7 Reasons To Use Software In Event Management
Event management industry is evolving and changing with the times, and the number one reason for that is technology, as is most often the case in other industries.
When speaking about technology in the context of event management, we usually mean software. In the last several years, many software solutions geared specifically towards helping event managers and planners do their jobs more effectively have appeared.
The truth of the matter is that you can still manage quite well without resorting to any such software solution, providing that you have enough experience and the right (experienced) people to do the job. But it is equally true that software can make your job easier in many ways, usually when it comes to repetitive tasks and things that need to be checked and double-checked.
To help you make sense of what exactly event management software is for and how it can help you to organize superb and memorable events, here’s a list of ten things it does really well.
Easy Registration and RSVPs
Event management software technology is really useful when you want to ease the burden and stress of setting up, collecting and managing your registrations and ticketing. Most software solutions allow you to upload a list of contacts, which actually means that half of your work is done already. With things such as automated email marketing and social-media groups, keeping your attendees informed and up to date has never been easier.
If you are savvy with your event management software, you can easily track participants’ registration, record all the info you need and handle payments without even lifting a finger!
Spreading the Word
If you utilize event management software that incorporates social media you can effortlessly convert your event attendees into promoters that will spread the word about the event and thus garner you even more attendees. Your role is to encourage and support them, providing them with all the relevant and up to date info necessary to spread that word easily and efficiently. This could be as simple as adding social media sharing buttons to your event blog, posting on the event fan page or in the event group, or you could go all out into cross-channel power use, providing them access to email marketing tools and social sharing goals and incentives. This can really dramatically increase online activity and generate additional interest for your event.
Engaging Attendees Before The Event
Not all software that can help you with event management is niche or created with events in mind. Case in point is the way in which social media is today leveraged to promote all kinds of products and services, and this naturally includes events.
You can use Facebook’s events function as another channel to get the message out and receive confirmation of attendance. You can use Twitter hashtags to identify your potential audience and hijack those hashtags to spread the word. You don’t need specialized event management technology to send email invites and follow-up emails based on the actions that invitees have taken – but it sure does help. For example, you can send out reminders about registration deadlines only to invitees that have not yet RSVP’d.
Finally, software like Tickera allows you to manage ticket sales in an effortless manner.
Make Check-In Easier
Nobody likes to wait in line, and remember that the main success indicator of your event is attendee satisfaction. So get on with making them feel good right from the entrance. Event management technology speeds up the check-in process by replacing your printed registrant lists with a laptop or tablet that can check guests in with a quick click or swipe and instantly sync attendance data with your contact database.
On-event Social Media
Software technology can be your ally not only before the event, but also at the event itself (and after, but we’ll discuss that later). By this we mostly mean using social media to report live, like tweeting from the event. But if you create a feedback loop, such as screens on which those live tweets are shared, you increase the potential level of attendee satisfaction, making them feel like they are a part of creating the experience that is your event. To this end, you should think about stuff like getting your Twitter handle to as much attendees as possible and determining a dedicated event hashtag. This is likely to encourage more tweeting about your event or brand as people get excited.
Treat VIPs Like VIPs
Chances are your event will have some guests that are more important than others. Event management technology allows you treat those VIPs with the importance they deserve. This means that you can keep the information that is relevant only to them separate (set up separate online registration, send them parking info and other pertinent details via a dedicated email list) as well as alerting the right people when an important attendee arrives.
Measure Event Success
Understanding post-event satisfaction levels is arguably the most important piece of information you should gather from your event, because it is not only an indicator of the overall success of the event, but it can also serve as a great guideline for what you did right and what you could improve the next time around.
With event management software you can track and understand various indicators of success for your event, and adjust your strategy as needed. Event management technology simplifies the process of sending post event surveys to your attendees and recording the results.
Whatever the goal of your event is, be it a strictly commercial affair, a sales conference, a concert or a charity fundraiser, event management technology can help you focus on the most important thing – securing a great experience for your attendees. But knowing how well you fared in that task can now be achieved much more thoroughly then by simply chatting with the guests or handing them questionnaires to fill in. In today’s event management, analyzing event success metrics is done via Event management technology, which makes it much easier to track all the metrics and ascertain your results.