How to Boost Engagement During Healthcare Meetings and Events

Event Trends

April 23, 2024

We get it—internal meetings and events aren’t usually healthcare professionals’ favorite workplace activities. 90% of employees feel that meetings are “costly” and “unproductive.” But there are many scenarios where these internal meetings are inevitable, especially when it comes to running a well-oiled healthcare organization.

To get around this, focus on making your healthcare events as engaging and worthwhile as possible. You can use the same planning strategies you use to prepare for external presentations—such as virtual events or conference speeches—to boost attendee engagement.

From captivating your audience with a good story to creating on-brand and visually appealing slides for your presentations, we’ve compiled this list of tried and true strategies for making healthcare events something employees actually forward to rather than dread.

In all cases, thorough planning is your friend. Event software for healthcare can make the process easier. Let’s dive in!

7 Strategies to Enhance Events for Healthcare Professionals

Boost attendee participation at your next healthcare event by implementing these seven proven strategies:

1. Set Clear Objectives for all Presentations

It’s crucial that every presentation starts with a detailed plan and clear goal. You need a justifiable reason why you’re taking the time to pull team members from their duties and bring them together for a meeting—especially in a busy healthcare environment.

When setting goals for the presentation, be clear about the purpose of the meeting, the intended result of the meeting, and any next actions you’d like attendees to take.

For example, perhaps you’re planning a hospital fundraiser that you’d like employees to spread the word about. If so, the objective for your presentation would be to educate everyone on the upcoming fundraiser so they can share details with friends, family, and the local community.

The intended result would be to create excitement about the fundraiser, including the intended use(s) for the raised funds, such as a new mental health wing or essential pediatric initiatives.

At the end of your presentation, you’ll want to share the next steps you’d like attendees to take. That might look like a request for participation—like pledging to do a fitness challenge to raise funds—or a request to raise awareness, such as sharing about the event on social media.

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2. Start With a Story

One powerful tool to captivate your listeners is through storytelling. You can transform dry facts and figures into something memorable and impactful by simply telling a story before diving into the meat of your presentation.

For healthcare professionals, storytelling can effectively communicate complex ideas and evoke an emotional response. For instance, sharing a patient’s journey from diagnosis to recovery can illustrate the importance of early intervention and personalized care.

But stories don’t always have to be serious! Sharing a humorous anecdote about a light-hearted workplace mishap—such as that one time you discovered a patient walking down the hallway completely naked—will resonate with colleagues while also illustrating the issue or topic you’re going to cover (e.g., the necessity of hospital gowns).

In summary, storytelling allows you to humanize your content, making it relatable and understandable to your audience. Your colleagues will begin to look forward to your presentations, and your stories will become a topic of conversation at future events.

3. Make it Brief to Ensure the Best Use of Everyone’s Time

Putting a multi-hour time block on your people’s calendars to cover a handful of topics probably isn’t the best use of everyone’s time. Here are some tips for keeping healthcare meetings concise in order to respect everyone’s time:

Send materials in advance. Distribute any necessary documents or information prior to the meeting, allowing attendees to review and come prepared.

Minimize distractions. Encourage participants to silence their devices and avoid unnecessary interruptions during the meeting (this is extra important for busy healthcare professionals!).

Assign a timekeeper. Designate someone to monitor the time and keep the meeting on track. If conversations begin to veer off-topic, this person will gently guide the discussion back to the agenda.

Allocate specific time slots for each agenda item. Assign realistic time for each topic and adhere to these limits.

Encourage concise communication. Ask participants to be brief and to the point when sharing their thoughts or updates.

Summarize action items and decisions. Conclude the meeting by briefly restating any key takeaways, action items, and decisions made.

Follow up with a concise summary email. After the meeting, send a brief email recapping the main points and next steps to ensure everyone is on the same page.

But don’t sweat if you don’t cover everything. You can always provide additional information and answer follow-up questions later on or simply reserve them for the next meeting.

By implementing some of these strategies, you and your colleagues can make the most of your valuable time and collaborate more effectively to deliver exceptional patient care.

4. Present Data Clearly and Concisely

If you’re presenting data during your presentation, focus on the most important metrics and let attendees explore the fine details on their own time afterward. Also, be sure to present the data in an easily digestible format. Infographics or charts make it easier to see data points in context.

For example, if you’re trying to convince your healthcare organization to upgrade its event management software, you might present data about how your organization can increase its ROI by using a better tool. You could show charts that demonstrate the negative impacts of your current event software (or lack thereof), and the potential cost savings and efficiency boost that a new solution could offer.

Or, you might be analyzing event data to identify opportunities to engage your audience better at your next event. You can assess the main takeaways—such as attendance rates, attendee feedback surveys, and social media engagement analytics—to develop a new marketing plan with your team for your next event.

5. Brand Your Meeting Materials to Your Organization

All internal communications should be uniformly branded, such as your presentation materials, training resources, or emails. This keeps your materials organized and easy to read. Plus, it’s easier to maintain external branding standards when your team is already used to keeping internal communications cohesive!

Here are some ideas for how to brand your meeting materials:

Incorporate your healthcare organization’s logo and color scheme. Consistently use your company’s logo and official color palette across all meeting materials, including presentations, handouts, and agendas, to reinforce brand recognition and create a cohesive look.

Use branded templates. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Develop a set of branded templates for presentations, documents, and other materials that feature your organization’s logo, colors, and fonts. This ensures a professional and consistent appearance across all internal communications.

Include your healthcare organization’s mission or tagline. Integrate your company’s mission statement, vision, or tagline into your meeting materials to remind attendees of the organization’s purpose and values.

Feature employee photos and success stories. Incorporate photos of your team members and highlight employee achievements or success stories in your presentations and handouts to create a sense of pride and belonging within your organization.

Use branded visual elements. Develop a library of branded visual elements that align with your organization’s style guide, such as icons, illustrations, or infographics. Use these elements consistently throughout your meeting materials to enhance visual interest and reinforce your brand identity.

These strategies will help you create a strong, cohesive brand identity that resonates throughout your organization, fostering a sense of unity in all your healthcare meetings and events.

LEARN MORE: How to Design the Perfect Event Registration Landing Page

6. Encourage Attendee Feedback

Gathering employees for a meeting offers an effective opportunity to collect feedback and new ideas.

Let’s say you’re a Corporate Responsibility Consultant hosting an event with a hospital and some of its key stakeholders to identify strategic initiatives for the upcoming year. You might ask attendees to brainstorm event ideas to support the program. Or, you might ask for feedback on how their corporate volunteer program is going.

Allowing attendees to speak up during your meeting and make their voices heard can make your presentation that much more engaging and productive.

7. Provide Relevant Materials After the Meeting

After your presentation, send attendees any data charts, slideshows, or supplemental materials. If the meeting was virtual, you might want to record it to let any employees who couldn’t attend watch the presentation after the fact.

It’s also important to answer any follow-up questions employees may have after the meeting. Creating open lines of communication and providing transparency about any decisions that impact employees is key to promoting a positive work environment.

Healthcare professionals should leave your internal meetings and events clear on the next steps they should take or how the information presented will impact them going forward.

Streamline Healthcare Event Planning with EventUp Planner (formerly Attendease)

When it comes to healthcare meetings and events, time is valuable. More time in meetings means less time caring for patients.

Spend everyone’s time wisely by preparing a constructive agenda that includes plenty of time for healthcare professionals to speak up and engage with the topic. You’ll offer your colleagues a better experience, and everyone will work more productively toward achieving your organization’s goals! Put your healthcare events on autopilot with EventUp Planner. Our all-in-one platform provides helpful tools to uncomplicate your events through drag-and-drop functionality, built-in templates, automation, and intuitive data reporting. Book a demo today!

Simplify the Complexity of Managing Your Meetings and Events with a Powerful Suite of Tools

Make your attendees gather with ease. From small to large and complex events – plan and manage all of your events in one flexible platform – EventUp Planner.

Learn More!

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

Event Management

April 14, 2023

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.

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Supporting Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives: 7 Event Ideas for Businesses to Consider

Event Trends

March 13, 2023

Corporate social responsibility, or CSR, is broadly defined as a company’s efforts to improve society in some way. These corporate efforts can be as small as implementing an environmentally friendly policy change or as large as managing a major event.

Corporate social responsibility is not mandated in the U.S. Rather, it’s an extra effort to make the world a better place by benefiting the community as a whole. CSR efforts can look different depending on the company, but the overall goal is the same—to increase positive social value.

In this article, we will cover the benefits of corporate social responsibility and offer 7 CSR event ideas for your company to try out today. Let’s get started!

What Are the Benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility

From a company’s perspective, CSR can sometimes feel like an extra task to check off, but a robust CSR program can reap some significant, tangible benefits beyond the obvious of helping to fill a need in society. These benefits express themselves along several different dimensions:

Increased employee engagement. Double the Donation found that 71% of employees prefer to work at a company that participates in philanthropy. Advertise your corporate social responsibility initiatives to recruit and retain a passionate, engaged workforce.
Increased customer loyalty. A company’s corporate social responsibility initiatives act as a major differentiator for current and potential customers. In fact, customers are more likely to become long-term brand ambassadors if they support your give-back efforts.
Positive public perception. Supporting corporate social responsibility initiatives is one of the best ways to further your company’s public image. A company that invests its resources to further social good stands out against its competitors.

Aside from corporate advantages, CSR positively impacts nonprofits and communities. Nonprofit organizations receive grants, donations, and volunteer hours from companies to further their missions. In turn, local and global communities feel the positive ripple effects.

Top 7 Corporate Social Responsibility Event Ideas for Businesses

There is certainly not a lack of need when it comes to economic, educational, or philanthropic causes. Because there are so many corporate social responsibility opportunities, choosing to support meaningful ones that align with your corporate values is essential. Think about it this way — your CSR initiatives are evidence of your company’s ethics at work.

Here are some examples of simple yet purposeful corporate social responsibility event ideas for your company to try out to get your feet wet in the philanthropic world of giving back:

1. Launch a Sneaker Recycling Program

How many employees have an extra pair of running shoes? They or their growing family will most likely have a couple of extra shoes to spare. Partner with a fundraising provider like Sneakers4Good to raise support for an organization of your choice.

Simply collect gently worn, used, and new athletic shoes. Then, use Sneakers4Good’s pre-paid shipping bags to ship the collected sneakers to the Sneakers4Good warehouse. From there, the athletic shoes will be distributed to micro-entrepreneurs in developing nations. Sneakers4Good will also send your company a check for your sneaker-collecting efforts, which you can then donate to the nonprofit of your choice.

Consider hosting a competition by rewarding the employee or corporate team who has collected the most running shoes over a defined period.

2. Plan a Matching Gift Drive

Initiate a matching gift drive as a part of your corporate philanthropy efforts. If you’re new to matching gifts, it’s a philanthropic program through which companies match their employees’ donations to nonprofits, usually in a 1:1 ratio. However, some companies match gifts in a 2:1 or even 3:1 ratio.

Matching gifts encourage employees to donate to a nonprofit of their choice with a promise of 1:1 corporate donation backing. Employees are generally free to choose which nonprofit to contribute to, and companies reap the benefits of maintaining their corporate social responsibility image while letting their employees take the steering wheel. It’s a win-win for companies, employees, and selected nonprofits.

3. Host a Virtual Corporate Social Responsibility Webinar

Not sure which corporate social responsibility event idea is right? Research several corporate social responsibility events and have your employees complete a survey concerning which causes they’d like to know more about from you. Also, host a virtual corporate social responsibility webinar to explore different causes and initiatives directly with them. (Note: You can do this using Attendease Virtual Studio!)

Compile your list of survey responses and invite the corresponding nonprofit leaders to talk at an organized webinar. Give these organizational leaders time to discuss their mission and what your company can do to help. During the webinar, plan to answer questions and explore corporate social responsibility event alternatives.

4. Host an Environmental Clean-up

Make your city sparkle with a dedicated corporate social responsibility clean-up effort. If your office is near the coast, this could look like spending an afternoon fishing plastic off sandy beaches. If your office is located in a relatively spotless part of town, consider reaching out to neighboring cities and lending a helping hand.

Partner with local parks to plant trees and assist with their trash-free initiatives. Or use your outdoor corporate social responsibility event as an opportunity to celebrate Earth Day.

5. Participate in a Nonprofit Fundraising Event

Raise funds and awareness by participating in nonprofit fundraising events. From online challenges to in-person parties, there is a wide range of potential events to consider. Your company can also join in a pre-made event or plan your own on behalf of a charity.

Potential fundraising events could include hosting a trivia night, fundraising 5K, a field day competition, a used book drive, or a silent auction. The event options are endless! Added bonus, if you’re an Attendease customer, you can use Attendease to register people for your event.

6. Volunteer at an Animal Shelter

Are your company employees animal lovers? Volunteer at a local animal shelter as a part of your corporate social responsibility initiatives. Most shelters have Corporate Service Days to coordinate your volunteer hours.

Go online and fill out the related company volunteer request form. Note that many forms also require a donation as a part of your volunteer efforts.

7. Offer Micro-Volunteering Opportunities

If your company can’t commit to full days of service, try out some micro-volunteering opportunities. These volunteer events are short-term, low-commitment events or tasks that help nonprofits get ahead. They could look like attending a virtual event such as a silent auction, providing nonprofit survey feedback, sorting cans at a food drive, or providing pro-bono professional services as part of your regular work.

Corporate volunteer grants are another low-effort corporate social responsibility alternative. These corporate giving programs encourage volunteerism by donating monetary grants to nonprofits where their employees regularly volunteer.

These grants communicate to prospective employees, customers, and competitors that your company is invested in backing social good causes.

Social Responsibility Opportunities Exist Everywhere

How will your company use CSR initiatives to back its reputation? Environmental, ethical, educational, and philanthropic event-related opportunities exist everywhere. Share this list with your employees to gauge interest and get started planning your next corporate social responsibility event today.

Accessible Event Registration Platform – Make your events inclusive to all attendees with these accessibility best practices.

How to Provide a Seamless Virtual Event Experience – Level up your next virtual event from start to finish with this guide.
5 Strategies to Improve Your Virtual Corporate Events – Make your corporate virtual events stand out with these 5 tips.

Simplify the Complexity of Managing Your Meetings and Events with a Powerful Suite of Tools

Make your attendees gather with ease. From small to large and complex events – plan and manage all of your events in one flexible platform – Attendease.

Learn More!

About the Author: Wayne Elsey is the founder and CEO of Elsey Enterprises (EE) and a Forbes Business Development Council member. Among his various independent brands, he is also the founder and CEO of Sneakers4Funds, which is a social enterprise that helps schools, churches, nonprofits, individuals, and other organizations raise funds while helping to support micro-enterprise (small business) opportunities in developing nations.

[Infographic] Virtual Event Trends & Opportunities

Event Trends

October 15, 2020

The pandemic has fundamentally changed the way event organizers plan, run and measure the success of meetings and conferences. Here are some insights on what attendees expect and how event planners are adjusting to meet the challenge.

Virtual events trends and stats:

Unsurprisingly, Google searches for “virtual event” and “virtual conference” have steadily increased in the US and Canada since COVID-19 struck in early March.

However, it turns out that virtual events were popular even before the pandemic:

42% of organizations were already running virtual events in 2019 (Source: Wild Apricot 2020 Virtual Event Report)
When survey respondents were asked whether or not they think that in the future all live events will have a virtual dimension, 50.7% said yes. (Source: 614 Group)

PROS AND CONS of Virtual events

While virtual events are less expensive to run…

84% of organizations who have run virtual events reported that they spent less on virtual events than in-person ones. (Source: Wild Apricot 2020 Virtual Event Report)

… attendees find them easier to skip out on.

Virtual marketing events see an attendance rate of just 44% (Source: Digital Journal Group)

But the good news is:

Just over three-quarters (75.4 percent) of event planners report that attendees gave the same or very similar evaluation scores to the virtual conference as to a comparable place-based event. (Source: Tagoras Virtual Conferences Report)

Before COVID, people attended business events to stay informed and connect with others:

67.9% Learn about the latest developments in the industry
64.4% Meet new business prospects and generate leads
56.3% Spend quality time with current clients
44% Socialize with peers
37.6% Close deals
37.6% Market their company

(Source: 614 Group)

Education and networking are no less important in a virtual environment, but people expect to be entertained as well. When asked to rate their interest (out of 10), attendees ranked these virtual event features most highly:

8.29 Raffles or giveaways
7.34 Live Q&A with presenters/speakers
6.35 One on one networking based on job function, interests, etc.
6.06 Live chat with product and/or service providers
5.49 Virtual networking with peers (e.g. happy hours)

(Source: Covalent Careers)

VIRTUAL EVENT PLANNER STRATEGY

What are event managers charging for virtual event tickets?

6% said more than what they charge for in-person events
9% said the same
12% said slightly less
23% said much less
27% said all their events are free
29% said they charged for in-person events, but won’t charge for virtual events

(Source: Wild Apricot 2020 Virtual Event Report )

How long are event managers running virtual conferences for?

25.7% Less than one day
22.9% One to one and a half days
11.4% More than one and a half to two days

(Source: Tagoras Virtual Conferences Report)

What kind of experiences are virtual event organizers offering attendees?

A majority of the organizations that have hosted a virtual conference offered the following features:

Live sessions delivered in real time (87.7 percent)
Archived recordings after the virtual conference ends (76.7 percent)
Real-time text communication between participants (69.9 percent)

Discussion boards, pre-recorded sessions with on-demand playback, and a virtual exhibit hall were offered less frequently.

(Source: Tagoras Virtual Conferences Report)

How can virtual event managers maximize attendance?

When compared to attendance at in-person events:

70% of virtual event planners said they had “many more” attendees with a guest speaker.
57% of organizations who had “many more” attendees reported that they ran a panel discussion.

(Source: Wild Apricot 2020 Virtual Event Report )

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The vast majority of organizations hosting virtual events are charging less than they would for an in-person event.

In-person and virtual attendees alike are motivated by making new connections and generating leads for their business. Brands running online events will have to actively encourage networking in a virtual environment.

Guest speakers and panel discussions will help you maximize attendance at your next virtual event.

Run your next virtual event with Attendease! Contact our team to see how it works!

How To Find The Perfect Speaker for Your Event

Event Management News

October 8, 2020

Speakers can easily make or break an event. If you have a presenter who doesn’t understand who they’re talking to, or who can’t keep the audience’s attention, you’re wasting everyone’s time (and possibly their money).

Conversely, if you have a speaker who has a compelling topic and knows how to deliver it with clear takeaways, you’ll have a happy crowd who will leave positive reviews for your event, and tell others.

While big-name keynote speakers tend to attract registrants and attendees, sometimes it’s the lesser-known subject matter experts or people who have personal stories to share that deliver the most memorable presentations.

Regardless of your budget, you will be investing a lot of time into researching, recruiting, marketing and communicating with your event speakers, and trusting that they will deliver a great experience to your attendees – so finding the right person for the job is critical.

How (and where) can you find the perfect event speaker? Here are a few guidelines to get you started.

Look for customer reviews

As any psychological scientist will tell you, one of the best predictors of future behavior is past behavior.

When you’re evaluating a speaker, it’s helpful to review the feedback of event planners who they’ve worked with in the past, and audience members who have previously attended their presentations.

Whether you’re on a speaker’s website or looking through a speaker directory, keep an eye out for positive quotes and testimonials from former audience members and event planners (the more, the better!)

Look for attention to detail

When a speaker lists their expertise in very general themes like “technology” or “business,” it can be difficult to understand exactly what they will be talking about, or what your audience will take away from attending their presentation.

Ideally, you want a speaker who arms attendees with helpful frameworks or new ways of thinking about a problem or opportunity.

Look for speakers who not only list core topics, but also include the following in their bios or program summaries:

Target Audience
Focus
Tools
Learning Objectives

If a speaker has included some – or all – of this information, you know they have put a lot of thought into what type of audience their talk benefits the most, and what they want the audience to learn.

Look for videos

It’s hard to tell what someone’s personality or charisma will be like on-stage (or on Zoom) just from reading their bio.

Fortunately, many professional speakers offer videos that you can watch to get a sense of their presentation style. https://www.youtube.com/embed/VFshvhzcCVw?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Feventupplanner.com

Here are popular types of videos to look out for:

Speaker/sizzle/demo reel: This is often a short, “best of” compilation video that captures a speaker’s key themes and shows what kind of energy they bring to their presentations. When watching a speaker reel, keep your eyes and ears peeled for how the audience reacts as well!
Long-form: Some speakers take a while to build up to a point, grow a rapport with the audience, or go in-depth on a particular topic. If you want to know whether a speaker can hold an audience’s attention for more than 30 minutes, you’ll want to watch a long-form video of one of their past presentations.
Interview: If you’re looking for a speaker to join a panel, keep an eye out for any interviews they may have recorded. This will give you a good sense of how the speaker answers questions and how they will interact with your moderator.

Look for speaker accreditation

Speakers who are serious about their craft often go through rigorous training programs to demonstrate their dedication and professionalism.

Here are a few awards or certifications to look for when you are evaluating a speaker for your next event:

CSP – Certified Speaking Professional

Members of the NSA (National Speakers Association) can apply for a CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) designation, which only 17% of members currently hold. And it’s no wonder. One of the qualification requirements for CSP applicants is that they must have documentation of 250 paid presentations – minimum. If you’re looking for an experienced speaker, look no further.

CPAE – Council of Peers Award for Excellence

If you’re searching for an all-star speaker at the top of their game, look for someone who has won a CPAE. Only five of these highly talented individuals are inducted into the NSA Hall of Fame each year, based on the following categories: message, presentation/delivery, experience, professionalism and collateral material.

PCC – Professional Certified Coach

To become a PCC (Professional Certified Coach), applicants must go through the ICF (International Coaching Federation) and complete at least 125 hours of training, and have at least 500 hours of coaching experience. You can trust a speaker with a PCC designation to deliver a motivational or inspirational presentation.

TED

Short for “Technology, Entertainment and Design,” the TED conference is widely respected for attracting top speaking talent that leaves a lasting impression on audiences. TED speakers are often highly accomplished innovators and master storytellers.

Where to find qualified speakers online

You can, of course, do a general Google or LinkedIn search for an event speaker. But there are a few online directories that make it easy to search for speakers using filters like location, fees, and availability.

Here are a few that you may find helpful:

As you browse through the options, we hope you use the guidelines we provided to help narrow down your search and find the perfect event speaker.

Create a Call for Speakers on your event website

Consider adding a Call for Speakers on your event website, to attract applications of people interested in speaking at your event. Event management platforms, like Attendease, give you the power to create the speaker’s application and automate the process, so you can easily approve or reject applications, and simplify the process of gathering speaker data, such as bio and photos.

With these tips in hand, we hope your next speaker roster is a success!

How Four Major Global Events Pivoted from In-Person to Virtual

Event Management News

September 28, 2020

The novel coronavirus outbreak has had a significant impact on the events industry, from venues and vendors to speakers and sponsors.

As Roland Swenson, SXSW CEO & Co-Founder put it, “Today we find ourselves contending with what it’s like to adjust to a new normal that is anything but. We feel great sympathy for all affected by COVID-19 and the ripple effects this global pandemic has caused.”

Highly anticipated in-person events like South By Southwest and Dreamforce have been canceled for 2020, leaving event planners scrambling to come up with online alternatives that can entertain and educate thousands of attendees, and grappling with questions like:

How do you replicate the serendipity of networking online?
How do you get people on different continents to participate in discussions?
How do you turn a speaker’s spare room into a stage?

As abrupt as it was, the shift to virtual programming hasn’t been all bad news for event managers; as HubSpot has shared, “Being online allows us to invite more people to be part of the INBOUND community. With travel costs eliminated we can reach attendees all around the globe. We can offer translated content in multiple languages and schedule sessions and experiences across time zones.”

Jessica Lessin, Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Information, agrees: “For comparison, last year’s WTF conference took place in New York with fewer than 200 people squeezed into a venue in Times Square. This year, over two days, we drew more than twice as many speakers and more than twice the number of attendees. From a business point of view, we made more money as well—greater revenue and far lower costs.”

Want to learn how event planners are adjusting — and even thriving — in this “new normal”? Here is an overview of how several companies are rising to the challenge.

SXSW (Austin, Texas – March 13-22)

Typical attendance number: 400,000

SXSW is a major film, music and tech event held every year in downtown Austin, Texas for the last 34 years. The festival is known for its interactive programming, after parties and brand activations. This year, the city of Austin canceled SXSW the week before it was supposed to begin.

What SXSW did to adjust

Rather than let all their hard work go to waste, the event planners behind SXSW launched a weekly series called SXSW Sessions Online, where the speakers who would have appeared at the festival in March can still deliver their presentations, and attendees can participate through a live Q&A.

SXSW typically has a strict no-refunds policy, but due to the unprecedented situation, they offered 2020 registrants badge deferral to the next three years of the festival, or 50% off a future walk-up rate ticket until 2023.

Offering brand new speaker content to anyone who might want to watch, and showing leniency to 2020 badge holders is a great way for the event organizers to build goodwill while they rebuild the event for next year.

Collision (Toronto, Canada – June 23-25)

Typical attendance number: 32,000

Collision is a three-day tech conference that has been running for the past five years, attracting top tier speakers and well-known vendors to its stages and exhibit hall. Collision announced in March that it would be transitioning the conference at the Enercare Centre in Toronto into an at-home experience.

What Collision did to adjust

Since innovation is at the core of Collision, it makes sense that the event organizers would lean on technology to transition the in-person summit into an interactive virtual gathering. In June, they launched “Collision from Home” a two-screen experience combining a desktop web app and a mobile app.

With the mobile app, attendees could build a profile, schedule workshops, talks and meetings, connect ahead of the conference with entrepreneurs, startups and investors, and stream five channels while on the go. With the web app, attendees could watch 100+ hours of talks, interviews and keynotes from more than 450 speakers. They could also participate in 3-minute networking sessions and small group discussions.

With this two-step approach, Collision created a rich conference experience with plenty of room for attendees to form new connections with each other. https://www.youtube.com/embed/W22JVLwhVyE?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Feventupplanner.com

Burning Man (Black Rock City, NV – August 30 – September 6)

Typical attendance number: 78,000

Burning Man is not your typical corporate gathering. Since 1986, this “experiment in community” has been drawing increasingly large crowds to the Nevada desert every year, where attendees build their own tent cities and wander the grounds until sunrise admiring temporary, large-scale art installations.

Personal connections, DJ sets, spontaneity and radical giving are at the heart of what Burning Man stands for, so when the festival was forced to go fully digital this year, all eyes were on the event organizers.

What Burning Man did to adjust

At first, Burning Man’s CTO Steven Blumenfeld wanted to turn the experience of the physical event into a 3D VR world, but he quickly realized he didn’t have the time or resources to do so, and that he wanted the fully interactive Burning Man experience to be accessible via smartphone and computer.

Instead, he found independent groups of volunteer developers who wanted to build their own online versions of Burning Man. These became eight official “recognized universes” – blending virtual reality, social layers, video chat, and 3D environments using Second Life technology.

Similar to the real world, attendees were invited to add their own digital camp or art installation to the online version of Burning Man, or leave a viewable offering in a virtual temple (the “Ethereal Empyrean Experience”).

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Burning Man’s transition to digital is that it’s impossible to completely replicate an in-person event by hosting it online. As a TechCrunch reporter Lucas Matney explains it, “While the apps hope to bring elements of the physical event into their virtual spaces, the creators also seem to realize that aiming to compete with attendees’ past memories is unwise.”

Instead, event planners should take advantage of the flexibility of virtual platforms and focus on creating all-new experiences for attendees.

INBOUND (Boston, MA – September 22-23)

Typical attendance number: 25,000

For the past nine years, HubSpot’s INBOUND event has been an in-person, three-day conference for sales and marketing professionals, bringing individuals and teams from across the globe together to attend keynotes, breakout sessions, networking lunches, creative activations, after parties and musical performances from major acts. In May, HubSpot announced that it would be transforming INBOUND into a two-day, virtual experience.

What INBOUND is doing to adjust

The event planners at HubSpot worked to combine the Spotlight, Breakout, and Deep Dive speaker sessions that attendees have enjoyed in the past with new virtual programming, including:

Debates, where two speakers select a topic and pick sides on it
Audio-Only sessions, so people can take a visual break from the screen
Speaker Office Hours, for 1:1 mentorship
Mindfulness sessions, so people can take a mental break during the day
International-friendly Time Zone-based speaker sessions

They also welcomed input and feedback from registrants via a Facebook group and an Advisory Committee.

INBOUND has long been known as a conference where attendees and speakers can connect and share experiences together, and we look forward to seeing how else they encourage these interactions to take place online.

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Conclusion

As you can see, pivoting to virtual can be more than simply having your speakers available on a live streaming session. Think about ways to make the virtual experience just as exciting as the in-person one for all the right reasons: great user experience, different types of session formats, ability to network, attendee interaction, on-demand availability — are just some of the things you can consider for your next online event.

Having the right technology to power your virtual event is also something to consider. If you are in the hunt for event tech to support your new demands, talk to our team to see how Attendease can help you bring your virtual events to life!

5 Brilliant Categories for Event Tech Awards at Attendease 2020

Event Management News

September 16, 2020

We are pleased to announce that Attendease has been shortlisted for five categories under the Event Tech Awards 2020. The Event Tech Awards recognizes the achievement of companies delivering outstanding digital and technological solutions to the events industry and it takes place in London, each year. Here are the categories in which Attendease has been nominated to this year:

Best Visitor Registration Technology
Best Event Management Platform
Best Hybrid Event or Live Streaming Solution
Best Conference Technology
Best Event App

This is the 8th edition of the Awards and it’s the most important recognition awards in the event industry. Attendease has won Best Event Website/ Mobile Site in 2016 and Best Attendee Management Technology in 2019.

The event Tech Awards Ceremony is part of the Event Tech Live – the world’s leading event tech expo. This year’s event will be hybrid, so attendees from around the globe can attend the virtual event that happens from November 2nd – 5th 2020.

According to the Event Tech Live website, “the new-look virtual element will extend and accelerate those processes by stretching the canvas beyond traditional opening times and extending its geography from East London to everywhere. Its visitors are composed of event organisers, promoters, managers, venues, agencies and brands that are looking for fresh tech to take their events to the next level”.

Want to learn more about Attendease? Contact our team to book a demo!

Guide: How to run a Webinar

Event Management News

March 26, 2020

Whether you are planning your first webinar, or if you are an experienced planner, we put together a list with everything you need to plan your next webinar more smoothly and efficiently. Read the tips below, and download the free template here.

Before getting ready to produce a webinar, you need to ask yourself if this is the right strategy at the right time. Are you able to make your subject engaging? Are you able to reach your desired audience? Are there enough people interested in hearing what you have to say? Is that group going to be good prospects for your business? Might it be best to produce a blog article or a white-paper instead? Examples of non-worthy webinar content might include minor product releases, news content (without a twist/opinion), broad themes with no real deliverables, or a dry sales pitch.

People will be sparing an hour of their busy schedules to watch your webinar, so make sure it’s worth it! When done right, webinars can be a powerful marketing strategy that can attract hundreds of new leads into your funnel. This is especially true for B2B companies. Here’s how to make sure your webinar achieves your strategic marketing objectives:

Webinar Content

Choosing the topic to focus on will be the most important decision you will make. The topic you choose should be highly specific, so that you can go over it in great detail and provide concrete deliverables. Avoid topics that are too broad, as it will be harder to deliver real value to your audience, and difficult to entice them to sign up in the first place.

Webinar Formats

Once you know the content you will share, choose the best way to deliver your message. Here are a few popular formats for webinars:

Presentation: discuss a specific niche topic, from a fresh perspective. People don’t want to hear more of the same. You should provide value by having a different point of view and showing different ways to do things and improve results.
Panel: Select a panel of specialists to discuss a specific topic. You can get the audience involved by having a Q&A session at the end.
How to/Tutorial: A walkthrough showing how to perform a specific task.
Interview: Interviewing a specialist on a specific topic.

How To Select Speakers for Your Webinar

Good speaker selection can create a great deal of impact on whether or not your webinar will be successful. Look for experts in the field – professionals who are highly skilled, have enough experience, and are comfortable speaking in public (and in front of the camera).

It’s a good idea to have someone from your own company speaking, but it’s also a best practice to partner with other companies in the industry that are not direct competitors to you, complementing what you offer to your clients. This cross promotion strategy is a great way to reach new audiences too, as the company partnering with you will promote the webinar to their audience also. It’s a win-win!

Promoting your Webinar

SEO: Make sure to optimize your webinar landing page for search engines by adding meta tags, headings, and image alt-tags. You may also generate blog content to promote the event and add links to the webinar page.
Social Media: Create branded banners to share on all social media channels, including headers that can be used to promote the webinar in the week leading up to the event. Consider social advertising to reach new audiences. Lastly, don’t forget your personal social media accounts, especially LinkedIn. Share the event with your network and followers, who may include potential leads for your business!
Email Marketing: Make sure to email your contacts list to spread the word! You may send a couple invitation emails and reminders as you get closer to the event. Make sure to have a dynamic email list, so you don’t send an invitation to users who have already signed up for the event.
Online Advertising: If your budget allows, online advertising is a great strategy to create awareness around your webinar. Whether you are remarketing to users who visited your website in the past, or using a targeted Facebook audience, you can use online ads to your advantage.
Other: Use your own website to promote the event. This may include updating the header banner on your homepage or adding a pop-up with a registration call-to-action.

Build your Slide Deck & Presentation Script

This is more straightforward, but here are a few tips to help you with your webinar presentation deck and script:

When putting the deck together, focus on images, rather than heavy text, which makes a presentation dull and bland.
Use as much data and evidence as possible, to backup your point of view.
Use poll questions to engage the audience (this is also a great way to gather information about your audience).
Have notes with the main points you will refer to on each slide to guide you during the presentation.

Technical Considerations

One of the most important things to consider is using a webinar platform that can support all your needs. That may start with understanding the number of attendees you are expecting, and the duration of the event. Some popular options include Adobe Connect, Zoom and GoToWebinar.

Going through a dry run will also help to see if there are any adjustments needed, including internet stability (cable connections are more stable preferred, compared to wireless), microphone, background noise, timing, notes about the presentation style of your speakers, and more.

Another great tip is to have one technical person available to help during the entire duration of the webinar, so you don’t need to do everything yourself. If anything goes wrong (and we hope it won’t!), someone should be doing that for you, while you can focus on interacting with the audience.

Make sure you have the computer batteries handy, and any other devices that you may need during the event. Turn off cellphones, remove landlines from your room, and anything else that may disrupt your webinar.

Other Considerations During and After the Webinar

Social Streaming: You might take advantage of tools like YouTube, Facebook Live, Instagram Live Stories and IGTV to stream part of your webinar and generate interest. Your followers may be interested in watching and tuning in later, or watching it on demand (make sure to share the links to register!).
On Demand: Don’t forget to record your webinar so you can share it on demand after the live event is over. Using the Attendease landing page, you can still require a registration form to be completed in order to allow in demand webinar view, allowing you to continue to generate leads, even after the event is over. Don’t forget to update the landing page after the event is over, so it doesn’t look dated.
Social Media: Make sure to have someone interacting with viewers live, using the event hashtag (and encourage viewers to use the hashtag!). This is a great way to create noise and keep the audience engaged.
Share Slides: You may want to upload your slide deck into SlideShare, which can generate some extra organic traffic for you.
Email Follow Up and Offers: As your final interaction with your audience, make sure to send an email follow up, including a link to watch the video on demand, and include an offer as a thank you for their time participating (increasing your chances to sign them up for a new deal).This is also an opportunity to make yourself available should they have any questions or would like to learn more about your company.

And that’s a wrap! Creating a webinar is a fantastic way to promote what you do and to create awareness about your company. Following a streamlined process and having the right tools in hand will help you succeed in this effort. If you manage multiple webinars, you may be interested in using Attendease to manage your events, as you can easily clone an event to create a new one in the future. Here’s how you can take advantage of the Attendease platform for your next webinar.

How To Create a Webinar with Attendease

Creating an webinar with Attendease is a great way to start, as you can easily clone any webinar event and create a new one in the future, with minimal effort. That means you don’t need to create multiple websites, landing pages and registration forms, so you can focus on your webinar content and promotion, rather than setting it up. Here’s how easy it is to build a webinar using Attendease:

Create your event settings (URL, date, time, etc.)
Choose a website template for your website.
Use our drag-and-drop functionality to build your webinar page, which includes a variety of content block options, such as images, videos, text, headings, and more.
Build your registration form, with custom fields to gather all the information that you need from your registrants. You can also use global fields, so you can manage attendees across different events, online and offline.
Setup any integrations you may wish to use. Attendease connects with HubSpot and Salesforce CRM, so your registrants’ information can go into your database. You may also integrate with Slack to receive notification whenever a new registration is made.
Once the website is ready to go and the registration process is setup, you can start promoting your webinar. Use the email marketing functionality to email your contacts and segment lists based on users who have already registered for the event or not. You can also set up confirmation emails, email reminders, and follow up emails.
After the event is over, update your landing page to support the on-demand option. New visitors may still register to watch it.
Have another webinar coming up? Simply clone the website design and settings to build a new event. You just need to update the information, without having to build everything from scratch!

Ready to see it in action? Contact our team to book a demo and see for yourself how you can effortlessly manage a webinar using Attendease. Of course, in addition to webinars, you can also learn how to use Attendease to manage any event, regardless of size or type.

Free Event Planning Template: A Step by Step Guide

Event Management News

September 25, 2018

Having a clear event plan will help you not only draw the path to event success, but will also give you the information and metrics you need to track in order to demonstrate your event ROI. From defining the event’s objectives, to ticket pricing strategies, audience personas, and marketing tactics, our event planning template covers everything you need to know to run a successful event. Keep reading to learn more about each section of your plan and examples you should consider when planning your event.

Executive Summary

This is a brief outline of the fundamental elements of your event. It’s important to consider the following strategic goals of the event first though – so you will probably find yourself writing this section last!

Goals & Milestones

Each event will have different purpose and objectives. It’s important that you know from the start what you want to accomplish and how you will measure it. Some things you may want to measure can include number of registrations, brand perception, new members, and more.

Examples:

Increase registration by 15% YoY from xxx to yyy
Promote our brand and increase membership by 10% (xxx new members)
Attract new segment of professionals – Have xxx registrations of CEOs in the ABC industry

You might want to include milestones in your event plan. For example, you can plan how many tickets you would like to have sold by a certain date. This will be especially helpful to help plan your marketing strategies based on these milestones.

Milestones
Goal: Number of Registrations	By Date
50	February 28
100	March 19
150	April 12
200	April 26
Sold Out (250)	May 10

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators):

KPIs are metrics that you will measure that are related to the success of your event.

Examples: Number of registrations, Visits to website, Revenue, Net Promoter Score.

Target Audience

Who will be attending your event? The more you understand your target audience, the better you can market to them. This information will support your entire marketing strategy, including the selection of channels you will use to communicate with your audience, and the messages you will send. You can think in terms of demographics, psychographics, geographic, and behavioural.

Geographic: Select audience based on geographic location (city, neighborhood, etc.)

Demographics: Audience characteristics that may include age, gender, race, ethnicity, education, income, occupation, etc.

Psychographic: Segments the market on principles such as lifestyle, values, social class, and personality.

Behavioural: Segments audience based on usage, loyalties, awareness, occasions, knowledge, liking, and purchase patterns.

Example:

Our target audience comprises of mid-management professionals in the tech industry, who work in roles such as AI architects, development, and analytics. 70% of the audience are male, between 30-45 years old. We are targeting professionals located in North America who are willing to travel for great learning experiences. They are decision makers in their roles who are engaged in testing and approving new tools and software for their teams. They are tech savvy, and spend over 12 hours per day connected to the internet. They use social media channels, in special LinkedIn, Facebook, and Reddit.

Unique Value Proposition

What makes your event special? Make a list of unique value propositions together with your team and list all the benefits of participating in your event. This content can be used on your website, email and social media communication, advertising banners, and more. Pinpointing what makes your event will help you to stand out from the crowd, and help you target your sales efforts successfully.The time you spend here will really pay off as you are developing the communication pieces to promote your event across all channels.

Budget

It’s important that you know from the start what is your total budget and how you will spend it across different categories, including expenses related to website development, print material, advertising, catering, venue, decor, etc. Create a spreadsheet to keep track of the budget available, quoted costs, and actual costs.

Pricing & Offers

If you are running a paid event, list the cost for the tickets, as well as special offers and dates related to the offers, including early-bird pricing, promo codes, and pricing tiers for different segments.

Ticket type	Cost	Valid until	# Tickets Avail.
Super early-bird
Early-Bird
Regular
Student

Promotions	Promotional Offer	Promo Code	# Tickets Avail.
Sponsors
Exhibitors
Affiliate Marketing
Influencer

Marketing Mix

In this section you will select the chosen marketing channels to promote your event, including a breakdown with goals, KPIs, and tactics. This can be as simple as a bullet point list. Here are some examples:

Website

Website Goals:

Communicate about the event
Drive ticket sales

KPIs:

Website traffic
Clicks to CTA (Call to Action)
Sales driven from website

Tactics:

Create event website with online registration

Online Advertising

Online Advertising Goals:

Create and increase awareness
Generate ticket sales

KPIs:

Traffic originated from paid sources
Sales originated from (or assisted by) paid traffic

Tactics:

AdWords
Social ads
Editorial ads

Email Marketing

Email Marketing Goals:

Increase event registrations
Keep registered attendees engaged and excited about the event (and ideally have them invite their friends and colleagues)

KPIs:

Website traffic from email campaigns
Registrations completed
Open rate
Unsubscribed rates

Tactics:

Send by-weekly emails starting three months before the event
Emails will be sent to XXX (specific email list)

Social Media

Social Media Goals:

Create and increase awareness
Generate ticket sales

KPIs:

Traffic originated from social channels
Sales originated from social sources

Tactics:

Share social media updates 3x per week
Chosen channels include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn

Social Media Content ideas:

Quotes from speakers
Promotional video
Video from speakers’ previous engagements
Articles published by speakers
Share media articles talking about your event
Curate content regarding topics that will be discussed at the conference
Promotional content
- Save the date message
- Notify of price increases
- Promote speakers
- Promote workshops
- Special offers

During the Event

Live Stream
Twitter and Instagram Stories updates

Media & Community Relations

Media Goals:

Create and increase awareness about the event

KPIs:

Number of media mentions
Media reach

Strategies & Tactics:

Press releases to promote the event:
- Save the date
- Speakers announced/ Interview
- 1-2 weeks prior to the event
Media partners to promote and cover the event

Out of Home (OOH)

OOH Goals:

Create and increase awareness

KPIs:

Number of estimated impressions

Tactics:

Advertise on specific medium (bus shelter, subway ads, etc.)

Marketing Calendar

Build a calendar with the dates set to accomplish each task, including developing a website and sharing social media messages or sending emails. While building your marketing calendar, consider some key dates that might guide your content creation, such as:

Save the date message
Notifying of price increases
Promote speakers
Promote workshops
Special offers
Photos and videos from previous events
Sneak peek for the key takeaways for the event
Post-event survey: Follow up with a discount code for the next year’s event

Conclusion

When planning events, there are so many unique aspects to take into consideration. Having it all written down from start will help you and your team to work together towards a common goal, while being able to track all your efforts and the results achieved. Looking for more insights on specific areas covered in this article? We invite you to download the additional resources provided by linking the banner images throughout the article. Need more help? Drop us a message below!

Benefits of Using Event Management Software [Infographic]

Event Management News

July 30, 2018

According to the State of the Industry Report, over ten million meetings and events are held every year around the world, with the industry surpassing the $500 billion mark. With so many events to manage, event professionals are turning to technology to help them work more efficiently.

Research also shows that over 68% of event planners produce more than 13 events per year, with 72% executing the same event portfolio, year after year. There should be an easier way to manage this, right? The answer is yes! As technology advances, there are a number of event tech solutions for every need. Adopting an all-in-one event technology platform can help you save time, optimize resources, reduce efforts, and organize processes.

We put together an infographic to show the state of the event industry, the common challenges, and the main solutions that event technology platforms, like Attendease, can help you with.

Like what you see? Feel free to share this infographic on your blog! If you have any questions, leave us a comment below.