Active Network is Heading to PCMA 2012!

Join Active Network, and over 4,000 meeting professionals, at the 2012 PCMA Convening Leaders Conference, January 8-11, 2012 in San Diego!

As the Communication Partner to the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), we are excited to sponsor and serve as the official technology provider for the annual conference.

Active Network will be participating throughout the conference including speaking engagements, technology tours and other educational opportunities.

Some of the highlights include:

• Eric Olson, Active Network  General Manager SMB, will be part of a panel discussing “The Digital Future of Physical Events”. Anthony Miller, Active Network Enterprise General Manager, will also lead a session on “The Challenge of Integration” and “The Digital Future of Physical Events”.

• Take in an Active Network Event Technology Tour, profiling the behind the scenes envelope pushing technology of PCMA. If you’re attending PCMA, sign-up for a tour today.

• And for participating on the tech tour or dropping by our educational pod (VES DEMOs area), receive a complimentary Event Maturity Assessment of your technology event mix, provided by an Active Network event management expert.

Stay tuned to the blog for more news and updates surrounding PCMA 2012.

Written By: Michelle Nikolayevsky

8 Steps to Planning a Successful Event

2012 is just around the corner. How goes your planning so far?

Events are the combination of many different elements that come together. Before getting too far into planning, take a step back and consider what key elements will collectively make your event the best it can be.

The  whitepaper, “8 Steps to Planning a Successful Event” details some components that event organizers should consider. From online registration forms to social networking, this helps create focus.

To learn more, click  here to read the whitepaper .

What do you think? What are some important elements to consider when planning events?

Written By: Michelle Nikolayevsky

External Authentication is Here!

We are excited to introduce External Authentication!

This exciting new feature will be extremely beneficial  to associations with thousands of members. Coined xAuth, this membership authentication system will integrate with other third party systems, making it easy to validate registrant’s credentials directly through RegOnline.

Based on a combination of email, username and password, RegOnline’s registration process will integrate with an external site to validate a registrant’s credentials.  This combination helps event organizers  make sure a registrant is who they say they are, based on existing membership data.

What is now a simple set up by member registration type, was once a tedious process of uploading and managing contact lists, invitations, or discount codes.

Some of the key benefits of powerful External  Authorization:

1. Use existing membership databases to verify registrants, without the tedium of uploading and managing additional contact lists.
2. Provide members deeper discounts for different registrant types
3. Restrict member access to certain registrant types
4. Pre-populate registrant personal information based on your membership database
5. Ability to customize failure authentication messages based on membership authentication logic

Stay tuned to the blog, as we detail how to setup xAuth with your registration forms!

Are you often working with external validation of your attendees? Tell us about it.

Written By: Michelle Nikolayevsky

Guest Post: Virtual is Good, but Face to Face has Plenty of Value!

Guest Post By:
Filippo Ciampini, Marketing Specialist
Active Network |Events

Filippo Campini, Marketing Specialist for Active Network, Events, is today’s guest writer. He is based out of the Active Network London office, and recently attended the Exhibition for the Incentive Business Travel and Meetings (EIBTM)  trade show in Barcelona, connecting travel trade exhibitors, meeting professionals, corporate incentive and hosted buyers. Additionally,  Active Network entered the competition for Best Technology company and came in among the top 5.

EIBTM is a great example of the importance of face to face events.  I personally don’t believe in the discussions about the ways virtual technology may lead to the extinction of events which meet face to face.

From all over the world, virtual and social technology allows people to connect and interact like never before, helping to eradicate geographical and cultural barriers.

Last year, I had my first exchange of tweets with American and European #eventprofs from the Active Network London office. In the following months, a tweet became an email, the email became a video-call on Skype, and shortly after, I felt the need to meet those professionals in person. That opportunity presented itself in Barcelona, at EIBTM; what a  great example of how an interaction started and nurtured online, led me to attend the physical event. The opportunity to sit next to people from our industry, have a chat, discuss new projects, and the possibility of future collaboration, makes the physical  event an essential part of our business. As discussed with many #eventprofs previously, virtual can never replace the networking aspect of the live event. Furthermore, content is a crucial consideration for event organizers, however nowadays most content is accessible online for free. Event organizers must be very smart in the way they choose the content, the speakers and the format of their sessions.

EIBTM had a number of highlights, which made the event worth attending.  The first, was a  two -day Association Program designed by William Thomson, Owner of Gallus Events. The event architect succeeded in designing, through a mix of traditional and more innovative formats, an engaging and interactive conference which received some great feedback from delegates. (If you would like to read more about the formats used I strongly recommend you read Michael Heipel’s blog post: Maximizing the Power of Events: EIBTM 2011 Association program Review. )

Another highlight of EIBTM 2011 was this year’s focus on event technology. Through the Technology Village area, the announcement of the Technology Watch finalists, and the educational sessions, all benefited an industry that is starting to adopt and appreciate  the role of technology in the promotion, management and measurement of events.

Industry thought leaders, Michelle Bruno and Corbin Ball, pose for a picture.

On a similar note, Active Network was nominated as one of the  Top 5 Event Technology Companies in the world (out of 56!). We entered the competition knowing that we were going to ‘duel’ against trends like RFID and NFC technology, but we wanted to highlight the importance of measuring the ROI of physical events.

We entered with our ActiveEvents Insight iPad application for event organizers.   The app allows event organizers to review all activity which takes place at the event in real time we call this “the attendee journey”. From the point of registration to session attendance, survey results, scheduled meetings and leads generated, the organizer is able to see a complete and holistic picture of overall event metrics and individual behaviors. This information is accessible on the move through a tablet, allowing the organizer the freedom to move around and most importantly react to the information they receive instantly. The features of this application have been described as the ‘Holy Grail’ of every event organizer by event guru Michelle Bruno Founder and CEO of the Bruno Group.

Written By: Michelle Nikolayevsky

We’re Moving!

Active Network has opened a state of the art datacenter and will be migrating all of their customers to this new site.  In January 2012 RegOnline systems will be migrated to this center which requires new IP addresses to be issued as part of this move.  The new datacenter provides RegOnline customers with improved stability, monitoring, and systems that we anticipate will lead to a more predictable user experience.

The migration process will take approximately eight (8) hours and will be conducted over a weekend during the first half of January although these times may change based on a more detailed schedule that is being prepared. Please expect additional communication regarding this migration over the next few weeks.

What Does This Mean For Our Customers?

Our IP addresses will change meaning that anyone who has made changes to their firewall or has a custom third party gateway implementation will have to update their records.

Who Does This Impact?

-Customers with a 3^rd Party Gateway with IP restrictions

-Customers who have firewall rules in place for API calls

-Customers who work in highly secured environments

If you are one of these customers please continue reading for important information

3^rd Party Gateways Integrated with RegOnline
If you are using a custom or third party gateway, your gateway may require you to specify which IP addresses are allowed to process transactions.  If this is the case, make sure to add the following IP address to your gateway configuration in order to ensure no interruption in credit card processing.

IP Address
74.120.127.3

Firewall or Network Exceptions to Access RegOnline
If you have firewall exceptions for RegOnline for either workplace rules, API calls or other security reason to access RegOnline, please contact our support department.
Exceptions on Receiving Email from RegOnline (Whitelisting)
If you have an exception added to allow email from RegOnline please make sure you add the following IP addresses (all port 25) added to your whitelist

IP Addresses
74.120.127.72
74.120.127.73
74.120.127.74

Still have questions?

1. Make sure that the appropriate IT or Network staff within your organization is aware of these changes, as they can help to determine if any changes are required.
2. Still need help? Please do not hesitate to contact our Support department for more information: https://customerportal.activenetwork.com/NewCase.jsp Stay tuned to the blog for more updates.

We’ll keep you posted about the details, but for any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact our support department directly.

Written By: Michelle Nikolayevsky