Tag: event apps

4 Technology Trends from Experts at Europe’s Largest 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, 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.

 

How to Collect Valuable Data from Events

At a time when budgets are squeezed and downsizing has become commonplace, having a quantifiable return on events has never been more important.  And technology plays a key role here. Event tech systems help organisations collect important data around their events (registration forms, surveys, apps) and create all sorts of reports that help in measuring event success.  In fact, according to the results of a new Eventsforce study, calculating ROI and measuring success is the number one reason why organisations are collecting data from events.

NEW – The Changing Role of Event Data: New Challenges & Opportunities

The problem, however, 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 tools you need to measure the data that matters is not as simple as one would hope.

11 Effective Data Collection Tools for Events

There are a number of data collection tools that helps organisations gather and analyse valuable information around their events. But which ones should you use?

Have a look below for a list of some of the most effective event data collection tools based on feedback from more than 120 senior event planners:

1. Registration Systems

Most organisations today use some form of automated system to manage registrations around their events. And for good reason too.  Our study found that registration systems were seen as the most effective data collection tool for measuring event success. As well as default information like names, addresses and contact details of your attendees, registration systems like Eventsforce allow you to collect more personalised data by segmenting your audiences into different categories (attendees, sponsors, exhibitors, speakers, VIPs etc.).  For example, you can find out what proportion of attendees cite education as the primary reason for coming to your event or see which specific sessions your VIPs are most interested in attending. This kind of information can give really valuable insight in the way you plan, manage and evaluate the success of all your events.

2. Online Surveys

Post-event surveys often provide the most meaningful feedback for organisers.  They can help you gather important information on many aspects of your event – including feedback on your speakers, sessions, catering, prices, exhibitors, sponsors, accommodation, travel and more.  Not only does this information help you make any necessary improvements, but more importantly, it can help you figure out whether attendees found value in your event and whether or not they would come again the next time round.

3. Event Management Software

These systems have evolved so much over the last few years that they now sit at the heart of most matters concerning event data.  They act as centralised systems that help you capture, track and report on important real-time information on multiple events, including registrations, attendance, session selections, payments, revenue and profits etc.  Some systems like Eventsforce also do a good job of integrating (or sharing) their data with other business systems like CRM, finance, marketing and membership solutions.  This means event planners can use their event management system to access any relevant data stored in some of these other solutions.  For example, event teams will be able to access all the outstanding attendee payments recorded in their organisation’s finance system, which helps them stay on top of their revenue and cashflow forecasts.


Find out how companies like Schroders, Haymarket, The Liberal Dems and the Royal Statistical Society are using data integration to save time and money around their events. Get your FREE copy of ‘The Event Planner’s Guide to Data Integration’ eBook here.


4. Mobile Apps

Event apps have made the whole process of collecting data at events a whole lot easier – from facilitating live polls and Q&As to networking tools that can give insight on who your attendees are meeting with at your event. The analytic tools on these apps can help identify how attendees are engaging with your event and what they find of interest based on their in-app actions. For example, you’ll be able to see exactly how many people showed interest in certain speakers and sessions, or which exhibitors generated the most buzz.  This will help determine interest areas across different types of attendees – it will also help in things like assessing speakers and deciding whether or not to bring them back the following year.

5. Social Media Tools

Event planners can really maximize their social media outreach by using analytic tools that measure engagement numbers on their social networks, like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.  Using tools like Hootsuite, Oktopost or Mention, you can do things like see which platforms are the most effective, find out what content your followers are sharing with their own networks, what is engaging with them emotionally and what is more educational and so on.  You can also assess conversions such as registrations, sign ups to newsletters, eBook downloads or anything else you want your followers to do.

6. On-Site Systems

Knowing exactly who turned up at your event and what sessions they attended is something every organisation wants to know. The information helps figure out popular topics and sessions. It also helps profile attendees.  On-site systems like the Eventsforce on-site app allow event planners to have instant access to this kind of information at the event itself, which can be very useful. For example, the app can tell you that 30 people have already checked-in to a session and that another 10 are expected to show up. It also shows that the room capacity for that particular session is 50 people.  You can use the information to encourage more people to attend by promotions through digital signage, social media or direct notifications on the event app.

7. Audience Engagement Tools

Solutions like Glisser promote engagement and audience participation at events through the use of smartphones. Using the event app, attendees can put questions across to speakers during sessions, rate other questions and see any presentation slides in real-time. The tool allows you to collect and store all the data for post-event analysis, which can help in identifying topics your attendees are interested in – as well as determine the success or shortcomings of your speakers and presentations.

8. Web Analytics

Understanding how people are interacting with your event website is important. Without this understanding, you won’t know the potential problems your event’s online presence is facing. You also won’t be able to make any meaningful changes. Tools like Google Analytics can help you gather important data that tell you whether or not your marketing efforts are actually turning into results. This can include things like detailed demographics on who is visiting your website, where your visitors and registrations are coming from, which content and pages on your website are the most/least popular, conversation rates and the point at which people are abandoning their registrations.

Read: Why is Google Analytics So Important for Event Marketing

9. Networking Tools

Networking is seen as one of the main reasons why people attend events so it makes sense to facilitate this as much as possible for your attendees. Tools like Meeting Manager are usually incorporated within the registration process or event app and they allow attendees to personalise their agendas, see who is attending that may be of interest to them and set up meetings with people they want to meet.  The data helps planners get insight on how much ‘networking’ is being done at their event and the kind of people, exhibitors or topics your attendees are most interested in.

10. RFID/NFC Tools

Solutions using these technology platforms are doing particularly well at trade shows as they don’t depend on Wi-Fi technology but can track real-time data around visitor footprint on the show floor. One example of this is Poken, which allows attendees to use smart badges to virtually swap business cards and instantly collect any event collateral. It helps exhibitors track exactly who is visiting their booth, which is great in measuring the ROI of participation. It also gives planners insight on how attendees are moving and interacting around the venue – so you can quickly identify hot and cold spots and adjust your marketing and promotional activities accordingly.

11. Chatbots

Chatbots like Concierge EventBot are relatively new in the industry. They let attendees have conversations with event planners (via their artificial intelligence surrogates) using platforms like the event website, Facebook Messenger or the text-messaging feature of their smartphones. Last month, South by Southwest used its own chatbot to provide attendees with automated concierge-style assistance on demand.  More than 16,000 app users submitted 56,000 questions to the bot, asking things like ‘What time is Joe Biden speaking?’ or ‘What hip-hop artists are playing on Wednesday?’ and ‘Where can I find Tacos?’.  As well as personalising the attendee’s event experience, all interactions and notifications on the chatbot are logged and available for analysis and reporting. Standard reports include usage by messaging channel, unique users, messages grouped by topics, notifications, external link clicks, human assisted requests and conversation updates.

Conclusion

All the tools mentioned in this article can be useful for different reasons.  The most important consideration you need to make is figuring out from the very start what data you want to collect from your events and how that data can bring value to your organisation.  Whether that’s the number of people who registered for your event compared to the actual number who attended.  Whether they used your app for engagement or networking.  Once you know the what you want to measure, create a plan that outlines your data strategy and identifies the tools you can use to track, manage and report the data that actually matters.

Are there any other effective data collection tools you’d like to add to this list?  Please share and let us know – we’d love to hear your comments!


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

 

 

5 Ways You Could Use Virtual and Augmented Reality at Events

Virtual and augmented reality are two of the hottest trends in event tech for 2017. In fact, with the launch of more accessible and affordable devices from the likes of Google, Samsung, Sony, Oculus, HTC and Microsoft in recent months, altered realities have become one of the most fast paced emerging technologies in our industry today.

We’ve seen some incredible applications of demos, videos and experiences that help brands differentiate themselves at exhibitions and conference-style events. At the recent Event Tech Live show in London, the exhibitors that offered interactive experiences were the ones that attracted the most people to their booths – from Noonah’s virtual mirror to a robot on the Festyvent stand that interacted with delegates and even sang songs. In the same way, virtual and augmented reality technologies are helping brands stand out and bring something a little different to the event experience.

Here are five great examples of how virtual and augmented reality have been used to attract crowds and create unique experiences at events:

Coachella Music Festival Virtual Reality App

US music festival Coachella recognized the growing appeal of VR this year by launching a new app and shipping Google Cardboard headsets to attendees alongside their tickets. Debuting ahead of the event, the Coachella VR app was designed to let Cardboard VR, Gear VR, Oculus and Vive owners browse through 360 degree photos from previous festivals and watch interviews from this year’s line-up of artists. 3D virtual tours of the festival grounds let fans familiarize themselves with the layout before they even left the house.[tribulant_slideshow gallery_id="2"]

AHS Fearless Virtual Reality Experience at San Diego Comic-Con

The annual comic book convention in southern California attracts more than 130,000 people each year with hundreds of media companies competing for the attention of fans. This year’s Comic-Con saw many exhibitors turning to VR to promote their movies and TV shows. One experience that particularly stood out was FX Network’s VR journey inspired by American Horror Story (AHS). A purpose-built dome was created outside the convention center where a psychological immersive experience took participants into the AHS universe.

Upon entering the dome, attendees were met by hosts in white lab coats while calming music played overhead. A series of ‘beds’ were positioned in a pentagon where they were asked to lie down, a sheet placed over them then a HTC Vive headset and headphones were fitted. The experience exploited common phobias such as clowns, vertigo and claustrophobia, and introduced the frightening characters and locations from across the multiple AHS series in a 5-minute video.

By adding group psychology tactics to cutting edge VR technology and some classic theatre trickery,  FX was able to create a more intimate experience. Blurring the lines between reality and fiction resulted in a truly memorable experience for participants with some hardened horror enthusiasts describing it as “absolutely terrifying”. [tribulant_slideshow gallery_id="1"]

Cambridge Yourself Augmented Reality Booth by Noonah Experiential

Noonah Experential partnered with Cambridge University Press to create a fun experience that promoted the publishing business as a digital provider and not just print. Using an AR photo booth, delegates at the event used gestures to take their own photo and appear inside Cambridge University (with real-time video content) without the need for a green screen.

Noonah constructed a triangular structure that would fit onto the corner of the stand with additional viewing monitor to attract other passing delegates. Each visitor to the stand could choose to punt down the river in Cambridge or visit Kings College with each delegate receiving a printed copy of their photo inside a branded photo wallet.

The Cambridge Yourself photo both resulted in more delegates being drawn to the stand as well as increased data collection. Users were impressed by the digital technology allowing the conversation to link seamlessly into Cambridge University Press’ digital products. Noonah also plans to add social sharing to the AR Photo Booth’s features.

Radiant Event Technology’s Virtuacast Augmented Reality Experience

Radiant Event Technology’s Virtuacast was runner-up for the Best Augmented / Virtual Reality Technology Award at the Event Tech Awards. The company has been working with NBA Properties to bring its Virtuacast technology to fans, giving them the opportunity to interact with virtual versions of some of basketball’s biggest stars.

Using pre-recorded video and photo content, Virtuacast marries digital with live interactions in augmented reality. The technology creates the illusion of life size holograms that attendees can see and interact with, then share the resulting video or photo online or via social media. The system consists of a special mat that is set on the floor and an accompanying mobile app. The hologram appears wherever the mat is placed in view of a mobile device’s camera.

As the Virtuacast system just consists of the mat and an app, being a flexible, mobile and lightweight set-up is an ideal tool for consumer engagement at all types of events.

Boursin Sensorium VR Experience by Because Experiential Marketing

Another runner-up for the Best Augmented / Virtual Reality Technology Award at the Event Tech Awards. French cheese brand Boursin wanted to reach a wider, younger audience, and do something unexpected for a brand in a category filled with ‘me-too’ sales promotions. It teamed up with Because Experiential Marketing to create The Boursin Sensorium which toured key food events, combining a VR experience with live sensory engagement to immerse consumers in different flavors.

Using Oculus Rift headsets, consumers were taken inside virtual fridges to experience the best ingredients up close, while tasting various Boursin samples. Personalized videos of their experience were emailed to participants to share on social networks. The campaign resulted in an increased social reach of 5 million, 80k+ video views and 4,800 VR experiences.

Boursin Sensorium VR Experience by Because Experiential Marketing

To read more about what’s hot from Event Tech Live, see 6 Technology Trends from Experts at Europe’s Largest Event Tech Show. You can also watch our video on data integration from ETL at Event Tech Live 2016 – Do More With Your Event Data.

Event Spotlight: The Festival of Marketing

Festival of Marketing 2016This year’s Festival of Marketing (FOM) took place on 5-6 October at Tobacco Dock in East London. It is the largest global event dedicated to brand marketers with more than 200 speakers, workshops, awards, experience rooms and training sessions. Over the two-day event, more than 4,000 marketing professionals came together to discover, learn, celebrate and shape the future of marketing.

EventTech Talk spoke to Antonios Maropoulos, Festival Coordinator, about his experience of working on the Festival of Marketing as well as what it takes to be successful in event management.

You’ve already announced the dates for FOM17. How far in advance do you usually start planning and booking guests? What is your process timeline?

Festival of Marketing 2017 will take place on the 4-5 October 2017. Booking guests usually starts six to seven months prior to the event. This year we are planning to start registering people as early as possible as planning is a year-long process in itself – part of a forward-looking strategy that spans several years.

Festival of Marketing 2016Given the size of FOM, what would you say was the biggest challenge of planning an event this size?

Every single aspect of an event of this size is challenging. From content curation and coordination to operations management and sponsor recruitment, crises lurk in every corner. Managing the numerous moving pieces is the biggest challenge. Very capable, close-knit and experienced teams working together is the best answer to any festival crisis.

Has anything gone wrong at one of your events that required quick response and how was it handled? For example, a speaker not showing up, issues with the venue, tech problems, etc.

In an event of this size everything can go wrong very fast. We’ve had last minute speaker cancellations which our excellent content team has filled very efficiently by responding quickly, utilizing all assets available to them and by creating close relationships with many professionals in the industry.

Do you solely focus on FOM or do you actively work on other events at the same time? If you work on multiple projects, how do you manage your time effectively?

The Festival of Marketing team has a few members that are exclusively focused on the Festival all year round but most members of the team are also working on other events during the year. As the Festival season approaches the team internally recruits more and more members reaching full capacity at least four months prior to the event.

How does the Eventsforce software benefit FOM?

Eventsforce allows us to track delegate registrations and manage delegate information and booking status. We can also manage group bookings and ticket upgrades.

Festival of Marketing 2016What do you see as the most important trend in the events industry today?

Experiential events is probably the most important trend today. Long gone are the speech and drinks events. You need to capture the audience’s attention and imagination from the moment of invitation and interact with them, constantly providing excellent and useful content.

Which mobile app or social media platform couldn’t you live without?

Our Festival of Marketing app. The Festival of Marketing 2016 app by Guidebook is absolutely essential to us, as delegates use it to book their sessions, access the Festival floorplan, navigate through our massive agenda and even connect with each other onsite.

What new event technology are you looking forward to using or would you like to see in the future?

Artificial Intelligence will definitely revolutionize the events industry in the future. Whether we’ll be using it for customer relations, onsite signage or even our first robot speaker, we don’t know. But we are definitely excited by the possibilities.

Is there any advice that you would give to someone considering a career in event management?

Click to get in touchThe events industry is for individuals that embrace change and love being challenged. It’s a stressful working environment with changing needs that require different approaches. Whatever the challenge, a can-do attitude, calmness and simple problem-solving will get you out of most crises.

Is there a special power you sometimes wish you had when planning/managing them?

It definitely has to be time travel. To go back in time after an event and correct things that went wrong and couldn’t foresee!

Images © Festival of Marketing

 

INFOGRAPHIC: Ten Most Popular Data Collection Tools for Event Planners

1309 EF Infographic Top 10_small preview imageWe’ve been talking a lot about event personalization over the past few weeks – the idea that you can tailor a delegate’s experience based on what you already know about them.   It is seen as one of the top priorities for event planners this year and its uptake is largely due to the use of sophisticated data collection tools – from event registration systems and RFID to online surveys and event apps.

Event planners are using these tools to collect and analyse valuable delegate information to create more powerful and targeted events.  But which are the most effective?

Have a look at the infographic below for our top ten list based on the feedback of more than 160 senior event planners – starting from the most popular:

1309 EF Infographic Top 10

Top 6 Considerations When Integrating Your Event Data with Other Business Systems

Untitled design (20)Almost every blogger, analyst, journalist and vendor has identified data integration as one of the most important trends in the events industry this year. The concept isn’t something new with most organizations having taken on some form of an integration project through payment gateways, registration scanning tools or event apps. What is new, however, is the increasing number of event planners taking the plunge and integrating their event data with some of their organizations’ other business systems – from finance and CRM to marketing and membership systems.

The case for data integration is quite simple:  It makes business sense. It cuts costs and improves your team’s productivity. It reduces the endless hours event planners spend replicating data from one system to another and it also helps eliminate all the errors and inconsistencies commonly associated with data entry. More importantly, it makes better use of your data by putting it in the hands of the people who need it the most. Integration between your event management and membership systems, for example, can provide automatic delegate membership checks as part of your event registration process.  Integration with your finance system can provide your events team with real-time updates on delegate payments.  Integration with your CRM can help you create detailed invitation lists, whilst providing your sales team with new leads whenever you have new registrations.

If this is something you’re considering doing in the near future, then there are some key things to think about to make sure your data integration project works and brings real value around your events. Have a look below:

Make Sure You Know What You Want to Achieve

The most important consideration when implementing a data integration project is to figure out why you want to integrate your event data with another system. Is there a strong business need for it? Can it help solve a particular problem around your events, like chasing delegate payments from your finance team?  In the case of an event app, what data do you want to pass on from your event management system? Should the app be used by delegates to make changes to their agendas?  What will this entail and how is that information tracked?  Assess and document the benefits of integrating the two systems together, both in terms of cost and time savings, before making any decisions. If you’re finding it difficult to identify how the integration is going to answer important questions around your events, improve the service you provide to your delegates or create efficiencies within your events team, you’re probably wasting your time.

Ensure All Stakeholders Are Involved from the Beginning

shutterstock_61234468The more you know about exactly what you want to achieve, the more likely you are able to identify who needs to be involved in the project.  If you want to integrate your event data with your CRM, then it makes sense to have your CRM manager involved.  If it’s with your accounting system, then it should be your finance manager, and so on.  The next step is to approach your software providers, find out if the integration is technically possible and agree on the objectives.  It is in your interest to help the provider understand your business requirements correctly as this will help them accurately identify and integrate all the required data points.

A common pitfall at this point is for event planners to pass the project on to their developers or IT departments but you need to remember, data integration is a business initiative, not a technology one.  There should be someone throughout the whole process that understands the value of this data and will be able to lead discussions about the long-term goals of the project in order to make it consistent, successful and beneficial.

The other important factor is good communication with all team members throughout the duration of the project. This involves ensuring that there is ‘buy in’ for your project from everyone involved – from the executives in the different departments within your organization to the techies who will be carrying out the roll out of the project and the events team whose work will be affected by the integration. Everyone need to understand what it is you are trying to achieve and why – you’ll be in a better position to identify potential problems and won’t need to make as many last-minute changes to the development work.

Agree Detailed Specifications & Data Maps Before Starting

It is crucial to determine early on which systems need to talk to each other, which fields within your systems need to be updated and how often this needs to be done. Is the data going to flow one way or two ways between the systems? So if you’re integrating your registration software with a CRM solution, you should decide which questions from your registration page (names, address, telephone numbers) should be updated in the CRM and vice versa. This ‘data mapping’ process is important as it ensures that the right data goes into the right field of each system.

Often, your expectations of what you’re able to do must be realigned as the sheer quantity of data that needs to be dealt with is sometimes underestimated – especially with CRM integrations. Gathering the data can be harder than you think and the data you have might need more ‘cleaning up’ than you first thought.  Take delegate phone numbers, for example. They could be entered in all sorts of different formats: ‘020-888-4567’ or ‘(020) 888-4567’ or they may have no separators at all.  Slightly different formats, minor typos or extra spaces and characters in your CRM system can cause problems when your event management system is expecting things one way and gets another. Take these factors into account when mapping out your data flows. Consult with both software providers and make sure you have workarounds put in place as even the smallest discrepancies and inconsistencies can stop your integration from working as it should.

Be Realistic Over Time and Budget!Untitled design (4)

The good news is that integrating two pieces of software together is no longer the big financial commitment it once was, largely due to generic communications tools (such as Java, APIs and REST) that make it simple to consume and post data from one system to another. Dealing with good software companies also helps as they can provide all the relevant support and expertise you need – which means the whole process can take as little as a few days at a fraction of the cost. However, don’t underestimate the time and budget you need to allocate for such a project.

Think about things like data discrepancies we mentioned earlier on.  If your event management and membership systems, for example, record delegate birth dates in different formats, you will probably need to invest in a bit of development work that will allow the automatic conversation of data from one format to the other. This is a small example of a simple format issue and by itself, no big task.  But multiply this across thousands of data fields and records and dozens of types of formats, and the development work to do clean-up, workarounds and validation can be substantial. Remember that development time can be expensive so think about all these eventualities when mapping out your data flows at the beginning of the project.

Allocate Adequate Technical Resources

Avoid wasting valuable time by ensuring you have the adequate IT staff on hand to answer any technical queries that may come up during the development, implementation and testing stages of your data integration project. Developers from your event management solution provider, for example, may have specific inquiries about the set-up of your bespoke finance system or vice-versa. If you don’t have the necessary technical staff, consider hiring an independent consultant or specialist system integrator for the duration of the project. Once the development phase is over, your technical staff should also be responsible for the proper testing of the integration to ensure that data flow between the two systems is correct, complete and up-to-date.

Make Time for Thorough Testing and User Acceptanceintro_tech_to_assn_congress

Both the technical and business teams need to be involved in the testing stage to ensure that the results are as expected or if anything needs to be resolved.  So if it’s an integration with your finance package, set up a test on your event management system and put through enough transactions to make sure both sides are comfortable and have covered all delegate payment scenarios.  It is then the responsibility for each department head to train their relevant teams on how the system works.

Ensure your team are aware of how the integration impacts their daily tasks.  When creating new events in your event management system, for example, staff need to know that certain fields can no longer be changed as they are now also being used by the finance team to track delegate payments. Create an action list of do’s and don’ts or include it with your event management system template each time a user logs in as an administrator.

Conclusion

Thinking about all these points when planning your data integration projects will ensure that the whole process will be smoother and lot more flexible for any changes you want to make in the future. It is important to note though that regardless of size, an integration between two systems is a moving thing and technology can always change. Don’t forget about it once implementation and testing is over. Stay on top of it with continuous testing and regular meetings with your software providers to ensure everything is working as it should.

Written by Ian Webb, Business Development Manager, Eventsforce

 

Top 8 Security Questions to Ask Your Event Technology Provider

Data SecurityMany of you have read the scandalous stories we saw in the headlines last year regarding major security breaches at companies like Talk Talk and the Ashley Madison dating site.  Cyber hackers raised their game with millions of people having had their private data stolen and national governments scrambling to combat the growing threat of cyber attacks. Now imagine your organization’s systems got hacked and exposed the personal details of the hundreds (or thousands) of delegates attending your events each year.  Doesn’t really bear thinking about, does it?

Events deal with highly sensitive customer information, including names, emails, telephone numbers, employment information, disabilities and other confidential details. The wealth of information we collect from our delegates is a gold mine for hackers.  Safeguarding this data is critical and more and more organizations are starting to see the importance of this issue. Our new data security survey found that 80% of event planners marked data security as a top priority for 2016.  Surprisingly, however, only 40% of them felt they had the adequate security policies in place across their organizations.   In fact, according to MPI members at last month’s MPI European Meetings & Events Conference, event planners were said to be lacking awareness on the topic of cyber security despite the global terrorism threat1.

So how do we address this issue?

Most event planners these days deal with some form of event registration technology that helps them manage all their event and delegate data.  The software captures, manages and stores a lot of the sensitive data we mentioned earlier – so it makes sense to start there. Have a look at the data security policies of your event tech provider.  Are you confident they have the right processes in place to safeguard your data? Are they doing everything they can to minimise the risk of breach?

Here are the top 8 data security questions you should be asking your event tech provider today:

How is my event data protected?

Maximum protection of your event data should probably be your event technology provider’s top priority.   You want to ensure that your event data is fully secure and protected by a comprehensive recovery system.  The first step in achieving this is the use of strong industry-standard encryption, like HTTPS and AES, which helps protect your data from prying eyes and can provide you with assurance that it hasn’t been modified in any way. Find out how your data is encrypted both at rest (when stored in servers) and in transit (when accessing data from your event management system over an Internet network).

What data security and safeguarding policies do you have in place?

Find out where your database is stored, how it is stored and how often they back it up – the more often, the better so that no changes can be lost from your database if restoration is required. In the case of a breach to their own servers, find out what response plans they have in place to protect your data.  Find out what security policies they have in place within their organization – how do they protect their own data and how do they meet regulatory and legislative requirements?  Who has access to client data, how do they handle authorization and what happens when someone leaves? How do they share client information (email/phone) and where they do they store this information?

 How can I ensure secure access to my event management system?

All major event management systems manage access via username and password authentication.  However, you can also manage access using an external authentication service, which can restrict access for certain individuals to particular functions (e.g. abstract reviews) or particular events. Find out if your event tech provider can integrate your event management solution with a Single Sign-On (SSO) system. This will allow you to sign in using your company’s existing corporate authentication infrastructure – so passwords are never submitted to your event system and access can be controlled centrally by your organisation. If someone from your team leaves their job, then their access to all systems can be cut off from one place.

SSO improves security by giving you the choice to restrict event websites and registration to internal personnel or selected individuals or groups, effectively making them private. Only people chosen to view the event website or register for the event will be able to do so and invitations cannot be shared – useful if you have an internal awards event going on involving confidential company information.

Where is my event data stored?

As mentioned above, this is something that should be outlined in the security policy of your event technology provider. It is worth noting, however, that if your event management software provider is storing your data in US-based datacenters and you deal with delegates from the EU, then you need to ensure that they comply with the newly announced Privacy Shield agreement. This replaces the old Safe Harbor agreement, which allowed US companies to legally transfer European citizens’ data to America, provided the location it was being sent to had the security and privacy conditions that met EU standards. If you are using a web-based system, find out the physical location of their cloud servers and whether or not they adhere to EU Data Protection regulations. Find out who has access to these servers and what kind of security procedures they have in place.

Do you own my data?

This is an important question as some event management technology companies have a legal right to use your data for their own marketing purposes, which means it’s highly likely that they store this data somewhere other than your company’s database on their client servers.  This increases the chance of breach so again, you need to find out what data protection policies they have within their own organization, how they manage access to this data, what do they use it for and how long they keep it.

Are you PCI-DSS compliant?

Our survey revealed that almost 50% of event planners who took payment from their delegates didn’t know if they were PCI-DSS compliant and a further 73% were unaware of the fines for non-compliance (ranging anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000).  If your events are set up to accept payments from delegates via credit or debit cards, then your organization is obligated to achieving and maintaining compliance with the PCI Data Security Standard (more info here).  

One way of simplifying compliance is to outsource the process to one of the many PCI-DSS-certified payment gateways that meet the required standards, such as Stripe, PayPal, Sage Pay and Worldpay, among others. However, make sure you understand from your event tech provider how these payment gateways interface with your event management/registration system. If your event website integrates with these gateways via an API, then you are still liable for PCI compliance since your servers capture and transmit the credit/debit card data first. Equally, if your event management system uses its own payment gateway or processes payments on your behalf, make sure that their systems have the correct level of compliance and that they are not permanently storing your delegate payment card data on their servers.

What security precautions do I need to take if my event management system is integrated with other third party systems (CRM, event apps, finance packages)?

Your event management software provider may have issued you with an API key for any integrations you may have between your event system and other third party systems such as your event app.  Often used instead of usernames and passwords, the key allows your event app and other third party applications access to your event data, and vice-versa. Remember that anyone who has access to this key has access to your data – so you need to make sure it doesn’t get into the wrong hands.  You can minimise the risk of breach by asking your event tech provider to issue different API keys for different functions – for example, use one key to connect your system to the delegate section of your event app and another to connect it to the exhibitor section of your event app. Also, if you’re integrating with more than one system, ask for separate API keys for each integration (event app, CRM etc).  This way, if one of your API keys gets lost or exposed, you can revoke the key (which disables the integration) and set up a new one.  If you have one API key for all your integrations, then a data breach would lead to far more serious consequences for you and your organization.

How long do you keep my data for?

In our survey, 54% of event planners said they use their event management systems as a permanent storage space for all their event data.  If you’re happy with your event tech provider’s data security policies, then keeping your data in the system after your event is complete is a good idea – especially if you don’t have adequate procedures to safeguard this data within your own organization. Find out how long they keep this data on their servers, whether it is moved to other locations or servers and whether or not they delete it after a defined period of time.

Conclusion

There is no such thing as 100% security when it comes to safeguarding your data.  However, following best practices and taking the precautions outlined above can help you understand the risks involved and minimise the chances of a data breach.

Written by Steve Baxter, CTO of Eventsforce

1 C&IT: Event Planners Don’t Understand Real Threat of Cyber Hacking