Promoting your forum at a convention or like gathering

Have you promoted your forum at a convention or other gathering of people interested in your forum topic? Not online, but in person. If so, how did you go about it, what did you use?

Booths? Freebie items (what kind?) Brochures? What were they like? How costly?

Did you have people to answer questions and talk about the forum? How were they identified as the people to ask (shirt, badge, etc.?)

How successful do you think it was in terms of new members - or even revived interest of inactive old members? How did you measure that?

thanks!!

 

I send my members personalized buttons with the forum logo, and also buttons with interesting images and the forum URL to hand out.

 

Not yet, but there is a parenting expo coming up, and i'm thinking about it.

 

The one thing I've done so far is name tags, for local gatherings on the weekends where hobbyist display, buy and sell their more collectable models. The name tags have the forum logo & url, and "My Blab name is ... " over "My real name is ... "

Enough name tags are provided for the full number likely to attend (20-40.) One doesn't have to be a forum member to wear one. Since less than half of hobbyists are forum members this is a way to get it and the url in front of them when they weren't necessarily looking for it.

I have not been systematic about providing the name tags, but I think it is probably a good opportunity I should pursue harder (through the hosts of these conventions/gatherings.)

One time when I was at an out-of-town gathering I thought I knew almost no one there, until the name tags came out. Then I saw by their forum names that I did know several people, on the forum. Ironic, without the name tags I would have spent 8 hours in the near vicinity of people I actually know well enough on the forum, thinking they were strangers I had only just met.

I am wondering if it would be worthwhile to provide more swag at the larger gatherings to get attention to the forum. It can be costly but if it converts into subscriptions and advertising it might pay back.

 

I would love to take advantage of a large gathering of people related to my forum's niche, but it's not something I think I'll ever actually go through with.

 

What do you mean by personalized - does it have their username already imprinted? Where do you get your buttons? thx!

 

After a mod requested 200 buttons with the forum logo to put in some goodie bags he was putting together, I decided to buy a button maker and make them all myself instead of paying someone to do it. After making all those buttons I realized the best way to get people to actually wear them was to put their usernames on them. Now when members request a button I add their name to a template with the logo, style it so the name is unique, print it, make it into a button and mail it. I don't charge for it (since they're really advertising in disguise), but often the members will make a donation to cover the cost of their button. They love wearing them to conventions and get-togethers.

Recently I bought 1000 button blanks and 500 padded mailers off of eBay.