Impact stems from understanding – How personas and visitor journeys help to understand an event’s target audience

No time to read the whole article? Here are the key takeaways in 30 seconds:

Why is understanding the target audience so important when organising events?
Successful events stem from a clear understanding of the target audience. It is not the technology or the staging that determines the impact, but whether the content and formats are suited to the participants.

What are personas and why are they useful for event planning?
Personas are experience- and data-based representations of the target audience. They help us to better understand the expectations, needs and challenges of the participants.

What defines the visitor journey at events?
The visitor journey outlines the entire experience of the participants – from the initial information about the event right through to the follow-up.

How does understanding your target audience change event planning?
When events are designed with the participants in mind, this influences the structure, content, formats and interactions, and ensures that the planning is focused on the objectives. The result is an event that is tailored to the target audience – rather than falling short of their expectations.

Why isn’t it enough to make events impactful simply through grand productions?
It is often the case that the greatest impact is achieved through well-chosen, target-audience-focused moments rather than through large-scale productions. The key is to ensure that content, formats and interactions are tailored to the persona and the visitor journey.

How do I create personas and a visitor journey?
Don’t worry, we’ve provided a template for you to download at the end of this post.

When we talk about events, the focus is often on technical innovations, impressive stage shows or inspiring speakers. Yet, in the end, something quite different determines their success: does the event suit the target audience?
It all begins even before the first CAD drawing, the selection of the key visual or the design of the agenda. The starting point is understanding the target audience. What helps here? Putting yourself in their shoes. How can this be achieved? By using personas or a visitor journey. The following section explores why understanding the target audience is crucial to the success of an event, how this understanding can be developed, and how events change when this understanding forms the basis of all decisions.

An event can be technically and logistically flawless, aligned with current trends and spectacularly staged – and yet fail to move anyone or achieve the desired impact. Large-scale productions can certainly impress, no question about it. A spectacular show can inspire, but if it distracts from the message, in the end only the show remains in the memory, not the message itself. This is precisely where a key challenge in event design lies. That is why it is important for us at ottomisu to adopt a different perspective at an early stage. For it is only when we know who we are designing for that we know why and how we are designing. A clear understanding of the target audience in event planning helps us to consciously resolve areas of tension, such as between trends and impact, or between enthusiasm and relevance.

A change of perspective means asking questions from a different angle. So instead of just asking “What do we want to say?”, we also ask “What is needed?”. Such an approach immediately changes the tone, the structure, the interaction and the content of an event.
But how do you achieve this change of perspective? The simplest way, of course, is to speak WITH the participants rather than ABOUT them. As this is not always possible, personas can be a good option for immersing oneself in the target group’s perspective.

It is important to note that they are not fictional idealised figures. Personas are experience- and data-based representatives of the real target group, with specific, sometimes differing goals, challenges and expectations, which help to plan events consistently from their perspective.

1. Laying the groundwork: Discussions with the client, surveys or feedback from past events provide a solid information base.
2. Defining the persona: Each persona is developed using standardised criteria. Possible characteristics include, for example, role or function, goals, needs, expectations of the event, pain points or information-seeking behaviour. The more detailed the persona can be defined, the more useful it is for the project.
3. Using the persona in the project: Personas are not documents that end up in a drawer once they have been created. They must be actively incorporated into decision-making to fulfil their purpose. Questions such as “Would this help our persona?” can provide guidance during concept discussions. When choosing formats, for example, it is worth asking “Is this really exciting for the persona, or does it just sound interesting to us on paper?”

Once we understand who we are designing for, the next step is to understand how that person experiences the event. In doing so, we look not just at individual programme elements, but at the participants’ overall event experience. Whilst the persona provides us with a face and background knowledge of the target group, the visitor journey – that is, the entire path a person takes in relation to an event, from the initial information about participation through to the follow-up – shows us how this experience is actually perceived.

Whilst the term ‘customer journey’ is frequently used in marketing, the term ‘visitor journey’ is more appropriate in an event context. It describes the participants’ path through the entire event experience – before, during and after the event.

Here are a few things to bear in mind when creating or planning a visitor journey:

• Pre-event communication: The event doesn’t just begin at the venue entrance. Pre-event communication is essential: on the one hand, the time leading up to the event can be used to build anticipation and positive expectations. On the other hand, all the information needed for a smooth start to the event can be provided at this stage.
• Touchpoints and expectations: Individual touchpoints, which are generally encountered or vary depending on the persona at the event, can also be aligned with expectations and circumstances in advance. In this way, various scenarios are run through from different perspectives during the planning stage, rather than only becoming apparent on the day of the event.
• Aftermath of the event: Just as the event begins before admission, it does not end with the applause following the final keynote or when attendees leave the venue. Communication afterwards is crucial to rounding off the participants’ experience on a positive note. ‘Aha’ moments or a deeper understanding of individual topics sometimes only emerge after the event. This aftermath should also be taken into account in the visitor journey.

When an understanding of the target audience becomes the foundation, our perspective on staging often changes too. It doesn’t always have to be spectacular – it just has to be right. What is considered spectacular is perceived differently anyway: event planners and participants often have different perspectives here. So it’s not about ‘higher, faster, further’. A quiet, fitting moment can be more effective than the grandest production.

Focusing on the target audience sometimes also means scaling back, simplifying or narrowing the focus. And above all, it means: keep at it! All these methods and ideas are not a one-off step. Good event planning must remain curious, because target audiences, as well as their needs and expectations, are constantly changing.

Successful events don’t stem from trends or technology – they stem from understanding. Those who truly know their target audience don’t just create a stage; they create a space for meaning.

Methods such as personas or the visitor journey help to design events FOR a target audience – rather than merely talking about them during the planning stage. After all, understanding your target audience means adopting different perspectives, questioning assumptions and thinking on an equal footing.

Events, more than almost any other format, have the potential to bring about lasting change. When designed with the target audience in mind, they can shift mindsets, move people emotionally and shape attitudes.
That is precisely why, at ottomisu, we start every event with a simple question: Who are we designing this event for? Because this is exactly where the potential of events lies – to truly reach people and make a difference.

If you’d like to start working with personas and visitor journeys but aren’t quite sure where to begin, we’ve put together a little guide: a sample persona template and a visitor journey checklist.

You can use both as inspiration and adapt them to your needs. Because here too, the best method is the one that suits your target audience.
Have fun giving them a go!