“The long-term impact of the Alteryx Inspire conference on our community has been tremendous.” Julie Hamel, Senior Community Manager– Alteryx, Inc. Conferences are a great way to meet like-minded people, share new ideas and concepts, and engage in discussions about what the “future” looks like. It could even be said that conferences are, more or less, the living and breathing version of an online community. They are venues where a brand’s biggest ambassadors come together to celebrate the things they are most passionate about – as a community (no pun intended!) Don’t just take our word for it. Our friends at Alteryx have noticed this trend as well. In fact, they’ve seen firsthand the kind of impact their annual “Inspire” analytics conference makes on both generating awareness for their community and driving deeper engagement among their community members. So, to get a better understanding of how real-world conferences can be used as a tool to inspire (again, no pun intended) meaningful, real-time community engagement, we sat down with Julie Hamel from Alteryx to get a few tips on how to merge the two together, effortlessly. Here’s what she had to say: Poll Your Community Planning conferences is no easy task. But it no longer has to be that way. There’s a wealth of insight and knowledge within your community that can make how you go about programming conference content and events a lot more efficient – and even more relevant (and fun!) for those who attend. Before you even think about locking in content, start by doing a “temperature check” with your community to get a sense of what they really care about most or who they are most interested to see and hear while attending your conference. Remember, the entire reason you’re hosting your conference in the first place is to engage your community around your brand. Invite your community to help inform how you actually go about this. Leverage Your Community Half the challenge of hosting a conference is getting people to register (and pay) to attend. Your community is the low hanging fruit here. Your community members are already actively engaged and interested in what your brand has to offer. Using your community to spark interest, provide a sneak peek (or two), and ultimately drive registrations will always be a winning strategy. Create blog posts that highlight conference themes and topics, host Google Hangouts with confirmed speakers in the conference line-up, and invite members to attend a few Q&A sessions in the lead up to the conference to get a pulse on what’s top of mind. Think of it like this: your community is the best place to get your most loyal advocates excited about your conference. Seize every opportunity to do so. Make Your Community a “Hub” Why limit the reach and impact of a conference to only a few days when you can keep its influence going for the days (and weeks) after it’s wrapped up? The answer: you don’t. Use your community as a place to house conference content – whether it’s presentation decks, live-streamed sessions on replay, event photos, and more. Not only does this serve as an archive of all the hard work you and your partners put into hosting a successful conference, but it also gives community members who weren’t able to attend a way to feel like they were part of the action (even if it’s from afar). You never know, seeing that archived content could be the spark that encourages new members to attend your conference the following year. So, be sure to make your community the “after conference hub” to ensure that no one misses out. For more insights from the Alteryx Senior Community Manager, watch this video: ABOUT ALTERYX, Inc. Alteryx is a leader in self-service data analytics. Alteryx Analytics provides analysts with the unique ability to easily prep, blend and analyze all of their data using a repeatable workflow, then deploy and share analytics at scale for deeper insights in hours, not weeks. Analysts love the Alteryx Analytics platform because they can connect to and cleanse data from data warehouses, cloud applications, spreadsheets and other sources, easily join this data together, then perform analytics – predictive, statistical and spatial – using the same intuitive user interface, without writing any code. Thousands of companies and data analysts worldwide rely on Alteryx daily. ABOUT JULIE HAMEL Julie is the Senior Community Manager at Alteryx, responsible for managing strategic, tactical and technical operations of the Alteryx Community. She’s a passionate community professional with nearly a decade of experience working with Fortune 500 companies to build successful digital experiences and grow vibrant online communities. Prior to Alteryx, Julie served as Global Community Manager for the Lithium Community. She loves connecting people, innovation & analytics, so don't hesitate to reach out if you have questions, ideas, or just to say hi! Follow her on twitter @juliehamel.
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