Most people will attend a conference at some point in their lives. This is how people in the same industry come together to discuss important topics, learn about new advancements in their field, and network with each other. A conference is incomplete without a keynote speech from a prominent figure or thought leader in the industry.
Since conferences can last for days, you can imagine how many challenges conference planners face to pull off the perfect event for its conference attendees.
Challenges for Conference Planners
Planning a conference takes a lot of work. You have to schedule catering for meals, provide snacks, manage parking demands, and consider seating requirements. On top of this, huge technical concerns must be addressed to ensure that presentations run smoothly. You also need to create a conference program schedule, train volunteers, get name tags for attendees, supply stationery… the list goes on. Clearly, it takes a lot of careful planning to hold a conference.
Getting hundreds of people together in a room is hard enough. Keeping them engaged in the conference is the next biggest challenge. Even though we’re all fully grown adults, it can still be difficult to sit through lengthy speeches. Our attention span simply isn’t long enough. A full day of speech after the speech can leave your conference attendees with glazed-over eyes and stiff legs from being seated for so long.
Strayboots Solution: Conference Scavenger Hunts
Strayboots ensures that your conference attendees get the most out of the event. We provide team building activities for groups of people, such as organizations or events. One of our most popular activities is our app-guided scavenger hunt. To participate, groups break up into teams and compete to solve challenges using their smartphones to win points.
Teams follow unique routes around the conference center or outside in the local area. They’ll receive 30-35 point-based text and photo challenges, an interactive map of the hunt, and connect to a live leaderboard.
These challenges are customizable, so conference planners can showcase the conference highlights, reinforce key points, encourage networking with other attendees, and support conference sponsors. You can even promote local attractions and venues by taking people out in the area.
Conference planners don’t have to do any additional planning to incorporate scavenger hunts into the event. Just let our team at Strayboots take care of it with our client dashboard while you stay on top of things. This will let you manage the event beforehand and monitor it as it unfolds. You’ll also be able to connect to our support agents anytime should you run into an issue.
We’ve found that these hunts are a great way to keep people engaged and excited about conferences. It gets people up and moving around, it engages them with the topics of the conference, helps them break the ice when meeting new people, and encourages the development of long-lasting connections between people in their industry. This is great because networking is one of the most valuable results of conference attendance. One conference attendee from a workshop we hosted earlier this year said, “I like the opportunity to network with other admins in similar positions as myself.”
Showcase: Las Vegas Scavenger Hunt
We had the opportunity to host a workshop at the popular Administrative Professionals Conference (APC) in Las Vegas this year. The APC is an annual event of admin and EA training. Their conferences provide admin education for the evolving workforce. Their attendees walk away with critical skills that help them succeed in the corporate world as it exists today. Overall, they learn how to increase productivity and add value to their organization.
The topics of these conferences include management, leadership, and technology skills. But also lessons on critical thinking and communication. This was the perfect conference for Strayboots to host a team-building workshop.
Team Building Workshop
Our workshop, called “On the Hunt on the Las Vegas Strip: Lessons in Team Development and Leadership”, delved into the details of the importance of team building and developing leadership skills. But most importantly, we engaged 200 attendees with a fun scavenger hunt on the Las Vegas strip.
Attendees followed clues and directions on their cell phones, which brought them to various locations in the area. They were prompted to take photo challenges at each location and answer custom trivia questions about the conference along the way.
For example, one of the trivia questions was “What Hollywood celebrity’s assistant was interviewed this year?” (Answer: Steve Martin). Another question we asked them was, “What do the initials “ASAP” stand for?” (Answer: American Society of Administrative Professionals). Instead of just asking conference members random trivia questions, we customized the challenges for the conference’s topics. This kept people engaged in the conference’s purpose and got them thinking about what they learned.
We were thrilled about the feedback we received from the scavenger hunt participants!
People loved the unique and fun nature of the activity. And many wanted to find a way to incorporate a scavenger hunt into their own corporate events. Such as the attendee who remarked, “We plan to have a scavenger hunt for our Administrative Professionals Network!”
One attendee stated, “I joined the scavenger hunt with Strayboots on Wednesday instead of the class I signed up for, and the scavenger hunt was a blast.” Many others mentioned Strayboots in their feedback from the conference.
Let Us Enhance Your Next Conference
Looking to add some fun to your upcoming conference? Strayboots can help. We’ll plan an engaging scavenger hunt for your attendees. Just contact us, and we’ll create a customized activity that everyone will enjoy. Break the ice, facilitate networking, and test people’s knowledge in a fun and unique way.
