Tag: event technology

How Live Chat Can Boost Your Event’s Ticket Sales & 5 Other Stories To Read

Posted on by Eventsforce

In this month’s round-up of top event tech news, we look at live chat technology and the impact it can have on boosting ticket sales on your event websites. We also bring some important updates from Facebook which change the way your event posts appear on news feeds, as well as some great input from well-known industry experts on the kind of event technology we need to look at in 2018.  Finally, we look at what steps event planners need to start taking now to get ready for the upcoming GDPR, along with some new Smart badge technology that makes networking at events a lot easier for everyone.

Have a look at what you may have missed:

Event MB: How Live Chat Technology Can Help Sell 45% More Event Tickets

Need to sell more event tickets?  It might be as easy as adding a simple feature to your event website.  According to this piece from Event MB, Live Chat allows your visitors to get immediate answers on any questions they may have around your event, without the need for a phone call or email.  We know how purchasing an event ticket can be largely driven by emotion, which means if your potential attendee doesn’t get the answer they need at that moment, they may reconsider and look elsewhere.  With live chat, however, people can get answers to their questions while they are still excited and interested in the event. Not only that, the tool can also help people through the registration process and provide a more personalised experience, as well as reduce your own admin expenses like dealing with queries. Read more.

Making Your Event Staff Aware of GDPR is Just the First Step

Hot of the press is the news that an NGO aimed at helping EU citizens fight for privacy rights under GDPR has launched this week, making the risks of non-compliance all the more real for organisations collecting and processing the information of people in the EU.  This article from C&IT looks at the impact of the new legislation on the events industry and how planners need to take some crucial steps to ensure their event operations don’t put their own organisations at risk.

Top of the list is making sure everyone on the events team understands what GDPR means, the risks of non-compliance, as well as the changes that need to be made in the way you collect, store and share the personal information of people coming to your events. For example, they need to understand you’ll no longer be able to share delegate lists with hotels and venues without having the right kind of consent. You also need to run a data audit to assess what personal data you already hold in the tech systems you use around events, where that data came from and whether or not you have the right kind of consent in using that data.  Other steps include updating consent boxes on forms, putting processes in place that address your attendees’ new rights, keeping data safe and preparing for a potential data breach.  Read more.

Get your FREE eBook: ‘The Event Planner’s Guide to GDPR Compliance’, and learn what impact Europe’s new data protection regulation will have on event marketing, data management and event technology – as well as what steps event planners need to take now to get ready for the May 2018 deadline.

BBC News: Facebook Plans Major Changes to News Feeds

Facebook is to change how its news feed works, making posts from businesses, brands, media (and events!) a lot less prominent. Instead, content that sparks conversations among family and friends who use the site will be emphasised. In many ways this is Facebook getting back to its roots, making news feed more about what friends are creating and thinking, rather than articles they have shared. What this means for event marketers, however, is that they may start seeing the popularity of their posts go down as a result – which isn’t great news for those that rely on news feeds for generating organic traffic. Have a look at this article here for more detailed information on how this announcement affects marketers.

Facebook’s latest step in its on-going effort to fix its embattled news delivery offering also now involves prioritising local sources – so pushing local news offerings to the top of users’ feeds.  The new feature announced this week will elevate news that’s clicked on by users in a tight geographic locale along with outlets based in that area.  Content will also be prioritised as users follow or share stories from specific publications.  Read more.

EventTech Talk: Ask the Experts – Top Event Technology Trends 2018

EventTech Talk recently spoke to some of our industry’s well-known editors, bloggers and tech experts to find out what application of event technology stood out in 2017 and what they think will be the next big thing over the coming year.  It seems facial recognition technology will gain more popularity as it proved to be a viable and practical event check-in option for attendees over the past year.  Another game changer is predicated to be attendee intelligence technology that tracks user behaviour and personalises interactions with individual participants.

Chatbots are another thing to watch out – being one of the most understandable applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in our industry.  They have no learning curve and they’re platform agnostic – becoming more intelligent and useful as the technology matures. We’re also seeing a bigger push towards integration – and not just between the different systems used around events but with other back end solutions too. More and more organisations will start to integrate their event data with CRMs to help them better understand attendees and make it easier to track and attribute things like sales deals to events. Read more.

eBook: The Event Planner’s Guide to Data Integration

Event Industry News: 5 Things Event Profs Can Learn from CES 2018

The global Consumer Electronics Show took place in Las Vegas this month to bring us the latest in technology innovation, along with some weird and wonderful devices.  Event Industry News has put together a nice piece that summarises the biggest announcements from the show and what impact they’ll have on the events industry.  Aside from the usual suspects like AR, VR and drones, some highlights include wireless charging stations which allow attendees to charge their smartphones on the go and the increasing use of Android devices over iPhones. We also have voice-activated technology, electric cars and LG’s new roll-able TV! Read more.

Event Tech Brief: Smart Badges – Ready to Wear Networking

Placing your attendees in a room with instructions to ‘network’ is not a great way to produce meaningful interactions.  Most people at conferences aren’t accomplished networkers.  Even the pros still have to go through awkward introductions and questions only to discover that a conversation leads nowhere.  Enter the world of smart badges. This article from Event Tech Brief looks at the Proxfinity smart badge which visually connects people at events who have communicated in advance their desire to discuss one or more specific topics.

How does it work?  Attendees receive smart badges loaded with their contact information and responses to a pre-event survey of topics, at check-in. When one badge wearer comes within proximity of another who has indicated a mutual interest, the badges signal a match. In addition to sparking conversations, the badge also records the location of discussions (enabling a heat map) and dwell time.  And because the devices exchange contact information (a post-event report of all connections made is available to wearers), participants can use them for lead tracking too. Read more.

If you would like to get similar monthly round-ups on all things event tech, along with some expert advice on how to make the most out of your technology investments, then please sign up to our weekly EventTech Talk Newsletter here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why Onboarding is Critical When Investing in Event Tech

Posted on by Eventsforce

At a time when budgets are pinched even tighter and downsizing has become commonplace, seeing a quantifiable return on events has never been more important. And technology plays a key role here.  It allows you to collect important data around your events (registration forms, surveys, RFID) and create all sorts of reports that help measure ROI.

Read: 10 Reasons Why Businesses Invest in Event Management Software

The problem is that the amount of data generated around an event can be overwhelming: from website traffic and social media engagement to registration and attendance.  From the quality of your attendees to their feedback and evaluation. From the revenue generated to conversion rates and sales leads. Figuring out what your event tech system should measure and how best to measure it is not as simple as one would hope.

Enter the world of onboarding.

What is Onboarding for Event Tech?

A concept originating in the US, onboarding is traditionally associated with the process of familiarising and welcoming new employees into an organisation.  Numerous studies have shown that when support levels are high, new hires often have more positive attitudes about their jobs and work harder.  When support and direction aren’t offered, it has the opposite effect: unhappy and unproductive employees who don’t make it much further than four months.

The same concept applies when you invest in a new event tech. What you get out of it (and ultimately, your event ROI) really depends on the kind of onboarding experience you have beforehand.  Onboarding in this sense means ensuring you get the right kind of guidance, skills, consultation and training that can help you get the most out of your technology.  A structured process that makes sure the system is going to collect and measure the right kind of information that allows you to meet the objectives of your event. Because without it – as with onboarding new recruits – your new technology may not deliver on its promises the way you had hoped.

Whether you’ve investing in a new event management system, an event app or any other kind of technology that allows you to capture data around your events, then onboarding is something you need to think about.

How Does Onboarding Improve Your Event’s ROI?

Before we go into what a good onboarding process looks like, we need to highlight the importance of who it is that delivers this service.  In most cases, once you decide on a new system, your event tech provider will offer you a training session on the new system.  You learn everything there is to know about each switch, button and feature. You go back and digest this information and configure it in a way that’s right for your specific event. This all sounds good but what happens when you have a sophisticated solution with a lot of functionality?You don’t want technology to create more work for you – you want it to simply processes.  You want it to save you time and help you run events that succeed.

Let’s take an example. Say you want to introduce paid-for events and need to integrate a payment gateway into your registration system. There are a number of things to consider here.  What payment gateway should you choose?  What discount rates should you apply?  How will you monitor the status of payments?  How will you measure the revenue you’re generating? Do you need this figure to be broken down by attendee type? Will you need to compare this from one event to the other?

A good onboarding team will assess these requirements and recommend the best way of configuring your system.  It will recommend on the best processes and work flows you need to put in place. It will provide you with guidance on what data needs to be captured by the system in order for you to create the ROI reports that matter. Having this support from the start can help you avoid making any changes later on, which inevitably will cost you time and money.

 The ABCs of Good Event Tech Onboarding

Industry experience is critical to a good onboarding service.  To ensure you get the most out of your investment, it helps getting advice from people who are experts in the field and have had plenty of experience in managing different types of events. They understand how events are run and the kind of challenges you face because they were once event planners too.  They can give you the right kind of advice on how best to use the system, provide insight on potential problem areas and help you and your team identify how best to measure your event ROI.

1) Determine Your Event Goals

The first part of the onboarding journey is to understand the business objectives of your events and identify key problem areas in your processes.  To do this affectively, onboarding will involve top level decision makers across your organisation (from events and marketing to the communications, IT and finance departments) to set clear business goals and determine exactly what the organisation requires from the new system.  Do you want to increase attendance with new or returning delegates?  Do you want to increase revenue by introducing paid-for events?  Do you want to cut the time spent on chasing payments?  Do you want to create new leads in your sales database?

The more stakeholders you get involved, the more likely the onboarding team can help you determine exactly what you want to achieve earlier on. If your CRM manager, for example, decides it could be a good idea for you to integrate your delegate data with your organisation’s CRM system, then you’re better off determining this at this stage.  Why? Because making these software changes further down the process can be the source of a lot of frustration and cause delays.

2) Set Up Your Event’s ROI Metrics

Once they have determined the end goals you and your organisation want to achieve from your events, the next step is figuring out what data needs to be captured, how it should be processed and what kind reports you need to produce.  Will you be sending delegate lists to hotels and caterers?  How often will you need to send those reports in the run up to your event? What kind of reports do you need about your speakers, sponsors or exhibitors?

Identifying the right reports is essential in measuring your event ROI. Is it numbers through the door? Is it session attendance or engagement? Is it money coming in? Is it the number of new registrations or how much time delegates are spending at the event? How you measure success will determine the kind of data you need to capture and the reports you need to produce.  Onboarding can help you identify what you need to measure and ensure markers are placed across the system in all the right places.

3) Map Out Your Event Processes

The next stage of onboarding involves collating all this information and putting together a process flow document, which often can be in the form of a flow diagram.  The document needs to identify what data needs to be captured at each stage of your event lifecycle and how this can vary from one event to another – or even from one type of attendee to another.

For example, with sponsors, you may have to collect information on fees and deadlines.  With exhibitors, you may need to capture data on stand sizes.  With delegates, it may be about capturing what sessions they want to attend or what kind of accommodation requirements they have.

Future proofing is also key here.  Onboarding will ensure that the process flow reflects how the system will be used in the future. For example, they can recommend configuring your system in such a way that when returning delegates are registering for your next event, their details are automatically prefilled within their registration forms.  This time-saving approach to customer service is critical for some types of events.

4) Get Advice on Best Practices

Working so closely with different types of organisations and their events allows onboarding to provide unique insight on some of the latest trends and compliance regulations in the industry.  For example, you may need to store delegate card details to secure deposits for things like transport, hotel rooms, dinners etc.  Onboarding can give advice on which payment gateways are best suited for this without making your organisation subject to PCI-DSS regulations.

They can also advise on best practices around Data Protection regulations like GDPR.  Are you using the right kind of consent boxes on your registration forms? Are you sharing detailed delegate lists with hotels and caterers or are you sharing only what is necessary?  Are you using all the information you are collecting in your registration forms? If not, then how are you storing this data?  Do you know the difference between ‘sensitive’ and ‘non-sensitive’ personal information and what kind of extra security precautions you need to be taking when storing this kind of data?

Are your events ready for GDPR? Get your FREE eBook: ‘The Event Planner’s Guide to GDPR Compliance’, and learn what impact Europe’s new data protection regulation will have on event marketing, data management and event technology – as well as what steps event planners need to take now to get ready for the May 2018 deadline.

5) Training & On-going Support

The process mapping document ensures that the solution will be set up and configured in a way that accurately reflects and measures the set objectives around the events. It also provides the basis (and agenda) for the product training that the onboarding team will conduct for all your end users.  The training session will not only focus on features and functionality, but will also teach your team how to use the system based on the process flows that were specifically mapped out for you. It makes the whole process of IT training more transparent, straightforward and tangible. It also ensures that everyone understands all the set ROI objectives and what their work needs to focus on.

Find out how Eventsforce Onboarding can recommend on best processes and workflows when using event management software – including guidance on data management, regulatory compliance and how best to achieve event objectives and goals.

The Rising Threat of Cyber Attacks in Events and 4 Other Technology Stories Planners Should Read

Posted on by Eventsforce

In this month’s round-up of top event tech news, we look at the rising threat of cyber attacks in the events industry and what kind of precautions organisations need to take.  We also bring an overview of this year’s Event Tech Live show in London, which aside from showcasing the latest tech innovations, highlighted just how important the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is going to be for meetings and events, globally next year. Finally, we look at some interesting updates from social media giants, Snapchat and Facebook, as well as the launch of the first NFC-enabled event app.

Have a look at what you may have missed:

Skift: The Meetings Industry Is Not Worried Enough About Cybersecurity

It seems cyber security is not a priority for most meeting planners, but experts warn that it’s just a mater of time before the industry is hit with a major breach, according to this article from Skift.  Just about every week, we hear about another fairly big cyber-security incident that gets talked about in public (think Equifax and Uber) – and there are many more that don’t. According to the article, there is no hard data yet on how widespread hacking is in meetings and events because planners and venue managers are hesitant to discuss it publicly, but that doesn’t mean breaches aren’t happening. One expert from a cyber security training company cites how he gets at least one call a month from event planners who have either had a meeting breached or attendee data compromised.

The article highlights how hackers could steal and use stolen data from events and the kind of things that motivate them, including identity theft, corporate espionage, social activism and practice hacks.  One of the easiest way to get data, for example, is through Wi-Fi at hotels and venues, where they either hack the system itself or set up a hotspot with an official sounding name. The article also makes recommendations on how to make events less vulnerable, including the installation of anti-virus and malware software on staff devices and the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and password managers.

Read: Infographic – How to Keep Your Event Data Safe

Event Tech Talk: 4 Tech Trends from Experts at Europe’s Main Event Tech Show

The annual Event Tech Live show took place in London this month, and once again, it didn’t disappoint.   As Europe’s only dedicated exhibition and conference for event professionals interested in event technology, the show brought together a number of experts debating some of the latest technology trends and issues shaping our industry today.  One topic that kept coming up again and again was the upcoming EU GDPR, which is set to radically change the way events collect and use the personal information of people coming to their events.  And yet an audience poll at the show revealed that MOST event planners had actually very little understanding about the new regulation – which is quite alarming, given the implications.

Read: The Event Planner’s Guide to GDPR Compliance

Another interesting topic discussed at the show was the future of event apps and whether or not events will start moving towards other alternatives like chatbots in the next year. There were also some interesting questions around personalisation and how event planners decide how much personalisation they should actually do. This was the basis of one panel discussion between Eventsforce, Haymarket Media and the British Council which unveiled the results of a new research study on event personalisation.  Aside from the conference, the event was also a good opportunity to see some of the latest innovations on offer, including an event check-in solution that uses facial recognition technology and a system which scraps the need for spreadsheets when recruiting, scheduling and paying temporary staff around events.  Read more.

TSNN: Noodle Live Launch First-Ever NFC-Enabled Event App

Noodle Live announced this month the availability of the first-ever NFC-enabled app for live events. Instead of using hardware to scan badges, event organisers will be able to design and encode ‘smart’ posters which can be displayed throughout an event. All attendees have to do is download the app, tap their phone on a poster that contains one of these small NFC chips so that they can access event swag, collect contacts and check-in to sessions.

By replacing the need for placing screens around an event venue and scanning badges using QR codes or RFID, the new technology could change the way event touch points work as well as really cut down the cost of implementing contactless technology. More importantly, it means that every aspect of an attendee’s experience is brought back to their own device which makes things easier for them and promotes further engagement.  Read more.

Ad Week: Events Can Now Add Website Links to Snapchat Lenses and Filters

Snapchat is adding a feature to its ads that will allow brands and events to direct followers to websites after playing with a sponsored lens or filter – which is good news for those of you who target Snapchat users and want to use the platform to drive ticket sales for your events. The company also recently rolled out its long-awaited pixel, which allows you to analyse whether or not the ads you place on the platform are driving any traffic to your websites.

These features are all part of Snap’s newly launched ad offering, also dubbed Context Cards, which allow users to view more information about a Snap tagged with a location.  Swiping on a Snap geo-tagged with a location pulls up information like tips, directions, reviews and booking rides through Snapchat’s partnerships like TripAdvisor and Uber.  Read more.

Event MB: Facebook Announces Oculus Venues

According to Event MB, the VR revolution is finally happening – whether we like it or not. Last month, Facebook unveiled Oculus Venues – a new app that allows users to enjoy events, concerts and movies with other people via VR technology. Launching in 2018, the Oculus Venues app works with Facebook’s Oculus Rift and the new affordable Oculus Go mobile VR headset – all part of the social media giant’s plan to get 1 billion people into VR. Click here for the full article which highlights some of the implications VR will bring to the events industry and whether or not it will replace face-to-face experiences.  It also has a video demonstrating how the new Facebook app works.

While on the subject of Facebook, it’s worth noting that group video chat is now available to all Workplace by Facebook users on desktop and mobile – a really great tool for communicating and collaborating with team members and stakeholders around events. Up to 50 people can be included in the group video chats – all you need to do is create a chat group and click the video button to start a video chat with your whole team. Find out more here.

Did you enjoy reading this article? If you would like to get similar monthly round-ups on all things event tech, along with some expert advice on how to make the most out of your technology investments, then please sign up to the EventTech Talk Newsletter here.

4 Technology Trends from Experts at Europe’s Largest Event Tech Show

Posted on by Eventsforce

The annual Event Tech Live show took place in London this month, and once again, it didn’t disappoint.   As Europe’s only dedicated exhibition and conference for event professionals interested in event technology, it attracts more than 1,600 attendees and 100-plus exhibitors from the event tech industry.  The show had a generous display of new technology innovations and solutions, including a launchpad pitch competition which gave a good insight on what’s coming next. More interestingly, the conference brought together a number of experts from technology vendors to event organisers to discuss and debate the latest technology trends and issues shaping our industry today.

From GDPR, personalisation and the future of event apps to the emergence of new applications like chatbots and facial recognition technology – have a look at our top takeaways from Europe’s largest event tech show:

In case you missed it…GDPR is coming!

If there was one topic that kept popping up time and time again across most of the sessions at the show, it was the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the impact it will have on the events industry. And yet surprisingly, an audience poll conducted by a panel of experts from Glisser, SpotMe and Krowdthink revealed that MOST event planners had actually very little understanding about the new regulation – which is quite alarming, given the implications.

GDPR is coming into effect in May 2018 and will apply to ANY event collecting and processing the personal information of European attendees – regardless of location. For event planners, the new regulation presents a change in the way they decide what data needs to be collected from attendees and how that data is used for things like marketing campaigns.  It will change the way attendee data is shared with other third-party organisations like venues, sponsors and tech providers. It will also change attitudes to data security and what measures need to be in place to keep attendee data safe. And let’s not forget about the fines.  Compared to current data protection regulations, non-compliance to GDPR can lead to some very serious financial consequences – and lawsuits.

But it’s not all bad news. GDPR will bring about some big opportunities for our industry too.  In fact, one of the main take-aways from the panel was that GDPR is a big chance for event planners to advance their careers. How? By taking ownership of GDPR.  By ensuring that events are dealing with personal data in a transparent and secure way – and always in the individual’s best interest.  And by getting their event tech ready too. If you’re interested in finding out more, have a look at this free eBook ‘The Event Planner’s Guide to GDPR Compliance’ which explains why the events industry has to start taking responsibility for GDPR, its impact on event marketing, data management and event technology and what steps event planners need to take now to get ready for the May 2018 deadline.

Related Article: 5 Questions You Need to Ask Event Tech Providers About GDPR

Event Apps Vs. Chatbots

The popularity around event apps has evolved so much over the last few years – most people attending any kind of event expect an app and it seems most event planners want one too.  But are apps starting to get a bad reputation?  How effective are they really in engaging audiences? And will other emerging technologies like NFC and chatbots replace the need for event apps all together?  These questions were addressed in a very interesting discussion by panellists from Sciensio, Beeem, NoodleLive and CrowdComms exploring the future of event apps.

In the always-connected world of smartphones, social media and information-on-demand, it seems that the attention span of our attendees is getting shorter and shorter.   And this is something that event planners need to address if they want their attendees to interact more with their apps. People don’t want to waste their time browsing through irrelevant content on an app just to find out the location of their next session.  They want the technology to add value to their event experience and they want the interaction with the technology as easy as possible.  And this is where chatbots come in.  They don’t require attendees to download anything.  They apply easy text-based messaging t technology that most people are comfortable in using and more importantly, they provide that instant personalised information service that attendees are looking for at an event. Though we firmly believe that native apps still have a firm place in the events industry – perhaps we will start seeing more people move towards what chatbots can offer over the coming few years.

All the panellists agreed that pushing more personalised content on people’s smartphones will be a key trend over the coming years. Websites can already send personal push notifications on people’s phones through Google Chrome (coming soon on Safari).  Google is also driving a big push towards progressive web apps – which basically allows you to run apps on a web browser. The technology will bridge the gap between apps and websites by offering the functionality of both, with more offline capabilities, improved speed and better performance.  Watch this space.

How Important is Event Personalisation?

Personalisation was another hot topic at the event and we can understand why. More and more attendees are starting to expect both the communication of an event and the live experience to be tailored to them in some way.  At the same time, the abundant use of sophisticated data capture tools – from registration systems and apps to surveys, social media, networking and on-site tracking solutions – are helping event planners collect and analyse valuable attendee information to create more powerful and customised event experiences.   But as good as it all sounds, is it something we should all do?  And how do we decide how much personalisation we should actually do?

This was the basis of one panel discussion between Eventsforce, Haymarket Media and the British Council which unveiled the results of a new research study on event personalisation.  It seems that despite it being a growing priority for 73% of event planners, more than 50% struggle to see how effective their personalisation efforts are in engaging attendees and building brand loyalty.  The study also revealed that more than half don’t end up using all the data they collect for personalisation and another 44% find it difficult to determine how much personalisation they should actually do.

So what was the advice?   Decide what data you’re going to collect, why you’re collecting it and agree across your organisation on how it’s going to be used before collecting it for the purpose of personalisation. Don’t ask your attendees any unnecessary questions as this will have a negative effect on their event experience.  And finally, explain clearly how the information they provide will bring value to their experience and that you’re looking after their data and privacy – especially with the upcoming GDPR. Click here to watch the full session.

Event Technology – What’s Next in Innovation?

This year’s show also saw the return of the Launchpad, a dedicated area for start-ups and providers of new event technology solutions – except this year, they also ran a pitch competition where providers had to battle it out in front of a panel of judges.   There were some very interesting applications of event tech, all designed to save time and enhance the attendee’s event experience in one way or another.  The winner was a web-based solution from Zenus which uses facial recognition technology to cut waiting lines and speed up the check-in process of attendees at events. When an attendee approaches a kiosk, their profile will pop up and a scanner can print their badges on the spot. Alternatively, you can place a tablet facing the line of people and attendees will be automatically checked-in as they walk.

Another noteworthy winner was Sciensio’s Concierge Eventbot solution which offers attendees an alternative to apps through a range of text messaging services, including agendas, directions, floor plans, surveys, polls and more.  We also saw a great staffing solution from Liveforce which promises to scrap the need for Excel spreadsheets when recruiting, scheduling, booking and paying temporary staff around events.  Worth checking out.

You can watch all the pitch presentations of the ETL2017 Launchpad competition here.

Want to be a tech-savvy event planner?  Sign up to the weekly EventTech Talk newsletter here and get advice and updates on the latest technology trends and discussions shaping the events industry today.

 

Ask the Experts: What Impact will GDPR have on Meetings and Events?

Posted on by Eventsforce

We’ve been talking a lot about GDPR lately.  And for good reason too.  One of the biggest shake ups in data protection and privacy laws for the past 20 years, the new EU General Data Protection Regulation will come into effect in May 2018 and completely change the way events collect and handle the personal information of European attendees.  But how important are these changes actually going to be for event planners? Is GDPR going to make things like data-driven marketing and personalisation a lot more difficult? Or will the new regulation bring on some new opportunities?

Are your events ready for GDPR? Get your FREE eBook: ‘The Event Planner’s Guide to GDPR Compliance’, and learn what impact Europe’s new data protection regulation will have on event marketing, data management and event technology – as well as what steps event planners need to take to meet the new requirements.

EventTech Talk spoke to a number of well-known event experts to find out what they think about GDPR and what kind of impact it will have on the industry.  Here’s what they had to say:

Adam Parry, Editor, Event Industry News

GDPR will have a huge impact on event marketers next year, and this in my opinion is a good thing.  As an industry we have been very lazy, relying on email marketing with outdated and uncheck cleansed data, I see it myself getting invites to events from previous roles and or having never attended the event in the first place.

We will have to work smarter as event marketers but there are tools and solutions out there to help us and not make it a case of having to work harder.  Let’s take for example retargeting technology, it’s not new but hugely under-utilised by our industry as a way of remarking our event to web visitors that didn’t sign up to attend.

Follow Adam Parry on Twitter: @punchtownparry

Michael Owen, CEO, EventGenuity

I’m surprised by how little is known about GDPR by those in business events and associations sector in the United States. Of those who are familiar with the regulation, many forego learning more, as they think it applies only to organisations based in the EU. With headlines about breaches of personal data like Equifax as frequent as the sunrise, one would think at least that curiosity would drive everyone to fully understand the ramifications.

How great will the impact be in non-EU organisations? It’s hard to tell right away. At a recent session, one gent said, “I’m not going to worry about it, because it will be hard to enforce.” Hard? Yes. Impossible? No. Once non-EU enforcement is figured out, and the first massive fine occurs, I suspect interest will spike.

Misconceptions place barriers to learning: “We don’t have offices or hold meetings in the EU”, etc. For business events and associations who host attendees have members or subscribers from the EU for whom they hold data, there is liability.

It’s not all bad news, though. There is opportunity to improve internal business processes. The requirements force organisations to become more, well, organised. Isn’t it a good thing to be more aware of what personal data one possesses, where it resides, how it is processed and protected? Compliance could well reduce financial and reputational risk, and build trust with customers, members, attendees across the board. This outcome would provide more accurate data sets and more meaningful relationships amongst organisations and valued customers.

Follow Michael Owen on Twitter: @EventGenuity

Did you know that more than 75% of event planners think that data security is a much bigger priority for them because of GDPR? Find out what you should do to prevent your attendee data from getting lost, stolen or compromised by getting your copy of ‘The Event Planner’s Guide to Data Security in a Post-GDPR World‘.

Brandt Krueger, Speaker & Consultant, Event Technology Consulting

I have extremely mixed feelings when it comes to GDPR, or for that matter, a lot of attempts to regulate the Internet. While companies clearly need to be held accountable for the securing of our personal data (I’m looking at you, Equifax), and I’m in favour of data transparency – most of these attempts at legislation are reactionary and only deal with new problems as they arise.

Much of the GDPR regulations surround consent. While noble in cause, we already give our consent to all kinds of things without thinking twice about it. We click through license agreements and software permission screens without reading them, and every website in the EU has to let me know that it’s using cookies. How many times have you stopped and thought, “Oh my, I don’t know about this cookie thing. I guess I’ll just shut down my browser and walk away.” Nope, you click on it as quickly as possible to just make the pop-up go away.

I worry that we’re going to be generating more and more of these types of screens, where people will be forced to check off 37 boxes of consent, just to find out where their next hosted buyer appointment is. Customers do need to be made aware of what information they’re providing, and exactly what is being gathered about them, but I have severe concerns about the implementation. This will be the most immediate impact on the event industry – how technology companies deal with the informed consent GDPR seems to demand. I predict lots of splash screens and checkboxes that absolutely nobody will read, along with signage next to fishbowl drawings at expos that, you guessed it, nobody will read.

On the positive side, I do think it’s important to require companies to provide a high level of transparency when it comes to other people’s data, though again I’m hesitant about the implementation. Does a dump of data into a CSV count as an accurate representation of your data? And again, the different types of data that are being gathered can be difficult to provide in a way that makes sense to the person making the request. Because it’s not just about the tangible, easy to understand, data like names and addresses – it’s often about the relationships, the links, the connections between that data that’s important. Knowing your name, address, and what magazines you subscribe to are three separate data points, but their interconnectivity can be enormously revealing in ways people would be shocked to discover.

Follow Brandt Krueger on Twitter: @BrandtKrueger

Kevin Iwamoto, Senior Consultant, GoldSpring Consulting

GDPR will have a major impact on the way companies and their event suppliers manage their events in 2018 and beyond.  All meetings and events that handle registrant-attendee personal information and the ways they handle, manage, and purge that information will have to change.  The currently liberal ways that attendee personal information is shared will also have to change.  GDPR will at least temporarily hinder how attendee data and registration lists are currently used.  The proliferation of technology platforms, mobile apps, etc. that currently use personal data for marketing campaigns and for determining things like Return on Engagement (ROE) and Return on Objectives (ROO) will need to be reviewed and changed to avoid major EU fines for GDPR violations.

Read: 5 questions to ask event tech providers about GDPR

All companies and their event supplier partners should be doing a personal data audit now to discover the multiple areas that will need to be modified to become GDPR compliant and to avoid the potential for massive fines.  Unfortunately, so many companies remain in the dark and in denial about their GDPR complicity requirements.

Follow Kevin Iwamoto on Twitter: @KevinIwamoto

Paul Cook, Writer & Researcher/Creator of Specialised Content Consultancy, Planet Planit

GDPR will have an impact on the events industry as it will on every sector. How big that impact is will depend on how many changes organisations will need to make in the way they look after personal data currently. For those companies that have strict policies in place already it will have less of an effect.

Having said that, marketing under the new regulation is a key area that will impact all businesses. Right now, the business has the power. Next May, the businesses effectively lose that power as it will be the individual that is in control. Consent to receive marketing messages will be a key challenge for a lot of companies and now is the time to sort out the data bases and work on privacy notices.  No longer will companies be able to say we will send your information to interested third parties. They will need to state who those companies are. Consent needs to be recorded and updated on a regular basis.

Does it bring new opportunities? Yes absolutely. One big benefit is that companies will be able to get closer to their clients and prospects. They will need to re-think some of their existing strategies for marketing but for the companies that understand how to make the most of the regulation they will gain trust and a bigger market share. After all, who wants to deal with a company that doesn’t care about whether your identity can be stolen or not?

Follow Paul Cook on Twitter: @planetplanitbiz

George Sirius, CEO, Eventsforce

GDPR is going to change the mindset of event planners when it comes to deciding what data they should collect from attendees, how they use that data for things like marketing campaigns and what they need to do to keep that data safe.  Current practices around getting consent in using this information and sharing it with other parties like event sponsors, for example, will land organisers into big trouble after May 2018.  The regulation is also going to force planners to play a bigger role in securing all the data they collect from attendees, as well as making sure that third party suppliers like agencies and event tech suppliers are also compliant to GDPR.   Again, not doing so can result in big fines.  And that is one of the big things about GDPR.  Compared to current data protection regulations, non-compliance comes with serious financial consequences. People aren’t fully aware of their rights yet, but they will be.  And once they are, the enquiries will start to come.  As will the lawsuits – especially if an event suffers a data breach.

Read: Will GDPR change the rights of your attendees?

But it’s not all bad news. I think GDPR will bring about some big opportunities for our industry too.  Event planners will need to think and act very differently in the way they talk to attendees – and be a lot more honest in the way they manage their information too.  Those organisations that show they’re dealing with personal data in a transparent and secure way and have respect for the privacy of individuals will succeed in building a new level of trust.  And this will be key in deciding which organisations people choose to deal with in the future.

Follow George Sirius on Twitter: @georgesirius

Corbin Ball, Meetings Technology Speaker/Consultant/Writer, Corbin Ball Associates

GDPR is a sweeping set of privacy regulations that will affect any event with European attendees or members regardless of where the event takes place. Non-compliance penalties are stiff so it will be imperative that the planners work with their IT departments and technology providers to ensure that the new regulations are met.

Follow Corbin Ball on Twitter: @corbinball

Are your events ready for GDPR? Get your FREE eBook: ‘The Event Planner’s Guide to GDPR Compliance’, and learn what impact Europe’s new data protection regulation will have on event marketing, data management and event technology – as well as what steps event planners need to take now to get ready for the May 2018 deadline.

 

 

 

 

 

How to Get More Registrations with Event Invites

Posted on by Eventsforce

Invitations are still one of the most important things to get right when planning a successful event. They help set the tone of an event and are often one of the first opportunities to make a good impression with potential attendees. A new research study from Eventsforce, however, has found that one of the biggest struggles event planners face around invitations is getting enough people to open their invites, take action and sign up.

So, what are the elements of an invite that compel people to either visit your website or register to your event?  And what are the metrics you need to keep in mind when measuring the success of your invitation campaigns?

Research Study: Power of Event Invitations

The Eventsforce ‘Power of Event Invitations’ study was conducted with more than 100 senior event professionals across the US and the UK to investigate the latest trends around event invitations.  One of the research survey’s key findings revealed the top challenges of managing invites, including:

1) Not getting enough people to click on Call-to-Action (CTA) links

2) Difficulty in measuring success of invitation campaigns

3) Creating attractive, responsive, HTML invites

4) Deciding the best times for sending out invites

5) Difficulty in using personalisation

The study also investigated the elements of an invite that event planners felt were the most effective in getting results.  Top of the list were event highlights (agenda, keynote speakers etc), followed by overall design and layout, and the main copy of the invite.  Have a look at this infographic to get a full overview of the findings of the ‘Power of Event Invitations’ study.

8 Ways to Make Event Invitations More Effective

Thanks to advancements in technology, putting together great-looking event invites are no longer something you need to give to a specialist designer.  Most event management solutions offer design tools and templates that make the whole process a lot easier for the event planner.  But the look and feel of your invite is not the only thing that matters.  You have to remember that people make quick conclusions about an event through the invitation and it’s important to make a good impression from the very beginning.

Have a look at the eight key considerations you need to make to get your event invites to work:

1) Save-the-Date Emails

Before we go into the different elements of the invite itself, it’s worth nothing the important role save-the-date emails play in the whole event invitation process.  The Eventsforce study found that 57% of event planners use them to create excitement and anticipation around their events.   They are a great way of letting people know about your upcoming event and mark it in their calendars prior to the invite.

2) Strong Subject Lines

If you’re using email invitations, then you’ll know the importance of the subject line.   With hundreds of other emails fighting for your potential attendee’s limited attention, it’s important to make then stand out to get them opened. Without a doubt, subject lines that are personally addressed, do the best. If you don’t have names handy, then the use of pronounces like ‘we’ and ‘you/your’ also appeal to readers. Subject lines that feature dates, or urgency seem to perform better than those that don’t. And while we don’t encourage the over-use of exclamation marks, a little extra energy in subject lines is known to impact the open rates of email invites.

3) Event Highlights & Value Proposition

Along with the value proposition of your event (the bit that explains why someone should sign up), details like the keynote speaker, the agenda and venue highlights are seen by 88% of event planners as the most important aspects of an invite that gets them results.  Showcase your event’s main selling point and think about that one thing that will grab readers’ attention. Get to the point quickly and always focus on the event’s key message.  Make sure that people who get your invite can scan it and quickly understand what the event is about and find out when and where it’s happening.  More importantly, they need to know how they can register through prominently displayed CTA buttons that links through to your event’s website or registration page.

Want to be a tech savvy event planner? Sign up to the weekly EventTech Talk newsletter here and get updates on all the latest technology trends, discussions and debates shaping the events industry today.

4) Simple Design & Layout

Though a beautiful-looking invite isn’t everything, design and layout is seen as one of the most important aspects of a successful invitation campaign by 69% of event planners.  Think about the user journey and stick to a design that’s clean and simple. Given that most people will only scan your emails, it’s always a good idea to break up your invite into several small sections that address different things about your event (speakers, venue and timings, speakers, agendas, how to register etc).  This helps them better digest all the different bits of information and get excited about what’s on offer. Also, a lot of people will look at your email invite through mobile devices, so you need to think about how it’s going to look and work on different screens.

5) Attractive Visuals & Video

It’s important to use strong visuals to get the most out of your event invites. Think about the visual draw of your event that isn’t necessarily the subject matter. Use pictures of your event’s location and venue or your guest speaker. Avoid stock shots or generic images of people speaking at podiums – use images from your past events instead.  Video is another option that’s becoming more and more popular – though our research study found that only 8% of event planners are currently using video in their event invites.  Just remember that videos can give your attendees a different opportunity to learn more about your event and they also do a good job of conveying the personality of your organisation.  They’re also a lot more engaging than text – Forrester Research claims that a minute of video can be equivalent to 1.8 million words!

6) Personalisation

We touched on this a little earlier when we looked at the importance of email subject lines.  Our study found that a majority 73% of event planners personalise the content of their event invitations.   The most popular method was the use of personal names in subject lines and the main body of the invite – followed by personalised content for each audience segment.  About 22% of respondents also use personalisation based on information they already hold on potential attendees.

Personalising invitations is simple and effective.  By tailoring them as much as possible to the invitee, you can really make an impact and increase the chances of them attending. So, if you know your invitation list is largely made up of corporates and academics, then create two separate versions of the same invite with each one outlining the sessions that would be of interest to them.  Remember – both audiences have a vested interest in attending your event but have very different goals and very different ideas on why your event matters.  And if you’re inviting people who have attended some of your past events, then use the information you have on them to create personalised links within your invite. By clicking on the link, your returning attendees will automatically log into a registration form that is already pre-populated with all their relevant information.

7) A/B Testing

As great as it would be to find the ‘silver bullet’ that gets people to open up your invites and click through to sign up, the sad truth is that there is no magical formula. Enter the importance of A/B testing – the method of comparing two versions of the event invitation against each other to determine which one performs better. The study found that 36% of event planners are already doing this by using different versions of an invite to test the effectiveness of different subject lines, body copy, CTA buttons, personalised content, timings and so on.   Doing this kind of testing on a regular basis can offer important performance insight that can make or break the success of your invitation campaigns.

8) Performance Measurement

Knowing how effective your invitations have been in driving registrations for your event is incredibly important.  Whether you do A/B testing or not, it is important to look at some key metrics that will help you assess what’s working and what’s not.  Look at open rates, click-through rates and actual conversion rates (the number of people that registered as a result of opening your email invite). Our survey, for example, found that Tuesdays and Wednesdays mornings were seen as the best times for sending out invites by a majority of event planners.   The survey also found that the average open rate for invites is between 11-30% and the average click-through-rate is around 10%.  Having this information on hand can identify the areas that you can focus on improving in subsequent reminder emails or invitations for your next event.

Conclusion

Email invitations are an incredibly important part of planning and marketing an event. They are a great way of creating interest in your event, driving registrations and getting attendees through the door.  It is important to note though, what works for one event may not for the other. Don’t forget about A/B testing and always measure the performance of your results. Thinking about all these points when planning your next invite will bring you one step closer to getting it right and making your event a success.

Eventsforce can help organisations create branded, mobile responsive invitations that use personalised links to maximise registrations around events.  To find out more, click here or get in touch for a demo or a chat on +44 (0) 207 785 6997.

 

 

How to Save Time Creating Agendas for Your Events

Posted on by Eventsforce

One of the most important jobs of an event planner is to identify the reasons why people want to attend an event and build an agenda around these needs.  But creating and managing great event programmes is also one of the most frustrating and time-consuming things an event planner has to do. Speakers change. Topics change. Room capacities no longer meet demand.  And the larger the event, the more complex these issues become.

An industry poll from Eventsforce last month found that an overwhelming 86% of event planners rely on Excel spreadsheets to build and manage agendas around their events.  Which makes sense if your agenda has a simple one-track format.  But what happens when you’re dealing with a multi-track event? What if you have a three-day conference where attendees can pick and choose which sessions they want to attend? What if a last-minute change to your keynote impacts the timings of some of your other sessions?

Excel is a fantastic planning tool for events – but in these situations, it does have its shortcomings. What organisers need instead is an intelligent programme management tool that can help them make changes to agendas quickly and easily, whilst ensuring that the information they’re dealing with (and sharing with attendees) is always kept accurate and up-to-date.

7 Ways Programme Management Tools Can Save Time Planning Events

Have a look at why a good programme management tool can do a better job than Excel when it comes to saving time in creating agendas and sessions around events:

1. Better Data Accuracy – Most programme management tools are integrated with the event’s registration system, which means any changes to the agenda can automatically be updated and published within registration forms, apps and event websites. This not only saves time in transferring data from spreadsheets and other systems, but it also makes sure that the information is accurate and up-to-date.

2. Improved Categorisation – Event planners can assign labels to sessions to identify the topic or stream each one belongs to (ex. presentations that focus on marketing only). This makes it a lot easier to track, manage and make changes to those sessions that belong in a particular category. It also helps personalise the attendee registration experience by making it easier for them to view, search and choose those sessions that are of interest to them.

3. Bulk Management – Instead of individually assigning capacity, rooms or labels to each session, organisers can save time by bulk assigning the same labels and rooms to their selected list. For example: Sessions 2, 3 and 5 can be allocated to conference room B with a click of a button.

4. Flexibility in Publishing Sessions – Event planners can choose which sessions they want to publish on registration forms, websites and apps and which they want to save in draft.  This helps them make better use of time by opening registrations for some sessions, whilst confirming details such as speakers and presentation topics on others.

5. Identifying Room & Time Clashes – Programme management tools can automatically notify organisers of potential conflicts when the same room has been assigned to more than one session at the same time.  Similarly, the system will stop attendees from double-booking, if any of their chosen sessions overlap.  This not only brings a better registration experience, but also reduces the time spent by the events team dealing with scheduling enquiries from attendees.

6. Automatic Scheduling – Intelligent scheduling in a programme management tool can also be particularly useful for events that have a defined set of presentations within an allocated session. The organiser of a multi-stream medical conference, for example, may schedule a number of oral abstract presentations within a one-hour session, but needs to make changes to the timings of some of these presentations or swap some speakers around. He or she can simply drag and drop different presentations into the agenda and the system will automatically recalculate the new start and end times of each one, as well as notify users if the agenda is running overtime.

7. Real-Time Management Insight – Event planners can save time making important decisions around sessions and agendas through the real-time data insight a programme management tool can provide. For example, organisers can get an accurate overview on how each session is doing in terms of registrations and room capacity. If a session proves to be more popular than anticipated, it can prompt the organiser to swap rooms around or assign the session to a larger room.

The Eventsforce programme management tool helps event planners automate the entire process of creating, publishing and managing agendas for single or multi-track events. For more information, click here or call us for a chat on +44 (0) 207 785 6997.