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You can have the perfect speakers, a great topic, an amazing registration page, a killer offer on the back end, and still have a summit that falls flat.
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You might be wondering why.
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And that's because your experience matters.
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And today we want you to think about your summit from a perspective you might not have considered before.
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Not as the host, not as the person who planned every detail, but as the attendee.
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Because the question we want you to ask is, what does it actually feel like to attend the summit?
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Is it easy to figure out where to go?
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Do they know what happens after they register?
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Do they know what they're supposed to do once the summit starts?
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Can they easily find the sessions that they want to watch?
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Are they overwhelmed by, say, like 50 plus sessions and like 18 different links?
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Do they know what's actually happening next?
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Basically, are they going to feel like you're actually guiding them through this experience?
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Or do they feel like you've just handed them a ton of content, a bunch of links, and are basically setting them off on their own and just saying good luck?
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Because we've learned over the years that your summit isn't just the content that you put together.
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The experience you create around the content can make a huge difference in how people engage with it.
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And that is exactly what we're going to be talking about today.
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Hey, I'm Jenny.
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And I'm Lindsay, and you're listening to the Virtual Summit Secrets Podcast.
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This is a place for you if you want to learn hashtag all the things about hosting a virtual summit.
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We've hosted and produced countless summits, and we cannot wait to share with you all of our biggest secrets.
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So sit back, grab your favorite drink, and get ready to put on a killer summit experience.
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Hey hey, and welcome back to the Virtual Summit Secrets Podcast, the go-to show for entrepreneurs who want to host profit high-impact virtual summits without the overwhelm.
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We're Jenny and Lindsay.
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We are virtual summit invisibility strategists, and we've hosted more than 15 virtual summits between the two of us in a whole bunch of different formats.
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We've done five-day summits with up to 40 speakers.
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We've done three-day summits.
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We've done two-day summits with an implementation day.
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We've done even one-day events.
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We've really truly experimented with so many different delivery methods, different platforms, different engagement strategies, and different ways to of guiding people through the experience as a whole.
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And one thing that we've learned is that there is such a thing as too much.
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You would never guess that, but there is too many sessions, too many links, too many places to go, too much information, too many things that you're asking people to do.
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And sometimes in an effort to make our summits more valuable, we accidentally make them harder to actually experience.
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So today we're going to be walking through the attendee journey and talk about how to create an experience that feels easy, intentional, engaging, and valuable from the moment someone registers all the way through to what happens after the summit ends.
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So first up, we want to talk like what start before the summit even actually begins.
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So one of the biggest mistakes we see is like thinking that the attendee experience starts when the first session goes live.
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And it doesn't.
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It actually starts the moment someone registers.
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So we want you to think about what happens immediately after somebody opts in.
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Do they know that their registration actually went through?
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Do they know what happens next when the summit starts?
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How they're going to access the sessions, whether they need to be live at a specific time, where can they find the schedule?
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Do they know what they need to do between now and the event?
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That confirmation and pre-event experience is a part of your summit.
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And we actually think this is one of those areas where a little bit of communication can go a long way.
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Now, we aren't saying you need like 14 emails before the summit goes live, especially if you have a short promo window, but you do need the right information at the right time.
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We want attendees to feel like, okay, I've registered, I feel taken care of, I know what's going to happen next, rather than now what?
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We don't want them left in the dark.
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And this is also where your registration and thank you experience can start setting your expectations.
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We've actually changed the way that we deliver our summits because of this.
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We used to host all of our sessions directly on our website.
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And at the time, it worked.
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A lot more setup, but it definitely worked.
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But the more that we did it, the more we realized that wasn't necessarily creating the easiest experience for our attendees.
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People were getting access to sessions through emails or through our community, and it really just wasn't as seamless to move from one session to another.
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So we eventually moved our summit content into our course hosting platform.
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Now attendees are able to log in, see all the sessions in one full swoop, and go directly to the one they want without digging through a bunch of different links in their email or wherever.
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And that was a really important lesson for us.
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Sometimes improving the attendee experience means changing the way that you're delivering the event, not adding more to the event itself.
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Which brings us to the second thing, which is make it ridiculously easy to find what they need.
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And, you know, that is talking about navigation.
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And we don't mean that you need to create some giant, elaborate summit website with like 27 pages.
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In fact, we are pretty firmly in the camp of keep it simple.
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Your attendee shouldn't have to become a detective to figure out where their summit content lives.
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They shouldn't have to search through five different emails to find the link to today's sessions.
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And they shouldn't have to remember which page has the schedule and which page has the replays and which page has the bonus content and so on and so forth.
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And if you have a VIP offer, you don't want them wondering where that's located either.
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The goal is that they can enter your summit experience and pretty quickly understand here's where I am, here's what's happening, here's what I can do, and here's where I go next.
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That's it.
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And this is one reason that we really like having all the sessions together in one central location now.
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It truly reduces friction.
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Someone can come in, take a look at the sessions, choose what they want to watch, and move through the event without having to constantly jump around.
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Because when you're constantly jumping around, you're bound to lose people along the way to something else.
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And there's another piece of navigation that we think gets overlooked often.
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That is telling people what to do next.
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Don't make people figure it out themselves.
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If someone finishes a session, maybe you want them to watch another session.
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Maybe you want them to complete an activity.
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Maybe you want them to check the leaderboard.
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Maybe you want them to download a resource.
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Maybe you want them to take a break and come back tomorrow.
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Whatever that step is, guide them to it.
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Because a good attendee experience isn't just about giving people options.
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It's about giving them direction.
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So the third thing is to create the experience instead of just dumping content on them.
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So I think this is one of our biggest attendee experience philosophies that more content does not automatically equal more value.
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In fact, sometimes it does the exact opposite.
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We've seen hosts add more speakers, more sessions, more bonuses, more trainings, more resources, because they think if I give them more, this will feel more valuable.
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But from the attendees' perspective, they may be thinking, when am I supposed to watch all of this?
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And that's a very different experience.
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We've hosted different lengths of summit, so we know there isn't one magic number of days or sessions, but we do believe there is absolutely a point where adding more content starts to hurt the experience.
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Because your attendee has a life.
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They have a business, they have clients, they have other responsibilities.
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And even if they want everything you are offering, they may not have the capacity to consume all of it.
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So when we're planning a summit, we're thinking about the experience as a whole.
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How long are the sessions?
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How many are there?
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How much time does someone realistically have?
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Are we giving them opportunities to pause and implement?
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Are we creating a natural flow?
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And are we asking them to consume content all day long?
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And most importantly, what does this attendee actually need to get the transformation that we're promising?
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That is why we really love the idea of a curated summit.
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Instead of asking, how much can we possibly fit into this event?
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We want you to ask yourself this what is actually necessary?
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You can create an incredibly valuable summit without creating an incredibly enormous summit.
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And sometimes tighter is actually better.
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Which brings us to number four, which is give people reasons to participate, not just more things to do.
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And, you know, engagement is the other big part of the attendee experience.
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And we have talked about gamification quite a bit on this podcast because it's something we've had a lot of success with and we enjoy, but we want to make an important distinction.
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Engagement shouldn't just mean giving people more tasks.
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If you're asking attendees to comment, post, complete something, download something, collect points, answer questions, find secret codes, attend live, and do like 17 other things, you may have accidentally created a job and that's not what we want.
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Any action you ask your attendee to take should have a reason behind it.
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Ask yourself, how does this benefit them?
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And if the answer is simply because we want them to engage, then that's probably not enough.
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But if the answer is something like this helps them reflect on what they just learned, this helps them find the sessions that are more relevant to them, this helps give them a quick win, this helps them connect with other attendees, or this unlocks something fun, then that means now you're in creating intentional engagement.
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And that's something that we truly believe in.
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For example, we've done quizzes where attendees received a personalized schedule based on their results.
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And that was really well received because it wasn't just take this quiz because we want you to take a quiz.
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It was tell us what you're working on and we'll help you figure out which sessions are actually going to be the most relevant for you right now.
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And we found that it actually helped increase watch rates because people had a reason to be excited about specific sessions before the summit even started.
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And that's the kind of engagement we love.
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And it doesn't have to be complicated.
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Gamification is another example.
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Getting someone a quick win early in the event can create momentum.
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Maybe they complete something, maybe they unlock something, maybe they just get a resource.
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Maybe they have like that little moment, oh, I just did something useful or got something fun.
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Now they're more invested in continuing.
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And one quick caveat here: just because something works for another summit doesn't mean it's automatically right for yours.
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For example, we have tried having like live chat attached to each session and essentially kind of like quote unquote airing every session live, like there was a time where the speaker would be in the chat.
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And we did this because we know it worked really well for some people and some audiences, and it was a bigger thing back in the day.
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But what we have found is that for our particular audience, it doesn't really seem to work that well.
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And that is totally okay.
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So your attendee experience should be designed around your audience, not around someone else's summit.
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We also want you to not forget the end of the journey.
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And this is the part we feel like hosts overlook the most.
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So thinking about what happens after the summit.
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We spend so much time thinking about how we can get people to register and getting them to engage and attend and, you know, buy the VIP pass.
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And then suddenly the summit ends, and we're like, okay, bye, see you later.
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But the attendee experience doesn't necessarily end when the final session ends.
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This is where you have an opportunity to help them process what they've experienced and figure out what comes next.
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Maybe that's your signature offer.
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Maybe it's another resource, maybe it's an invitation to stay connected.
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Maybe it's a survey where they can share what they learned, and maybe it's helping them celebrate what they accomplished.
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Also, maybe it's just simply following up and asking, what did you take away from the summit?
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And this matters because your summit is part of a bigger relationship with your audience.
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And we actually see this connection with our own sales.
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A lot of our VIP past sales happen before the summit even starts.
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So we aren't necessarily relying on the attendee experience during the event to sell the VIP, but we absolutely believe that creating a well-run, valuable summit experience has contributed to people purchasing our signature offer after the summit.
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Because by the time they get to that offer, they've experienced how we teach, they've experienced how we communicate, the quality of the content we provide, they've gotten a real feel for who we are.
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And ideally, they have gotten some results.
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And that experience builds trust.
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So, like, don't think of your attendee experience as separate from your sales strategy because it's not.
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The experience is part of the relationship you are building with that person.
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So if you're planning a summit right now, we want to give you three questions to use as a little attendee experience audit.
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And honestly, you could take these questions and apply them to every single piece of your summit.
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So the first question is Does this improve the attendee experience and how?
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So every time you're adding something to your summit, ask yourself this: a new bonus, a new session, a new tech tool, a new engagement activity, a new page, a new email.
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Does any of this actually make the experience better?
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Or are you adding it just because you feel like you should?
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Question number two.
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If I were an attendee at this event, what would I need to get the greatest transformation?
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Right?
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Not the greatest amount of content, not the biggest pile of bonuses, not the longest speaker lineup, but the greatest transformation.
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What does this person actually need?
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That question can eliminate a surprisingly amount of unnecessary stuff.
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And the third and final question is how can I surprise and delight people without overwhelming them?
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And this is one of our favorite parts because simple doesn't have to mean it's boring.
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You can still create moments that feel fun and special.
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Maybe it's a surprise bonus that unlocks for your most active attendees.
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Maybe it's a secret code hidden somewhere that allows the first person to find it to redeem some sort of prize.
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Maybe it's a personalized recommendation, or maybe it's a celebration at the end of the event.
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Those little moments can make people feel like, oh, they thought about me.
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And that's really what great attendee experiences come down to.
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We want you to remember that your summit is not just a collection of sessions.
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It is an experience.
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And your attendees are experiencing everything.
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The registration page, the confirmation email, the reminders, the navigation, the schedule, the sessions, all of your communication, engagement from you and others, their own, the bonuses, the checkout process, the follow-up, all of those little pieces add up to how someone feels about your event.
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And that's why we want you to stop thinking only about what am I putting into the summit?
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And start asking, what is my attendee experiencing because of it?
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Because sometimes the best thing you can do for your summit isn't to add something.
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It's actually to remove something or simplify something, clarify something, maybe adding an additional thing to guide somebody, to help give them a quick win.
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Or make one tiny part of the journey just a little bit easier.
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And those details truly matter.
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Because when people have a great experience, they're way more likely to engage.
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They're more likely to trust you, they're more likely to remember you, and they're more likely to want to continue the relationship after the summit is over.
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And honestly, that's what we're after here.
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Not just a summit that people register for, a summit that people experienced.
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And that brings us to next week's episode.
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Because if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you know we're big believers, and less doesn't mean worse.
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And next week we're talking about that idea one step further.
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Because there is a difference between the summit you could host and the summit you should host.
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Maybe you could host a massive five-day event with 40 plus speakers, multiple VIP tiers, a giant bonus bundle, a community, live sessions, gamification, and approximately like 9,000 moving parts.
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But does that mean you should?
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Your current capacity truly matters.
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Your audience capacity also matters.
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Your business model matters, your systems matter, and your current visibility matters.
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And sometimes ambition can turn into unnecessary complexity before we even realize that it's happening.
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So next week we're going to be talking about the summit you could host versus the summit you should host.
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We'll take a look at how to scale the strategy behind the summit without automatically scaling the event itself.
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And why your dream summit might not actually be the smartest next summit for your business.
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We'll see you then.
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Thanks for spending time with us today on the Virtual Summit Secrets Podcast.
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If this episode was helpful, be sure to share it on social media and tag us at Summit Success Squad or personally share with somebody you know could benefit from it.
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New episodes will be released every Wednesday.
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See ya next time.