Edward Byers

Edward Byers operates the website Meeting Protocol. He has more than 15 years of experience working in corporate and special events, including two Olympic Games, the Special Olympics, incentives and not-for-profits.
Creating Attendee Personas Part 1
This is how to create attendee personas for events.
We will review:
• What are personas?
• Why do you need attendee personas?
• How do you start creating personas?
• How do you refine these personas?
• And where do you utilize attendee personas?
What are attendee personas?
While other industries focus on buyer personas, the live events industry is focused on those who consume experiences – attendees.
Our jobs as event professionals is to design experiences that meet stakeholder goals of changing behaviors of the different types of attendees who will be participating in the event.
In order to do that, we have to understand who is attending our events.
Personas are avatars that represent a number of different people lumped together based on their behaviors.
Now, this is different than what Seth Godin would call Tribes.
Tribes have a hierarchy, leadership, and the person themselves self-identifies as a member of this group. For example, association membership.
Personas are not that. They are created by an organization, internally.
You usually don’t know the persona that an organization has classified you into.
The goal is to put people with similar traits together in order to have a deeper understanding of them and how to communicate with them.
Freeman to Sell Encore Event Technologies to PSAV
PSAV is known by many planners as the in-house or preferred audio-visual provider at leading venues across the nation. In fact, PSAV has a presence in nearly 1,600 locations within 10 different countries. The production, creative, technology and staging services company was acquired by investment firm Blackstone in August 2018 and will soon become even larger with the acquisition of Encore Event Technologies.
Stephen Lindsay

Stephen Lindsay is the Projects Director for DMN Design Build, where he specializes in experiential marketing, exhibition stand design and exhibition services in London. He has worked in the exhibition industry for more than 40 years, starting on the shop floor and working his way up to Production Manager. His responsibilities include overseeing the smooth transition of all projects from sales into production.
Jessica Fritsche

Jessica Fritsche is the Content Marketing Director at Freeman. She is a seasoned journalist and marketer with a passion for technology, innovation, trendspotting and inspiring thought leadership.
GSE Academy
