A technological storm has gripped all business sectors. You name it, and people will somehow mention the use of technology at work. As technology advances, the event industry must incorporate the latest innovations to maximize event ROI.
An event management software automates all the activities that come into hosting an event, from registering attendees to handling all the event analytics. This software does everything from creating tickets and sending invitations to developing an event website and app.
Event Management Software has become an integral part of a successful event. According to a research study, the event management software market will grow by 8.42% between 2016 and 2020.
An Event Management Software solution can help event professionals fully utilize paperless event technology. This software offers ticketing, registration, websites, apps, marketing, and analytics for events. It can be customized according to the customer’s needs.
Wikipedia defines it as follows:
It is a term that refers to a range of software products that are used for the organization of professional and academic conferences, trade exhibitions, conventions, and smaller events.
Why use an event management software?
If you need a one-word reply, automation is for you. To accomplish this, you must understand its extensions and their applicability to the various elements of event planning.
Event management platforms are designed to deliver tailored experiences and provide specific benefits to various organizations. For example, they automate laborious and manual event tasks.
The following topics provide a cross-cutting understanding of how an event platform can be life-changing for organizers in a wide range of industries:
Integrated management
Event management software is a game changer for event organizers, seamlessly managing all aspects of an event, including physical and virtual elements.
Time-saving
Event management platforms automate the quickest and most seamless execution processes, from registration and check-in to lead collection and reporting.
You can easily manage administrative tasks associated with event organization, such as invitations, admitting last-minute attendees and payments, dealing with cancellations and refunds, and managing access to specific sessions.
Revenue tracking
Your impact as an organizer can be measured through a lead capture tool that helps exhibitors analyze their business outcomes.
You need an event platform that provides clear dashboards and reports that let you visualize your performance and maximize your return on investment.
Better engagement
Keeping each audience’s experience at the forefront is a crucial component of event engagement tools. The overall event experience can be figured out through interactions between organizers, exhibitors, and attendees.
Ensure your event management software enables a distributed audience to engage across multiple channels by allowing you to access all engagement data from live chat and video conferencing tools and recorded, contactless interactions at live events.
Simplified event data
To analyze what worked well and where you can improve next time, use statistics to generate event reports. You’ll know your performance if you know your exhibitors’.
Utilize big data to read people. What is the reason for early departures? When they arrive at certain sessions later, why is that? Does everyone get what they need? One of the best ways to improve attendee experience and engagement is to look to exhibitors for clues on their performance.
What to look for in an event technology provider?
The motto should be – ask first, choose later. Assume you need a venue for an in-person event. How do you begin? Do you choose the venue first and then consider the event’s needs? You don’t, of course.
It’s the same when choosing a technology partner for an event. First, you should get a platform demo and inquire about the different vendors’ ability to develop customized features.
You should ensure your event technology provider offers digital tools to engage virtual attendees and onsite hardware to track all event interactions seamlessly if you aim to create impactful hybrid events. It’s also important to define clear roles and align expectations for virtual event production and live streaming.
Successful hybrid events aren’t just about choosing the right technology platform but also about who’s behind their conception. Your first step should be choosing a service with a good customer success team and good support reviews.
Here are some key features that any good event management platform must have
- Event Marketing and Registration
Promote your event with promotional tools that drive a high conversion rate from registrants to attendees.
- Ticketing and Payments
Event management software should make it easy and quick for you to sell tickets and process payments.
- White Label Branding
Adding your company’s logo and brand color palette to your event marketing materials is only part of what it takes to white label correctly. Holding your event on your domain name is the first step to not letting your audience know you used third-party software to build it.
- Digital Lead Capture and Contact Sharing
Use contactless solutions to increase contact sharing and revenue at live events.
- Live Streaming and Conferencing Tools
Using a live streaming tool or pre-scheduled individual or group video calls, your event will be more accessible and enhance virtual networking.
- Engagement and Networking Tools
The main motivation for attending events is to connect with other people. Is the event platform you are considering engaging in exchanging contact information and capturing interactions, extending relationships post-event?
- Real-Time App Notifications
Utilize an event app to send push notifications to attendees. Easily announce changes to the plan, notify attendees of upcoming sessions, or send reminders.
- Reports & Event Analytics
We’re in 2022! There is no way you can avoid capturing your event results. With the right event management platform, you will get access to important statistics and cross-reference data from both online and in-person environments.
Event Marketing Software
The purpose of event marketing and management software is to solve all your planning needs in one place. It takes time and effort to find the right one – from understanding your needs to drilling down into your budget. Even though event marketing and management platforms offer many benefits, including reduced manual work, increased data and analytics, and better attendee engagement, they are not free.
It is generally possible to purchase large-scale solutions in pieces. Choosing full-service providers gives you the flexibility to add on solutions as you go without having to worry about integration issues and learning curves. In the following sections, we will explore different event marketing and management platforms that help at every stage of the event’s lifecycle.
– Event Marketing and Email Marketing
The success of an event depends on its promotion. Furthermore, by understanding how events fit into your marketing mix, you can use them to achieve business goals. Therefore, event marketing should be addressed. Event marketing entails email marketing, social media promotion, a branded event website, event registration, and more, and it occurs before the event.
The goal of event marketing is to get attendees to your event. A marketing mix also includes the use of events. In the marketing mix, data and analytics play a greater role since event success and improvement is crucial. Technology solutions are essential to get the event off to the right start.
– Content Management
A conference agenda is the heart of the event and plays a key role in engaging attendees. In reality, it takes a lot of time and mental energy to curate compelling content and wrangle speakers. Speaker management software and abstract management software come in handy here.
A content management system makes it easier to make a selection since abstracts are gathered in a common format..To eliminate inconsistencies and human error, you can use technology to automate speaker tasks when managing speakers.
– Event Registration Website
Without a registration website, an event isn’t an event. To promote your event, you need a central hub that provides all event information to potential attendees.
An event registration website helps you increase registrations without the headaches associated with spreadsheets and paper forms.
Whether managing invitees and registrants of multiple events or managing invitees and registrants, automation makes it easier. Even better? It is easy to build a great event website with an event builder that requires no coding knowledge.
– Onsite Check-In and Badging
Printing and stuffing badges are one of the most time-consuming tasks for meeting and event planners. On the event day, there are always typos on badges, which require reprinting. This is one of those activities that can require an all-nighter.
With an onsite check-in and badge tool, you can reduce the amount of time you spend printing badges, decrease waste, and eliminate stressful long lines at check-in.
– Live Polling and Survey Tools
The purpose of surveys is to fill in the gaps in the data you gather throughout the event. Live polling not only tells you whether a session was well-received but it also increases engagement. Analytics can determine how many attendees attended a session, but live polling tells you immediately.
Using survey tools, event planners can determine if an event was successful during and after. You can use online survey software to gather feedback on your latest user conference, employee training, or customer service event.
– Appointments
Opportunities are created through networking. Live events are about face-to-face interaction, and providing attendees with unparalleled networking opportunities is one of the quickest ways to prove event ROI. Event success depends on attendee engagement.
The most effective way to increase onsite meeting effectiveness is to use an appointment scheduling tool for one-on-one appointments instead of networking during happy hours.
Using an appointment scheduling tool, you can create groups of participants and control how they can view and request meetings. When you use an appointment scheduling tool, you can ensure that your attendees are fostering the relationships they want.
– Event Insights
How can you determine whether your event was successful without data? You won’t hear that from your boardroom.
It is impossible to improve your performance without data. You can track attendees, capture data, and analyze that information all in one place with a reporting and analytics tool.
By understanding expressed interest, you will be able to better understand revenue opportunities that validate your event ROI.
To demonstrate the value of your event, reports can provide you with more details before, during, and after the event.
Choose the best event management software for you
Whether you plan a 50-person event at a local venue, a webinar with 500 people, or a 5,000-person hybrid user conference, your job is to deliver memorable event experiences. You can accomplish this with the right event management software.
The challenge is finding a partner who shares your commitment to the event’s success.
Make your final decision based on resources that can enhance your buyer intention, such as case studies, product reviews or a quick demo that shows whether the features are easy to use.