Creating an amazing attendee experience is the key to a memorable event. But how can you ensure every single touchpoint meets and exceeds expectations?
The answer lies in mapping out the complete event attendee journey.
An attendee journey map is a visual representation of all the interactions and experiences your attendees will have before, during, and after your event. It allows you to get inside the minds of your attendees and proactively identify potential friction points to ensure a seamless experience.
In this post, we’ll explore 5 steps for creating a magnetic event attendee journey map. By the end, you’ll be equipped to design an outstanding event experience that runs smoothly from start to finish.
What Is an Event Attendee Journey Map, and Why Do I Need One?
An event attendee journey map outlines every interaction and touchpoint your attendees will experience, from the moment they first hear about your event until after it ends. It charts the full process of how attendees discover, register, prepare for, travel to, participate in, and follow up after your event.
Why do you need one? Because knowing your attendees’ thoughts and feelings at each stage is the key to creating an ah-mazing journey they won’t soon forget.
Think about it — a corporate executive searching for an industry conference has totally different needs than a music lover looking for the hottest local concert. The executive may prioritize networking opportunities and educational sessions, while the concertgoer cares most about the lineup, venue experience, and merch.
No matter if your event is in-person, virtual or hybrid, an attendee journey map ensures you design experiences that resonate with your specific audience:
- Virtual and hybrid events require mapping digital touchpoints like email communications, online event registration and ticketing, and virtual event platforms.
- In-person events need to account for logistical details like venues, travel, accommodations, and the on-site experience.
The format may change, but comprehensively mapping the full event attendee journey is what lets you level-up the attendee experience!
What Are the Benefits of Mapping Out the Event Attendee Journey?
Mapping out the event attendee journey pays major dividends — both for your team and for attendees. Here are some key benefits:
Benefits for you and your team:
- Keeps your whole team organized and aligned on attendee touchpoints
- Helps prioritize high-impact activities over low-impact ones
- Identifies potential issues or gaps to address proactively
- Provides a blueprint for consistent, on-brand experiences
- Streamlines processes and workflow (with the help of event management software, of course!)
Benefits for your attendees:
- Ensures attendees interact with your event in their preferred channels and formats
- Delivers personalized journeys that resonate with their wants and needs
- Builds excitement and anticipation at every stage
- Reduces frustrations and potential negative experiences
- Cultivates long-lasting engagement that extends beyond the main event
The biggest benefit? An attendee journey map enables a truly attendee-centric strategy vs. a company- or profit-centric approach.
Too often, events are designed primarily around a company’s needs or goals with the attendee as an afterthought. But putting attendees at the center from start to finish leads to outstanding experiences that keep them coming back.
Moreover, an event management platform with attendee journey mapping baked in allows you to visualize the experience through their eyes. In turn, you’ll be able to make data-driven decisions on the right:
- Messages to send (and when)
- Platforms and channels to utilize
- Offerings, activities, and engagement opportunities to provide
The result is a thoughtfully crafted journey that exceeds expectations at every turn.
5 Steps to Mapping out a Thoughtful Event Attendee Journey
Crafting an exceptional attendee journey involves understanding and optimizing for 5 key stages. Here’s how to apply them to your next event:
1. Awareness
This is where potential attendees first learn about your event. Your goals are generating buzz and educating them on what to expect.
For large conferences or roadshows, some common awareness activities include:
- Social media promotion and influencer collabs
- Paid digital advertising
- Direct mail campaigns
- PR/earned media efforts
For smaller virtual events like webinars or trainings:
- Email marketing to existing subscribers/lists
- Organic social media posts
- Co-marketing with partners or sponsors
- Promotion on relevant community sites
No matter the format, think top-of-funnel brand awareness strategies that pique curiosity.
2. Consideration
Now that your target audience is aware, it’s time to nurture them with more detailed information so they can evaluate if your event is a good fit. Again, consideration activities vary by event type:
For in-person conferences and seminars:
- Email nurture sequences that highlight the agenda, speakers, venues
- Free informational webinars
- Engaging social content like lives with speakers, Q&A sessions, etc.
For virtual events:
- Downloadable event guides or agenda overviews
- Sneak preview videos
- Messaging that highlights interactivity and accessibility
But don’t just promote willy-nilly! Target your nurturing based on observed interests and behavior using your event management software.
3. Decision
You’ve raised awareness and nurtured leads. Now’s the time to motivate commitment and conversion using your event registration tool:
- Limited-time offers or early bird pricing
- Seamless, frictionless registration paths
- Prominent calls-to-action and social proof
- The ability to purchase passes and add-ons
Remove any barriers to registration, whether technical challenges, convoluted flows, or lack of payment options. Your event registration platform is your best friend here.
4. Retention
So they’ve registered — awesome! But nurturing the event attendee journey doesn’t stop here. Now you need to retain their interest and excitement. Here’s how:
- Set up automated pre-event communications
- Enable agenda management and scheduling
- Offer ways for attendees to network or engage pre-event
- For in-person events, provide logistical details like travel, venue amenities, safety protocols, etc.
At this stage, it’s important to stay top-of-mind and keep building anticipation right up until showtime.
5. Loyalty
Even once your event wraps, look for opportunities to foster long-term loyalty and engagement:
- Offer on-demand session recordings and content
- Facilitate attendee networking and knowledge-sharing
- Provide post-event surveys and feedback opportunities
- Promote your next series of events
The goal? Keeping your event burned in their memory as an outstanding, irreplaceable experience.
FAQs about Mapping a Thoughtful Event Attendee Journey
Does the event format (in-person, virtual, or hybrid) significantly change the attendee journey map?
The core stages of the attendee journey remain the same regardless of your event’s format. However, virtual and hybrid events require mapping different touch-points and channels vs. traditional in-person events.
For example, digital channels like email, virtual event software, and online registration become critical for nurturing virtual attendees.
For in-person events, you’ll build more logistical details and info about the on-site experience into your map.
How should the journey map differ for big events like large annual conferences versus smaller, more internal events?
With bigger events like conferences, the awareness and consideration phases are more extensive as you’re marketing to a wider audience. More touchpoints are required for activities like social promotion, email nurturing, webinars, etc.
For internal meetings, your colleagues are already aware, so nurturing can be more lightweight through channels like the company intranet, team messaging platforms, and calendar invites.
Regardless of scale, each segment of your map carries different priorities.
What data should I collect and analyze for event attendee journey mapping?
Every interaction is an opportunity for data collection.
Website engagement, email open/click rates, social sentiment, session ratings, in-app survey responses — they all provide insightful attendee behavioral data.
Leverage your event management software to pull together and make sense of this dispersed but valuable info, and ensure that you’re hitting your key performance indicators (KPIs).
How frequently should I update the attendee journey map for my events?
Treat your journey map as a living document that’s regularly revisited and optimized based on attendee data and feedback.
At minimum, do a full analysis post-event to document successes and areas for improvement. Then tweak the map for better alignment with attendee needs for your next event cycle.
What’s the ideal balance between attendee experience and logistical/operational needs?
While you certainly need to account for logistics, the attendee’s wants, needs and journey should take priority when there are conflicts or tradeoffs to make. An exceptional experience that surprises and delights is what keeps attendees coming back year after year. Leverage your event planning software to improve operational efficiencies behind-the-scenes.
Create a Better Attendee Experience with Leading Event Management Software
Delivering an exceptional attendee experience means mapping out every interaction from initial awareness to post-event follow-up. But juggling all these touch points across formats is no easy feat.
This is where event management software like EventUp Planner by Tripleseat really shines.
With EventUp Planner, you get all the tools to seamlessly visualize and optimize the complete attendee journey — whether your event is in-person, virtual, or hybrid.
From marketing automations and seamless registration, to agenda management and robust post-event analytics, EventUp Planner keeps engagement high while streamlining your process behind-the-scenes.
Don’t just “wing it” with your events — level up your attendee experience with comprehensive journey mapping powered by EventUp Planner.