Attendease Hubspot Integration

  • Product News
Attendease and Hubspot logos

At Attendease, we believe that rarely (if ever) a platform can be truly an all-in-one event management solution and still offer comprehensive and relevant features across all the available modules. That’s why we hone in on what we do best. Then, we provide native integration options with other technology vendors (like our Attendease Hubspot Integration) in order to provide a functional tech ecosystem that meets the needs of many different types of customers. 

What Attendease Does

The types of events out there in the world are endless. We’re proud to say we’ve stayed focused on building an event management platform that has been able to adapt to meet the needs of an endless number of companies and higher education institutions around the world. Creating a native integration with technologies like Hubspot has allowed us to do just that.

If we tried to put every event-related tool into our own platform, many users wouldn’t even use them and they’d end up creating workarounds to try to keep using their own existing beloved tech tools. (Sound familiar?) We understand that many people have tried and true technology tools they love, so why would we force you to house the same information in multiple platforms and make you do more manual work so you can use our tool?

How the Attendease Hubspot Integration Helps

The Attendease HubSpot integration (Hubspot link here) helps event organizers send event registration data from Attendease into your HubSpot CRM. Say goodbye to the hassle of manually exporting and importing endless spreadsheets each day. and Say hello to simplicity and automation

Through the Attendease Hubspot integration you can easily set up the flow of attendee information from Attendease to the corresponding contact in Hubspot. By leveraging HubSpot’s Timeline API, you are able to track major attendee interactions such as registering for an event, event schedules, and checking in to a session.

Through HubSpot, event organizers may also create lists and workflows based on the integration settings. This makes the integration truly limitless in terms of potential use to support marketing and automation of tasks before, during, and after the event takes place.

In addition to using HubSpot’s automation capabilities, event organizers can also leverage Attendease’s email communication tool and survey forms after the event is over if you do want to keep the data out of Hubspot for some reason, enabling you to engage with attendees during the entire event lifecycle in the way that best meets the needs of your company.

Benefits of Using the Attendease HubSpot Integration

When using Attendease event management software with the HubSpot CRM integration, event teams are able to streamline their collaboration efforts through a centralized platform. This approach fosters better collaboration between team members while saving time and resources. No more emailing form, lists and documents between teams. It’s all captured in Attendease and sent directly to Hubspot based on how you choose to set up the integration.

Both Attendease and HubSpot allow the setup of user permissions. This allows you to define which individuals are able to access specific data on each platform. Giving organizers this type of control makes it easier for users to only see the parts of the platform that are most relevant to them. 

In addition, the integration also aligns marketing and sales teams. Aligned teams helps you reach your event goals together. Attendee data can be used to set lead scoring in HubSpot and trigger the sales team. It can also help you add the attendee to an appropriate nurture workflow.

Once you set up the Attendease HubSpot integration, you will be able to automatically send your in-person, virtual, or hybrid event attendee data from our event management software to the HubSpot CRM. 

HubSpot Integration Data Points

Once you have authorized Attendease to send activities to HubSpot, you need to specify which activities you want to send over. Automations can then be connected to specific events. 

You are able to trigger automations from the following events:

  • Attendee registered
  • Attendee profile update
  • Registration canceled
  • Session scheduled
  • Session unscheduled
  • Contact added to a session waiting list
  • Contact removed from a session waiting list
  • Contact promoted from a session waiting list to an attendee
  • Attendee checked in (event or session)
  • Attendee check-in undone (event or session)

With automated data imports that are mapped into HubSpot contact properties, marketing teams can segment and personalize workflows based on actions or lifecycle stages. These data points give marketing teams the ability to run custom, automated email campaigns and workflows in HubSpot

Conclusion

The ability to capture and automate data is critical to the success of your event marketing efforts. The Attendease event management software integration with the HubSpot CRM platform can help. It enables event organizers to effortlessly combine offline interactions along with digital actions. Ultimately, this enriches buyer data across the entire online and offline journey.

Curious to learn more? Contact our team to see how to leverage this integration. Learn how this could be a good solution for your specific event needs. 

Already a client and ready to set up the Attendease Hubspot integration (or just curious to see how easy it is to set up)? Here’s a step-by-step guide.

Shopping for event management tools: How to get internal buy-in when you’re considering a move

  • Event Management
  • Event Trends
Getting buy-in for event management tools

Getting buy-in from the executive team for new technology, like event management tools, can be challenging. Plus, you won’t be the only one using it. So how do you get your co-workers on board for change, too? Even if your existing processes are broken, people tend to want to stay with the devil they know vs making a change. But there are strategies you can use to increase your chances of success. 

Here are some steps you can take to get you closer to getting buy-in from stakeholders:

Write a compelling business case

Before approaching stakeholders, you need to have a clear understanding of the benefits the new technology system will bring to the organization as a whole. Identify the key pain points that the technology will solve for different users in your organization. Try to quantify the benefits in terms of time saved, cost reduction, increased revenue, and/or improved customer satisfaction.

Creating a compelling business case is crucial to getting buy-in for new technology, as it helps decision-makers understand the benefits and ROI of the new tool.

Here are some steps to create a compelling business case for a new event management tool:

1. Identify the problems

Start by identifying the problems that the new event management tool could address, ideally beyond just your own issues you’re struggling with. This could be a pain point within the organization like the:

  • Need to improve efficiencies when creating and managing events across multiple teams
  • Desire to lower the cost per event
  • Need for a more professional-looking and branded experience for potential attendees
  • Opportunity to reach new audiences

2. Describe the solution

Once you have identified the problems, describe how the new technology solution will address them. Be specific about the features and benefits of the technology and how it will help solve the company’s problems and/or capture new opportunities.

3. Identify the stakeholders

Identify the stakeholders who will be impacted by the new technology, including executives, other employees and teams, customers, and partners. Describe how the event management tools will benefit each stakeholder group and how it would compare to what you’re doing now to manage events.

4. Estimate the costs

Estimate the costs of implementing the new technology, including hardware, software, training, and support. Be as detailed as possible without spending too much time on demos and sales calls until you get buy-in. Also, consider the total cost of ownership over time. A range of potential costs is usually enough for the ultimate decision-maker to give you the green light to continue researching new event management tools (or the red light to stay with the status quo).

5. Estimate the benefits

If you can, try to estimate the benefits of the new technology. Think about potential increased revenue, cost savings, improved efficiencies, and/or improved customer experience. Use data and analytics to support your estimates if you can. This can be time-consuming, so many people give anecdotal insights as a first pass and then dig deeper upon request from upper management.

6. Calculate the ROI

Calculate the return on investment (ROI) of the new technology investment, taking into account the estimated costs and benefits. Make sure to show how the ROI aligns with the organization’s financial goals and objectives. Again, rough numbers can point decision-makers in the right direction. Just be sure to document how you arrived at your numbers particularly if they are rough estimates, so expectations are set appropriately.

7. Develop a risk assessment

Develop a risk assessment that identifies potential risks and challenges associated with the new technology investment, and a mitigation plan to address them. You may want to ask a few of your colleagues who may also be touched by the new tool what potential risks they perceive as well. The more you involve others in your initial planning, the more likely you are to get them on board with change.

8. Present the business case

Present the business case to decision-makers, using data and analytics to support your arguments where possible and always share how you arrived at any estimates. Be clear, concise, and persuasive, and be prepared to answer any questions or concerns that decision-makers may have.

By following these steps, you’ll show your company that you’ve put the necessary time, thought and research into why you need new event management tools and processes.  You’ll be able to create a compelling business case for tools within an event management platform that will increase the chances of getting buy-in from decision-makers. Remember to focus on the benefits and ROI of the investment. Also, think about how it will help the organization achieve its goals and objectives. 

5 bonus tips to help you get to YES

While the steps above will help you write a compelling business case for a new event management tool, there are some additional tips that can help you get closer to a “yes”! Here are five bonus tips to help you get there:

Know your audience

Different members of the executive team and other teams within your organization will have different priorities and concerns. When presenting your case for the new technology system, tailor your message to the concerns of each team member. For example, the CFO may be more interested in cost savings, while the CMO may be more focused on improving customer experience. Your technology team will be most concerned about how long it will take to implement and what resources you’ll need from them. Everyone will be concerned about data security.

Communicate the long-term benefits

When presenting your case, make sure to communicate the long-term benefits of the new technology. This can include how it will help the organization stay competitive, improve efficiencies across multiple teams and save time in general, plus support revenue growth with simple registration processes and secure payment processing. Everyone wants to hear that their jobs will be easier with new tools and processes. A new event management tool is no exception.

Know what you are competing against

As you know, organizations make many of their internal decisions based on budget. Knowing the budget available and understanding other potential priorities can help you prepare for objections related to other expenses. Whether it is new technology for other departments or different expenses – having this understanding will put you ahead of the game when presenting your proposal. Remember, the more you can show long-term cost savings and improved ROI, the better your chances are of getting the budget.

Get support from key individuals

Identify key individuals within the organization who will benefit from the new technology and get their support. This can include department heads, project managers, or team leads. Having their support can help you make a stronger case to the executive team. 

Develop a strong implementation plan

The executive team will want to know how the new event management tool will be implemented, what the timeline will be, and what resources will be required. Develop a detailed implementation plan that outlines these details. Be prepared to answer any questions or concerns the executive team may have. A quick glance at some of your potential event management tools will give you an idea of:

  • Who has complicated and costly implementation processes
  • Which are DIY
  • Which can get you up and running quickly and easily with limited-to-no additional implementation fees

Conclusion

Getting buy-in from the executive team for new technology and event management tools requires a strategic approach that addresses their concerns and focuses on the long-term benefits for the organization.

Writing a compelling business case is an important step to support buy-in. It helps to clarify the need for the investment, provides a clear justification for the investment, enables informed decision-making, helps to allocate resources effectively, and facilitates communication and collaboration.

If you’re considering new event management tools for your organization, talk to our team to see if Attendease can help. If so, we are happy to support you with whatever you need to get buy-in from your internal stakeholders. 

The Hidden Costs Of Using The Wrong Event Technology (Or None At All)

  • Event Management
The Hidden Costs Of Using The Wrong Event Technology (Or None At All) Blog Banner

No one in the event world likes to change their event technology. When you’re used to doing things a certain way, the thought of trying something different can be scary – even if what you’re currently doing isn’t really working for you. 

We’ve talked to many corporate event planners stuck using clunky, outdated software. We’ve also talked to corporate event planners who still use spreadsheets to project manage and keep track of their event analytics (if you’re making the scream emoji face, we are, too). 

What’s kept these event professionals from making a move to something better? 

Here are a few reasons:

  • Time needed to learn a new tool
  • Cost of upgrading 
  • Lack of buy-in from the top

If you’re feeling stressed out by a lack of event planning support, and these roadblocks stand between you and your most productive self, this post will help get you unstuck. We’ll address each obstacle head-on so you can make the case for getting the needed resources. 

Time Needed To Learn New Event Technology

Suppose you use multiple tools to manage landing pages, emails, and registrations. In that case, you’re constantly downloading reports and updating spreadsheets, or you’re spending a lot of time on the phone with customer support; you’re spending your day performing repetitive tasks. 

You will never see a return on that time, and what’s worse, you will likely feel constant frustration knowing there’s a better way. When considering the hidden cost of maintaining the status quo, consider it like renting an apartment vs. buying a house.

Sure, learning new software takes time. From onboarding to watching a few how-to videos or consulting a knowledge base or FAQ page when you try out a feature for the first time, you must dedicate some time to learning the new system. But the time you spend learning is an investment; once you’ve mastered a platform, you won’t have to go through the onboarding process again, and all the time you save is yours to keep. 

Consider that technology has come a long way, and there are many tech solutions available that are user-friendly and easy to learn. For example, some of EventUp Planner’s enterprise customers were able to launch multiple events across the world within a month of signing up with the new platform.

Cost Of Upgrading 

Naturally, pricing will play a significant role in getting approval for new event planning software. If the solution you’re looking at costs more than what you currently pay, you’ll probably meet with resistance. But the cost of doing nothing is actually more expensive in the long run.

Here’s the key. When making the case for an upgrade, focus on the benefits and how they translate to savings. You may be excited about event cloning capabilities, marketing tool integrations, added functionality, customizability, or better attendee experience. However, to justify a more significant upfront investment to your boss, think about the following: 

  • Does the new event planning software replace any tools you are currently paying for?
  • Will access to automation allow you to manage more events (therefore driving more revenue)?
  • Can you reduce reliance on your marketing/design team (freeing their time to work on lead-generating activities)?
  • Can you cut down fees per ticket sold charged by some event tech platforms?

It’s much easier to argue for paying more for better event technology if the ROI is higher than your current one. Oftentimes, the ability to launch just a couple more events per year will offset any upfront cost increase. Doing the math will help you make a far more compelling case for upgrading your current event management system

Lack Of Buy-In From The Top

As we’ve discussed above, framing your argument for investing in better event management tools in terms of time and cost savings is one effective way to get buy-in from decision-makers at your company. Another is to present them with the results from other businesses using the platform you’d like to switch to. 

Change is much less risky when well-known organizations have tried the software you’re pitching and have had tangible success. Rather than worrying about the cost of making a mistake, your boss will realize that inaction means leaving money on the table and that taking action can have other benefits (like being regarded as an innovator and a changemaker within your organization). 

Here are a couple of ways to incorporate social proof into your software proposal: 

  • Include testimonial quotes from other corporate event organizers focusing on time or cost savings. You can find these testimonials on the organization’s website or from comparison tools like G2Crowd.
  • Share case studies where the event planning software has had a positive impact on large-scale revenue

This will make it easier for your boss to get aligned with your plan to upgrade your event technology.

Being an event planner is a stressful job; there are many things you can’t control, like vendors or deadlines. But you can advocate for better resources and the ability to spend your time on the things that matter most. All it takes is a dedicated focus on what matters most to your boss and the understanding that the cost of doing nothing far outweighs the cost of taking a chance on new event technology. If you want to learn if EventUp Planner (formerly Attendease) is a good fit for your organization, download our Platform Overview.

5 Reasons It Might Be Time to Change Your Virtual Event Management Platform

  • Event Management
  • Event Trends
virtual event management platform attendee experience

Your virtual event management platform is at the heart of creating amazing experiences. With the rapid development of new technology, event planners and organizations need to stay up to date with the latest advancements to ensure the best possible experience for your attendees. So naturally it’s important to continually evaluate whether your current platform can provide the functionality needed for hosting successful virtual events—both today and into the future.

In this blog, we’ll explore five key reasons why it may be time for you to consider switching to a new virtual event management platform.

1.   Your current virtual event management platform is outdated

In the past several years, virtual events have undergone significant changes. Developers shifted their focus to virtual event platforms in response to the pandemic and, in its wake, the tools available for hosting virtual events are more advanced than ever.

If you invested in a platform prior to the pandemic and it hasn’t kept up with the changing needs of the industry—or if your platform received half-measure, bolt-on features throughout to try and compensate—you may be at a disadvantage. Many of the original webinar platforms have not evolved into true virtual event platforms and are still only suitable for hosting basic webinars. Even with a “basic” webinar these days, attendees expect more than they did pre-pandemic.

Evolved platforms provide streamlined, seamless virtual event experiences from end-to-end and have been developed with today’s industry in mind.

2.   Attendees have come to expect first-class virtual or hybrid events, and won’t accept anything less

During the pandemic, organizations quickly discovered the benefits of transitioning to virtual events. In fact, 84% of organizations who ran virtual events during the pandemic stated they spent less than in-person events prior! 

With more organizations making the switch and having extra room in their budget to innovate and push the boundaries of virtual events, expectations have increased for both attendee experiences and the virtual event platforms that provide them. The landscape is constantly changing.

With fierce competition in the virtual event management platform industry, some companies are working hard to create tools that stand out from the rest and address everyone’s pain points. However, other legacy platforms continue to rest on their laurels even though they may not offer all the features and functionality that people need, all because it can be difficult for organizations to adopt and integrate new technology.

The reality is that people on all sides—from your team to your attendees—now expect an elevated experience. This includes an easy-to-build and easy-to-navigate event website, professional marketing tools and automation, and a seamless ticketing experience

3.   Your platform might not be as secure as it needs to be

When it comes to hosting virtual events, the security of your platform should be a top consideration.

Many modern virtual events management platforms allow you to require registration prior to an event and have security measures to ensure only those users attend an event when the time comes. Registration enables the host to have an accurate attendee list and control who can (and cannot) attend. As an added benefit, it also allows for better planning and organization of the event. By being able to restrict the event to only authenticated users, you can prevent unauthorized access and allow only individuals with login credentials or pre-approved access to attend.

Security measures often extend into the event environment itself via passcodes and waiting rooms. By setting a passcode, the host can prevent uninvited individuals from joining the event. Waiting rooms are yet another useful security measure that allow a host to vet attendees before admitting them into the event. These are particularly useful for large events where it may be challenging to monitor all attendees effectively.

By selecting a platform with these security features, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that your virtual event is safe and protected from potential disruptions or unauthorized access.

4.   Your platform might not follow accessibility best practices

If you’re considering shopping for a new virtual event management platform, it’s important to consider the accessibility needs of your attendees. Audio descriptions, captions, and transcripts are three aids often featured in modern platforms that can greatly improve the experience of attendees with hearing or visual impairments during your event.

Captioning is an important accessibility feature that provides verbatim written text of your event in real-time. Offering a similar functionality to subtitles in film and television is crucial for attendees who are deaf or hard of hearing. They can also be helpful for non-native speakers or in noisy environments!

For attendees who’d like to read your content after the event vs. watching live, transcripts are another great accessibility feature. They allow attendees to take part in your event at any time.

Accessibility features should not only be limited to people with hearing loss, however. Your next virtual event management platform needs to also accommodate attendees who are blind or have low vision. For these attendees, audio descriptions can provide narrations that describe crucial visual details in a video. This allows everyone to feel they are a part of your next inclusive event.

5.   Your attendee engagement tools might be outdated

Engagement tools are a crucial piece of a modern virtual event. They enhance audience participation, interaction, and overall experience, making virtual events more engaging and effective. On the flipside, outdated tools can result in disinterested attendees who may complain about your event or not return for future ones.

Offering a fully branded experience from end-to-end, today’s virtual event management platforms are built to wow attendees at every turn. Older platforms may have a few basic tools to engage your audience. You’ll find it’s easier to build excitement and drive engagement when your event offers streamlined tools like 1:1 Chat, Polling, Q&A, and Lucky Draw features to keep your audience active.

Conclusion

A modern virtual event management platform is essential for delivering epic meeting and event experiences over and over again. If your current platform is outdated, lacks comprehensive security measures, fails to meet the latest accessibility requirements, is missing up-to-date tools for audience engagement, or doesn’t meet attendees’ first class expectations, your organization could be missing out on crucial features that elevates event experiences from “meh” to “wow”! 

If you’re considering a new platform, look no further than EventUp Planner (formerly Attendease).

EventUp Planner helps you deliver modern, exciting virtual event experiences with all the security and accessibility features your organization needs.

You’ll be able to:

  • Host single or multi-session virtual events
  • Choose between live, pre-recorded, or on-demand sessions
  • Provide a seamless attendee experience using the fully integrated EventUp Planner Virtual Studio
  • Deliver branded online sessions with fully featured set up and in-session tools

Book a call today and discover how EventUp Planner helps optimize your event management!

How to Conduct a Needs Assessment to Find the Right Strategic Event Management Software

  • Event Management
Two men meeting at work

Finding the right strategic event management software can be an overwhelming and challenging task. But with an ever-present demand for innovative event experiences, the consequences of choosing the wrong platform can make events more complicated and demotivate your team (womp-womp).

Conducting a needs assessment is a vital first step in selecting the right event management software platform for your organization. Without a thorough needs assessment, you risk investing in software that doesn’t align with your goals, leading to inefficiencies, increased costs, and unsuccessful events. 

For this reason, in this blog, we’ll discuss how to conduct a needs assessment and why it is pivotal to making the right decisions for your organization.

Why do a needs assessment?

When searching for a strategic event management software platform, it’s important to ensure that everyone’s needs in your organization are addressed and accounted for. This ranges from team members who will be using the tool daily to those helping with implementation and integrations, plus other key stakeholders, teams, supervisors, and C-suite executives.

A needs assessment shows you’ve done your research. It’s rare for a single tool to solve every problem for everyone. However, if you can thoroughly explain why you chose a particular software, how it’s an upgrade from your existing tools, and identify solutions for any issues it may not address, it will help your organization understand your decision-making process. In summary, presenting a needs assessment helps everyone feel part of the process and makes it significantly easier to get buy-in.

How long does a needs assessment take?

Organizational decisions take time, and presenting a needs assessment to get the ball rolling can, too. Many variables can affect the length of the process, depending on how many different stakeholders are in your organization, the size of your organization, how many people will be using the tool, and how long it takes to coordinate all the relevant meetings. At any rate, the process doesn’t have to drag on!

To keep things short and efficient, hold meetings within a specific week and set deadlines for all feedback. In cases where people cannot meet, make it so they can provide written answers to the questions—but only if they cannot meet. Face-to-face almost always gets results quicker. Additionally, it often opens up important discussion points you hadn’t originally accounted for.

Even if you believe someone may not be able to attend, invite them. For this reason, you avoid the possibility of eleventh-hour feedback and everyone who needs to be involved in the assessment is given an opportunity to contribute right away.

What teams to involve and who to involve from each team

Conducting a needs assessment requires involvement from various teams to ensure all bases are covered. It’s important to involve marketing, events, software development, accounting, operations, HR, and any other teams that may end up using the tool.

In addition, it’s crucial to speak with both end-users and their managers, along with any key stakeholders who have been involved in software contract signings historically. It’s also recommended to ask all parties involved if they could think of anyone else who might use the tool or be impacted by it, in order to have a comprehensive understanding of the tool’s potential reach.

Sample questions to ask each group & how to get answers:

Preparing a needs assessment requires asking the right questions to identify your organization’s needs. For this reason, we’ve put together some of our favorite questions below:

Questions for potential users of the tool:

  • What are your current tasks related to managing our events?
  • How do you manage them? What tools do you use currently?
  • What do you like about your current tools and/or processes?
  • What do you not like about your current tools and/or processes?
  • What does your ideal strategic event management tool look like?
  • What are some must-haves in a new tool?
  • What are some nice-to-haves in a new tool?
  • Do you foresee any potential roadblocks?

Sample questions developers:

  • If we need to add integrations between a new event management tool and other existing tools, what would that process look like?
  • If I have an integration request, how far in advance do I need to submit a request?
  • Can you estimate the length of time it would take to integrate a new platform within our organization?
  • Who would I need to get sign-off from to get my project prioritized?
  • Do you foresee any potential roadblocks?

Questions to ask managers of potential users:

  • From your perspective, what are must-haves for new event management software?
  • What are nice-to-haves?
  • What are your concerns/issues with the way your team currently manages events?
  • Do you foresee any potential roadblocks?

Sample questions decision-makers:

  • What do you believe to be an appropriate price range for new strategic event management software?
  • What’s your limit in terms of the length of time it should take for everyone to get up to speed on a new platform?
  • What are your concerns?
  • If everyone agrees on the platform, would there be any reason for you to want to hold off on signing a contract?
  • How much do you want to be a part of this process?
  • Do you have any specific deadlines you want to meet in terms of when to sign a contract and when all team members need to be onboarded?
  • Can you confirm your price range?
  • Do you foresee any potential roadblocks?

As we touched on earlier, in-person meetings are the best way to gather answers. These meetings allow you to ask clarifying questions and get additional context you may not be able to get over email. If in-person meetings aren’t possible, surveys or emails can be used but should be saved as a last resort. In all cases, set a firm deadline and adhere to it.

What to do with the information you gather

Staying organized is key when gathering information for your needs assessment. Everything should go into a Word document or PowerPoint, organized into a simple one page per person document with a summary of their questions and answers.

Once you’ve completed that, create a summary that includes collective top priorities, nice-to-haves, roadblocks, questions, and concerns. Present your findings to the group of respondents along with any additional stakeholders involved in the decision-making process. Just as with the needs assessment itself, you’ll gain more valuable insights in person—so, if possible, this presentation should be in the form of a meeting rather than a document!

Pitfalls and challenges

Putting together a thorough needs assessment isn’t without its challenges.

Firstly, it can be challenging to meet with everyone you want to meet with. To overcome this, inform those who can’t provide feedback by the deadline that you do value their input. However, if they don’t meet the deadline, assume they trust you to make the right decision without their input. Continue to prioritize in-person meetings as they will save you stress in the long-term, even if they can be taxing in the moment.  

Finally, remember that it’s difficult to get people to think about all the details in the initial planning stages. It is essential to get people to think through details early to avoid stressful eleventh-hour suggestions. You can achieve this by telling them to pretend you’re about to sign a contract, asking them if they can think of anything else to contribute that you haven’t thought of, and asking open-ended questions.

Conclusion

We understand finding the right strategic event management software solution for every situation can be tough. For this reason, we created EventUp Planner, the event planner’s Swiss army knife.

EventUp Planner un-complicates even the most complicated events with seamless and easy-to-use:

  • Agency-grade event websites
  • Event registration and ticketing
  • Multi-event management tools
  • Event marketing and automation
  • In-person, virtual, and hybrid event management options

Book a demo today and see how EventUp Planner can ‘wow’ your organization and help you deliver better events than ever before!

Getting the Most Out of Event Email Marketing: A Mini Guide

  • Event Management
This mini guide will cover the basics of event email marketing.

Event email marketing is one of the most powerful online strategies to promote your events. By sending well-crafted marketing emails, you can regularly check in with your audience, increase registrations, secure sponsorships and speakers, and grow your brand visibility. 

This guide provides everything you need to consider when creating an effective email marketing strategy for your event. 

Event Email Marketing Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Before you prepare promotional marketing materials to boost your event, you must familiarize yourself with the key performance indicators (KPIs) that measure campaign performance and success. Here are some metrics you should consider measuring for your campaign:

  • Open Rate: Rate of subscribers who open your emails. Divide the number of people who opened the email by the number of people who received the email. 
  • Click-Through Rate (CTR): Number of subscribers who open the email and click on the content that links to their following action, such as navigating to your registration page. Dive how many clicked on your email by how many people opened the email. 
  • Unsubscribe Rate: Rate of people who unsubscribe from your email sends. Divide the number of unsubscribed users by the number of emails delivered, then multiply that number by 100 to get a percentage.

As you track metrics, use these insights to optimize your email strategies and improve your performance. For example, keep track of your unsubscribe rate and adjust your actions if the percentage becomes too high. Consider sending messages less frequently or increasing the value of the messages to the users.

Consider other KPIs according to the goals you need to accomplish. For example, you might also track:

  • Ticket sales
  • Event registrations
  • Sponsorship inquiries and signups
  • Speaker inquiries and signups

You’ll have a more focused perspective of your marketing results when you track indicators relevant to your event goals. Keep an organized record of these metrics to identify areas of potential improvement. Incorporating this data into your event marketing strategy will ultimately lead to more effective methods of promotion that resonate with your audience.

Event Email List Segmentation

Sending the right message to the right person at the right time is the best way to guarantee the success of your event email marketing campaign. Use an email append service to ensure your contact information is correct while focusing on the details of your messaging and branding.

While an email append will ensure you send messages to the right people, you should also consider the steps you can take to send the right messages. Different groups will require different messages to feel motivated by your content.

MemberClicks’s guide to event planning recommends identifying shared characteristics of your audience members to determine how you can create relevant email lists. 

For example, you’re trying to secure sponsorships for your upcoming event and want to send targeted messages to various companies. Here are a few lists you can create to attract more sponsorship interest:

  • Companies who demonstrated interest in sponsoring one of your events in the past have yet to do so.
  • Companies who sponsored your events in the past but haven’t sponsored any recently.
  • Companies who sponsored your last event.
  • Companies who would be a good fit to sponsor your event.

The beauty of segmenting your lists is that you can personalize and craft targeted messages. This may yield more responses than a generic email. Similarly, you might also segment your attendee list, for example, by job title, industry, and ticket type.

Email Subject Lines for Event Promotion

Once you’ve determined who your audience is, you’ll need to decide how you’ll grab their attention. When sending your message through email, a well-crafted subject line can define the success of your entire campaign. Without an attractive reason for people to open your email, your contacts may end up not even reading what you say. 

Studies show that shorter subject lines yield higher open rates, but you should also consider wording that generates curiosity and inspires action. Here are some strategies and ideas for subject lines to promote your event:

  • Fear of Missing Out: “Last day to grab your tickets to the ABC Conference!”
  • Curiosity: “Lineup for the ABC conference is out!”
  • Funny: “All-you-can-eat muffins (and a great conference too)”
  • Vanity: “Become a better marketer in 1 step!”
  • Greed: “2 for 1 tickets. One day only. Go!”
  • Sloth: “3 steps to become a better marketer”
  • Pain Point: “How to drive more sales through email marketing.”
  • Retargeting: “The ticket in your cart is about to expire.”
  • Personal Subjects: Hey John, will we see you there?”
  • Straightforward Subjects: “ABC Conf 2018”
  • Top Subject: “Upgrade to VIP”

As you consider ways to draw readers to read your message, be as specific to your audience as possible. Rely on your metrics to determine what is most important to your recipients, then use this information to craft targeted subject lines that will pique their interest.

Email Call to Action (CTA)

If you want readers to take action (and we know you do!), tell them what you want them to do. Less is more regarding email structure, so focus on one clear call to action in each message. The best way to do this is by adding a button to your email. 

For example, if you want to urge readers to visit your event registration landing page, create a button for your email that links to your webpage. 

Follow these tips to create a call to action that your readers can’t ignore:

  • Use a color contrasting with the other colors on the email to stand out from the rest of the page. 
  • Pay close attention to the copy you add to the button, ensuring it has a clear message. For example, avoid generic messages, such as “click here,” and write something more direct, such as “Get Early Bird Tickets Today.”
  • Add the button close to the top of the email so users don’t need to scroll down to see it. Consider adding one call to action button on the top portion of the email and another one on the bottom.

You might test out different button colors, messages, and locations to see which performs best. Ensure your calls to action are cohesive with the email’s overall design.

Event Email Design & Branding

Your company likely creates branded materials for all of its outreach efforts. For example, a hospital might create branded eCards to wish their patients a quick recovery. Branding helps an audience associate the message with your organization, and the same can be said about events. 

One of the primary objectives of running an event is to generate brand awareness and create a memorable experience. Make sure your email design is consistent with your event branding. Consider these elements for your email design:

  • Color
  • Imagery
  • Language
  • Layout

Keep your organization, event, and email branding consistent to generate excitement over your event. A loyal audience will gladly support an event associated with your organization, and new audiences will have better insight into your work when they experience your brand through an event.

Event Email Content

Although the email’s design and user interactivity are essential, its content is the most crucial part of your promotion. Use the content to set the stage for the action you’re asking your audience to take. For example, consider these key messages when planning your event email marketing calendar:

  • Save the date message
  • Early-bird tickets on sale
  • Notifying of price increases
  • Promote speakers
  • Promote workshops
  • Accommodation, transportation, and tourist attractions
  • Special offers
  • Photos and videos from previous events
  • Sneak peek of the key takeaways from the event
  • Post-event survey
  • Follow up with a discount code for the next year’s event

Promotion of each of these tasks will be dependent on their timing. For example, you’ll want to send a save-the-date message early enough so your attendees can mark their calendars and clear their schedules. Reduce the stress of managing your timeline by putting together a calendar to help you outline and schedule the critical pieces of information that you need to communicate with your audience.

You can also incorporate relevant themes for your messages. For example, construct a short message to follow up with attendees after an early December event. Then, use eCardWidget to create and include a fun holiday card, wishing your attendees a fantastic close to the year.

A Strong Event Email Marketing Strategy Yields Event Goals

Event email marketing is definitely a science, but it’s not a difficult one to master. Follow the steps in this guide, and you can put together a solid email strategy to meet your event goals.

Event Marketing Automation At Your Fingertips with EventUp Planner (formerly Attendease)

Promote your meetings and events with integrated event marketing automation tools. Easily launch and promote your events, interact with registrants, and track your campaigns, all from one place. The EventUp Planner marketing suite is a planner’s best friend. EventUp Planner will automate repetitive tasks, creating efficiencies for you and a more personalized experience for your audience.

  • Streamline and automate communication.
  • Deliver fully branded experiences.
  • Gather data that matters to you.

A Guide to Creating Inclusive & Accessible Events (Checklist)

  • Event Trends
  • Product News
Web Accessibility

Event experiences should be for all: from the event website and landing page to the registration process, all the way to the event itself, and post-event communication and surveys. But the reality is that most events and meetings are not, unfortunately, delivering an accessible event experience at all touchpoints for their attendees. 

Here are some considerations you should be providing to create accessible event experiences for your audience.

Understanding Assistive Technology for Event Accessibility

People with disabilities access and navigate the Web differently, depending on their individual needs and preferences. Many times, assistive technology is used to ensure users can access, understand, and navigate websites. 

In a broad sense, assistive technology (AT) is any device, piece of equipment, or system that helps a person with a disability increase, maintain, or improve their functional capabilities. 

Examples of assistive technology include:

  • Alternative Keyboard
  • Alternative Mouse
  • Head Wand
  • Mouth Stick
  • Refreshable Braille Display
  • Screen Magnifier
  • Screen Reader
  • Voice Recognition software

With that in mind, it’s important to consider that your event website and registration journey is accessible to these tools so that users with minor or major impairments can still navigate and understand your website and, ultimately, register and attend your event. 

Event Website Accessibility Features to Consider

Simplified Navigation & Content Structure 

A clear and straightforward layout for easy navigation and exploration of the entire event website can make for a truly accessible event experience for your attendees.

Simplified summaries for passages of text can also make it easier to understand the content of your website. The document outline feature can provide a representation of the content that only shows the headings and relevant structures (such as headings, nesting, and hierarchy) to help provide orientation and an overview of the contents. This can also help to avoid overloading the user with information.

Reduced Interface 

Provide an option that only shows the most relevant information or more frequently used functions; for example, by hiding other parts of the content that can distract users or make it harder to navigate the website.

Color Contrast

Make sure you use strong color contrast between text and images of your digital assets so that attendees with visual impairments or cognitive disabilities can read the text and navigate through the online event with utmost ease.

Text Size Adjustment

Ensure that you use font types, sizes, colors, and spacing ideal to make text easier to read. Provide guests with the option to change the size of the font to zoom in and out to support their vision and read through the event without any difficulty.

Page Narration / Text-to-speech 

Speech output can automatically convert text into a synthesized voice reading the text aloud. By providing on-screen text narration, guests with visual impairments can access all the content on your event website.

Accessibility Features for Video and Virtual Events

Audio Descriptions 

Also referred to as “video descriptions” and “described video,” these narrations describe important visual details in a video. 

Captions 

Text with a verbatim recording of any speech and with descriptions of relevant auditory information that appears simultaneously with the audio (including audio that accompanies video in multimedia). For real-time captioning, typically, professional CART writers are necessary.

Transcripts 

Text manuscripts containing the correct sequence of verbatim recordings of any speech and descriptions of important auditory or visual information.

Accessibility Compliance for Event Website Content

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 is a set of recommendations by the W3 working group that follows best practices for ADA (American Disability Act) website accessibility compliance. 

The WCAG 2.1 AA covers a wide range of recommendations for making Web content more accessible. Following these guidelines will make content more accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including accommodations for blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity, and combinations of these, and some accommodations for learning disabilities and cognitive limitations; but will not address every user need for people with these disabilities. 

These guidelines address the accessibility of web content on desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices. Following these guidelines will also make Web content more usable to users in general.

Event Management Software with Accessibility Compliance

We are pleased to announce that, in an effort to support Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs (DEI), the Attendease platform, as of May 27, 2022, is compliant with W3 WCAG 2.1 AA.

The Attendease platform allows customers to use the features and functionality to manage and execute their portfolio of events and attendee-facing websites. While the Attendease dashboard is NOT accessible compliant, the W3 WCAG 2.1 AA is true for the attendee-facing event websites using Attendease’s pre-built website templates. This means event planners can use our event platform and pre-built templates to deliver accessible event experiences to users. 

Event Accessibility Checklist

Here’s a checklist to help you ensure accessibility and inclusion for all event attendees.

Venue Accessibility:

  • Is the venue wheelchair accessible?
  • Are there ramps and elevators available?
  • Are there accessible parking spaces?
  • Are there clear signage and pathways for people with visual impairments?

Communication:

  • Is event information available in multiple formats (text, audio, video)?
  • Are announcements made audibly and visibly?
  • Is there a designated area for sign language interpreters?

Registration & Check-In:

  • Is online registration accessible to people with disabilities?
  • Are there alternative registration methods for those who cannot use the online system?
  • Is the check-in process easy for everyone, including those with mobility challenges?

Seating Arrangements:

  • Are there designated spaces for wheelchair users?
  • Is there flexibility in seating arrangements to accommodate different needs?
  • Are there quiet areas for attendees who may need a break?

Audio & Visuals:

  • Are there subtitles or sign language interpreters for presentations?
  • Is the sound system clear and adjustable?
  • Are visuals in high contrast for those with visual impairments?

Restrooms:

  • Are there accessible restrooms with proper signage?
  • Are changing facilities available for those with different abilities?

Networking & Social Spaces:

  • Are social spaces accessible to everyone?
  • Is there seating available for those who need it?
  • Are networking activities inclusive and accessible?

Event Materials:

  • Are event materials available in accessible formats?
  • Is there a way for attendees to request materials in advance?
  • Are presentation slides provided in advance for those who use screen readers?

Food & Beverages:

  • Are dietary restrictions considered in menu planning?
  • Is information about ingredients and allergens provided?
  • Are there alternatives for those with specific dietary needs?

Emergency Planning:

  • Is the emergency evacuation plan accessible to everyone?
  • Are staff trained to assist attendees with disabilities during emergencies?
  • Are there designated meeting points for people with mobility challenges?

Deliver Inclusive & Accessible Events with Attendease

Contact us to learn how Attendease can help you start, improve, and perfect your journey to deliver an accessible event experience for all of your attendees.

Guide: How to Design the Perfect Event Registration Landing Page

  • Event Management News
event website template

Building an engaging, high-converting event registration landing page is about more than just adding an image and writing a few snappy paragraphs. Like every good marketing plan, event marketing things take strategy and intent. A great event website should be an on-brand, captivating, one-stop shop. It’s a central hub that answers all your visitors’ questions in one fell swoop, all while building hype and getting them excited to attend your event.

Landing pages are unique pages outside your main website that often appear in response to a marketing email, online advertisement, or targeted search engine result. A landing page is a follow-up to a promise made in content elsewhere—the place intended for visitors to “land” after being introduced to you on social media, in print, or anywhere else you’ve targeted your marketing efforts. Because of that, landing pages make a terrific ground zero for your event, as they are often the very first step your visitors truly take towards being an attendee! The goal of a great event registration landing page is to have users complete an action, such as filling in a form or purchasing a ticket.

In this article, we will focus on specifically curated landing pages, but many of the strategies here can be interpreted and applied to the homepage of your website, too!

Are you ready to create a high-converting event website? Here are six proven techniques that will help you do just that.

Event Information + Hero Image

http://emsummit.eventmarketer.com/

Let’s start with the essentials: your event information. Ensure that you clearly communicate the name of the event, the date/time, and the location—don’t make visitors search for it! It’s often best to include this information as close to the top of the page as possible, either as a part of a prominent, full-width banner at the top of the page or shortly thereafter.

Speaking of these full-width banners—or “hero images” as they’re often called—consider including a photo that captures the event’s spirit, such as a shot of the crowd from your last event or even a beautiful photo of the city in which your event is being held. A visual representation of your event helps make a great first impression and build hype for your event, ensuring that people keep scrolling.

Unique Value Proposition

http://eventtech.eventmarketer.com/

Your unique value proposition (UVP) clarifies your brand and event into one clear, concise message that states what you do and why someone should want to be a part of it. In some cases, this could be as simple as taking an existing tagline from your branding, combining it with copy describing the experience, and simplifying it until you could clearly answer the question, “What do you do, and what’s in it for me?”

Remember, this is not a tagline. It does not have to be snappy. Clarity is key, and shorter is generally better. Brainstorm a few ideas with your team and select the best one to display on your website. Be sure to use your newly brainstormed UVP on your advertisements and email marketing pieces.

Benefits of Attending the Event

http://emsummit.eventmarketer.com/
https://www.contentmarketingworld.com/

Once you’ve synthesized your event in a single statement via your UVP, it’s important to state some key benefits of attending your event in a little bit more detail. Whether it is the variety of sessions to choose from, world-class speakers, networking opportunities, or all the above, your prospects should be able to quickly and clearly learn exactly why they will want to attend. And if you have data to back it up, even better!

Event Speakers & Sessions

http://hrpaconference.ca/

If you only have a few speakers or sessions, feature them on your landing page with some details (brief biography, achievements, etc.) to describe what to expect from each speaker or session.

If you have many speakers and sessions, you may decide to feature only the most popular ones—those that people are most likely to recognize or that are most likely to drive conversions—on your landing page and instead have a link to a page with more details about all speakers and sessions for those to wish to dig deeper.

Social Proof and Testimonials

https://moz.com/mozcon

Do you read Google or Yelp Reviews of restaurants before committing to a dinner out? Have you asked your network for recommendations of a great mechanic? Does the phrase “award-winning” push you towards purchasing a product? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you have been influenced by social proof and testimonials. If you can be influenced by social proof, so can your attendees!

You can generate excitement and trust by sharing prior attendee impressions of your event. Reviews and quotes are an incredibly powerful tool for inducing a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) and can take your audience from “might go” to “can’t miss”! If your event has drawn high-profile attendees in the past, adding these people’s company information and position alongside a photo can also be a smart move so prospects in similar positions or industries may find the event even more relevant to them.

Call to Action (CTA) Button

https://www.contentmarketingworld.com/

After reading all your amazing content, what do you want users to do? A “Register Now” button will lead users from your landing page to the event registration page so they can complete the action you want. Have a clear call to action and ensure it stands out from the rest of the page, either with a larger font, a different color, or a pill button.

Implement These Six Techniques to Improve Event Conversion Rate

Your event landing page is your opportunity to tell the story of your event: the what, when, where, why, who, and how. Follow these six techniques to improve your conversion rate and pair them with authentic imagery and videos to create a page that will make visitors want to transport themselves to your event immediately. 

What platform to use to build your event website? Try EventUp Planner’s website builder! EventUp Planner (formerly Attendease) offers an easy-to-use dashboard so you can quickly design your website without needing an army of designers and developers. Choose from one of the free templates available, or create your own. Because EventUp Planner is a complete event registration platform, you can have your entire registration process— calendar sessions, email communication, attendee surveys, and more—connected to your website. And if you manage multiple events, fear not: you can easily clone a past event to create a new one with the click of a button. Talk to our team to learn more!


Spotlight: The truth about event engagement with Samuel J. Smith

  • Spotlight Interviews

In today’s spotlight series, you will learn more about event engagement from Samuel J. Smith, founder of the event gamification software, Social Point. Sam produced hybrid events in a prior life and led the MPI research team that developed the baseline research for virtual and hybrid events. And today, he helps exhibitors and marketers make virtual and in-person events fun through event gamification. 

Attendee Types and Event Engagement Expectations

Pre-pandemic, Sam wrote an article about the myth of 100% attendee engagement. The concept he shared is more relevant than ever. In this article, he mentioned the existence of six attendee types: creators, critiquers, collectors, shares, joiners and inactives. Each attendee type will have different needs from technology and therefore, they’re going to require different engagement experiences. 

Whether it’s an in-person, hybrid, or virtual event, you will have some version of these attendee types in your event. For example, a creator is someone who enjoys creating things, they take a white piece of paper and they can draw or come up with lots of ideas. Creators represent about 10% of one’s audience. 

Critiquers can’t really come up with anything. But if they see what you did, they can write 40 pages of why that’s terrible and need to change. And you want to embrace that behavior, because that’s actually about 30 to 40% of your audience.

Can you create an event experience where creators are engaged, but also critiquers? Instead of letting them fight against each other, how can they enjoy working together to create something better? If a creator makes a post on Facebook, you get critiques to comment on it. So how can you do that inside your event? Those are the types of questions you need to ask.

There’s another behavior called the collector: they’re the ones who run around a tradeshow and collect all the things, whether pens, buttons, or notepads. We’ve designed events that had buttons all around the venue. When they realized there were different buttons, they were trying to collect the full set. Another way to think about this is using gamification to collect badges for example. 

The other three attendee types are shares, joiners, and inactive. There are people out there that will join everything. They don’t really do much when they join, but they just like to sign up for things. And there’s a group where people like to share, they just like to tell people about other things. And then of course, there’s always people who will do nothing. No matter what, no matter how hard you try, they will do nothing. 

Once we understand this concept it’s easier to think about what types of experiences we can create in our events to drive the event engagement from these different attendee profiles. In a chat, one of the tools that we like to use is to have a topic-based conversation. This can motivate creators and critiquers to participate. Having a moderator is important to get that conversation going, even before the session starts. We noticed that having these easy, fun questions, in the beginning, can help to continue driving engagement later. 

To fulfill the needs of collectors, we have done scavenger hunts or multi-day event gamification, offering different badges for them to collect. For the collector, it is not about being on the top of the leaderboard. The reward is in collecting those badges. 

In order to build opportunities for most people to engage, we have what I call a layered engagement approach. You will not please everyone all the time. So rather than putting all the energy in one session, try to think across the entire event and give opportunities for different attendee types to engage when it makes sense for them too. In the past, we’ve built a chart to find what engagement opportunities existed. That can make sure we tried to appeal to all people at some point during the event.

Samuel J. Smith Quote SocialPoint

Measuring Event Engagement Success

Considering this layered engagement approach for unique attendee types you will find out that you will never have 100% engagement across all opportunities you provide. For chat and Q&A you may have 50% of your audience participating, while for gamification you may get 40% of the audience engaged, but people who engaged with the chat and Q&A are not necessarily the same as those who engaged with the game. 

For games managed with SocialPoint, we have a dashboard that shows how many players you got, how many games were played, how many questions were answered, and so on. 

But you need to go down another level because some of those numbers are just vanity metrics. If you want to know if you hit your event objectives, you need to dive deeper. For example, our clients designed a trivia game and they can evaluate the questions by learning objectives. So you can report out on how well players performed against those marketing objectives. 

The players don’t know anything about all these marketing objectives and learning objectives, they’re playing the game. But on the back end, we have that data grouped. Therefore we can then report on it and it helps event planners in decision making. 

We do a lot of sales, kickoffs and national sales meetings as well. So you can have the Northeast team versus the Southwest team and look at the data in that way too. That helps you to find out why one team is outperforming the other based on those learning objectives.

For marketers interested in lead capture, you can see where a person exists in the customer journey. So they look at engagement on these virtual events to determine if they’re a new customer, in the decision-making process, or in the research phase, for example. This can help to confirm if the event has helped to move leads down the funnel. This can support the sales team in prioritizing who to follow up with, too. 

Building Your Tech Stack to Support Event Engagement

In the past, in a world pre-COVID, we would talk a lot about the concept of all-in-one event management software. But what we’re seeing now more and more, especially with the increasing needs for virtual and hybrid events, it became more clear that it’s nearly impossible to have one platform that can do everything and do everything well

With this, we’re diving deeper into the concept of having one strong foundational tool for event management and plug in other tools to support in different areas. And Attendease and Social Point is a great example of that. You can surely build your event with Attendease, you can design a fully branded event website, the registration flow, manage the event agenda, but that gamification component would be best managed by another platform like Social Point. To learn more about how to incorporate gamification into your next event, contact Social Point.

Hybrid Event Agenda Design with Mahoganey Jones

  • Event Management
Mahoganey Jones

We have recently concluded our first 3X30 Live Talks Series with event expert guests. In our last conversation, we discussed hybrid event agenda design with guest Mahoganey Jones, CEO & Founder at Event Specialists. Mahoganey shared some insightful ideas around agenda design and debunked some myths around hybrid event budget and content delivery. Read the key takeaways below. 

Hybrid events have been around for a long time, they were here pre-pandemic. Since the pandemic has hit though, we have changed how we approach our event agendas. We were first in panic mode to pivot in-person events to virtual formats. And without thinking, or allowing us to rethink what the goal of that event really is, we didn’t question if the agenda needed to be matched ‘one for one“. Read below some considerations from Mahoganey pertaining to hybrid events. 

Hybrid Event Technology

We’ve been using the pandemic as a crutch or as a limitation. We keep hearing “we can’t do” or “we can’t accomplish”, versus how we can still accomplish our goals within limitations. We can use the limitations as a positive VIP level experience in-person, ultra VIP online… and look through a different perspective. 

Technology was never meant to limit how we design events. It was meant to enhance what we’re doing while allowing us to hit our goals and objectives. We’re looking at the technology first, and then designing our agendas to match the bells and whistles of a platform versus seeing what our agenda needs to accomplish, and then finding the technology that is best suited to deliver that message. We’re putting the cart before the horse. 

In this process, I feel like we forgot about the goals and what we’re actually looking to accomplish. Not every platform is meant for every type of event. We’re literally just building based on what the platform can do.

Mahoganey Jones Quote

Attendee Journey in a Hybrid Event 

I truly believe that a hybrid event is one customer journey that you’re taking your attendees through, whether they’re attending in-person or online. I feel like the intersection is important, and we design elements to ensure each audience gets exactly what they need. But we also need to understand that they’re an audience as a whole. 

There’s no one true experience. We don’t need to deliver every session for the in-person audience and for the virtual audience. When we talk about the intersectionality between the two audiences, let’s think of how we can ensure that both audiences are getting the experience you’re looking for them to have. 

If you think of the analogy of a hockey game: the in-person audience is watching the game happen live, listening to the announcers, etc. The audience who’s watching from home is not going to catch everything being thrown in the in-person audience. Does it make them feel like they’re not part of the same experience though? Absolutely not. 

It’s about being mindful of how you’re ensuring your audiences are getting what they need from the event so that you’re not leaving anyone out. You don’t need to 100% translate the entire agenda between in-person and virtual. Virtual audiences don’t necessarily have to ask questions for every session if that may not be the goal of each session. We also don’t have to broadcast every single session.

We can be selective on the content that’s best delivered to each group. For example, entertainment can be great for both audiences, but it’s not always great to share workshops with two audiences. 

When you’re planning your event agenda, create a spreadsheet to see how the flow is going to happen. See where you can put those intersectionalities together. And that the in-person audience and the online audience is getting a feel for that experience that you’re looking to deliver. 

Mahoganey Jones Quote

In-Person X Virtual Event Content

One thing the pandemic has also been great and afforded us as event producers is the ability to shorten content. TEDx talks are short, concise, and 10-20 minutes long for a reason. I don’t know when all of a sudden, we decided that we needed 90-minute keynote sessions. But the pandemic has allowed us to shorten a lot of things. We can now shorten that five-day conference. Still deliver the same bang for your buck, but in two to three days versus five.

For medical conferences and other conferences where there are CEUs or credits associated with the content, the sessions would have to be a certain amount of time to meet those criteria. Though there is no hard and fast rule that says all of those sessions have to happen on one day, four or five days consecutively. 

We should have a look at how to best deliver the content. Spreading your content out doesn’t mean you’re diluting your content. It means you’re also opening your mindset and your audience’s ability to attend different sessions at work for them. With cross time zones, there’s now a hidden virtual audience that we didn’t know existed. We’ve opened up these opportunities to reach larger audiences, we’re truly global in the content that we’re delivering. So how can we best maximize that for our organizations? 

Hybrid Events Budget

Let’s debunk the myth that says you need two or three times more budget to produce a hybrid event. Pre-pandemic, we would normally have a pretty complete in-person agenda and then the virtual was always that afterthought. When you’re looking at your agenda, your event content should help determine what you can actually deliver online. 

Hybrid Event Planning Considerations 

I was always a firm believer in lighting and sound. Without lighting and sound in any conference, it falls flat. For a hybrid experience, we have to ensure that the sound and the lighting of the in-person audience can be translated to the virtual audience. So using that to your advantage means you can use it as a design element for the in-person audience, it also creates a beautiful feed for the virtual audience so that they’re able to see and hear the speakers with clarity. 

For example: have your presenters and audience Q&A using a microphone, so that the audio can be captured for the virtual audience. Or, alternatively, train your speakers to make sure that they repeat the question that was asked from the in-person audience to allow the virtual audience to hear it as well. Lighting is one of those things that almost always becomes an afterthought. 

Personally, I always work with the AV company, see what you already have in the room, see what you’ve already paid for, and see how you can allocate that to make sure that it’s meeting the needs of both the in-person and the virtual audience.

Plus, reconsider the venues that you’re working with. The pandemic has allowed venues to redesign their own spaces so that it can work for you. Look at what is already built-in. Do they have the technology to support it? Do you need that massive room or can you go into a smaller room? We’re seeing the rise of these virtual studios that you can go to that have space and be able to accommodate what you’re looking to accommodate.

Event Planning Resources from Mahoganey Jones

One thing I like to start with is an exercise called the SSK Method: Start – Stop – Keep. It’s a tool that is valid when re-imagining what your event could look like. So you ask your team:

  • What would you like us to start doing? 
  • What would you like us to stop doing? 
  • And what would you like us to keep? 

And within that exercise we can actually make decisions and that you are hitting the mark from an internal perspective. You can pick up on some of those cues to see what you can start doing, what you can keep and see what you can stop.

The one-page Event Business Plan (download free here) is how I like to drive what happens in the event overall. I also use it as a tool to drill down what is actually going to land on the agenda and what is going to happen. The one-page business plan takes all of the different elements that you are going to cover in the event, drill down to one page so that you understand the mission, the target audience, the goals, and the KPIs you’re looking to meet. With that being listed front and center, and very concise, it’s a lot easier to understand your goals and to support your agenda decisions.

Conclusion

The pandemic is allowing us the opportunity to redesign and rethink what the in-person X virtual experience can look like. It’s allowing us to redesign what the event experience can look like, and to drill down to the core of what our agenda should and could look like. 

This is a good time to step back and think about your event goals first, and then find the best technology, the best attendee journey, the best content format, etc. to support those goals. We don’t need to provide the exact same experiences to both audiences, but the same outcomes. You can watch the full conversation with Mahoganey here.

zoom screenshot of Live conversation