Annual General Meetings (AGMs) are often perceived as boring, sometimes even complicated or cumbersome. This reputation is no longer valid today. Far from it! For your own peace of mind, maximum satisfaction for the attendees and to ensure your company or organization shines, make your AGM a simple, effective and especially engaging gathering. Here are some tips to organize your AGM in an easier and more enjoyable way.
Think participant experience
The simpler your annual general meeting is for the attendees, the simpler it will be for you. In events, audience problems, difficulties and complaints are a great source of distractions and complications for the organizer and his team. A well thought-out, quality attendee experience will save you time and resources.
It will also be encouraging for future editions of your annual general meeting. Attendees will remember their positive experience and will be ready to repeat the experience the following year. This is an opportunity to improve your performance indicators and increase the participation rate for future editions. In short, an improved attendee experience equals an optimized organizer experience!
Get to the point
An AGM is usually a mandatory event for a company or organization. Much of its value lies in the exchange of important information between attendees and organizers. It is therefore essential that you choose carefully what you will share and how you will present it. Some news will be better received if it is announced by someone who is well known and appreciated by the audience.
To avoid detours and unnecessary additions, define your goals for the AGM. What do you want to accomplish at the AGM? Do you want to elect a new board member? Are there any issues you want to vote on? Do you want to introduce new members to your organization? Do you want to improve your relationship with attendees or retain members?
Once your goals are determined, keep them in mind and use them as a guide during the planning and organization.
Have you considered going virtual?
For a more streamlined AGM, virtual can be a great option, especially for AGMs with very large numbers of attendees or attendees from remote areas. With advanced features, virtual AGMs allow you to reduce the level of logistics required and the number of suppliers and partners to coordinate.
In addition, you can easily make your virtual AGM available for replay and on demand. This is an opportunity to extend the life of your event and reach people who could not attend live. (These are bonus points for the post-event participant experience!)
Obviously, this isn't for everyone either. It depends on your company and your members. Smaller organizations and those with a very local reach may not see any benefit to virtual.
To make an informed decision that fits your organization, compare the pros and cons of a virtual AGM. It's a simple exercise to do at the beginning of a project, but one that may give you a new perspective.
Track your KPIs
As with any good event, you need to define key performance indicators (KPIs) to track in order to evaluate your AGM. This analysis is essential in event management. It allows you to objectively evaluate the success (or failure...) of your event.
The secret of a successful event is largely in the ability to find and analyze the mistakes and successes of previous experiences. The data collected will allow you to improve your annual meeting from one edition to the next.
At the beginning of the project, determine which performance indicators are relevant to you and how you will track them. This choice depends on your business objectives, your objectives for the annual meeting, your type of organization, etc. Here are some examples:
- Attendance at the event
- Participation in voting
- Average viewing time
- Listening language
- Geolocation of participants
- Post-event NPS survey
- and more.
Surround yourself with a trusted team
If you don't know where to start or are feeling overwhelmed, why not turn to the professionals? Whether it's for a virtual AGM, hybrid or face-to-face AGM, an experienced partner will make your job easier and offer you all the support and expertise you need. Their expertise will help you avoid many problems.
With such an important project, trust is obviously essential. You should therefore not hesitate to meet with several potential partners and suppliers in order to find the best one.
The result: a simplified annual general meeting!
We are confident that these tips and ideas will help you in your efforts to plan your next AGM. Keep your objectives in mind, think about the attendees and find partners you can trust, and you'll be fine. Your meeting will be simple and enjoyable for all parties.
If you would like to explore the option of an annual general meeting in more detail, please contact us. Over the past few years, Digicast has developed unparalleled expertise in AGMs and virtual events. We would be pleased to answer your questions.