Harnessing Data to Redesign APHA’s Annual Meeting

Implementing behavior mapping to ensure a clean bill of (budget) health and a valuable attendee journey

Challenge

Too many sessions, not enough data

Choosing the right sessions for a conference can be challenging, especially with a whopping 68 sessions, all relevant topics in the public health sector.

That’s exactly the situation the American Public Health Association (APHA) faced when planning its Annual Meeting. So, the team needed a new, more focused plan.

APHA wanted to reinvigorate the meeting, and tailor its offerings to the interests of the 12,000 attendees, while providing a clear education path throughout the sessions.

“I’m a data-based person. And I was thinking, ‘Well, I know what I think needs to happen, but what does the data tell us that we need to do?”

– Jolene McNeil, Director, Event Operations, American Public Health Association

To determine which changes to make going forward, APHA used its annual meeting to gather as much data as possible about attendee behavior and preferences. But how?

Working with Freeman to implement behavior mapping technology. Strategically placed outside of specified sessions, Zenus technology allowed APHA to gather real-time, aggregated, and anonymized data on attendee metrics including:

• Sentiment.
• Total impressions.
• Dwell time.
• Traffic per session.
• Demographics.
• Session reviews.

“People value different things now than they did five years ago. So, instead of over scheduling to make sure we were providing what attendees wanted, we started with reliable, concrete data, and made some impactful changes.”

– Jolene McNeil, Director, Event Operations, American Public Health Association

Result

Surprises and a strategic roadmap for the future

Behavior mapping provided valuable insights that helped APHA see what was and wasn’t working in its general session and key expo areas.

This AI tool also had a few surprising results: The APHA team discovered that some recent changes it thought attendees were indifferent to … were actually popular and proving successful for the association.

Now, the APHA can continue using the collected information to strategically plan speakers, activations, and sponsorships for next year’s annual meeting — spending money on sessions attendees get the most value from and truly enjoy.