Tag: event technology

Event Technology: How to Increase Adoption Across Your Whole Organisation

Posted on by Eventsforce

shutterstock_79727680New technology solutions that provide better ways for people to collaborate are constantly emerging and you may want to invest in a new solution for your organisation. However, the adoption of new technology can be daunting, perhaps even overwhelming. Adoption is usually the hardest part in the implementation of new tech solutions. You may invest in a solution for better collaboration but that’s difficult to achieve if your organisation isn’t using it properly or at all – so how can you encourage your organisation to leverage the tech solutions you want to introduce to the workplace? We have some ideas for you.

 Establish goals and determine fit

Answer the question: why should they use it? Before you invest in a new solution or try to introduce a new solution, consider how it will fit in with your organisation’s day-to-day activities. Work with your team to establish objectives or goals that you hope to achieve through the implementation. As the solution is being integrated into the workplace, find a way to consistently measure the effectiveness of the solution in achieving the goals established. Adoption rates will go up as reluctant individuals in the organisation see that the new technology solution is worth the effort to adopt.

 Collaborate with the provider

You want a solution provider that is willing to continuously provide updates and support based on feedback. It is important that the provider of the tech solution is willing to work closely with you and your team to establish a good implementation program and ensure that the adoption rate is high.

 Schedule training

Once you’ve invested in the tech solution that best fits your organisation – be sure to provide training. Even if the new solution has an intuitive design, providing training can greatly increase individuals’ comfort levels with it. Training can be in the form of webinars, tutorial pages, or onsite training workshops.

 Lead by example

Click to get in touchIt may be difficult to increase technology adoption across the whole organisation all at once. Consider building a group of evangelists for your new technology solution within your team/organisation or begin by having team/group leaders adopt the technology first to encourage change amongst the team members.

There’s no one-size-fits-all technology solution – take into consideration the individuals in your organisation and help them see how the new technology will be beneficial in their work. Leveraging a new technology solution can increase the overall effectiveness of your workforce but adopting the solution should not have to be an excruciating process.

 

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Why Event Management Software Can do Wonders to Your Marketing Efforts

Posted on by Eventsforce

shutterstock_25045207Marketers are often overwhelmed by the myriad of technologies they can choose from in order to best perform their roles. Often, these technologies themselves are marketed as “magic bullets” meant to instantly increase productivity, increase leads, and ultimately, increase sales. However, whether a technology can accomplish these goals depends not only on the technology but how it’s used by your marketing team, educational team, and leadership.

Why Augment Your Marketing Activities with an Event Management System (EMS)?

Marketing in and of itself is an involved and complicated activity. When executed properly, it’s fingerprints can be seen at every step of the event planning process. From the website to the email campaign, the marketing strategy’s influence is always heavily integrated which means that every one of these aspects must be monitored and tracked. An enterprise-level event management system provides benefits for members of your marketing team by saving time, keeping things organised, and assisting in the collection and application of user data.

Promote

Event management systems provide a variety of integrations which allow the software to serve as a base camp for marketing activities. Tools such as branded websites, email campaigns, and referral systems (all of which can be used in addition to your social media and print marketing) serve as promotional arms of an overall campaign, drawing potential attendees in. Every good marketer knows the value of a well-designed and well-written landing page in converting an interested party into a fully registered and excited attendee. Event management software provides users with templates and an interface with which your team can customise and perfect your event’s website and registration pages.

The added feature of being able to brand your digital promotions simplifies the job of marketing even further as it saves your marketing team the time and effort of creating something from scratch and the branding itself serves to help attendees associate your branding with your event.

Organise

By maintaining a base of operations for your marketing activities within your software allows for all incoming data to arrive in one place with the proper tags and categorisations. Too often, the data collected from email forms and registrations is simply dumped into an Excel spreadsheet to be sorted and dealt with at another time. However, event management software can help to organise and sort your attendees’ information as it is submitted.

Analyse

Click to get in touchOnce your attendees’ information has been collected, what next? Time for the really important work. Your collected data holds the key to a wealth of knowledge about your entire organisation’s performance in relation to your event. What worked? What didn’t work? Who was our target audience? Who did we actually attract? Who did we miss? How can we keep our attendees engaged even after the event? Reporting is an invaluable feature in any event management software as it can help to provide you with the answers to these questions and then some! By answering these questions using the data you’ve gathered and presented with the software’s reporting tools, your marketing team can create a detailed presentation in order to help company leadership make future decisions regarding your event.

A good event management software system may not be a “magic bullet” for any organisation, but it could very well be the magic touch that, when properly leveraged, can help your team reach the next level and ultimately result in more successful events.

 

 

3 Technology Tips That Will Improve Your Next Award Ceremony

Posted on by Eventsforce

champagne-1-750x400If you’re running internal or external awards, conducting employee recognition programs, peer reviews or even awards evenings for clients, the chances are that this won’t be a one-off event, and is most likely repeated on an annual basis. View this repetition as an opportunity! It’s your chance to use your experiences to understand your previous events and programs better, and use what you learn to improve your future efforts.

If this seems like a daunting task, then help is at hand. Technology can be your best friend in creating cutting-edge award programs, fuelling your desire for continuous improvement and allowing you to streamline your processes in the future. We’ve outlined a few ideas below as to how you could benefit.

The idea: Look at the readily available data
The tech: Integrated systems

Registrations, entry forms submissions, the judging process, payments – each of these elements create a wealth of data, and so to be truly effective it’s important you take the time to really drill down into the information. This is potentially a lot of data to get your head around, so if it’s in silos and split across a number of different platforms you’re pretty quickly going to get cross eyed. The whole process will be made a lot simpler if you use a system that integrates each element, creating one centralised point from which you can run all the reports you need.

The idea: Source extra data
The tech: Online questionnaires

When event professionals say they are trying to improve their awards ceremony, what this often boils down to is trying to improve the experience for those taking part, whatever their role. And what better way to do this than to actually ask them what they liked, and more importantly what they thought could be improved.

An effective and cost-effective way of doing this is via an online survey. This will allow you to really understand what worked at your awards ceremony and what didn’t. For example, you’ll be able to find out if those attending found the registration process pain free, if judges found the judging process simple and easy-to-understand, and if people are likely to come back next year. If you don’t get the positive responses you expected, this is a great opportunity to improve. Forewarned is forearmed.

The idea: Listen!
The tech: Social media

Effective awards ceremonies now make excellent use of social media, both before and during the big day. Where many awards organisers go wrong is that once the event is over, the social media focus, monitoring of hashtags and relevant communications also comes to an abrupt halt. This is not the right way forward. Keep checking your social media accounts as they could be valuable sources of feedback. Even if people haven’t tweeted to you directly, keep an eye on those that are using your event hashtag as you may pick up some interesting insights that could help you shape next year’s event. (You don’t have an event hashtag? Well you should! Check out our post on social media and award ceremonies to learn more.)

The ultimate idea: Learn and grow
The tech: All of the above!

Click to get in touchAll of this seemingly tedious data analysis is done for a very good reason: you want to put on a ceremony that is even better next time round. This isn’t just about making sure delegates have a good time, it’s also commercially important. The feedback from stakeholders will be invaluable, so make sure you take on board what they tell you and make them aware that they have a number of ways to give you their feedback, and that their feedback is valued and will be acted upon.

To find out more about how Eventsforce Awards can help you meet and beat challenges like these please click here, or contact one of the team for a free demo.

Social Media: How Best to Use it Before, During and After an Event

Posted on by Eventsforce

calcIf you’re a conference or awards planner, then you’ll already know the nightmare…You have spent all year promoting the event’s brand, tirelessly drawing in new interest, consistently encouraging active participation, maintaining an engaged online community and now it’s finally over. You breathe a sigh of relief only to face that dreadful, jaw-dropping moment when you realise you have to do it all again next year.

Establishing a social media plan that starts on day one and continues until after the event is finished, one that has a jam-packed content plan of post-event resources, is critical to boosting ongoing delegate relationships and most importantly will make your life easier.

Why is Social Media Key to Delegate Relations?

Social media plays a key end-to-end role over the lifecycle of an event and is extremely helpful in engaging the audience’s attention on the day and in securing future interest immediately after.

Using Social Media to Engage Delegates Can Include:

  • Running a hashtag for the event
  • Including separate hashtags for topics and presentations
  • Running polls and instant votes on topics raised
  • Q&As
  • Sponsoring competitions

And lots more. Getting it right turns any fears over filling next year’s conference into excitement for new opportunities to engage with your delegates.

So, where do you start with social media for events?

Create a Community

Use Twitter and Facebook to turn your audience into an active and engaged online community. By using social media right through your event-planning process, including on the day and afterwards, you can generate lasting relationships that will keep people coming back and sharing content. For example, Twitter can be great for sharing sponsor’s slides on the day, and your sponsors will appreciate the extra publicity, helpful when it comes to renewing next year!

If you organise awards, then you will already consider social media to be your best friend. If you aren’t used to creating communities for corporate events however, you may want to consider delegate relations in terms of creating online communities.

It’s best to give one person responsibility for social media management and you may even already have a community manager on your team or someone to take charge for enhancing your event’s outreach.

 Promote an Interactive Audience

Fully interactive events are now the norm with around 70% of event planners using Twitter to promote events and just under 60% using social media right throughout the process.  Carefully chosen hashtags can hugely increase interaction making your event active, lively and memorable. Giving people their say also massively increases the authority of the event and the compelling debate to return next year.

Think Different, Be Different!

Being different and experimental offers something new every time someone attends one of your events and builds your reputation.

If you have never considered experiential marketing during your events, perhaps now is the time to put aside those traditional options and do something crazy. Experiential marketing is about bringing the brand and the audience closer through fun and memorable experiences. Typically, it’s employed in a strategy for grand openings but easily lends itself to events.

Maybe you don’t have the budget to send a man into space like Red Bull’s Stratos jump or like Heineken’s Departure Roulette, which offered free flights to random destinations around the globe and grabbed three million views on YouTube. But there are lessons to be learnt from the experts and big-budget marketing firms. It’s about being daring and letting others see you (or your client) being daring, different and theatrical.

Be Mobile Friendly

Smart event hosts work hard to create a mobile-friendly event, using Twitter hashtags and Facebook posts to drive interaction. It’s particularly great for raising Q&As when someone may not want to stand up and will only then be posting about it later anyway.

People love to cast their votes and have their say on topics so let them vote in live polls. It will be a great icebreaker and generate buzz on the day.

Continue the Debate

Once your event is over, consider taking the major topics or key points raised in the debates and turning them into a post-event debate. You could host a panel debate on Google+ Hangouts with the speakers or event organisers fielding additional questions or counterpoints to the raised themes and discussion points.

Click to get in touchBuilding delegate relationships during and after an event is about maintaining an amazing community of people and rewarding them for being active and engaged participants. It doesn’t have to be a nightmare if you can encourage active participants who share the value in what you are trying to create.

With the right approach and energy, you can keep communities alive and growing for future events.

For further guidance on how to do social media for events, take a look at the related content below, or why not check out our own social media channels?

Event Registration: 7 Tips to Successful Form Design

Posted on by Eventsforce

shutterstock_43720780Consider for a moment just how much time you spend convincing and persuading people to even register for an event. You should be putting just as much time and consideration into the design of your registration forms as you put into the process of getting clients to the registration page.

Understanding the psychology behind form design can help to significantly impact successful data collection, speed the registration process, and improve the overall experience for each user. Good form design will get you exactly the data you need quickly and without confusing or taking too much time from your attendees.

It’s All About Preventing ‘Form Fatigue’

When considering data collection, you’re facing two problems: you need specific information from the attendee and your attendee wants to complete the form with as little work as possible. In other words, you’re trying to gather as much data as you can while simultaneously trying to reduce the chances of attendees getting ‘form fatigue’ while completing registration.

‘Form Fatigue’ is a term for what happens when a person determines that the energy cost of filling out a form is not worth the benefit of completing the form. This is what often happens when a potential attendee begins registration but doesn’t complete it. Here are a few event registration tips to keep that from happening…

#1 –  Ask only for what you need

Your user will quickly become discouraged if the moment they click on “Register” a long page with field after field appears before them. Simplification should be your main goal when it comes to your registration forms. Don’t ask for the same information twice (i.e. “Confirm your password”) and ask only for the data that you absolutely need. That extra data may be valuable for future upsells, but is it really worth potentially losing the attendee before they even register? If you want to ask for more data later, do it once the attendee has already registered.

#2 –    Be Clear & Unambiguous 

Make sure that the labels you apply to your form fields are clear and unambiguous. You can cut down on the amount of cognitive work a user has to do by providing clear labels and simple questions. You don’t want attendees to have to think any more than they have to. Remember that people have limits and aren’t good at multi-tasking. By asking complex questions, you’re potentially creating a situation where the user has to not only answer the questions but they also have to do the work of interpreting them.

#3 –     Utilize Gestalt Principles

Gestalt principles describe the way that our brains tend to assume that items that are grouped together must be related to one another. Placing specific question fields together (such as Name and Username information; credit card information; and company information) in their own specific groupings can help to make the form feel more organized and easier to scan. This cuts down on the complexity of the form and makes it easy for the attendee to scan it so they can quickly get an idea of what information they’ll need to enter.

#4 –    Save Time with Defaults

You can also save the attendee time and frustration by providing defaults that demonstrate how the fields are meant to be completed. For example, if the field label says, “Date of Birth:” then the field itself should have an example of what the user is expected to respond with, “MM/DD/YYYY.” This also limits the potential for errors.

#5 –    Make Errors Obvious

Setup your form to validate in real-time as the attendee is filling it out. This way, they don’t have to wait until after clicking “Submit” to find out that they’ve missed a required field or mistyped a date.

#6 –     Provide Progressive Disclosure

Psychology has taught us that people want the power to control how much information we see at one time, however, we also want simplicity so we’re not overwhelmed by too much information at once. This is where progressive disclosure comes in. On a more complex form, you can use progressive disclosure to reveal specific form elements only when they are needed and in specific context. For example, if you require a text response when the attendee selects an “Other” option then that text field will only display when “Other” is selected.

Click to get in touch#7 –     Take the Time to Test

One of the greatest errors in form design is a failure to conduct usability testing. Testing your forms can help you to see where ambiguity or errors are most likely to arise. By taking this kind of precaution, you are able to prevent future issues and increase the likelihood that any attendees who use your registration form will actually complete it rather than dropping off and leaving you confused as to why.

Remember that a good registration form will not only get you the data you need, it can also be the start of an overall positive experience for your attendees. If you take the time to understand the psychology of properly designing your forms, it will be like you’re holding the attendee’s hand every step of the way.

For more event registration event tips take a look at the related posts below or get in contact with our friendly team by calling 0207 785 6997.

Eventsforce #Techsperts: Technology Considerations For Your Awards Ceremonies

Posted on by Eventsforce

By Richard Lewis, Business Development Manager, Eventsforce

20141125_eventsforce_richard_lewis_18089-1
Richard Lewis, Business Development Manager

For me, dealing with new business at Eventsforce means getting to know people, understanding their needs and exploring ways in which we can help them. Everyone has different requirements and challenges and nothing exemplifies this more than how our Awards solution is used. It’s one piece of technology that is much broader than the name suggests. Organisations using Eventsforce Awards may be running employee recognition programs internally, external awards evenings, or running awards programs on behalf of clients. All have different needs and requirements but they get in touch with us because they understand that technology is the key to addressing their challenges and moving their business forward in the right direction.

Help finding your shining stars

Awards technology is one area that Eventsforce has been making a significant impact in over the last few years. The old saying, ‘your employees are you most valuable asset’ has never been more true, and now employers are recognising this. Over the last few years I have seen more and more organisations wanting to engage with their global workforce, but they face numerous challenges. They struggle to recognise and measure employee achievement, face challenges in promoting their company culture internally, and fail to use employee success as a motivation tools for others. Ultimately, they are drowning in data trying to find their shining stars. Fortunately, technology can provide a solution.

Solving common challenges

When discussing the challenges that businesses face when managing awards or internal recognition programs, three specific areas seem to cause the most concern. These are hosting, security and branding. It’s my role to address these challenges and reassure event professionals that solutions exist and are available.

When discussing hosting I find that a hosted SaaS solution, specifically the fact it can be accessed 24/7 from any device anywhere around the globe appeals and is indeed deemed essential to professionals managing fast paced and constantly changing and evolving events.

Security is also another big issue. Our clients recognise the importance of data privacy and security, and the impact it can have on all areas of the business, and on business performance and success. Fortunately through private websites and a Single Sign-On (SSO), our clients can give secure and private access for all awards stakeholders on a global level.

Lastly branding. Customers with strict branding guidelines are demanding the functionality to create a unique look for each awards or event website, branded within their company guidelines and using their own logos. This is a demand that technology is able to meet.

Technology is the solution

Click to get in touchSo, from all of this we can see one clear thing. Running an awards program of any type can be a challenge, but it’s one challenge that can be overcome. The technology is already in place to provide all the assistance you need, it’s just a question of identifying who can help.

If you want to learn more about how Eventsforce can help you manage the very best possible awards programs please give me a call on  +44 (0)20-7785-7040 or email richard.lewis@eventsforce.com

Associations: Top Tips for Introducing Technology To Your Events

Posted on by Eventsforce

intro_tech_to_assn_congressThinking of introducing technology to your association events? Here are some things to consider

At Eventsforce, we’re big advocates of using whatever tools are available to improve events for both attendees and planners alike and a big part of this involves making the most of the technology readily available right now.

Corporate events have traditionally led the way when it comes to using technology, but association events can be just as suitable – planners simply need to have a slightly different mind-set. Here we’ve outlined some points to consider when you’re looking to introduce technology to your association events.

Generation game

In the events world, and indeed the wider marketing world, there’s a lot of discussion about the generational group referred to as millennials. This year they will become the largest generation by population, growing larger than the previously leading baby boomer generation, and they have their own set of expectations when it comes to events. They are the connected generation and have been raised in a world where technology is not a gimmick, but a natural part of their existence. It’s important that planners understand this generation and take the time to learn how they like to experience events, because it is radically different to previous generations and technology will play a big part.

That being said, don’t be dragged into the millennial discussion if it isn’t relevant to your association membership. Think carefully about your membership base – what are they expecting from your events?

Don’t just meet expectations

Technology can still have a part to play, even for those sections of your membership that don’t necessarily expect to engage with tech at events. It is about getting the mix right and communicating the benefits of getting involved with the technology from an early stage in the pre-event marketing. This could be as subtle as encouraging delegates to complete their registration process online and use an email on their phone as their ticket, rather than printing it (highlighting the positive environmental impact) or as bold as encouraging use of the event app and all the benefits this will bring. This needs to be done carefully, as pushing the technology too hard may alienate those that don’t want to use it all. Let them mould their own experience.

Don’t be everything to everyone

Click to get in touchThe likelihood is that your association membership is made up of a variety of generations and a variety of technological capabilities. Creating events that work for them all is tricky, but by no means impossible. If the tech-uptake at events seems relatively low, talk to your members. Ask them what their reservations are about using technology at events so that you can see where the problems are. If they are worried about security or privacy, amend your communication for your next event to put them at ease. If they are concerned about how complicated the tech is, make sure you highlight how the tech will improve their experience and make the event more successful for them.

How have you successfully introduced technology to your association events? Are you seeing millennials impact the way you run your events? Let us know!