Renee Davis is the University Recruiting Manager at Duolingo a language-learning platform and the most downloaded education app in the world with over 300 million users. Our mission is to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available.
With the majority of conferences going virtual this year, driving booth traffic and meaningful candidate interactions has become more challenging than ever. Here are a few ways to maximize your presence and engagement at virtual conferences this year!
Pre-Conference:
1. Engage early and often
Email Campaign: If the conference has provided a resume book or resume bank, create a couple of email templates to send attendees. Sending an email the week before sharing who you are, what your company does and where you’ll be located can serve as an initial marketing push. It’s also helpful to send an email the day the conference starts, as a short reminder to come visit your booth and share your location.
2. Leverage Social Media
Share the details about your company’s presence at the conference and your booth number via LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook. Sharing on your company’s page is ideal, but you can also send via your personal account and ask your booth reps to share too. Including hashtags that are related to the conference also help, so that those attending see your post.
3. Event Specific Landing Page
If you are going to have a large presence at the conference including talks, booth, etc. Consider making a landing page to showcase your company’s agenda for the conference. You can also include a pre-registration link to generate attendee interest before the conference.
Bonus – During & Post Conference
Go Beyond the Booth During the Event
Create a schedule of events that your company will be hosting or participating in during the conference and pin it to your booth. This will drive traffic to any panel discussions, breakout sessions, or other events your company is involved in.
Pro-tip: If you’re attending a high-traffic event, consider hosting short “company talks” via Zoom. Add the schedule to your booth to drive attendance, and create a custom Zoom link for each session. You’ll be able to reach a greater audience and share valuable insights into the company that you might not have time for during your 1:1 booth interactions.
Renee Davis, University Recruiting Manager
Post Conference Follow-Up
Be sure to follow-up with all of the candidates that you met with a thank you and link to apply to your open roles.
The most important thing to remember is that candidates are also trying to adapt to this new landscape. Making your events and booth accessible, as well as having multiple touch points with prospective candidates, will help to ensure that you make the most of the virtual conference experience.
