Tag: ROI

Infographic: How to Choose the Right Event Tech Partner

If you manage events, it’s safe to say you use some form of technology that helps you get the job done – from simple spreadsheets and registration tools to more sophisticated tools like apps and event management software.  You may want to invest in something new but the choice is limitless with hundreds of companies offering you different ways to improve efficiency, reduce costs, engage attendees and drive value to your events.  So how do you decide which solution works best for you?

Read: 10 Reasons Why Businesses Invest in Event Management Software

How do you make sure that all those marketing promises you hear at vendor presentations are backed up with facts that matter to you, your organisation – and your delegates too?

For example, your event tech partner should not only understand what makes your attendees happy but apply this customer-oriented model in every aspect of their operations – from product development to account management, training and support. It is important to assess the quality of these services too. What types of training and onboarding services are available to you? Are there any hidden costs? What kind of pitfalls do clients face when moving from one system to another? Asking these kind of questions will help get an idea on how difficult the technology is to use or how much training your team may need.

Related article: 8 steps to take when choosing event management software

For a high-level checklist on all the important things you should go through when meeting different event tech vendors, have a look at the infographic below:


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Infographic: The Power of Event Data

Event data is incredibly valuable – the more you do with it, the more valuable it becomes. However, the abundant use of data collection tools like registration systems, event apps and networking tools also means our industry now is collecting more data than ever before.  The more data we collect, the more important it becomes to understand exactly what kind of data is needed and how it’s going to be used – as not doing this effectively can be a real lost opportunity.

So how are event planners using all the data they collect from events?  And what value is this data actually bringing to their organisations?  Measuring event success is the most obvious answer. Data like feedback from attendees, registration numbers, attendance rates and audience engagement during sessions are all key metrics that help prove ROI to stakeholders.  However, there are a number of other ways event data can bring real value.

Have a look at the infographic below highlighting the top four ways organisations use event data today:

 


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3 Ways to Help Your Team Adopt New Event Technology

Getting your events team to adopt a new technology system should really be a no-brainer.  After all, you invested a significant amount of money in something you believe will produce great results in the form of increased productivity, improved attendee experiences, more ticket sales, better engagement and more successful events. But even the most exciting system can quickly turn into disaster if your events team don’t end up using it.  And if this happens, where is your return on investment?

New technology being bought into an organisation means change for everyone involved. And how these changes are harnessed to ensure you’re getting the most out of your technology investment is something that needs careful consideration.

Have a look at three key things you need to look at to make sure the adoption of your new event tech system goes without a hitch:

1. Make Sure You Have a Plan

It has been decided that a new technology system is going to be brought in to your events to improve or replace what has been used before. The technology will be even better, even faster and even more productive. It also solves a problem that the organisation has (if it didn’t, it wouldn’t be needed). Which all sounds terrific.

Driving adoption of your new technology using a large stick with a compliance approach (ex.  setting targets and telling managers to make people do it) will only get you so far. Generally, staff will only do what they have to and not much more. Discovering whether they are actually using the technology can be a challenge. But don’t worry we have some ideas to help you. Don’t forget, if you get the engagement side wrong then you will not reap the business benefits as quickly as you should.

To really maximise the potential of the technology and leverage its full functionality you need to build engagement. Therefore, before it is rolled out to all staff, there has to be plan for implementation and engagement.

2. Engage Your People and Test, Test, Test!

Some staff are going to love the new technology. They will be all over it like a rash. Others may be less enthusiastic. It’s a normal reaction in any group of people. They will be assessing ‘what does this new piece of technology mean for me’? Is it going to make their life easier or harder?

Training staff to use the new system and involving them in testing is good but not sufficient to tackle the underlying concerns that people will have. They are unlikely to volunteer these fears, because they may not feel safe to do so or they do not believe there is any point (because their boss has told them the technology is coming whether they like it or not).

So aside from the onboarding and training services provided by your event tech provider, we recommend that organisations also build engagement and involvement.  Below are three activities that make this possible – which can be carried out before and after the implementation. In fact, before the technology is bought, it is always important to ensure that the key users are fully involved and can have their voices heard. Once the technology has been implemented, the activities can be used again.

  • Collect insights by hosting workshops and conversations so you understand the employee problems that the technology could help solve.
  • Create large visualisations (on a wall with post it notes) of the implementation plan and how the new technology will play a part in the overall business. This makes it possible to involve users and the different stakeholders about how it will or could work.
  • Provide a visible, anonymous feedback wall to allow staff to raise questions and concerns.

Unfortunately, if staff don’t use the system, or maximise the functionality, you will not receive the true value and benefit of the new technology.

Let’s take the example of testing an event management system.  You could use an existing event and then go through all the steps and functions of the new system to see how it works. Does it meet your expectations? What changes will need to be made to existing working processes and practices? Are there any gaps that you have identified that need to be raised with the new provider?  How well do you really understand what it can do for your organisation and events? How does it differ to what has been used previously?

Read: Why Onboarding is Critical When Investing in Event Tech

Be honest in your answers. Because only then, will you be able to decide whether you are using 30% or 100% of the technology. Your answers also need to be based on the role that you carry out. Some users will have less impact than others. The intelligence that comes back from asking these questions across staff in your organisation will help you build a picture of true ‘engagement’.

3. Stay Close to Your Technology Provider

Any technology provider that cares about delivering excellent customer service understands the importance of listening to and acting on feedback. They want to know what is working well, what needs attention and what would be nice to include as extra functionality in the future.

In other words, your feedback is invaluable as it will be plugged into their research and development activities.

As well as you providing feedback, keep asking them about the changes they are making. Updates come out on a regular basis and you will want to make the most of them. Also establish what ‘short –cuts’ in ways of working they may have up their sleeve that could help you. You can be sure that there will be things that will be obvious to them that you can use – after all, they did develop the technology.

Keep asking questions, listening and challenging when needed and you will be on the right track to squeezing the juice out of your technology investment.


Adopting new event technology is rarely a simple process!  Find out how Eventsforce can maximise your technology investment through a personalised ‘partnership’ approach that covers onboarding, training, dedicated account management, support and a customer-led software development programme. Learn more by getting in touch here.

 

Infographic: How Important is Your Event Data?

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Technology is always pushing the boundaries of how we plan and run our events. From simple registration systems to complex event management tools.  From social media and mobile apps to networking and engagement tools.  As the significance of all this event tech continues to grow for our industry, so does the importance of managing all the data we get from our events.

Event data is incredibly valuable – the more you make of it, the more valuable it becomes.  But what kind of data should organisations be collecting from their events?  Which event tech solutions are the most effective?  How is this data being used and can it really help with event success?

Read: How to Collect Valuable Data from Events

Last month, we conducted a study with over 120 senior event planners in the UK and the U.S. to answer some of these key questions, as well as get some important insight on the current opportunities and challenges around data management in the events sector.  The results have been very interesting.

Here are some of the highlights:

  • 3 out of 4 event planners said calculating ROI and measuring event success was the 1 reason they collect data from events
  • Attendee/exhibitor/sponsor feedback, number of registrations and actual attendance rates are the top 3 data metrics for measuring event success
  • Online registration systems, online surveys and event management software are seen as the top 3 most effective data collection tools for measuring event success.
  • Only 16% feel they’re on top of their data reporting and analysis
  • More than 50% of respondents felt it was difficult to consolidate all their event data as most of it was dispersed across different systems.
  • 70% plan to make improvements to their data strategy in 2017 by investing more time and resources in data analysis & reporting, integrating tech systems, investing in new data collection tools and involving other stakeholders for better data planning

For a more comprehensive look at these results and some of the other findings from the Eventsforce ‘How Important Is Your Event Data’ study, have a look at the infographic below:

How Important is Your Event Data_Infographic


If you’d like to know more about the Eventsforce event management solution or just want to have a quick chat about how technology can help with your event data management needs, please get in touch here.

6 Signs Your Event Technology is NOT Working for You

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Last month, we spoke to some of the industry’s well known event tech experts to find out what kind of trends we should expect over this coming year – Ask the Experts: The Next Big Thing in Event Tech for 2017.  Along with a more widespread use of new and exciting tools like AR/VR and chatbots, it seems that for many event planners 2017 will be the year to re-evaluate their technology investments.

A lot of organisations are now using sophisticated registration and event management software to automate and simplify their everyday tasks and processes, as well as other tools such as mobile apps, audience response systems, livestreaming and hybrid events. If you rely on event tech, you’ll know how important it is to know whether or not it’s working for your organisation. If it was going to save you time and money, you need to make sure that it is delivering on that promise.  If your management asks if it is helping you meet the objectives and goals you’ve set around your events, you need to have an answer. Otherwise, where’s the ROI?

The impact of technology on events is huge – we can’t function effectively without it.  And though it can make our jobs easier, it can also cause complications.  So, it’s important to keep things in check. But how do we do it?  How do we know if the technology we’re using is still a good investment?

Have a look at these five symptoms that may suggest your event tech is NOT working for you:

Untitled design (55)1) You Dread Using It

Is your event tech making your life easier? If it’s not, it should be.  You don’t want technology to create more work for you – you want it to simplify processes.  You want it to save you time and deliver a better experience for your attendees and customers. You want it to create new opportunities. You want it to help you do more with your event data so that you can do bigger and better things. And ultimately, you want it to have a positive impact on your event ROI.

If you’re spending too much time trying to figure out all the nuts and bolts of your technology solution, then it’s probably a sign that the solution is not working for you.  Technology is also a constantly evolving thing and your event tech provider should be supporting you with regular release updates so that you can get the most out of your technology investment.  Are you happy with the training and support you’re getting from your provider?  Can you get the support you want when you need it?  If you feel you’re being let down and spending far too much time on the technical aspects of using your technology, then it may be time for a change.

Untitled design (26)2) Your Goals Seem Too Complex

Go back to the business or event objectives you set out when you first deployed the solution. Did you want to save time in processing registrations? Did you want to attract new attendees?  Did you want to create more engagement? Or did you want to do a better job managing payments? Go through these objectives after each event and see what role your event tech played in reaching these goals. The answer should be pretty clear, either way. And if you’re not sure, then it may be a symptom of bad deployment.

One of the ways to help address this is through an onboarding service, which is something you should really get from your tech provider before you even start using the system. An onboarding programme from Eventsforce, for example, ensures that your event management solution is set up and configured in a way that accurately reflects and measures the objectives you’ve set around your events. It will recommend on the best processes and work flows you need to put in place. It will provide you 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 can cost time and money.

If you feel it’s something you should have done or would like to re-visit, then it’s not too late.  Talk to your event tech provider and they should be able to help you out.  You can also read this article: Why Onboarding is Critical for Boosting Your Event ROI.

untitled-design-673) Your Quality of Data is Not Improving

The data we get from all the different systems we use around our events is incredibly valuable.  The more you slice, dice, analyse and share that data across your organisation, the more valuable it becomes.  Registration systems are key here because they play such an important role when it comes to collecting information on your attendees. But it’s not just about the ability to capture data that is important, but whether or not you’re able to improve the quality of your data over time.

Attendee lists, for example, are one of the most guarded assets of an event planner and ensuring that the data is well maintained and accurate is essential.  However, if your registration system is not updating changes to attendee profiles in your central database, then it’s hardly going to do you any favours for your next event.  If your returning attendees are retyping the same information or correcting the data you hold on them time and again, then they may not bother the next time round. Or perhaps you’re not even reaching them in the first place because you still hold their old contact information?

Remember, good event data is about quality, not quantity.

untitled-design-664) Attendees Complain About Their Experience

Again, for the sake of simplicity, let’s look at event registration tools.  Is your attendee’s online registration journey quick and easy or does the process have too many steps? If you’re an association and you’re hosting your annual conference, can your members register without having their membership numbers on hand?  Or do they have to request the details, log in and start again? Are you still asking attendees for their mailing addresses despite the fact you never use this information?  Don’t forget that the more clicks it takes to close a sale, the more excuse your attendees have to walk away instead of completing that sale.


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As well as offering an intuitive and user-friendly design framework, good registration systems can simplify this whole process by helping events planners find the best way of asking attendee questions.  Features can include things like single sign-on, drop-down menus, default settings and auto-fill functions that remember the answers attendees provided the last time they registered for one of your events.

untitled-design-725) Reporting is Time Consuming

Let’s say your system is capturing all the information you want to collect around your event.  But how is it processing this data and are you able to get the reports you need?  Are the reports updated as often as you want? Are you able to get the reports and lists you need for your speakers, sponsors, exhibitors or judging panel?  What about the reports your other department require, like finance or marketing?

Having a system that can take the data you have around your events and produce the right kind of report is essential in measuring your event ROI.  You (and your management) will measure success based on the data provided in these reports.  So again, look at your event goals and determine the metrics you need to measure. Make sure your event tech provider can offer you the support you require in identifying what you need to measure and ensure markers are placed across the system in all the right places so that your tech can provide you with the important event reports you need.

conditions-624911_12806) The Legal Eagles Are Circling

Reporting is also important for regulatory compliance. It wasn’t that long ago when all we needed to do as event planners was make sure attendees ticked the terms and conditions box in the registration forms. But times have changed. Today, you have different boxes for different things. You can have compulsory ones that ensure attendees have understood the terms and conditions of your cancellation policy.  You can have optional ones asking if they want to be contacted by third parties. You also have privacy statements. Your software has to be sophisticated enough and be deployed in such a way where it is able to give attendees the right choices, securely store their data and produce the kind of reports that ensure compliance to legal and data protection requirements.

For example, it’s quite common to see delegate lists that include personal information like email addresses at event registration desks. This kind of information is also included in lists sent to caterers, hotels and venues. But have you taken permission from your attendees to share this kind of personal data in the first place?  If you haven’t, then your system should let you tailor your own reports so that you can produce lists that don’t put you or your organisation at legal risk.

Want to get more out of your event technology? Eventsforce’s onboarding service makes sure that your event management solution is set up to accurately reflect and measure the objectives you’ve set around your events.  Find out more by getting in touch here.

3 Tips for Calculating Social Marketing ROI for Event Management

Untitled design (56)Social media has become a critical tool for the successful promotion and execution of events. Justin Guinn, market researcher at software reviews site, Software Advice, believes that this is largely due to how social today has such a great impact on event awareness and enrollment. It also helps that most event management software options on the market offer various social tools and integrations.

Event managers are catching on to the benefits of social strategies, which explains why 40 percent of businesses are already using social media for event marketing, and 78 percent of event organisers plan to increase their use of social media in the future. But with the rise in social media usage, many event marketers are still falling short in one critical competency: calculating the ROI of their social media strategy.

According to the 2015 Gartner report How to Measure Social Marketing ROI (available for Gartner clients), only around 56 percent of social marketing leaders are calculating an ROI for their social programs.  And without proof that their social campaigns are contributing to the success of their events, social marketers will have a hard time making a case for additional resources down the line.

As such, proving an ROI on social marketing should be a priority for event management teams who market on social channels. That’s why we’re listing three tips to help you calculate the ROI of a social marketing for event planning. Follow these guidelines to build buy-in for your social strategy.

Untitled design (26)1. Track Attendance Driven by Social Engagement Campaigns

There’s no one right answer for how to track event enrollment via social channels. As a general rule, you should be tracking the number of times a visitor lands on your website from a social networking site and also the number of those visitors who convert into customers or attendees.

The most popular tracking method for social traffic to your site is to include UTM tracking codes on your hyperlinks. UTM codes are enabled by Google Analytics and require some knowledge of that platform. Google Analytics training, which Google offers for free, is a good place to start if you’re a UTM/Analytics novice.

The UTM codes themselves are attached to the end of the hyperlinks you include in social posts, and they work as identifiers for Analytics to track various valuable metrics. They offer an invaluable snapshot of traffic driven by each post.

As Michael Stancil of PracticalEcommerce explains: “You may be wondering, ‘Why do I need to know clicks and conversions if the Facebook ad dashboard tells me this?’ That’s a valid question. But with the data provided to you in Facebook’s ad dashboard, you’re only scratching the surface. You won’t see how that traffic actually interacts on your site. And if you’re concerned about other metrics (as you should be) —such as time on site, number of pages viewed and bounce rate—you won’t be able to find them.”

Regardless of how you go about it, accurately tracking the traffic your social campaigns are driving is hugely important. Proper tracking enables you to see just how much traffic each social post is driving, as well as how much money that traffic is generating. Monitoring these various metrics will make it more clear what works and what doesn’t, and enable you to steer your social strategy in the best direction for your business.

2. Recognise the Importance of Engagement and Social Listening

Tracking social-driven traffic and tying it directly to revenue is one of the most tangible ROI calculations you can provide. But there is plenty of other value that engagement on social channels can provide.

One important metric is social listening. Engagement through social listening manifests itself in many ways, but most often takes the form of responding to concerns and complaints launched by customers at your social accounts.

According to an event marketing-focused social media article from The Bizzabo Blog, there was an 800 percent increase in social media complaints about businesses in the U.K. over one year. Likewise, the Guardian reported that one in four social media users in the U.K. used social platforms to voice complaints in the first three months of 2015 alone.

Of course, you never want customers to complain about your business, brand, products, events etc. But there is a silver lining here—recurring complaints can signal trends that need to be addressed.

Even a single complaint has value, in that it organically opens the door for you to engage the customer and respond to their complaint. And if you’re going to respond, be timely about it. The Bizzabo Blog states that 40 percent of customers who complain on social media expect a response within one hour.

Your engagement, whether it’s to offer a solution, recompense or even simply acknowledge the complaint, is a successful social touch point that contributes to the overall customer advocacy of your organisation. In fact, Bizzabo found that when a complaint is answered by a business, it leads to a 25 percent increase in customer advocacy.

calc3. Leverage Social as a More Efficient Channel of Communication

The third metric for calculating the ROI of social media marketing for your events is the cost savings. Social marketing is incredibly efficient when compared to more traditional marketing channels.

Take, for example, the Kissmetrics Blog’s stat that around 77 percent of event marketers are leveraging social to engage with attendees and build hype and awareness prior to events. How else would that hype have been built, if not through social channels? Emails, phone calls, print campaigns, TV and radio advertisements? These are all lofty investments in terms of additional resources, labour hours and materials involved.

Click to get in touchDepending on your business’s size, you could potentially operate your social campaigns and manage customer/attendee questions and complaints through those channels with one dedicated employee.

The greater operational efficiency social offers can go a long way to winning greater buy-in and approval for even more resources from those in charge. Especially if you can turn a minimal-spend social strategy into an actual profit centre for your business. Even if it’s only a percentage of your total revenue, it’s coming at virtually no cost to the business.

 

Software Advice Bio PicJustin Guinn is a Market Researcher at Software Advice, a company that hosts research and reviews of event management and registration software comparisons, and software for small businesses and non-profits. His work has been cited in dozens of notable publications, including The New York Times, Forbes, The Huffington Post and TIME Magazine. His research explores the impacts of emerging software and technologies, and he has conducted primary research with both consumers and business owners to get a full picture of technology’s role in these markets today.

 

 

 

Why Onboarding is Critical for Boosting Your Event ROI

Untitled design (18)Last month, an EventTech Talk poll revealed that 50% of event planners do NOT measure the ROI of their events. Surprising and controversial, the result kicked off quite a bit of debate across online community groups with many event professionals voicing their opinions on what is ROI, what should be measured and how it should be quantified.  And while there was common consensus on why ROI matters, there was also an underlying agreement that many of us don’t measure it as often as we should.

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.  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 delegates to their feedback and evaluation. From the revenue generated to conversion rates and sales leads. Figuring out what your event system should measure and how best to measure it not as simple as one would have hoped.

Enter the world of onboarding.

A concept originating in the US, onboarding is traditionally associated with the process of familiarising and welcoming new employees into an organisation.  It involves providing them with the tools, resources and knowledge to become more successful in their new work environment. 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 months1.

The same concept applies when you invest in a new event management system. 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.

So How Does Onboarding Improve Your ROI?

shutterstock_25045207Before 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 simplify processes.  You want it to save you time and do more with your event data.  Ultimately, you want it to increase the ROI of your events. 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 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) Determining Your Event Goals

contingencyThe 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) Setting Up ROI Metricstin can

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) Mapping Out Your Processes

intro_tech_to_assn_congressThe 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) 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.  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?

They can also advise on new trends that will have an impact on the way you run your events.  One example is awards ceremonies. There is a lot more pressure on ROI, accountability and transparency and companies who have put themselves up for awards are starting to challenge judges and award organisations as to why they didn’t win (or get shortlisted). They want to justify their spend and find out how they can do better next time.  As a result, more and more organisations are starting to store all submission data permanently so that they can answer queries, even months after the event.

5) Training & On-going Support

Click to get in touchThe 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.

Written by Paul Harris and Ben Bradley, Eventsforce

1 https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2015/05/29/how-to-get-employee-onboarding-right/#508f91e21efa