Recruitment events have become a powerhouse for talent acquisition. Whether you’re hosting an event, attending a career fair, or holding sessions online, events give you direct access to talent in a way job postings can’t. Walk away with new relationships and gain top-notch additions to your talent pool.
With today’s hiring dominated by digital applications and rising applicant volumes, events cut through the noise and offer a rare opportunity for authentic connection. They bring back the human touch – something increasingly valued in a digital world.
Let’s break down why recruitment events should be part of your hiring strategy and how you can make the most of them.
Why events belong in your recruitment strategy
1. Connect with passive, hard to reach talent
Attracting passive talent (candidates who aren’t actively looking for a job but could be open to the right opportunity) is key to successful recruitment in a competitive talent market. Recruitment events let you connect with these individuals in a more personal way. Instead of posting a job and waiting for applicants, you can engage with talent directly, build rapport, and position your organisationorganization as an employer of choice.
Events are especially powerful for building trust and awareness with niche communities, specialist occupations, early career talent, or underrepresented groups who may not engage through job boards alone.
2. Easily capture candidate information
Talent pipelines are the most efficient way to hire and are 18 times more effective than job boards. Events provide a low-friction environment to collect valuable candidate information, in person or online. You can gather resumes, contact details, and information like candidate preferences at scale. Capturing meaningful insights in real time, creating not just a contact list but a qualified talent community. With the right tools, this will enable greaterpersonalisationpersonalization and candidate engagement down the track.
3. Showcase your employer brand
Recruitment events are not just about filling roles; they are an opportunity to showcase your employer brand. They give candidates a real feel for your company’s culture, values, and what it’s like to work with you. Demonstrate your commitment to diversity, work-life balance, and career development to help set you apart in a competitive job market.
When candidates meet your people face to face (or even via a webinar) they’re more likely to remember you. It’s a chance to create an emotional connection that job ads can’t replicate.
4. Deliver high ROI in a competitive market
While recruitment events require investment, they often deliver stronger long-term ROI than paid job ads. You leave with a rich pipeline of warm candidates, plus the added value of brand exposure and relationship-building. When supported by automation and follow-up workflows, events can continue delivering value well beyond the day they happen.
What to consider when planning your recruitment event
Event format that matches your hiring goals
Not all events are created equal – and that’s a good thing. Different formats align with different recruitment goals and who you’re trying to reach. Understanding the purpose behind each event type helps you build a more targeted and effective strategy:
- Campus recruiting events: Ideal for attracting early career talent and interns.
- Virtual webinars: Expand your reach to remote, national, or global candidates without geographic barriers.
- Niche meetups and conferences: Great for hiring specialist roles in tech, finance, healthcare, and other competitive fields.
- Diversity-focused events: Build connections with underrepresented groups by partnering with community networks.
- Internal talent showcases: Open up opportunities for internal mobility and employee referrals.
- Live chat hiring events: Perfect for high-volume roles. These real-time, text-based events allow recruiters to connect instantly with multiple candidates, answer common questions, pre-screen interest, and direct talent to apply.
Selecting your event format that aligns with your hiring goals will ensure you can reach and engage the right talent that meets your needs.
Set your team up for success: Prep for event impact
The best recruitment events start well before anyone walks through the door. Internal readiness is key to delivering a seamless, high-impact experience.
- Brief your team: Make sure recruiters and hiring managers are aligned on messaging, event goals, and what success looks like.
- Equip your people: Provide key talking points, highlight priority roles, and give them real-time access to your CRM or lead capture tools.
- Align follow-up plans: Who’s responsible for follow-up? What’s the timeline? When this is planned ahead of time, post-event engagement is faster and more personalisedpersonalized.
Strong internal alignment ensures that every candidate conversation is consistent, valuable, and memorable.
Designing an event experience candidates remember
First impressions count. Whether your event is in person or virtual, candidate experience should be front and center.
- Make it easy to engage: Use pre-event email reminders, mobile check-in, and QR codes to streamline access.
- Create two-way conversations: Let candidates meet hiring managers, ask questions, or see behind-the-scenes culture videos.
- Close the loop: Follow up after the event with personalisedpersonalized messages and relevant next steps – whether it’s joining your talent community or applying for a role.
When candidates feel seen, heard, and valued, your brand stands out.
Measure what matters: Tracking event ROI and impact
To prove the value of your recruitment events (and improve them over time) you need to track what works.
Key metrics to measure:
- Number of attendees
- Qualified leads captured
- Conversion to application or hire
- Engagement with landing pages and follow-up emails
- Cost per lead or cost per hire
PageUp Clinch makes this easy by tying all activity back to your CRM. With real-time tracking and reporting, you can see what’s driving results and optimiseoptimize your strategy for the next event.
Power up your recruitment events with PageUp Clinch
Makes running standout recruitment events simple and scalable with Page Clinch recruitment marketing platform. From capturing candidate info to post-event follow-up, it’s built to drive results:
- Capture on the go: Use Clinch’s iOS or Web Kiosk to collect resumes and details instantly, right into your CRM.
- Smart segmentation: Automatically tag candidates by skills, role, or criteria to fuel targeted talent pipelines.
- Event landing pages: Launch branded, no-code pages to promote events, capture interest, and convert visitors.
- QR code integration: Let attendees scan and connect on the spot – boosting real-time engagement and traffic.
- Custom CTAs and forms: Create tailored forms that capture the data you actually need.
- Post-event nurture: Trigger automated, personalisedpersonalized follow-ups to keep candidates warm and moving forward.
Customer highlight: PagerDuty’s success at RenderATL
PagerDuty’s hiring team knocked it out of the park at RenderATL – powered by PageUp Clinch event capabilities. Their approach was seamless – designed to build relationships with top talent from the moment they walked through the door.
At the heart of their strategy was a dedicated landing page, featuring custom, targeted content that resonated with the event’s audience and showcased PagerDuty’s employer brand. But they didn’t stop there: to bridge the gap between in-person interactions and their online presence, they placed QR codes on their booth – and even on giveaway cookies! Making it fun and effortless for attendees to engage with PagerDuty, explore their tailored landing page with open roles, dive deeper into their culture and a CTA to join their talent community.
The team kept the conversation going with automated email blasts during the event, encouraging booth visitors to stay connected. Candidates were then placed into automated workflows, ensuring ongoing connection after the event.
This strategic combination of Clinch’s event features and automation tools helped PagerDuty engage both active and passive candidates. In short? Recruitment events (done right) can truly transform the hiring process.
Recruitment events are more than just opportunities to fill open positions – they’re a chance to grow your talent community, engage with passive candidates, and showcase your employer brand. In a time when digital outreach alone isn’t enough, events help you stand out and create meaningful moments of connection.
Transform your recruitment events into seamless, impactful experiences. Learn how PageUp Clinch can help you take yours to the next level. Request a demo today.
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