When the Legal Value Network (LVN) inaugural conference was postponed from 2021 to 2022 due to the Delta Variant, LVN pivoted… (but not to virtual!) Knowing the membership did not want to wait an entire year before connecting as a group, Bostrom staff worked with LVN volunteers to launch a series of half-day regional events which together were titled the “LVN Road Trip”.
The 4 regional events (taking place in Chicago, London, NYC, and Washington DC) consisted of a panel discussion and/or workshop, a roundtable discussion about key industry issues, and concluded with a networking happy hour. To reduce venue costs for the smaller events, each event took place in member offices. Event attendance ranged from 20 to 60 participants.
In addition to keeping venue costs at a minimum, LVN partnered closely with key sponsors, who were equally excited to get the opportunity to interact with a core group of their target audience. Part of the sponsorship costs included food and beverage, which allowed LVN to grow the bottom line even further.
Goals
LVN values innovation, and it was a priority to deliver a series of events that would highlight the group’s ability to be creative and challenge what a traditional conference might look like. The goal was to deliver meaningful content while bringing key pockets of their membership together and to create impactful networking opportunities.
Dynamic & Meaningful Content
Creative Event Solutions
Impactful Networking Opportunities
“In today’s environment, going back to the basics is sometimes overlooked. By creating smaller events that prioritized simplicity and membership needs, we created an impactful event series that boosted engagement for members and sponsors and added a new revenue stream for LVN.”
Kate Fries
Meeting Manager, LVN
Solution for Success
- Volunteer Engagement: Without the commitment of our volunteers, the event would not have been successful. With the events taking place in their local communities, it allowed for their engagement and commitment to a successful event; and when the events did succeed, the volunteers felt the success firsthand.
- Agile Marketing: The idea of a Road Trip allowed the LVN marketing team to develop a creative and fun campaign around the events. The campaign included a clever logo, Spotify playlists with road trip songs – all developed by attendees at each event, and thoughtful use of road trip jargon to symbolize the “journey” to LVNx, their next, national in-person event.
- Focus on Membership: By targeting key geographical areas for LVN’s membership, this made the events accessible to both members and non-members. While businesses recover from the pandemic and individuals are faced with busy and constantly changing calendars, the local half-day events made it easy for attendees to fit into their schedules. While conferences often ask for members to meet an organization somewhere, LVN traveled to their members.
“We came up with this idea late last year with the goal of making it happen in Q2 2022. Very quickly Bostrom understood our intent and ran with it. They asked questions where needed to get clarity, they understood our vision and came up with a really creative marketing campaign for it. And Katie Keel’s (LVN’s Executive Director) ability to attend the first event helped solidify Bostrom’s understanding of our organization at a deeper level. They put up with all of our “last minute” ideas and came up with ways to fulfill our vision from start to finish. Couldn’t have done it at this professional level of execution without them!”
Purvi Sanghvi
Director of Strategic Pricing at Paul Hastings | Officer, Board Member at Legal Value Network
Outcome
The LVN Road Trip events were a huge success – all from an attendee, sponsor, and financial standpoint.
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The four events collectively brought together over 170 attendees, which is about 70% of the attendees LVN anticipated at the conference.
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The events brought in DOUBLE the revenue than initially budgeted.
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The overall evaluation results were overwhelmingly positive. One attendee noted “this event improved my perspective of LVN” and “Solidifies LVN as a major player in this space!”
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The content and key themes to come out of the Road Trip events will play a role in crafting content.
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The momentum generated is being leveraged to enhance the promotion of the conference and membership recruitment.
