How to create a Tweet Suite

We’ve all been to conferences that had comfy couches, we may have even been to conferences that had Tweetwalls (We hope so!), but have you ever been to a conference that had a Tweet Suite? Well today, we’re going to go over some of the basics on how to create one to increase engagement and socialization at your events.

Just to clarify exactly what a Tweet Suite is—essentially, a Tweet Suite is an area at your event dedicated for your attendees to lounge, relax, socialize and maybe get some work done if they desire.

Seating

The first thing you need while creating your Tweet Suite is comfortable seating, and ideally lots of it. Depending on your venue, this could be soft couches or chairs, or even bar stools surrounding high top tables. The most important thing to remember is, can people sit there for 20-30 minutes without getting numb? Soft or contoured chairs are the best to go with.

After you’ve figured out how much seating you plan on having (which SocialTables is great for, I might add) you next need to think about how to get your guest’s devices charged up. It’s an unfortunate reality that your guests aren’t at your event to promote you, so make sure you cater to their needs to get them to the Tweet Suite by offering ample power options.

Power

By couches and larger tables, make sure you provide power strips on each side. Everyone hates have to hold their power cord in the air in front of someone they don’t know and ask, “can you plug me in” or, even worse, not being able to sit in an open desired seat because you can’t reach the power.

You can have a few areas without power, but you do want to try and get a 1:1 ratio for an outlet for each seat in the area. If you skimp anywhere do it on the outskirts, and not by the TVs.

TV Screens

Since you’ll have ample power around the area, that also means you can plug in your own things, like TVs and computers—so the next thing you’ll need are flat screen TVs. You can go with any size, but typically you’ll want 46″ screens or better.  You’ll also want to make sure that in the Tweet Suite, you can always see a screen, so you’ll typically need 3-4 of them.

Tweetwall

The next thing you need is a Tweetwall. “Of course”, you say, we’re on the Tweetwall Blog, you have to promote it—yes, I (sort of) do. But more importantly, you need to get your guests to engage with your event and the event’s hashtag, and the best way to do that is to play into the narcissistic behaviour that we all have inside us after our curiosity led us to see the screens updating in realtime with Tweets about the event.

Your Tweetwall can be customized to match the branding of your event, as well as pull in content from Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Be where your attendees are.

The Tweetwall is probably the most affordable component of the things you need, you can get a self-service Tweetwall from us for just $29 per event day (up to a max of $107/day if you go all out on the options).

WiFi Access

Now that you have comfortable seating, ample power, televisions all around and a Tweetwall, there’s only a few things you need left. Even though the Tweetwalls will show your event hashtags, you’ll still want to have signs for the tables printed that tell them what the event’s hashtag is and how to connect to the events WiFi network—wait did I not mention that yet? Ok, so here it is, the most important thing you need to provide if you want people Tweeting about your event at your event is WiFi.

Soak that up, because it’s very important. You need to provide stable, fast WiFi for your guests. It also wouldn’t hurt to make sure that the Tweet Suite gets an access point near by.

Sponsors

Now that you have most of the basics down, have you thought about that one nagging thing that’s probably been in the back of your head the whole time you were reading this article, “how am I going to pay for this?” The best way is to allow an exhibitor at your event to sponsor the area. Just make sure to factor in all of your costs and you could end up with a better event, and even more revenue!

So there you have it. To create a Tweet Suite, you need great seating, ample power for your guests to charge up, reliable WiFi, TV screens, and a Tweetwall. Go for it!