Sri Lanka is a great place to host your event...!!!!!!!!

Hello world, it has been a while since I wrote in my blog, Tic Toc Marketing Portal - Inspiring Marketers in the Modern Marketing Arena. So today I want to share something about I have experienced in my conference works. Today, Sri lanka has known as a number one tourist destination in the world. So, are we ready to promote Sri Lanka as a great knowledge sharing place in South Asian region as well?

You all may heard about the MICE tourism. When we extract the term MICE, it stands for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions. Sri Lanka Convention Bureau (SLCB) has emerged to promote MICE tourism in Sri Lanka while ensuring that these events are conducted in a professional manner to the entire satisfaction of the visitors and delegates.

Currently I'm working at The International Institute of Knowledge Management(TIIKM), an institute that organizes the international research conferences to crate knowledge sharing platforms for researchers, academicians and scholars from all around the globe.  

Apart from the business sense these conferences provide an international platform to share and discuss new findings and new adjustments to practice in the real world.You can get a bit of a understanding about the importance of these kind of knowledge sharing events.

Let's take Marketing Management subject area. Per month, there are hundred of research conferences all around the world in related discipline. So how can we beat and stand out the competition and promote our conferences/events while giving more value to our participant's money. On conference organizer's side there are lots of work to be done. In this article I wanted to highlight some marketing practices use to hosting an international event while promoting Sri Lankan tourism. As we  operating in Sri Lanka we have to increase the awareness and the attention of an international target audience by applying the marketing practices meanwhile creating more value for them. Most of the organizers are using  both Online and Offline marketing practices to reach the target audience more effectively and efficiently. Branding comes to practice in differentiating the conference among others. To differentiate and promote the particular conference, we have to take few things into consideration. 

* Make the Online Presence more Attractive

Source: sergiocuradi.com

The easiest way to reach international audience is online media. People use internet and various social media platforms to information purposes. How can we reach out target audience through online media. Having a website with necessary content and information is one of the most important things Search engine optimization (SEO) and Search engine Marketing (SEM) has a big role to play here. That is the main point we have to take in to account when launching the event website. We can use social media(SM) for promote the event. But we have to carefully select the SM platforms that give the best results. For the events like research conferences and knowledge sharing event, Linkedin comes to first. Facebook advertising and Google+ can use to build awareness among our target audience. Keep in mind having a good online presence is not the only thing we can use. To attract Sri Lankan local audience, offline media are plying  a crucial role. (Ex: Local paper articles/advertisements, posters, brochures, etc.) 

to differentiate our event from other smiler events. Website should be user friendly and attractive to keep the visitors. Even we have a nice website for the event, how can we gain visitors who are interested.

* Use the Event Listing websites

We can list our event and publish the necessary information in these kind of websites. This will enhance the visibility of the event and gain more people. There are hundred of event listing website freely available and charging for promotions within their databases. (Ex: Conference alert, conference hound, Zvents, Eventbrite, etc.)

 

* Select Relevant Subject Areas and the Theme

Subject area and the conference theme should match with the researchers and academicians in the related discipline. We can use broader subject area or narrow down it to specific area. As a example, we can use Sales Management under the subject area of Marketing. It may attract the participants who closely related to the subject area. Conference tracks direct the participants to present and attend in the conference to express their knowledge. So we have to select the conference tracks those are widely discussed and interested by our target segments.

* Stick to the Time Frame

We should schedule a conference more than 10 months before. Normally researcher takes more than 5 months to finish his or her working research paper before presenting it an international research forum. Also it's necessry to consider the changes of seasons. If our target audience is representing

from all around the world Event day is most important thing we have to consider before publish the conference. Meantime we should carefully select the time that people mostly preferred to travel and accommodate during the year.

* Promote the Conference Venue 

This is the factor which most of the people consider when attending to a particular event. Conference venue itself brings a part of the audience for the event. Location and the facilities always should be easy to reach and convenient for the participants. Most of the people come for these kind of events not only for attending the conference but also they like to visit the tourist destinations and witness the beautiful sceneries in Sri Lanka. So this is the ideal time to promote the Sri lankan tourism and it's cultural diversity among these knowledgeable people.

* Carefully Select the Speakers and the Committee

In Sri Lanka we have many resource persons who specialized in different different sectors. To any knowledge sharing event such as research conferences, we can bring well known foreign resource persons along with the Sri Lankan big brains who can share their knowledge and experience in the fields and with the theories. That may add more color to the event and people will consider to participate because of their goodwill and popularity, even people don't aware about the event's brand name. Knowledge seeking people always like to hear form these big brains and get inspired through their speeches. So we have to meaningfully select these resource persons to match with the target audience of the event.

* Pricing is always significant

When organizing an international conference, it occurs large cost to the hosting body. To cover this cost and reach to profit margin organizer has to charge some amount of money form the participants. From the participant's side, they are looking value for money they spend. Their expectation goes higher when they paid a good price as registration fees. To make them satisfy, we have to give a price with including the charges of meals, refreshments, cultural events and etc. This all inclusive prices will show them some benefits for the money they are paying. We can expect many people from our neighboring countries. Normally, Air ticket cost when traveling to the south Asia is considerably high for the Americans and people who live in that regions. Traveling cost majorly concerns in their decision making process. So we can adjust our pricing strategies according to the geographical regions. Also giving price discounts for the group registrations can gain more participants for the event.

* Hospitality at its Best

This is the foremost factor which affects to satisfaction of our guests. Normally, Sri Lankan people know how to treat their guests and caring them. Personally I believe that in these kind of events the hospitality is at the heart of its success. Most of the delegates I have met in the conferences always appreciate the hospitality which we have given in the big day and prior to the event also. Never underestimate the power of hospitality. Hospitality always covers little mistakes and always respecting and showing kindness enhance the credibility and trustworthiness. We can differentiate our services through the hospitality we are providing.

Consider this article as just a snapshot of my working area. I believe that Sri Lanka is a great place to host knowledge sharing events such as conferences, exhibitions, workshops, etc. while giving a opportunity for the participants to experience and explore this beautiful island. Here, I just wanted to share some experience with you.