10 Questions to Ask Before Buying Event Management Software: Question #6

We work with a variety of customers from small to mid-sized businesses to global organizations with thousands and hundreds of thousands of employees. But each customer – no matter how large or small – has very similar questions when it comes to buying event technology. We brainstormed the top 10 questions that we believe smart companies should ask before buying event management software. In this blog, I’ll spotlight the importance of each of the questions – and their answers – in a series of 10 posts.

Thanks for following this blog series. In our last post, we discussed how event management technology can make attendees happy.  Here’s another question you should ask before buying event management software: “How can event technology deepen my relationship with attendees?”

In an ACTIVE Network/Event Marketing Institute survey of 2012 event tech trends, 94% of meeting owners said their top event need was to improve the attendee experience. Meanwhile, 85% said expanding customer engagement was their top concern.

When considering event management software, ask yourself if it helps you increase your ties to attendees via:

• Social media that creates blogs and other communities and lets attendees view YouTube videos
• Mobile event app so attendees can view and schedule sessions, download agendas, view daily news updates, participate in goal-oriented business games
• Data and insights allowing you to personalize the event experience for your attendees

Read all 10 Questions Smart Companies Need to Ask before buying event management technology!

Next blog:  Question #7– How will event tech improve my relationship with exhibitors?

Other Resources:

- The Connected Event – an analysis of technology use, best practices and benchmarks.

Written By: Don Munro

Join Us at HSMAI – Experience Event Management Software Solutions

The meeting and event planning industry’s premier show, HSMAI MEET Mid-America, is coming up later this month in Chicago, IL at Navy Pier. We’re excited to be there as a diamond sponsor and meet with attendees, where we’ll be showing our ACTIVE RegOnline™ and ACTIVE Conference™ event management software solutions.

Meet with Us

To learn more and see the software in action, sign up for a one-on-one meeting with ACTIVE Network (booth #419):

• Tuesday, April 23
• Wednesday, April 24

By meeting with us, you’ll receive our complimentary event management software buyer’s guide and be eligible to receive 10% off standard volume discounts for RegOnline.

HSMAI Educational Sessions – Our Top Picks

HSMAI MEET Mid-America is not to be missed! You’ll get to participate in two days of free education and networking opportunities to help move your meetings and events forward. Here are our top picks for the show:

April 23, 9:00AM – 10:00AM
Promote, Engage and Connect: How Social Media can Enhance Your Event
Kelly Cutler, CEO, Marcel Media
While collecting business cards in a fish bowl does still have value, leveraging the power of social media will enhance your connection with meeting and event attendees. Not only is social media a powerful tool to promote an event, it can and should be used as an engagement tool during the event, and a channel to maintain connections after the event. What can you do to take events to the next level? This session will address best practices, important tools and the key steps to developing an integrated social strategy.

April 23, 10:15AM – 11:15AM
360 Event Engagement Marketing: How PCMA is Doing It
Jason Paganessi, Vice President of Business Innovation at PCMA
Izania Downie, Director Strategic Partnerships, ACTIVE Network
This case-study focused discussion, will illuminate how event management technology is transforming the way the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) runs their own events. This session will discuss the key requirements to integrate digital and mobile technology with your full engagement marketing strategy for increased event success.

April 24, 9:00AM – 10:00AM
Extending the Life of Your Meeting Content…Before, During & After your Meeting
Juli Jones, CAE, Vice President, HSMAI
As meeting and event professionals, we and our teams spend a lot of time and energy (and some of our best thinking) developing educational content — whether large or small, live or virtual. Learn from your colleagues to stretch the value you get from your investment in educational content development.

We hope to see you there! Unable to schedule a one-on-one meeting? Leave us a comment and we’re more than happy to answer any questions you have.

Written By: Rebecca Yetzer

Infographic: Social media trends in tradeshow and event marketing

• 47.8% of tradeshow and event marketers spend 1-5 hours on social media marketing per week.
• 102% is the average increase of Twitter followers from businesses that start a blog
• Mobile smartphone usage is set to increase from 83.5 million users in 2010 to 142.1 million users in 2014
• 66% of users access social networking via a smartphone.
• Smartphones like the iphone and Android are increasing the opportunities to connect attendees and other tradeshow participants.

This week’s stats and infographic are brought to us from Echelon Design and Exhibitor Media Group. It provides an interesting look at some of the most widely used social media tools and their application and effectiveness in today’s event world. Please enjoy and let us know what your experience of social networking and events has been?

Please  share your comments below

Written By: Irene Coghlan

The Rise of Social Media and The Olympics

Image courtesy of Paypromedia.com

The 2012 Summer Olympics have really highlighted the rapid rise of social media over the past four years.  The social network, Twitter, is now at the fingertips of 140 million users, up from only a few million when the Olympics were held in Beijing in 2008.

With an estimated 11,000 athletes competing from 205 countries around the world, all eyes are on London and the Olympics this summer. The Olympics event organizers invest years of careful planning into the exact execution and delivery of this historic event, attracting millions of  viewers from across the globe. But no amount of event planning could have prepared the 2012 event organizers for the impact social media has had on this year’s games. With controversy surrounding racist tweets from athletes, fan arrests for threatening tweets, and lash-back campaigns by athletes against the organizing committee, the media is awash with social media coverage.

International Olympic Committee spokesman, Mark Adams, commented on Yahoo News about social media at the Games

“I don’t think we would seek to control it, nor could we,  more than 15 million fans are following and participating in the Olympic experience via Twitter and other social media platforms, not to mention a good proportion of the 10,800 athletes. Used the right way, we embrace social media, and if you look at the guidelines, we positively encourage it.”

The 2012 Olympic Games is a prime example of the rise of social media, and highlights the power and impact of this powerful medium, not to mention the speed at which it is growing. For organizations and event organizers that have yet to embrace social media as an integral part of their marketing strategy, now is the time to take the plunge. It’s time to harness this powerful platform to drive more engagement with your audience, and extend that engagement beyond a single meeting or event opportunity each year.

Justin Ramers, Director of Online Marketing at ACTIVE Network Business Solutions explains how social media can be detrimental if not understood or used effectively.

“The number one mistake in social media is putting tactics before the strategy, and by tactics I mean setting up a Facebook page, starting a Twitter account, or starting to publish content without asking the question ‘why am I doing this?’ Take a step back and look at your entire business, organization or your event and ask yourself what is the purpose of this event or what am I trying to accomplish with my marketing efforts? Once you answer that question you can start to look at ‘how can I start to leverage social media as a medium to execute on those goals?’”

For more on social media strategy, and effective ways to implement it, click here.  Check out the latest event technology podcast in the series from ACTIVE Network Business Solutions. In this latest podcast we talk to our contributors about the increasingly important role of social media and communities to help drive deeper engagement and advocacy, and how these channels are empowering attendees to drive organizers to deliver the content they really want.

Listen to the podcast now

Written By: Irene Coghlan

Infographic – Engaging Your Event Audience With Social Media

Events are all about engagement, but extending that engagement beyond the event itself can be a challenge for many event planners, marketers and conference organizers. This week’s infographic is brought to you courtesy of Northwest Creative Imaging who has illustrated how you can leverage social media before, during and after your event to enhance engagement and extend the event lifecycle.

How do you use social media to engage your event audience?

Written By: Irene Coghlan

4 Smart Tips for Creating an Attendee Engagement Strategy

Written By: Guestblogger, Tara Barnes, Marketing Director at Pathable

Your event is one in a million… but that isn’t meant in a complimentary way. Your event is one thing among a million others that your attendees are thinking about on a daily basis. You need to work hard to get attendees engaged with your event’s content. You need to capture and hold their attention. And you can’t do this by throwing a couple of tweets their way and thinking that all is well.

Making sure your attendees (and potential attendees) are engaged with your event year-round takes careful planning and strategy. Each event’s strategy will be as unique as the event itself, but there are specific, well-tested tips that will get anyone started in creating their engagement roadmap.

Tip #1: Set clear, measurable goals. This may seem like a no-brainer, but goals are often overlooked. You can’t know how well your strategy has worked unless you have goals you’re trying to achieve and ways to measure if you’re meeting them. Goals will differ for everyone but might include: Increasing registration numbers, generating more website traffic, number of social media shares, etc.

Tip #2: Properly load your tool chest. You want to engage with attendees, and you think you’ve got just the right social media tools to do it with. Perhaps you do, but these need to be tools your attendees are already using, not just what your favorites are. Select your social media and communication tools carefully. Poll your attendees to see what they’re already using. It’s far wiser to use a few tools well than to manage a dozen poorly.

Tip #3: Set a schedule and stick to it. Good marketing and engagement with any audience comes from providing relevant content in a timely manner. A content schedule is an important part of an event’s engagement strategy. Once you have your communication mediums pinned down, map out your content. What do you want to be communicating to your attendees before you open registration? Just before your event? On-site? Post-event? You need to think of content through every phase of your event’s life cycle, plan out when you need to communicate it and which tools you will need to do all of that.

Tip #4: What’s in it for your attendees? A common mistake planners make when trying to engage with attendees is exclusively trying to sell what makes their event so wonderful. You don’t want to neglect that, but the central focus of a good engagement strategy is showing attendees what’s in your event for them. Focus on what they will learn at your event. Who will they get to network with? What new products and services will they learn about? Additionally, the more questions you ask attendees and the more you empower them to help shape your event, the more relevant your content will be to be to them.

Attendee engagement should be an on-going endeavor, and creating your strategy is merely the jumping-off point. Stay tuned for more posts on engagement management with tips for goal setting, choosing the right tools and ways to extend that engagement year-round.

Tara Barnes (@PathableTara) is the Marketing Director for Pathable, Inc. In addition to a background in event planning/management, Tara has extensive experience in marketing, social media, communications and public relations strategy.

Written By: Irene Coghlan

What Technologies Shaped Events in 2011?

2011 was an exciting year for events.

Anthony Miller, Global Strategic Director for Active Network|Events, shared a few thoughts on the Eventia website regarding the enhancements made to event technology this past year.

Growth of the QR code, alongside the rise of social media and networking, are highlighted in particular as beneficial changes to the event landscape.

According to their website, Eventia is the “voice of the event industry” within the United Kingdom and abroad. Check out the full article on Technology Highlights from 2011.

In your events during 2011, what technologies did you notice become the new trend? We love hearing from you, so feel free to drop a line below.

Written By: Michelle Nikolayevsky

A First Hand Suggestion for 2012

Guest Post By:
Justin Gritzmacher, ETS Coordinator
Active Network| Events

Our Event Technology Seminar Coordinator, Justin Gritzmacher, is our guest author for today’s blog post. From traveling around the country running our Lunch and Learn series, Justin has had the opportunity to frequently interact with Event Organizers and learn more about their needs. One big trend he sees for 2012 is the impact of social media as a tool to engage attendees, even during the event off season.

Traveling around the country hosting Active Network’s – Event Technology Seminars, I am fortunate enough to meet a wide variety of event organizers. I get to hear about ideas that have worked…and some that have not.

Looking back at 2011, I have seen a few trends in the Events Space. Using Social Media is one trend I suggest you try to incorporate into your events as we head into the New Year.

Social Media has changed the way we live our lives. Using sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter provide an outlet to engage attendees year round with good informed content, while keeping them aware of information relevant to your events. Many event organizers I’ve talked with are capitalizing on these technologies to help run larger and more successful events.

By creating communities for your events you can pass information to all your attendees, and potential attendees, year round making interaction more constant, instead of only during the time surrounding your event.

Social Media will allow you to find out more about the types of people interested in your events, and what they are hoping to accomplish while at your event. With this information organizers can make effective changes as simple as changing start time or venue, or more complex changes like adding new content or even changing the event scope.

When you are not running events, keep your attendees engaged with white papers or links to interesting articles about topics relating to your events, or even short informational webinars. This way, attendees never have a chance to forget about you or your events. Year round interaction will help plan events that directly meet the needs of your audience.

Once you have created a steady stream of interaction, you will begin to have a “captive” audience that is a perfect group to send your first round of invitations when the time comes. The people in these groups will be more excited and educated about your event, and will be much more likely to sign up. Channel the excitement and energy generated by these attendees to help increase your registrations. If your attendees are excited about your event, they will become your ambassadors, promoting your event for you. In this respect, social media can be a cost effective way to branch out your marketing efforts.

As we close out 2011, I hope that these few tips make you optimistic, and help your events reach new heights in to 2012.

Written By: Michelle Nikolayevsky

What does RegOnline’s $3.95 get you?

While there are a plethora of event registration and event management companies out there, do you know who to choose?  All offer various pricing, but what is included in that price?

RegOnline costs $3.95 per registration and includes:

1. Unrestricted account access
   • Create as many events as you’d like.
2. Mobile Suite of Services
   • Onsite Mobile Check in, Mobile Registration, Directory Maps and Schedules
3. Customizable Templates
   • Use Theme Designer to make events match colors, logos and branding.
4. Pay As You Go Pricing
   • No contracts no hidden fees
5. Free Access to Help Center
6. Unlimited Free Tech Support
7. Webinars and Teleconferencing
8. Scanning Technology for on-site check in
9. Include different Registrant Types
   • Create as many different registration types as you need to fit your event.
10. Discount Codes
11. Group registration
12. Badges/certificates
    • Create custom badges and certificates
13. PCI Level 1 Security Protection
    • Keeping sensitive information safe
14. Social MediaPromotion Tools
    • Promote event to everyone through Facebook, Twitter and more!
15. Email Invitations
16. Merchandise
    • Incorporate merchandise as part of your online registration experience.
17. Search Venues
    • To host your event
    • For accommodations for guests
18. Access to the RegOnline eMarketing Center
    • Educational tools and tips to enhance your event.

We are continually developing additional features to provide a robust experience, to create more value for our customers.  If you are looking to add more, there are a number of additional features including surveys, donation forms, Professional Services, and more that can be incorporated for an additional price.

Have a question?  Leave it below, or contact an Account Manager for details today.

Written By: Michelle Nikolayevsky

4 Helpful RegOnline Resources for Event Planners

Looking to learn more about your event? Have a question? There are many educational opportunities, both formal and informal, within RegOnline.

1.Free Webinars

The RegOnline team of Technical Sales Consultants conduct live training sessions on a weekly basis, providing helpful tips for new and seasoned event organizers alike.

• Every Wednesday, join in for a free Event Build Training. This webinar provides an overview of setting up forms, creating different agenda types, and walks you through the registration process start to finish.
• Every other Thursday, the team conducts training sessions with an attendee management focus. Reporting, refunds, labels, badges and much more are discussed.

Sign up for a Webinar Today!

2. Event Technology Seminars (ETS)

A few weeks back, we referenced the Event Technology Seminars commonly known as,  “ Lunch and Learns”. Our ETS team travels the country to educate existing and potential customers on how technology makes life easier while boosting event ROI.
Check out our schedule to find an Event Technology Seminar in your area!

3.LinkedIn

A widely known fact: we learn just as much from others as we do in a classroom. The Event Technology Group on LinkedIn is a forum for discussion with other event organizers. Post a question for peers to answer, learn about new industry trends, and build a network of colleagues. Join the Event Technology Group, to start discussing industry topics and trends with other event planners.

4.Professional Services

Need more? Hire the expertise of RegOnline Professional Services.

The Professional Services team provides consulting services for every stage of your event. The trained team can help create an effective online registration form, guide you through the process, and even be there on site.  Professional Services is the team to have on your side.

Have a great event education resource? Let us know what works for you!

Written By: Michelle Nikolayevsky