Should our association convention have its own separate web design?

Giving your association convention its own separate web site design has some advantages and disadvantages. Here are a few to keep in mind. Advantages of a separate design for your association convention web site area: – If the association convention has a slightly different look each year, but your web site is not redesigned yearly, a deliberately separate design solves the problem of having a look that is out of sync. – A separate area design will help to distinguish between different years of the convention. It’s not unusual for an association to have more than one year of the convention available on the web site. That is because marketing for the next year should start the minute that this year’s convention is over, and it may be necessary to keep the previous convention information in place for some time if it contains handouts, summaries and/or marketing information. Disadvantages of a separate design for your association convention web site area: – A separate design for your association web site area can hurt the brand image of the association if it is not within the bounds of that brand. – A separate design can be user-unfriendly if its navigation is significantly different and/or inferior versus the main web site. Taken as a whole, it is fine for an association to have a different design for their association convention information, so long as the association keeps the brand image and user experience in mind. Does your association have a separate design for your association convention information? Has it been received well or has it hurt the site and/or convention?