Pre-event engagement

After you’ve invited your guests, your job doesn’t end there. You want to make sure you engage, entice, excite your audience for the weeks leading up to the event. For them, the TEDx experience should start early.

Build community

Your goal of engaging your guests is to foster a sense of community, so that once event day arrives, they’ll feel more comfortable and open to the experience.

Engage on social media

Follow our guide and tips on how to make the most of your social media, and plan to engage with them there on a daily basis. You can also create a Facebook group so that attendees can connect and talk to each other more privately.

Send email updates

Create an email campaign around your event to send to attendees. Keep a consistent editorial calendar, so that you don’t let too much time go by in between emails. (We recommend one email update per week.) Emails could include:

  • New speaker announcements
  • Invitation to pre-event activities
  • Share favorite TED Talks videos
  • Other general event updates or highlights

Get them talking

When you post on Facebook, Twitter, or on your blog, prompt your guests to engage with each other by asking them questions. Try posting a TED Talk you like, and ask them, “What is your favorite TED Talk?”

Host an Adventure

“Adventures” are pre- or post-conference in-person tours and activities designed to engage attendees and community members before and after your event.

Adventures usually include hands-on, interactive experiences with local community interests, or speakers from past and future events. This develops a sense of excitement for the ideas that will be shared in your event before the big day.

All TEDx Adventures should be centered around community engagement.

Host TEDx salons

TEDx salons are small weekly or monthly events that keeps a TEDx community engaged between regular TEDx events. At most salons, attendees watch TED Talks and have informal discussions about the talks they witnessed. It’s a fantastic way to spark discussion on issues of interest to your local community before the main event. Learn more about salon events.

Resources

Examples of Adventures

TEDxBeaconStreet and the Greater Boston Chinese Music Ensembles coordinated a full program of orchestra and ensemble music to create an interactive performance for attendees.