Creating Your Conference Branding & Website

Get tips on creating a winning brand and engaging web presence for your next event.

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Conference Branding

Building a strong and consistent brand can help your conference stand out. Your logo, marketing materials, messaging, and event characteristics have the potential to attract and retain loyal attendees. IEEE offers some basic tools and services that can easily be used by members of your committee.

Conference Branding Best Practices

Below are a few tips that will help you establish a brand identity for your IEEE event:

  • Connect your brand to the IEEE Master Brand Guidelines and to the brand of your conference sponsors to leverage existing recognition.
  • Identify what the conference represents, who the audience is, and the overall objectives.
  • Define the tone/voice that will be used across marketing materials.
  • Ensure all collateral material incorporates a consistent color scheme and fonts.
  • Feature a professionally-designed logo that is identifiable and representative of the conference.
  • Create and promote a tagline or “elevator pitch” that easily sums up the conference in a few words.
  • Convey the purpose of the event through imagery and materials related to the topics and technology, encouraging employers to send their employees.
IEEE Branding Recommendations

Following IEEE’s identity guidelines is the first step to a unified and recognizable brand experience that leverages the value of the IEEE brand.

  • The IEEE Master Brand (logo) should be included on all digital and print collateral materials in accordance with the existing guidelines.
  • Only the letters I-E-E-E may be used as the name of the organization.
  • For Technically Co-Sponsored events, the Technical Co-Sponsor must be displayed next to the IEEE logo.
  • The identity and logo of a Financial Sponsor must be clearly displayed.
  • Consult with the sponsoring societies or geographical units to incorporate their individual branding guidelines.

Conference Website

Your website will be the digital home for your conference. There will be a lot to consider including naming, hosting, design, governance, execution, and archiving.

Conference Domain Naming

IEEE can help you obtain a domain name to meet the needs of your conference.

When selecting a domain name, please consider the following:

  • Does this series of conferences have an existing website URL?
  • Who owns the current domain name?
  • Can this domain name be transferred to IEEE and extended for future years?
  • Is your domain name too similar to other IEEE conferences?
  • Learn guidelines for selecting your conference domain name
Hosting Your Site

IEEE offers free hosting services for IEEE conference websites. Having IEEE host your site has many advantages.

Design

It is important to adhere to the IEEE Digital Style Guide when developing your website. Consider the following when designing your conference website:

  • Can you use a simple off-the-shelf template?
  • Do you have a prior year’s format that you can repurpose?
  • Do you have consistent branding from year to year? (recommended)
  • Does your branding align to your sponsors? (required)

IEEE web subsite templates: IEEE conference Organizers can leverage free templates designed for use by IEEE employees and volunteers. These templates contain IEEE WordPress themes for conferences.

Execution

Conference organizers can use a contractor, agency, or in-house expertise to develop their conference website. Using the IEEE web subsite templates can help you comply with IEEE’s digital and branding guidelines and save a significant amount of budget.

The IEEE web subsite template package can be customized to fit your conferences’ color scheme, sub-branding, and design needs.

* Please note that organizers who decide to purchase and develop their own WordPress themes are independently responsible for the effort, and costs will vary based on a number of factors.

Securing Approvals in Advance of Publishing Names of Event Contributors

The IEEE Board of Directors (BoD) passed an update to Conference Policy (IEEE Policy, Section 10) that includes new language on securing approvals in advance of publishing names of individuals in conference roles in conference promotional materials.

  • Before publicizing any conference roles (e.g. committee members, speakers, track chairs, etc.) conferences must invite contributors to join, discuss responsibilities, and document their agreement to contribute.
  • Additionally, participants must consent to have their name, photo, contact information, and biographical information listed on the conference website, social media, or promotional materials.

Resources

Please refer to the following requirements, guidelines, and IEEE policies when developing your conference website:

Required Elements

All IEEE conference websites should include the following:

Archiving

Archiving your website creates a business record of your conference program, speakers, exhibitors and sponsors.

Suggested Courses

We recommend the following courses in the IEEE Center for Leadership Excellence (CLE).  First, use your IEEE Account to log in to the CLE and then click the View Course link to go directly to the recommended course.

Conference Branding Overview for Conference Organizers – Playback from Convene 2018 – Jonathan Wiggins , Senior Intellectual Property Attorney and Chief Privacy Officer, IEEE Legal and Compliance Department

Step 1: Log In

Step 2: View Course

We Are Here to Help

If you have questions about creating your conference branding or website or for vendor recommendations, please contact the CEE team.