The A Star Event Guide For Event Organisers

As a first step in creating a successful event, it is important to recognise the way

events have evolved over the past decade.

The journey around an event used to be simple. You invited members to an event,

you delivered the event, and you followed up to see what your attendees thought of

it. It was a simple model built around a few very productive days.

But events have evolved to become more than just a once-off annual thing.

Events bring people together so they can achieve amazing things.

The Attendee Journey has become an extended interaction between attendees and

the organisations and brands behind events.

It now extends long before the event takes place, and with the

right execution, continues for a long time after, offering

opportunities for extended audience engagement and maximising

event ROI.


The key to delivering better event

experiences and generating better

results lies in understanding and

monetising the attendee journey.

The fact is, attendees now demand more from

events, they want more choices, a better event

experience, more value and more ways to connect. In order to deliver better, more

measurable results, event organisers need to stop thinking of a live event as the

destination and start thinking of it as a journey, bringing people together with

sustained community engagement throughout the extended event cycle.

The right event marketing will ensure you get the word out about your event and get

the right audience and numbers to attend. Email marketing is a great start but your

marketing efforts should not stop there. Event marketing has come a long way

beyond simply inviting people and getting them to register. Your event marketing

should build a buzz around your event, get your registrants engaged and talking

about it long before it takes place and maintain that momentum after it finishes.

“But how do you create a marketing campaign that does all that

with limited resources and budget?”

With the right event management tools and a dash of innovation, you

can work wonders for your event marketing. Here, we’ll walk you

through some top tips on how to successfully market your event

throughout the attendee journey and derive the most value.


Your event website is your biggest

promotional tool. It is where your

audience will be directed from all of

your other communication channels,

and it’s the place your event audience

is likely to spend the most amount of

time interacting with your brand in

advance of your event. With this in mind, it’s important to impress your audience

with a sleek professional looking website that is easy to use and navigate. It’s

important to maintain consistency across your event promotions and marketing to

build brand awareness throughout the event journey.

Ensure event information and content are kept up to date at all times on your

website. Consider posting the event schedule, session highlights, sponsors, and

contact information. Another popular addition to your event website is a directory of

event registrants, which allows other attendees to see who is attending and begin

networking in advance of the event.


Email is a fantastic online marketing tool that

is both cost effective and measurable. When

email marketing is done right, it is a particularly powerful tool for driving event

attendance, boosting brand awareness, and creating on-going engagement with

your event audience.

Before your email campaign, take a look at your marketing list and see how you can

maximise its potential.

Developing a clean marketing list - one that you can effectively segment by

demographics and use for personalisation is ideal. If you’re pulling your list from an

old excel doc, it may take a little more work to clean up, but with the right email tool,

you can manage, update and maintain your list within the system on an on-going

basis. Good email marketing is professional in appearance and deployment. Be

careful not to spam your lists or contacts are likely to unsubscribe.

On that note, it is also important to always include the option to

unsubscribe from your email list for legal reasons. Any good email

marketing system should include this as standard.


Email invitations are a great first step in getting the word out about your event, but

your marketing efforts should not stop there.

By promoting your event through a variety of

other marketing channels you can significantly

increase your marketing reach.

Use social media channels to create a buzz

around your event and harness the power of

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to expand your

reach and empower your attendees to promote

your event with social sharing.

Create a #hashtag for your event

It is a good idea to create a designated hashtag for your event. Hashtags are simply

a word preceded by a # sign and can be used to unify tweets from multiple people

on the same subject. (For example, #SXSW is the hashtag for the popular South by

Southwest event.). It is important to promote this hashtag before, during and after

the event and encourage people to use it. You can add it to your event page,

marketing materials, blog content and other social channels and track its use and

popularity in Twitter throughout the event cycle.


Post your event to Facebook

Create a Facebook page for your event and be sure to encourage your event

audience to like or join the event. You can do this through your other marketing

channels, by posting a link to your Facebook page on your website and also

including it in any email communications you send out.

Tweet your Event

Post event information and updates to Twitter regularly in the lead up to, during, and

after your event to drive engagement throughout the event cycle. Remember, on

Twitter you have up to 140 characters to create your post. Use these to highlight the

key points: event name, dates, link to register, and if there is room, a personalised

message to further promote your event.

Get your event listed in directories for added reach

Consider getting your event listed in dedicated event directories. You can often

benefit from free listings on sites such as Upcoming or Eventful.com.

Generate a QR code for instant mobile access to your event site

This option creates an image that includes a QR code which can be used

throughout your event and in your event marketing materials. When scanned on a

mobile device, the QR code opens the browser and navigates to the registration

page associated with your event allowing easy, direct access.


Did you know that a smooth registration process can dramatically impact your

attendees? A smooth, comfortable registration process can change the way they

look at your organisation. It can decrease complications and complaints at your

events. It can even lead to higher attendance and lower no-show rates. Over the

past several years, we’ve invested hundreds of hours into studying how attendees

flow through the registration process. We’ve identified what they like and what

confuses them and have come up with some simple, yet little-known techniques that

will revolutionise your registration process and impress your attendees.

Event organisers often worry that high-

tech registration options will alienate a

portion of their target audience.

Yet you’ll be surprised how quickly even your most traditional users will adapt to

online registration. In fact, many event organisers have found that removing paper

registration altogether has led to higher attendance, happier attendees and fewer

complications at events


Event attendance in groups is the preferred option for many attendees and

organisations, so it is important to offer group registration if possible.

This makes your life a lot easier and will undoubtedly lead to more satisfied group

leaders and attendees.

Two things you can do to encourage group registrations are to:

1. Provide discounts for people who register as part of a group and

2. Make group registration as easy as possible by handling it within your standard

registration process.

Miscommunications and a lack of real‑time updates are pretty

much guaranteed to negatively impact your attendees.

Yet many event organisers still rely on manual processes to

manage things like meal preferences and nearly every other

attendee preference.

Use event registration software to set up a way for your

attendees to choose their own preferences and make self-

service changes to those preferences before the event.


Event registrants can become frustrated by the length of time it takes to fill out a

registration form. Many registrants are previous customers of the organisation

holding the event, meaning that most of their personal information will have been

captured by the organisation before. Using auto-recall, event organisers can set up

registration to pre-populate personal and business information for their registrants

wherever possible.

Not only does this practice dramatically reduce time spent in the registration

process, but it also decreases the number of people who abandon the process and

reduces errors in your reporting. This simple feature can improve the attendee

experience while making sure you always have accurate contact information for

follow-ups and promotions.

There is a way to identify no-shows before your events—yet it’s one of the least-

used features in event registration. It’s called “click-to-confirm” reminders, and it

allows event organisers to send a series of triggered email reminders leading up to

an event, asking attendees to confirm that they will be attending the event.

In addition to identifying potential no-shows, the extra action taken by your

attendees reminds them about the event and reaffirms their commitment to attend.


Usability studies show that attendees

struggle with long registration forms,

particularly when those forms contain

information that isn’t relevant to the attendee.

Conditional logic in the registration process

can avoid that pitfall.

Conditional logic tailors questions in the registration form to dynamically display

based on information previously entered. So, for example, if I have a golf networking

event, I may ask an attendee if they would like to attend.

If that attendee answers “no,” they will not be required to fill out information on tee

times, t-shirt sizes or transportation.

On the other hand, if that attendee chooses “yes” he will automatically see the

appropriate questions.

Very complicated events are using conditional logic to dramatically

streamline the registration process, but even small events can use this

technology to greatly reduce registration headaches for attendees

while reducing workload for event organisers.


The smartphone and most recently, the tablet, has become an essential tool in the

hands of the event attendee. It is predicted that 10 billion mobile internet devices will

be in use worldwide by 2016! (1). Based on these stats, it makes perfect sense that

organisations would invest in developing the most effective ways to connect with

mobile users on their chosen devices.

For event organisers that are looking for more attendees, increased return on

investment as well as return on engagement; mobile offers the maximum in terms of

audience reach, targeting and real-time communication.

RegOnline provides a FREE mobile event application, so you can get your event

mobile-ready right away at no additional cost.

Source: 1. Pew Research Center, The Future of Apps and Web, March 2012.

http://www.regonline.co.uk/?widget_emb=a_star_guide_for_event_organisers

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Future-of-Apps-and-Web/Overview.aspx


When developing your event website and registration pages, ensure they are

designed with mobile users in mind so the content is optimised for viewing and is

accessible on mobile devices.

This will enhance social media integrations, increase attendee engagement and

streamline the event registration process for attendees.

Post mobile accessible maps and event

schedules so your attendees can access all of

the information they need when they need it to

ensure they get the most from the event

experience.


Set up social media event pages and encourage attendees to share photos, links

and other social information about their experience.

This enables event attendees to become more than just ‘attendees’ or ‘spectators’

but content creators that continuously interact through social networking channels.

Create a listing for your event with services such as Facebook and FourSquare.

Event attendees can then check-in when they arrive at the event and help you

promote the event through their social networks.

Make all event materials available for attendees to

view or download on their mobile device.

This is not only a greener option for your event, but

also saves attendees the hassle of carrying around

large volumes of paper in the form of brochures,

schedules and maps.


Quick response (QR) codes are two‑dimensional bar codes,

readable by dedicated QR readers and smartphones.

Users can quickly scan QR codes to download event

information by scanning contact information. QR codes can

save attendees valuable time and offer excellent data

tracking capabilities for event planners.

Get valuable feedback and

information from attendees, and

track trends by posting mobile

surveys and polls before during and

after the event.

Many mobile technology providers can now integrate with other apps for your event

which is a great way to continue to engage your audience and provide them with

useful tools to support a positive event experience.


Send attendees a message of

thanks after the event that links

them to a video of highlights or

a library of all of the content in

podcast, video or other format.

By providing continued access

to valuable event content you

can pave the way for continued

engagement long after your

event takes place.

Mobile event technology offers attendees the convenience and the freedom to

connect with events and the brand behind the event wherever and whenever it suits

them. By making it easier to connect with an event, attendees are more likely to

engage with it, simply because they can. Using mobile technology, the whole event

experience is streamlined and extended, saving attendees precious time.


But after the flurry and excitement of an event, the post-event survey can often be

overlooked and becomes an afterthought. Survey questions are thrown together

quickly and in many cases, the data collected isn’t as good as expected and

sometimes is never even used.


To avoid this, it is recommended that you plan your post-event survey in advance,

and have it all set up and ready to send automatically once the event has

concluded. Before you dive into your survey creation it’s important to spend some

time thinking about the information you want to get from it and how you’re going to

do that. In this section we’ll provide some top tips and guidelines on designing and

deploying event surveys for success.

Before creating your survey, make a list of the key things you want

to learn from it. Decide what data will validate whether or not you

have achieved your goals and consider who will be using this data

and how they will be using it.

This could be you and your event management team, it could be your client if you’re

an independent planner or agency, and it will almost certainly be the senior leaders

of the organisation behind the event who will want to put metrics and value to the

money invested.

Create surveys that are quick and easy to complete

Offer surveys in an easy to use electronic format that is also accessible through

smartphones and tablets. Ensure the design and interface is appealing. When it

comes to survey questions, focus on quality, not quantity. You can include unlimited


questions in your survey but ensure you focus on the quality of the questions and

the responses you’re looking for rather than asking too many.

When it comes to survey questions try to provide multiple-choice or yes/no answers

as much as possible and keep open ended responses to a minimum. These types of

questions require less of the respondent’s time and the data collected is easier to

analyse, compare and report on.

Make responses anonymous

Another way to boost survey responses is by making your survey “anonymous” for

respondents. This is likely to result in more responses and ensure the attendee

feedback you gather is honest and accurate.

Offer an incentive

It is always a nice idea to offer survey respondents something in return for their time

and feedback. Entry into a draw or competition is one option, or you could offer a

free download of a whitepaper or e-book that is of interest to your audience.

The questions you ask are very much dependent on the type of event you’re

running, but there are a few key areas worth reviewing for most typical events.

Measure your marketing efforts

Ask how attendees heard about your event, whether it was through an email

invitation, social media, a referral, word of mouth, etc. This information can be useful

to determine where your event audience is engaging and communicating and what

channels you need to focus on for future promotions.


Determine logistical successes or failures

Find out if the attendees liked or disliked any aspect of the event venue including

location, parking, access, transport and facilities.

If it is decided to have another event at the same venue in the future, the event

planner will be aware of issues previously addressed by your attendees and

arrangements can be adjusted accordingly.

Offer an opportunity to give feedback

Provide one verbose text area in your survey where your attendees may voice their

opinions, and give suggestions to improve future events. Here you can find out more

details about your attendee’s experience, whether good or bad. You could consider

asking your respondent to provide contact information here such as their name,

email address, or telephone number so that you can follow-up with them directly if

the response is negative. Or you could consider asking them for permission to use a

positive response in this section as a testimonial in your marketing materials.


Once you’ve created your survey it’s important to test it for usability, flow, typos and

punctuation. Ask colleagues to complete it and have them critique it for clarity,

engagement, ease of use, as well as basics like spelling and grammar.

Ensure that they are thinking through the survey to get an accurate

sense of timing. If it takes longer to complete your survey than

anticipated or if anyone is even slightly confused by a question or

answer, review, update and test again before hitting the activate

button to make your survey live.


Sometimes when we’re talking to event directors they say ‘You guys provide online registration software, don’t you?’ That’s true, but we really are so much more than that. We are your marketing magicians, your pricing advisers, your best practices buddies, and more. We are your partner and we are as dedicated as you are to growing your event and the industry. And we are also participants, which gives us a special insight into your world.

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a star event guide for event organisers

Technology