25 Nov 2024

Written by Sara
How to turn a live event into thought leadership gold

Events create one-of-a-kind experiences for your audience – and, with a bit of planning, they can also be a compelling source of original and highly credible thought leadership content.

When it comes to building brand authority, webinars and live events are the gold standard. They offer a chance to connect directly with customers and prospects, share knowledge, and create memorable, social media buzz-worthy experiences.

And in a rising ocean of AI-generated learning experiences and blogs, live events stand out as a genuinely human life raft.

However, events also consume a large amount of time, energy and budget. So much thinking, research and design goes into every keynote, every panel discussion, every break out. That’s why it makes sense to capture all those original perspectives, and share them with a wider audience – the people who couldn’t attend, current and prospective customers, and of course, the media.

This is, without doubt, our favourite thing to do as writers. We’ve covered live events as on-the-ground reporters for major banks, universities and tech platforms, and dialled into webinars to deliver quick-turnaround takeaways. We love learning from seriously smart people, and capturing unpredictable soundbites. We love finding the threads that bind seemingly different ideas together, and the adrenalin rush of creating something completely new to deadline. And we love planning all the ways we can extract more value through different content formats.

Here’s our guide to what that takes.

Gather your A-team in advance

When you first sit down with your events management, marketing, creative and leadership teams to nut out the ideal agenda, speakers, attendees and experiences, include a writer in the mix. Their job is to help you align the event’s goals with your broader strategic narrative, and recommend different ways you can get your messages out to market before, during and after the big day.

The sooner you have everyone on board, and clearer you are about what success looks like, the easier it will be to make it all happen.

A writer can also take on all the fiddly pre-event writing tasks – like crafting invitation lead nurture comms, developing event collateral like workbooks and take-aways, writing keynotes and presentations, and planning social media posts.

Top tip: Before the event, make sure speakers agree they can be cited in post-event coverage, and check if you can share the video recordings.

Use the 5 Rs to hone event take-aways

A one-day event can generate over 400 transcript pages. That’s a lot of words. How do you work out which words matter most?

That’s where our 5 R framework can help. When we have access to speaker slide decks we use this framework to focus our post-event content before the event, and also flag key takeaways while scribbling notes in each session.

We’re looking for content nuggets that tick these five boxes:

  • Resonate – what are the common themes that feel relevant and urgent right now?
  • Relatable – what are the shared challenges and opportunities the attendees, speakers, and broader industry face?
  • Reliable – what data and research is being shared, and is it credible evidence for these ideas?
  • Real-life – are there case studies with behind-the-scenes insights? Capture the lessons learned and things they wished they’d known on the hard road to success.
  • Reminders – are there practical tips and advice we can package up as action points?

These elements are also the ingredients of effective thought leadership content. Edelman’s 2024 Thought Leadership Impact Report found 55% of decision makers say the highest quality content cites strong research and data. 44% say it helps buyers understand the challenges and opportunities their business faces, and 43% say it offers concrete guidance and case studies.

Mix up the output

Depending on your goals, you can turn a live event into:

  • Social posts – live quotes and images on the day, building feelgood momentum among the audience
  • Video reels and vox pops – ideal for creating FOMO for future events
  • Top 5 takeaways email to attendees – if possible, within 24 hours
  • Recap blogs – quick snapshots to share top themes or tips
  • Insight articles – aligning to bigger themes or research ideas
  • Case studies – capturing direct quotes from presenters
  • Media releases – current news-relevant angles with direct quotes and insights.

Top tip: Agree scope and deadlines in advance. There’s no point hoping for great attendee video grabs if you haven’t booked a videographer and writer-interviewer to roam the breakouts capturing those moments.

Go deeper

Your event content doesn’t have to end with the on-the-day insights. Look for opportunities to go deeper and add extra value with research reports, online resources like frameworks or workbooks, or video case studies.

For example, we helped Macquarie Bank amplify its flagship Perspective event in 2020, which brought together hundreds of business banking clients with high-calibre speakers like Ben Crowe and Tiffani Bova. As well as writing all the pre-event comms, workbooks and post-event articles, we researched a deep-dive report on Adapting to Change that unpacked the event’s core strategic frameworks and theories.

The theme proved prescient, with the event held weeks before the first pandemic lockdown. It would have been hard to predict, in 2019, how valuable a framework for ‘thriving in times of uncertainty’ would become for that audience.

That research report was gated, so the bank could capture and nurture new leads.

Top tip: Consider gating high-value event content like slide decks, on-demand videos, or transcripts.

From event to impact

Events are, by definition, fixed moments in a calendar. But with a clear plan for live event and webinar content, you can make sure all the ideas and insights you share on the day live on – and create significant business impact.

If your event is designed to generate qualified leads, the content can be a valuable conversation starter for sales teams. If it’s to share important industry trends and analysis, that content becomes a virtual megaphone to a broader market – including the media. It can also remind customers of the money-can’t-buy value you bring, and encourage more prospects to sign up for ‘VIP access’ to the next event.

In this way, your one event could have infinite reach. A ripple effect that can strengthen your brand’s market position and relationships for the long term.

If you have an event planned, and you’d like to maximise your return on content investment, please get in touch.

 

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