Now in its third year, More magazine's Reinvention Convention offers a day of programming geared at helping women reinvigorate their lives. With keynote speakers, breakout sessions, and an expo floor, the event delivers tips on topics such as finance, health, and personal style. On Monday, the magazine brought the convention to Navy Pier for its first Chicago iteration.
"We've done this event in New York, and upper management was exited by its potential," said Jennifer Kollenscher, More's New York-based director of group special events. On the East Coast, "the event was growing steadily, but not incredibly rapidly, and we felt like New Yorkers may be a little bit jaded." With so many events competing for attention in the New York market, "we had to ask: 'how can we differentiate ourselves?'" Kollenscher said. "More is owned by a Midwestern company [the Iowa-based Meredith Corporation], so it made sense to us to come back to our roots."
Among the events competing for attention recently was Oprah Winfrey's "Live Your Best Life" weekend, which reversed More's travel pattern and took its host from Chicago to New York May 7 to 9.
Kollenscher said that she was "blown away" by Chicagoans' enthusiasm. "In New York, we got 620 guests at our last event, after we'd had three years to establish ourselves and gain a following," she said. But Monday's local gathering drew around 700 attendees.
"We've learned how to promote this along the way," she said. In Chicago "we started doing cover wraps to promote the event to subscribers two months before the event. We also bought ads in local publications" such as Chicago magazine and The Chicago Tribune.
At the convention, Kollenscher said that education was a popular component. "The most common complaint I received was that women wanted to go to more [breakout] sessions," she said. "Some people got to go to three, and they wished they could go to seven." Guests proved particularly eager for professional advice. In a so-called career master class called "The Rules of Reinvention," "the room was so full that there were people squatting on the floor in the back just to listen in," Kollenscher said.
