The Agenda Is The Manifesto: How HLTH Crafts Bold, Impactful Event Experiences

Introduction:

The agenda isn’t just a list of sessions; it’s the heart and soul of an event. This sentiment is something that Jody Tropeano, Head of Content at HLTH, embodies in her approach to crafting a truly impactful event experience. In our recent live interview, Jody shared her process for building a program that not only informs but inspires and engages. From identifying themes to selecting speakers and understanding the audience, Jody offers invaluable insights into what it takes to create an event that leaves a lasting impression.

Watch the full recording on-demand: 

Part 1: The Process of Identifying Topics to Shape the Event Program

Don’t be boring. 

Put yourself in the shoes of the attendee, and let that drive how you think about crafting an event program. With all the competition out there across events, how can your event program stand out and differentiate from the rest? Joy walks us through her core focus areas for shaping an unforgettable program. 

1. Balance Niche and High-Level Topics:

Start with the topics your industry cares about most. This helps mold the guiding theme for your event agenda. In the early days of HLTH, themes were very helpful for the event content team to generate a relevant program within a structured framework. 

As the event has evolved, they use themes to help guide the program and allow themselves creative freedom to work in breaking topics or niche areas that might not fit in tightly with a specific theme. This allows more creative freedom, ensuring that sessions could cover breaking topics and emerging trends.

Examples of where to lean on creativity in developing topics include:

• What days do we want certain stages more active?
• Crafting session timing to be more impactful for audience segments 
• Deciding topics you want to test with your audience outside of a central theme 

2. Integrating the Agenda with the Entire Event Experience:

The agenda isn’t separate from the event but is holistically integrated and informs the outputs of the entire events teams. Event content teams should work closely with creative and production teams to ensure that everything from naming stages to developing themes ties together seamlessly. 

The event theme, topics covered, and session outline comes to life in how an event looks and feels creatively in stage design and production. 

3. Inject Your Own Opinions:

Building a bold program also means taking a stance. An event theme and agenda gives a company the opportunity to take stance on the issues that matter most - and injecting your own opinion to your audience and the industry. 

Part 2: The Value of Research in Writing the Agenda

1. Remain Relevant 

Staying relevant in your industry is key to a bold and compelling agenda. The agenda framework is informed by months and months of research including staying up to date on trends and capturing major headlines and developments in your industry. 

Stay relevant in your industry by: 

• Subscribing to all major newsletters
• Track key articles, headlines, and major news stories
• Understanding developments or advancements that are being adopted 
• Connecting with customers, thought leaders, and peers 
• Leverage a notes app to keep a running list of ideas, thoughts, and feelings in the year leading up to your event

2. Combine Creative Writing with Research:

Jody’s approach involves a mix of creativity and research. She believes in pushing beyond typical conference lingo to create sessions that are not only informative but also compelling. She uses SEO insights to inform her content, but always ensures that the session descriptions and titles are engaging.

3. Making Sessions “Sticky”

Your session titles are your marketing tools. Make sure the session titles and descriptions are different and stand out. It is why people are going to be excited to register for your event. 

Pay attention to what makes sessions memorable and engaging. This involves continually learning from past events, analyzing feedback, and exploring how to create experiences that leave a lasting impression. This approach helps ensure that attendees walk away with valuable insights.

Part 3: The Impact of Speaker Selection on Finalizing a Bold Vision for Healthcare

Once the event agenda framework has been built out, including theme and core topics that need to be covered, the speaker selection process begins. The working agenda allows the event content team to begin amazing conversations with a potential speaker and inspire ideas that can massage topics further and deepen the value for the audience. 

1. Featuring Experts While Spotlighting Emerging Voices:

While managing a call for papers process alongside hand-selecting speakers, the HLTH team focuses on the people and voices that jump out based on: 

• Who are the top voices on a topic 
• Who has a bold or controversial opinion 
• Who is outspoken and out in the open 

When selecting speakers for panels, every panel needs a star to be the center of intrigue for the audience, and balancing that star power by featuring fresh voices and people will bring diverse, differentiated opinions to help keep content and conversations fresh, empowering, inspiring, and challenging. 

2. Making Health Personal:

Healthcare is inherently personal, and Jody ensures that HLTH’s agenda reflects this reality. Topics aren’t just abstract concepts; they connect to real-life experiences. Jody encourages speakers to be comfortable sharing personal elements on stage, knowing that this resonates with attendees who are often thinking about their own lives, families, and experiences.

3. The Power of Saying “No”

Stage time at HLTH has become so coveted because of the team’s desire to utilize the power of no. If a speaker isn’t driving a compelling vision within the agenda framework, no matter how notable or compelling the speaker is, they aren’t afraid to be selective. 

This selectivity is a cornerstone of HLTH's strategy, ensuring that only the most relevant and impactful voices are featured. 

Most recently, they’ve applied a new rule to their event program: speakers are ineligible to participate three consecutive years in a row. It’s a way for the event content team to ensure they are:

• Featuring fresh voices, all the time
• Shaking up their agenda year over year
• Confirming speakers and topics that are exclusive to the event itself 

Part 4: Knowing Your Target Audience

1. Understanding Audience Feedback and Measuring Success

Jody and her team are constantly analyzing data and feedback to understand what resonates with their audience. Other marketing programs including trade shows, webinars, podcasts, blogs, and social media help the event content team stay really close to the challenges facing the audience and what topics resonate the most. 

This includes 

• Tracking attendance numbers
• Engagement during sessions
• Overall response to different topics
• Google analytics on blog post and website content 
• Social media sentiment 

2. Collaborating Across Teams to Attract the Right Audience

HLTH’s success also comes from its cross-departmental collaboration with marketing, sales, and other teams. This ensures that they’re attracting the right audience and delivering content that meets their needs.

Conclusion:

Creating an agenda showcases how an event’s program can be a manifesto for an entire industry, driving impactful conversations and offering a platform for bold ideas. HTLTH’s focus on integrating the agenda with the event experience, conducting thorough research, selecting impactful speakers, and understanding the audience serves as a guide for anyone looking to create an event that stands out.

By embracing creativity, collaboration, and a deep understanding of the audience, HLTH has become a leader and an award-winning event that isn't just informative but is also inspiring, engaging, and ultimately transformative.