Extend the Conference Learning Experience Beyond the Closing Keynote

The value of a conference for attendees doesn't have to end when they check out of their hotels. Your association strengthens conference ROI, attendee loyalty, and your bottom line by offering post-conference learning and networking experiences.

Why Extend the Conference Learning Experience?

With post-conference learning experiences, you make a more lasting impact on attendees and generate new revenue streams for your association.

👩‍🏫 How attendees benefit from post-conference learning 

How many times have you gone to a conference and come back with pages of notes you never look at again? Weeks later, memories of what you thought you learned are pretty sketchy.

Following up with attendees after a conference helps them apply what they learned and ensures their ROI isn’t lost. Post-event learning activities reinforce the new information attendees digested on site by giving them opportunities for retrieval practice: recalling and applying new information.

Through spaced repetition, new learning sticks and has the chance to make a difference. It’s not forgotten in a notebook, or Word or Google doc. Instead, attendees revisit, reflect upon, and apply what they’ve learned.

Post-conference learning programs give attendees access to sessions they missed. They also continue to meet and reconnect with conference acquaintances.

👩‍💻 Benefits of post-conference learning for your association

When people have options for industry events and education, you must differentiate your conference from the competition. Post-conference learning delivers more value to attendees. You can justify higher registration fees if you’re providing more than two to three days of content.

Because attendees get a chance during post-conference programs to deepen relationships with those they met on site, they feel like part of a community, which is the most valuable benefit of all for many of them.

With post-conference programs, you learn more about attendees and their content preferences. This data helps guide future editorial, event, and education decisions.

Post-event programs are reminders of the positive experience attendees had at your conference. These programs help you maintain a presence in their lives and keep the memory and impact of your conference alive even when life returns to business as usual.

👤 How members and customers who didn’t attend your conference benefit from post-conference programs

Members and customers who can’t or won’t travel to in-person conferences like having access to conference content without the expense and hassle of traveling. They also appreciate the chance to earn continuing education credits when it’s convenient for them.

🎓 Preparing to offer an extended conference learning experience

Design your conference schedule and sessions with post-conference learning in mind. Identify the sessions and topics that will live on after the conference.

You’ll have to work more closely with speakers to create supplementary resources, such as retrieval practice exercises, self-assessments, and post-event discussion groups. What actions should attendees take after the session? What makes the new information stickier? What else do they need to know?

Build post-conference engagement into speaker contracts so they’re ready and willing to make an appearance when the time comes.

✍️ Post-conference learning and networking activities

• Offer session recordings with extras. In your learning management system (LMS), organize recordings by relevant categories, such as track, topic, skill level, specialty, career stage, business size, etc.

Along with the recording, provide speaker slides and handouts, searchable transcripts, implementation worksheets, and action plans.

For those who didn’t attend the session live, require passing knowledge checks to receive CE credit.

• Repurpose conference content. Use AI to analyze keynote and session content. Extract key themes, trends, and insights to create new content. With AI, you can transform sessions into content in a fraction of the time it’d take staff.
  
  🔹Repurpose session recordings into podcast episodes or articles.
  🔹Create reference guides and practice exercises.
  🔹Break session content into bite-sized modules with built-in assessments and offer it as a mini-course, learning challenge, or microcredentialing module.
  🔹Bundle sessions into a course.

• Put attendees on a microcredentialing path. Design session tracks that correspond with stackable microcredentialing paths. Make one or more sessions (live or recorded) a prerequisite for a microcredential, or an alternate for a regular module.

• Help attendees reconnect with each other. Send attendees reminders and tips for connecting on LinkedIn with the people they met at the conference. Host virtual networking programs:
  
  🔹Discussion forums for key topics or tracks
  🔹Peer accountability groups
  🔹Mentor matching or mentorship groups
  🔹Regional meetups

• Continue the education. Poll attendees on sessions they missed and want to see—or the ones they want to see again. Host live encores of the most popular or in-demand sessions. Invite speakers to return so they can facilitate discussions in the chat or breakrooms when the recording is paused.

Host a Q&A session with the most popular speakers or experts who weren’t available for the conference. Arrange for case study presentations from attendees who’ve applied and benefited from what they learned.

💸 Monetizing post-conference learning 

We’ve seen a variety of pricing models for attendees and for members and customers who didn’t attend but want access.

• Basic package for conference attendees. With registration, include 30-day access to session recordings and supplemental materials. Charge non-members 15% to 20% more.
• Premium package for conference attendees. For an additional fee at registration, offer attendees 12-month access to everything. Attendees can purchase this package for a higher rate during the conference, and an even higher rate after the conference.
• Offer group discounts. Encourage companies to send several employees to the conference and get a higher ROI by purchasing post-conference learning in bulk.
• Sponsorships. Ask sponsors to subsidize a package for early-career members.
• Non-attendees. Sell individual or bundled session recordings to people who didn’t attend the conference. Bundle sessions by topic, skill level, or other categories.
• Learning subscription. Include post-conference programs in your learning subscription.
• Corporate package. Offer corporate partners access to post-conference learning programs for their employees via a company portal on your LMS. Work with their HR team to develop customized learning pathways.

📈 Success factors for post-conference learning experiences

• Marketing. Promote the value of year-round impact vs. a few days of information overload. Develop a value proposition for each attendee and non-attendee segment. Gather testimonials during Year 1 to use the next year.
• Relevancy. Update programs throughout the year so the content doesn’t appear dated or stale. Gather and act on attendee and customer feedback.
• Engagement. Regularly remind attendees to take advantage of exclusive post-conference content and networking.
• Technology. Make sure your LMS bundles and sells content in a variety of ways, offers corporate learning portals, and tracks engagement and revenue with analytics tools. Check out our Ultimate Guide to LMS Selection & Implementation to learn how to research and choose the best LMS for your association’s requirements.

Effective learning requires more than a onetime event, like a conference. A post-conference program encourages continuous learning that reinforces and supports the application of new knowledge in the workplace and strengthens the conference community.