Smart Glasses Are On the Rise: Can They Help With Event Planning?

  • Event Management
Smart Glasses Are On the Rise: Can They Help With Event Planning?

Technology is constantly evolving, and various industries are delving into and exploring innovations and digital solutions. The event sector is no exception, as event planners and managers are starting to experiment with tech to enhance events and the planning process. In fact, many event trends for 2024 are skewing heavily toward the digital world. Artificial intelligence (AI) streamlines event planners’ workflow, boosts operational efficiency, and enhances event experiences for attendees. Immersive technologies like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are also shifting how participants experience events, taking them to whole new virtual realms beyond the event venue. However, a new innovation is also making waves in various industries, making tech like AI, AR, and VR more portable and even hands-free. 

Smart glasses are emerging as potential game-changers for various industries, and the demand is surging—the smart eyewear market is set to hit $10.6 billion in 2024. This burgeoning form of wearable technology allows wearers to bring visual and audio capabilities, AR and VR features, or AI tech wherever they go, with no need to pull out a device or wear bulky goggles. But can this new tool benefit the meticulous world of event planning? The answer is a promising yes, with some considerations event planners and managers should keep in mind.

What Are Smart Glasses? 

Smart glasses are wearable devices that can perform various tech capabilities. Some smart glasses are equipped with open-ear speakers to allow wearers to listen to music and take phone calls, and some have cameras for hands-free photo and video taking. Other smart glasses can have AR or mixed reality technology that projects digital content into the user’s field of vision. Many smart glasses models are also designed to look like regular sunglasses or eyeglasses, allowing them to blend into the wearer’s look and provide a discreet and fashionable experience so they can be used in public without drawing attention.

Here’s how smart glasses can be used for event planning and beyond:

Quick Event Documentation

Documenting and sending photos and videos to other event staff or team members can be a source of stress on top of other crucial tasks. Smart glasses can make it much easier for event planners to capture things from their point of view without having to pull out a phone or bring around a heavy camera. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses showcase how the latest models can take high-quality photos, record videos, and even live stream on social media using voice commands so busy event professionals can keep their hands free for other tasks. These can be helpful in the planning stage when exploring venue options, picking out potential decor, documenting the set-up process, and more. The glasses can easily send pictures and videos to other staff who aren’t present, keeping them in the loop. These smart glasses can also be used to snap quick shots of the event or broadcast it onto Meta’s platforms like Facebook and Instagram. It also helps that the glasses look like a classic pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarers, keeping the look discreet and stylish no matter where you use them.

Hands-Free Communication

Miscommunications can throw a wrench into your plans, causing disruption in the event planning process. Smart glasses can help manage communication woes, making it easier for you to get in touch with team members, suppliers, vendors, clients, and more. No more scrambling for your phone—you can discreetly communicate and access information with a simple voice command or touch gesture. If you need to make or take an urgent call, you can command your glasses to dial someone or pick it up, and you’ll be able to hear them through the speakers. You can also send someone a text message if you can’t ring them. Being able to quickly contact someone hands-free can make it easier to properly discuss any plans or issues while managing other tasks, allowing for efficient and smooth event planning. 

Enhanced Event Visualization

In the early stages of event planning, it can help visualize how a venue looks when it’s set up for the event to ensure that the space is appropriately decorated or can help direct the flow of attendees. Instead of relying on mental notes and tape measures when visiting a potential venue, you slip on your smart glasses. AR capabilities can overlay a digital blueprint of your envisioned event layout. Furniture placement, stage design, and even décor details appear before your eyes using 3D models, allowing you to virtually walk through the perfected space and make adjustments on the fly. This AR feature can revolutionize site visits and planning sessions, boosting efficiency and precision. Glasses like the Rokid Max AR Glasses can provide a wide display and project high-quality images and footage in your field of vision, enabling an immersive experience. 

AI Assistant

If you’ve ever been stumped by a question or lack some information, smart glasses can provide the knowledge you need on the go. Some smart glasses, like Frames from Brilliant Labs, use AI software to assist the wearer, which is perfect for busy event professionals who need to maximize their time wisely. You can use voice commands to ask the glasses’ AI a question, search the web, identify landmarks, and even translate written and spoken speech. Smart glasses with AI capabilities can help fill in any gaps in information and make the planning process more detailed. If someone needs directions to the event venue, the glasses can identify any notable landmarks to direct people there. Need to do a quick search for a nearby decoration store or catering service? Smart glasses can look up information for you. These smart glasses can save time and effort and help you focus on more important tasks. 

Benefits of Smart Glasses During Event Planning

While the potential is exciting, it’s essential to acknowledge the limitations of current smart glasses technology. Processing power and battery life are still evolving, which might restrict the complexity of event planning applications. Additionally, using smart glasses might raise privacy concerns for attendees, especially regarding data collection or recording. The widespread adoption of this relatively new technology may take time, especially since many smart glasses models are quite expensive and need more time to evolve. 

Despite the challenges, the potential benefits of smart glasses for event planning are undeniable. As technology continues to develop, you can expect even more innovative applications to emerge. Event planners who embrace this technology early on can gain a significant advantage by streamlining their processes, maximizing efficiency, and creating truly unforgettable events.

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6 Killer Revenue-Boosting Ideas for Your Next Fundraising Event

  • Event Management News
6 Killer Revenue-Boosting Ideas for Your Next Fundraising Event

Fundraising events are mutually beneficial for all. Not only do these events provide nonprofits with funds to power their mission, but they also offer a meaningful experience for donors, allowing you to steward stronger relationships. 

One of the best events to raise serious funds and engage donors is a charity auction. A charity auction is a high-energy, flexible event that is sure to excite any audience, whether it’s taking place online, in-person, or as a hybrid combination of both. 

To help your nonprofit bring this engaging fundraising event idea to life, we’ll explore six innovative ideas to increase your ROI. But first, let’s uncover the fundamentals of charity auctions.  

What is a Charity Auction? 

Auctions involve guests bidding on fun, unique, or luxurious items, and the highest bidder takes home the prize. There are three types of auctions:

  • Live auctions involve an auctioneer announcing items and accepting bids from the audience, whose members either state their bids aloud or raise a paddle.  
  • Silent auctions traditionally involve showcasing auction packages around a venue and guests submitting paper bids. However, paper bids can easily get disorganized, making it much more difficult for your team to effectively stay on top of incoming bids. Instead, use mobile bidding software so your participants can submit bids right from their phones. We’ll discuss this feature in more detail in the next section! 
  • Online auctions are hosted through online auction software and allow guests to bid from wherever they are, whenever they’re able to. 

Auctions involve an extensive planning process, including item procurement 9-12 months in advance, pre-event ticketing and registration, and logistics like booking the venue, catering, and technical equipment. This is why it’s essential to take ample time to prepare and get your team ready to host a show-stopping event! 

6 Ideas to Accelerate Auction Fundraising 

Auctions have the potential to be highly lucrative, but to make the most of your fundraising efforts, you need the right strategies. Let’s jump into six proven ways you can accelerate your ROI and meet and exceed your goals. 

1. Invest in the Right Auction Software 

Technology is a powerful force to increase efficiency and fundraising power for any event. OneCause recommends investing in auction software with intuitive features like:

  • Event management: Look for fundraising software that empowers your team to easily manage every step of the event planning process, including facilitating contactless check-in and check-out, generating custom ticket packages, sending segmented communications to guests, and more. 
  • Mobile bidding: With the right mobile bidding tools, participants can submit bids right from their phones, set maximum bids, and receive outbid alerts to bring them right back into the action.  
  • Item management: Easily track the status of your item procurement efforts, bundle items into packages, and create solicitation letters to send to donors and corporate sponsors.  
  • Gamification: Feature leadership scoreboards, fundraising thermometers, and engagement drivers like live chat for remote events to keep participants tapped into your event.  
  • Data tracking: Use software that will automatically generate real-time data reports so you always have a full picture of how your fundraising strategy is performing. 

Keep in mind that the right fundraising tool won’t just help you run auctions but will also make it simple to host fundraisers of all types, including walkathons, peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns, and more. Invest in an all-in-one fundraising software to get the most bang for your buck. 

2. Incorporate Social Fundraising 

Social fundraising draws on the power of your supporter’s social networks to raise donations for your cause. The most common examples are: 

  • Peer-to-peer: Create a peer-to-peer fundraising page associated with your event and allow supporters to create their own personal fundraising pages alongside it. Donors can share their pages and solicit gifts from their networks, expanding the reach of your nonprofit. Make sure to work with comprehensive peer-to-peer fundraising tools to make the process as easy as possible for your participants. 
  • Giving days: Conduct a time-intensive, hyper-condensed online fundraising campaign, aiming to reach a specific goal within 24 hours. Think #GivingTuesday, but planned specifically to boost energy and awareness leading up to your auction. These campaigns thrive on social media, where donors can help spread the word. 
  • Challenges: Participants complete some sort of challenge (ex, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge) and donate to your organization after doing so. They share a video of the challenge with their networks and challenge a few friends to continue the trend. 

Begin social fundraising in advance of your auction to help raise awareness and build excitement. At the event, announce how much was raised before your event even started to thank participants and show the power of social fundraising in action.  

3. Tap Ambassadors to Support Your Fundraising Plan 

Ambassador fundraising leverages peer-to-peer fundraising by tasking ambassadors (your most loyal and involved supporters) to raise funds before, during, and after your auction. 

There are three steps to successful ambassador fundraising: 

  1. Select ambassadors. Look to your board members, volunteers, people with social media clout, your event planning committee, and any honored guests coming to your event, like community leaders, to help.
  2. Define your program. You’ll need to outline how you will leverage ambassadors (ex, social media promotion), what your ambassadors’ goals will be (ex, selling the most tickets), and how you will onboard ambassadors. 
  3. Motivate ambassadors. Use an ambassador leaderboard and incentives (such as special prizes) to motivate supporters. 

Ambassadors can prove to be a valuable way to spread the word about your event, increasing attendance and total revenue. Make sure to properly prepare your ambassadors with any information they may need about the event, check in with them regularly, and thank them for their efforts.  

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4. Create an Event Microsite 

Create an event microsite to provide guests with the information they need to participate and engage their networks. Include information like:

  • A short introduction to your nonprofit. 
  • Explain how you’re using the proceeds to benefit your cause. 
  • Rules for bidding and instructions on using your mobile bidding software. 
  • Event schedule. 

Then, include information about the items available for bidding: 

  • Name and number of each item. 
  • Specific but brief description of the item. 
  • Market value, starting bid amount, and minimum raise amount. 
  • High-quality photos. 

Make sure that you generate an auction item list that aligns with your supporters’ interests and fits their budgets. This way, you can garner the most amount of bids possible. 

To spread the word, have members of your staff and volunteers share the link to your microsite widely on multiple channels, such as:

The different types of platforms nonprofits can use for multichannel marketing, repeated below
  • Social media
  • Your website
  • Email
  • Text messaging
  • Direct mail
  • Print ads
  • Flyers
  • Radio or TV slot 

Taking a multichannel approach can help you increase touchpoints with supporters and keep your organization’s event top of mind. Pair your content with strong calls to action to register or donate early so you can spark engagement. 

5. Add Raffles to Spike Giving. 

Raffles are a quick and easy addition to any fundraising event, including auctions. Simply sell raffle tickets throughout the event and draw a winner at the end of the night! 

To add this to your event, make sure that your raffle is: 

  • Desirable for your guests. Take a deep dive into past raffle sales and auction item interest to determine what your audience historically has been willing to bid on. 
  • Worthwhile to raffle instead of auction. Ensure you’re raffling off an item that you’ll cover the price of, and raise additional revenue by selling raffle tickets alone. 
  • Not competing with your auction items. Remember, your raffle is supplementing your auction. You don’t want to raffle off something that’s going to draw the attention away from your main attraction! 

Consider selling raffle tickets ahead of your event. You’ll give guests a taste of what your event will entail (like a preview of an auction item) and build interest. 

Keep in mind that raffles are technically considered gambling by the IRS. Check the laws of your state to determine if you’re able to host a raffle at all or if there are specific guidelines around how to conduct your own in-person or online raffle. 

6. Gamify Your Event  

Using gamification is a powerful tool to add competition, fun, and fundraising momentum to any event. Leverage the following gamification features to amp up giving: 

  • Bid scoreboard: Assign numbers to guests so they can bid with their numerical identity rather than their names. Project a leaderboard of who is winning each item and by how much for some friendly competition. 
  • Fundraising thermometer: Project a fundraising thermometer displaying how much has been raised by the event in tickets, bids, and donations so far. Set a realistic stretch goal number and challenge guests to reach it by the end of the night! 
  • Prizes: Offer incentives to ramp up giving for the night to the top bidders, such as free branded merchandise, a lunch with your organization’s leaders, or discounted tickets to your next event.  
  • Memory-style tile game: Make use of a memory-style tile game that displays sponsor logos. This will spark friendly competition between attendees while boosting your supporters’ engagement with your sponsors. 

Gamification encourages guests to raise more and enhances their attendee experience. Check-in with your event guests regularly to assess their engagement and add in more gamification tactics as needed. 

Implement Six Revenue-Boosting Strategies To Amplify Your Charity Auction

Through this guide, we’ve explored six revenue-boosting strategies to amplify your charity auction. Mix and match ideas or add your own unique twist on them to meet your audience’s preferences. By analyzing your donor data, you can make more informed decisions on how to organize events that will inspire generosity and resonate with donors.

Make Fundraising Easier with Event Software

Incorporating charity auctions into your hospital fundraisers can be a game-changer for boosting revenue and engaging your supporters. 

To streamline the planning and execution of your fundraising events, consider using an event management software like EventUp Planner! EventUp Planner (formerly Attendease) offers a variety of tools that will simplify your task list and reduce headaches.

With features like branded event websites, simplified registration and ticketing, marketing automation, and robust reporting, our tools can help you save time, reduce stress, and create more successful fundraising events that drive your mission forward. Book a demo to learn more today!

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5 Tips for Maintaining Proper Data Hygiene During Events

  • Event Management

There are many moving parts involved in event management—whether that’s securing a venue, acquiring sponsors, sending invitations, developing a ticket pricing strategy, or planning the event’s schedule. However, these to-do’s shouldn’t make you lose sight of your event’s main goal: providing an exceptional attendee experience. 

What better way to do so than to leverage data to connect with attendees and cater to their preferences? Data can fill in the gaps and solidify your existing relationships so that attendees can have a smooth event experience and receive engaging information after the event has ended. 

Keep in mind that data must be clean to be actionable. Here are our best tips and tricks for how to incorporate proper data hygiene into your existing event management plan.

1. Standardize your existing attendee data

The first step in maintaining proper data hygiene is standardizing your data. Once your attendee list is finalized, comb through your attendee data to ensure it’s uniform and standardize any data entered in different formats.

This practice will ensure it’s easy to find any data you need to reference in the future and streamline the check-in process. Additionally, standardizing your attendee data helps your staff understand how you’d like them to manually input data during the event to ensure uniformity.

For example, there are two different ways to enter phone numbers. During registration, some attendees may have used parentheses: (123) 456-7890. Others may have used dashes between numbers: 123-456-7890. Deciding which method you’d like to use will help clean your data for future use.

2. Verify attendee data upon arrival

Events present a unique opportunity to meet with people face-to-face and share your organization with them. Take advantage of these in-person interactions to improve your data hygiene by asking attendees to quickly verify their information before they become immersed in the event atmosphere.

That way, you can ensure you have the correct contact information, enabling you to follow up on sales leads or present attendees with relevant future engagement opportunities after your event concludes without disrupting their experience.

If you’re hosting a virtual or hybrid event, consider sending an email right before the event starts that asks attendees to verify their information online. You may link to a quick form that allows attendees to check their demographic information, phone number, email address, and mailing address for accuracy.

3. Simplify data collection for attendees

You’ll likely collect additional data from attendees during your event—whether through a lead capture form, survey, or some other method. Simplify and standardize these data collection points as much as possible to provide a good user experience and avoid data clutter.

When you’re collecting attendee data, incorporate the following elements in your forms to maintain data hygiene:

  • Standardized data fields. Across your data collection methods, standardize your data fields. Order and name your data fields the same way on each form to provide consistency. For instance, choose between using “Last Name” and “Surname” on your forms.
  • Predefined formatting. For data points that require a string of information, offer fields with predefined formatting. Perhaps you’re collecting attendees’ dates of birth in one of your surveys so you can segment attendees by age. Instead of allowing attendees to choose how they enter this information, create fields that dictate a specific date format, such as MM-DD-YYYY.
  • Dropdown menus. You may be able to narrow down possible answers on your forms to a set of several options. For example, if you’re asking attendees how they found out about your event, offer a dropdown menu with options such as your newsletter, website, and word-of-mouth referral so you can easily analyze these responses later on.

You may also add validation rules to your forms that standardize responses and flag input errors to ensure attendees enter data correctly. These rules may include mandatory fields, data types for each field—such as numbers or text—and length of input.

4. Integrate your software solutions

Facilitate the flow of data between your different systems by integrating your event management platform with your constituent relationship management platform (CRM). For associations, Protech recommends using an association-specific CRM that allows you to centralize member data and leverage those insights to provide an enhanced member experience.

When data flows seamlessly between the two platforms, you can avoid duplicate entries or errors. Automating this process also reduces manual entry, which can save your team time and prevent future errors from occurring. 

You may also integrate your event management platform with secondary platforms, such as digital invitation software, email marketing software, or your website, so attendee data can inform your efforts in other areas of your event or organization’s activities.

5. Conduct a data append

Let’s say you want to follow up with an attendee to thank them for coming and eventually engage them in additional opportunities. However, when you look at your records, you seem to be missing their email address. Upon closer inspection, you soon realize that there is a group of attendees who didn’t pre-register for your event and never gave their contact information at check-in.

To reach these attendees, conduct a data append. AccuData defines a data append as the process of supplementing your database with information from external sources.

In this case, you would conduct an email address or direct mail append, depending on how you would like to thank attendees. You may also append the following types of information:

  • Demographics, such as age, income, and level of education
  • Phone numbers
  • Geographic data
  • Employer data

Adding third-party data can help you gain a better understanding of your attendees beyond the information they’ve supplied. As a result, you can segment them into relevant groups and personalize your communications with them.


Beyond the demographic and contact information you collect from your supporters, make sure to fully leverage all of the data generated from your event. Dive into event analytics provided by your event platform to determine your event’s success. Attach insights about attendee behavior to your records and leverage this information to improve the attendee experience for your next event.