The IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Conference (IEEE WIE ILC) brings together engineering & technology professionals from across the world to engage, inspire, and learn from each other in pursuit of more inclusive leadership. The conference targeted an audience comprised of mid-to-senior level female professionals. From Silicon Valley to Bangladesh, IEEE WIE ILC created a community of peers from over 40 countries and provided a forum for knowledge sharing and networking across countries and cultures to help further careers and skillset, through coaching and guidance.
To highlight the overall conference objective of convening international women in engineering, IEEE WIE ILC leveraged the trending topic #IWD2016 (International Women's Day) on March 8, 2016. Our objective was to align the IEEE WIE ILC event with a positive and relevant event that many of our attendees can be proud to celebrate, while also driving traffic & awareness of the conference for a one-day only discounted price.
About IEEE: IEEE is the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.
As an association, our goal is to celebrate and engage with a community and bring people together. Because of this, and our overall humanitarian mission, we worked closely with our 2016 speakers who voluntarily took their own time and resources to create original content that was shared across multiple platforms. The IEEE WIE ILC #IWD2016 campaign included:
- Original content created by our event speakers: At no cost to the speakers or the conference, nearly 30 of our event speakers voluntarily created videos wishing our community a happy International Women's Day and inviting them to attend the 2016 WIE ILC event. Speakers were from more than 10 countries and companies included Disney ABC Television, Cisco, GoDaddy, PG&E and more.
- A one-day discount: In order to celebrate and give back on a day that is so meaningful to the IEEE WIE ILC mission, we offered a special 25% off discount for those who registered to attend the event.
- A 24-hour roll-out of content: Since potential WIE ILC audiences span multiple time zones, we released our original content throughout International Women's Day across digital channels, both owned and paid, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, email, and Facebook advertising. The content was modified across each platform including:
- YouTube: a YouTube playlist was created on the IEEE Women in Engineering channel to host all of the videos in one place
- Facebook: Embedded the videos into dedicated Facebook posts on the IEEE Women in Engineering Facebook page throughout the day to highlight different speakers and the discount code. Also utilized Facebook advertising to sponsor a video post featuring the IEEE WIE ILC conference chair to reach audiences outside of the existing IEEE Women in Engineering fans
- Twitter: Utilized the #IWD2016 hashtag to join the trending conversation, interact with other participants and our followers, and share the various video content and discount code throughout the day.
- Email: Sent an email newsletter to the IEEE WIE ILC community of nearly 2,000 subscribers to announce the International Women's Day 25% discount while also announcing the playlist of videos.
The IEEE WIE ILC #IWD2016 campaign surpassed our expectations and goals across the board. In a single day, we achieved increased web traffic, social media impressions, and ROI. We attracted new audiences to attend IEEE WIE ILC in May 2016 in San Jose, California, with overall attendance growth year-over-year. Results included:
- 27 videos created by IEEE WIE ILC speakers from more than 10 countries including United Arab Emirates, India, Japan, Greece, Italy, and Trinidad & Tobago.
- 130,000+ daily Twitter impressions of the @WIEILC profile on International Women's Day
- The most daily visits to the IEEE WIE ILC website in March 2016
- 690+ views of the IEEE WIE ILC #IWD2016 YouTube playlist
- Email open rate 31% higher than industry average for events
- Email click rate 527% higher than industry average
- 29 new conference registrations using the discount code totalling more than $12,000 in conference revenue in a single day
- In only the conference's third year, more than 1,300 people from over 40 countries attended the event in May 2016, nearly doubling attendance from the previous year
