The Relevance of Online Communication for Conference Attendees Motivation. Differences between German and Portuguese Participants

Abstract:

The main goal of this paper is to understand whether there are different motivational factors of decision-making processes to attend a conference from people of different nationalities (namely Portuguese and Germans) as well as their social media usage and preferences. After the literature regarding the topic was analysed in order to guide the research, a quantitative empirical research in the form of an online survey of 20 questions was conducted. 53 respondents in Germany and 56 respondents in Portugal were analysed. The findings revealed no significant differences between the 2 markets. The results gained from the empirical research revealed useful to be used as guideline for the development of a social media-marketing plan in Germany for a company responsible for the organization of a big annual event for Product Managers in the Southern part of Europe that collaborated with this study.