrite hundreds of session descriptions…

Can’t wait to read #3!

By: Jeff Hurt

Jeff Hurt — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:42:55 +0000

@Scott
Thanks for the comments and it’s always a pleasure to chat with you.