13 Event Ideas for Sales Kick-Off Meetings

  • Event Management
Event Ideas for Sales Kick-Off Meetings

Sales kick-off meetings (SKOs) are vital for driving success in your company’s sales team

These events bring together your company’s entire sales team from across the country to celebrate wins, reinforce company values, and equip attendees with knowledge and tools for the upcoming sales cycle. 

When done well, sales kick-off meetings foster unity, inspire confidence, and reignite the passion that fuels top performers.

When executed poorly, attendees leave feeling deflated and uninspired— definitely not what you want for your people!

So whether you’re a corporate event planner or a sales team leader, we’ll explore the crucial elements of planning a successful SKO. Keep reading for 13 creative event ideas to engage and inspire your sales force at your next sales kick-off meeting!

What is a Sales Kick-off Meeting?

A sales kick-off meeting (SKO) is an annual or semi-annual event where companies gather their entire sales organization. These meetings typically occur at the start of a new fiscal year or sales period and are held off-site, often at a hotel or conference center (though virtual options are rising in popularity). 

The primary objectives of an SKO are to provide product and strategy updates, set goals, rev up motivation, and align the sales team for the upcoming sales cycle!

Despite the rise of remote work, successful companies like HubSpot, Salesforce, and Adobe continue to invest in SKOs. These events remain relevant as they foster team camaraderie, offer valuable training opportunities, and create a shared sense of purpose and direction for the sales force.

Common agenda items at a sales kick-off meeting include:

READ MORE: 9 Things Attendees Actually Want From Your Next Event

What Does Every Sales Kick-off Event Need?

To create a truly impactful and memorable sales kick-off event, you need to incorporate several crucial pillars that cater to the diverse needs of your company’s sales force. Let’s explore these pillars in greater detail:

Reflection & celebration

A successful SKO should start by reflecting on the previous year’s achievements, challenges, and lessons learned. Whether individual or team-based, celebrating wins boosts morale and reinforces a positive sales culture! This recognition fosters a sense of accomplishment and motivation to continue striving for excellence.

Education

Providing comprehensive product and industry updates keeps your sales team informed and equipped to handle customer objections effectively. Educational sessions should cover new features, relevant competitors, and emerging market trends. Hands-on training and role-playing scenarios can level-up everyone’s skills. 

READ MORE: 35 Creative Product Launch Event Ideas to Try in 2024

Team engagement

You have great people on your sales team. Why not leverage them? The best sales kick-off events include collaboration, problem-solving, and relationship-building. Informal break-out sessions encourage the team to learn from each other and succeed together. Activities can range from team-based challenges to social events, fostering a sense of camaraderie and strengthening team bonds. 

Collaboration

Aligning the sales team with other departments— such as marketing, product development, and customer success— is essential for a cohesive customer experience. Cross-functional sessions and networking opportunities during the SKO encourage open communication, shared understanding, and improved collaboration throughout the year.

Energy

A successful SKO should be an energizing and motivating experience for your sales team. Incorporating high-energy elements, like dynamic keynote speakers, fun activities, and memorable celebrations, can create a contagious atmosphere of excitement and enthusiasm, propelling the sales team forward into the next sales cycle!

13 Creative Event Ideas for Your Next Sales Kick-off Meeting

Crafting an engaging and memorable sales kick-off event requires a blend of tried-and-true tactics and innovative approaches. Here are 13 creative event ideas to inspire your next SKO and leave a lasting impression on your sales team:

Interactive product demos and gamification

Instead of traditional product presentations, engage your sales team through interactive demos and gamified challenges. Divide attendees into teams and have them compete in product-based quizzes, role-playing scenarios, or scavenger hunts, fostering friendly competition and hands-on learning.

Expert panel discussions

Bring in a diverse panel of industry experts, thought leaders, and successful sales professionals to share their insights, experiences, and best practices. Encourage attendees to participate in Q&A sessions and networking to keep the knowledge flowing. 

Immersive virtual reality (VR) experiences

Leverage the power of virtual reality to transport your sales team into simulated customer environments or product demonstrations. VR can provide a unique and memorable way to showcase your offerings, empathize with customer pain points, and practice sales techniques. 

Sales pitch competition

Challenge your sales team to showcase their skills in a sales pitch competition. Divide attendees into teams and assign them hypothetical products or services to pitch. Invite internal or external judges to provide feedback, in turn fostering healthy competition and skills development.

Escape room team-building

Escape rooms promote collaboration, problem-solving, and communication. Rent out an escape room venue or create your own on-site experience, dividing attendees into teams to solve puzzles and challenges together!

Charity volunteer time

Incorporate a philanthropic element into your kick-off event by organizing a volunteer event for a local charity or non-profit organization. This not only gives back to the community but also encourages bonding and a shared sense of purpose beyond sales.

Sales Olympics or Field Day

Inject some friendly competition and physical activity into your SKO by organizing a “Sales Olympics” or field day. Set up different athletic or skills-based challenges, from tug-of-war to obstacle courses, allowing attendees to unleash their competitive spirit and bond over shared physical activity. 

Sharing success stories

Invite top-performing sales reps or company leaders to share how they have overcome challenges and achieved results. Storytelling can be a powerful tool for inspiration and motivation, especially when stories come from peers or thought leaders. 

Improv comedy workshops

Improv workshops can be an excellent addition to a sales kick-off event. These interactive sessions teach valuable skills like active listening, thinking on your feet, and adapting to unexpected situations—all crucial skills for successful sales pros!

Sales mastermind sessions

Facilitate peer-to-peer learning and knowledge sharing during your sales kick-off event. Divide attendees into small groups based on experience levels, territories, or product lines, and encourage them to discuss best practices, challenges, and strategies. These sessions can be moderated by sales leaders or top performers, creating a collaborative space for continuous learning and growth.

Live music or comedy performance

Add an element of entertainment and energy to your SKO by booking some live music or a comedy act. These can serve as uplifting breaks between sessions or as part of evening social events, helping to create a fun and memorable atmosphere for attendees.

Wellness activities

Prioritize the well-being of your sales team by incorporating wellness activities into your agenda. Options could include yoga or meditation sessions, healthy cooking demonstrations, or outdoor team-building activities like hiking or a nature walk.

Sales awards gala or red carpet event

End your kick-off event on a high note by hosting an awards gala or red-carpet event to recognize and celebrate top-performing sales representatives, teams, or leaders. This is the perfect opportunity for attendees to dress up, let loose, network, and commemorate their achievements in style.

The Benefits of Running a Virtual Sales Kick-off Meeting

While in-person sales kick-off meetings offer unparalleled opportunities for team bonding, organizing them annually can be a logistical and financial challenge. 

Fortunately, modern event management technology has paved the way for virtual SKOs, providing companies with a flexible and cost-effective alternative, especially in the era of remote work.

Virtual SKOs make it easier to bring dispersed sales teams together without the need for travel or venue costs. This format offers several benefits, including:

  • Cost savings. Virtual SKOs eliminate costs associated with venue rental, travel, accommodations, and catering. 
  • Increased accessibility. Remote attendees can participate from anywhere, reducing barriers to attendance and ensuring no one misses out on crucial information and training.
  • Flexibility and convenience. Virtual event software allows for seamless integration of pre-recorded content, live sessions, and on-demand access, accommodating different time zones and schedules.
  • Reduced environmental impact. By eliminating travel, virtual SKOs contribute to a lower carbon footprint, aligning with corporate sustainability goals.

Plus, virtual event software offers live polls, breakout rooms, and gamification, ensuring your team still gets valuable opportunities for networking and bonding. 

GET THE FREE GUIDE: Implementation Guide for Virtual Events

Top FAQs about Sales Kick-off Meetings

How far in advance should I plan a sales kick-off meeting?

It’s generally recommended to start planning your SKO at least 6-9 months in advance. This allows ample time for securing venues, coordinating speakers and activities, and ensuring proper communication and promotion to your sales team. 

What’s the ideal duration for a sales kick-off meeting?

While there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, most successful SKOs range from 2-4 days. This timeframe provides sufficient opportunities for training, team-building activities, and social events without overwhelming attendees.

How can I ensure high attendance and engagement at our SKO?

Promote the event well in advance and communicate the value proposition to attendees. Incorporate interactive elements, gamification, and networking opportunities into the agenda. You could also consider offering incentives or recognition for participation and engagement.

How can I measure the success and ROI of our sales kick-off meeting?

Set clear goals and metrics beforehand, such as increased product knowledge, improved sales skills, or strengthened team cohesion. Collect feedback from attendees through surveys and follow up on tangible outcomes like improved sales performance or customer satisfaction scores in the following months.

What are the benefits of using event management technology for a virtual SKO?

Event management software like Attendease offer numerous advantages for virtual SKOs, including seamless live streaming, interactive features (polls, Q&A, breakout rooms), on-demand content access, and comprehensive analytics. These tools can enhance engagement, networking, and overall experience for remote attendees.

LEARN MORE: Continuing the Conversation: Keeping Attendees Engaged After a Virtual Event

Supercharge Your Events with Leading Event Management Software

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

4 Easy Ways to Boost Event Registration by 20%

  • Event Management News
4 Easy Ways to Boost Event Registration by 20%

You’ve spent countless hours and resources planning an amazing event. But what happens if no one shows up? 

Event registration can make or break the success of your event. A seamless event registration process leads to more attendees and higher revenues. A leaky process, on the other hand, leads to missed opportunities and diminishing ROI. 

Let’s examine an often overlooked but important source of attendees for your event: incomplete registrants AKA the people who stalled midway through your event registration process.

The Baymard Institute found that abandoned cart rates averaged almost 70%, sometimes going as high as 84%. Event planners, that’s a lot of lost registrants for your event!

Fortunately, with thoughtful retargeting and a series of strategic emails, you can boost attendance to your event—gaining back as many as 20% or more of your event registrations that stalled along the way! Event registration platforms can help you get there. Keep reading to learn how. 

Let’s Do The Math on Incomplete Event Attendees

Let’s say your event ticket is $100. If 400 people begin the registration process, but only 70% of them follow through, that leaves 30% incomplete—which translates to $12,000 in missed revenue. Yikes!

If you successfully revived even 20% of those prospective event attendees (24 people), that would be $2,400 with a little effort on your part. You just have to know what you’re looking for. 

If you don’t believe this could have a massive impact on your event strategy, plug in the numbers from your own registration statistics, and see what that missing revenue would be—you might be surprised!

You’ll likely find that the potential revenue is well worth the minimal time and effort it takes to set up a retargeting campaign. Event registration software can streamline the process. 

GET THE FREE CHECKLIST: Take the guesswork out of designing an event registration strategy that drives your customers to buy!


4 Strategies to Boost Event Registration

Ready to increase your event registration numbers with minimal time and effort? Explore the following 4 strategies: 

  1. Run an automated email campaign

When it comes to event registration, event analytics are your friend. 

First, navigate to the registration module of your event management software. Once there, you should be able to compile a comprehensive report that will identify all of the partially completed or incomplete registration forms. 

Next, you can set up a series of automated yet personalized emails to go out to these people who have abandoned their registration process, regardless of where in the funnel they dropped out. 

Did you know that registration abandonment emails typically have much higher open and click-to-open rates than other marketing emails? That’s because prospective attendees are already familiar with the event and just need a little reminder or encouragement to complete their registration form.

By creating an email campaign filled with engaging event content, keynote speaker highlights, or even a discount for your prospective attendees (more on this below), you can increase your event registration revenues considerably.

  1. Catch registration problems early in the game

Sometimes people drop out of the registration process due to design flaws in your event registration forms. Other times prospective attendees may have questions about some of the required information, or concerns about data security. Or they may have simply become distracted before they were able to complete your form.

You can set up an automated email to go out to these potential registrants as early as the same day as a registration form is abandoned. The email should be a gentle reminder that they have not completed the registration process, along with an invitation to contact you for technical assistance if necessary. 

If you think it might apply, you can also include some reassuring language that directs prospective attendees to your event’s legal policy or terms and conditions. The tone should be friendly and lighthearted. Here are some great examples of effective emails to inspire you.

  1. Send a reminder about an upcoming registration milestone

If your event invitation contains an early bird discount, you can use the upcoming deadline as a reason to send another email reminder to your incomplete or abandoned registrants. 

Make sure you send it at least a few days, if not a week before the deadline, in order to give them adequate time to take advantage of the opportunity. Sending another one the day before the deadline is not taboo, either. 

Remember, these are people who have already shown interest in your event. They just need a little nudge.

  1. When all else fails, offer a special deal

You’ve already sent out as many as two emails, and no response yet. 

We don’t recommend sending more than three well spaced follow-ups in total, as too many may be considered aggressive. On your last attempt, make it count—your incomplete or abandoned registrants might need a small incentive in order to convert.

After your traditional milestone deadlines have passed, try offering a special discount or incentive, either at or just under the early bird rate. Clearly communicate that this offer is for those prospective attendees who have initiated the registration process earlier on. 

  • With event registration software like Attendease by Tripleseat, you can even provide unique promo codes to manage this process. 

Sometimes price is the main barrier for prospective attendees not having completed their online registration the first time around. Offering a slight savings may be just the motivation to help them make up their minds and commit, once and for all.

LEARN MORE: Not sure how to effectively price tickets to your next event? We’ve got you covered with our in-depth ticketing guide. 

Boost Your Registration with a Powerful Event Registration Platform

Event registration can make or break your next event. Fortunately, you don’t have to master this process alone.

Attendease by Tripleseat provides powerful event registration and ticketing software that makes it easy to customize a seamless experience for your attendees. 

It’s never been easier to: 

  • Manage pricing categories, promo codes, and group passes
  • Create unique registration forms for specific pass types
  • Save registration forms to use again in future meetings and events
  • Schedule your fully branded registration experience to go live at any time you’re ready

For more information on how we can help you boost your event registration, get in touch with us to book a demo.

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.

Event Ticket Pricing Strategies [2024 Guide]

  • Event Management News
product-school

How much you decide to charge for tickets can make or break your event. In this guide, we will cover proven ticket pricing strategies to help you determine your ticket prices and ensure the financial success of your event.

1. Determine Your Event’s Value

Before exploring ticket pricing strategies to drive event revenue, you’ll need to revisit your event design. In a talk with Anthony Vade, Director of North America at Event Design Collective, we learned just how crucial this step is.

Revisiting your event design means closely examining your stakeholders (attendees, sponsors, exhibitors, leadership, etc.), what they want to get out of the event, and what value the event will bring them. Once you know your event’s value, you’ll be able to apply a price tag to it confidently.

Here are a few key things Anthony Vade made note of around value:

Information Delivery Is No Longer Enough

While you might think that sharing information through presentations and workshops is what your audience wants to pay for, remember that information is now widely accessible and free thanks to the internet. For your event to have value to your stakeholders, it will need to provide connections and experiences, along with the information.

Experiences Carry More Weight

Some virtual events may be free, while others charge premium amounts if attendees want access to a deeper in-person or online experience. Intimacy, networking, and the chance to form close connections are major reasons why people are willing to pay more to attend events.

Events Provide Value When They Change the Behaviors of Their Stakeholders

Consider the following:

  • Why do your stakeholders attend your event, and what do they leave with?
  • What pain do they enter with, and what gains do they exit with?
  • How does your event create transformations for your audience?
  • What actionable takeaways is your audience walking away with?

All the above translates into your event’s unique value that, when articulated correctly, is worth investing in.

ANTHONY VADE QUOTE

2. Uncover Your Event’s Value

How do you know that what you perceive your event’s value to be is correct? Will your stakeholders see it the same way? Following the methodology by the Event Design Collective, the way to uncover this is first to map the stakes for all your high-impact stakeholders:

  • What is at stake?
  • Who is involved?
  • What is their contribution?
  • What are their expectations?

Collaborate with your team and ask them to share their perspectives on what they think those stakeholders want so you can validate your hypotheses. You can do this by asking major stakeholders like attendees, event owners, and sponsors directly if your ideas are accurate and if they’re willing to pay what you’re planning to charge for the event. If you’re right, you’ve validated that what you’re about to offer is indeed what they want and are willing to pay for. If you’re wrong, then you can take that feedback until you get it right. Once you validate your stakeholder’s goals, you can then:

  • Analyze how your event will help them achieve what they’re looking for.
  • Justify the investment or expense of your event (e.g., buying a ticket or sponsoring a tradeshow booth).

3. Calculate Your Event Ticket Price

How Do You Determine Ticket Price?

Setting the right ticket price for your event involves a careful balance to attract attendees without compromising your financial goals. Here are key steps to help you determine the optimal ticket price:

Step 1: Establish Your Break-Even Point

Before setting your ticket price, calculate the total cost of organizing the event, including venue, refreshments, staffing, etc. Determine the minimum number of attendees required to cover these expenses and break even. This foundational step ensures that your pricing strategy aligns with your financial objectives.

Step 2: Analyze the Competitive Landscape

Conduct a competitive pricing analysis to understand the rates for similar events in your industry. Align your ticket prices with or slightly below the average to remain attractive to potential attendees.

Step 3: Explore Different Pricing Models

Consider innovative pricing models to enhance attendee engagement and increase revenue. Options such as early bird pricing, member discounts, or bundle pricing can create value for attendees while maximizing profitability for your event.

Step 4: Get Attendee Feedback

Engage with your audience by getting their input on ticket pricing. Conduct surveys through email or social media to understand their willingness to pay and the value they associate with your event.

Step 5: Assess & Adapt

Your initial ticket prices are not set in stone. Monitor attendee response and adjust prices based on the observed demand. If events consistently sell out, consider increases. If events consistently have low attendance, you may need to make price adjustments to attract more participants.

How to Determine Your Break-Even Ticket Price Point

Before you start thinking about pricing, you should know your numbers. Use a budget template to calculate your projected expenses and revenues. You then have an educated perspective on how much your tickets should cost in order to cover the expenses.

How to Research Other Events

Research other events in the market that are relevant to you:

  • Regardless of location, similar events may give you a good idea regarding size, attendance, and pricing.
  • Similar events near you which might compete against your event. Why would people choose to go to your event instead of a competitor’s?

Understanding the competitive space will indicate the range of ticket prices you should consider and the expected attendance numbers from similar events.

How to Forecast Ticket Sales

Based on your previous events and your competitors, you should be able to develop a realistic sales forecast. How many people are likely to attend the event? How many people can the venue hold? Once you find this number, you can divide it by the Break-Even point found earlier to calculate the minimum price you should sell your tickets for to pay for all expenses.

If you offer different purchasing options, bundled pricing may work for you. You can create perceived value by adding multiple items into one bundle at a reduced price compared to having all items purchased separately. This is also a good way to motivate the purchase of add-on items, such as meals, transportation, accommodation, activities, parties, and more.

4. Set Up Common Ticket Types, Pricing Strategies, & Sales Tactics

Once you have determined how much you should be selling your tickets for, draft your strategy to sell the tickets. Here are some different event ticket pricing strategies you may consider.

Early Bird Ticket Pricing & Tiered Early Bird Ticket Pricing

There is no surprise here: early bird sales are the easiest way to create awareness about the event and push sales in the early months of promotion. You can create a multi-tiered early bird strategy to push for even more event ticket sales. Here is an example of how to use the multi-tiered early bird structure:

First 50 tickets at $100
50-100 tickets at $125
Regular price at $175

One thing to keep in mind is that you should never extend your early bird rate. Doing so trains your audience to wait instead of acting, which is the whole point of the early bird strategy.

Timed Batch Event Ticket Pricing

Similarly to tiered early bird, you can create a tier based on milestone dates. You can create as many tiers as you wish, adding price increases as it gets closer to the event date. Make sure the increases are significant enough to make people want to purchase it early. An increase of at least 10% is recommended. Here is an example of timed batch event ticket pricing:

Purchase by March 1st at $100
Purchase by March 14 at $125
After March 14, the regular price is $175

Odd/Even Event Ticket Pricing

This is an old marketing trick we all have heard of. Prices ending in odd numbers, such as 5 and 9, tend to outperform even numbers in terms of sales. Whether this is an old psychology trick or the real deal, it doesn’t hurt to try. You can test this strategy in different events to compare the results.

You should avoid cents and stick to a whole number—for example, $75 or $79 instead of $70.95. The price with no decimal numbers is perceived as lower, even though it may not be.

Bundled Event Ticket Pricing

If you are offering different purchase options, bundled pricing may work for you. You can create perceived value by adding multiple items into one bundle at a reduced price compared to having all items purchased separately. This is also a good way to motivate the purchase of add-on items, such as meals, transportation, accommodation, activities, parties, and more.

Event Up-Selling Strategy

If you don’t want to increase the total cost by using the bundle price, you should consider up-selling after the ticket purchase. That means you focus on selling the tickets for your event and contact them later to up-sell other items, such as meals, transportation,  accommodation, after-parties, etc. This way, you can guarantee the event ticket and worry about items with lower margins later.

Event Ticket Price Discount Strategy

Whether you give a percentage discount of a fixed dollar amount, a discount can make all the difference based on the perceived value of the discount. Follow the “Rule of 100”, which uses percentage discount for ticket prices under $100 and dollar amounts for prices over $100. Here are some examples:

Ticket priceDiscount (%)Discount ($)Better Option
$1020%$2.0020%
$2020%$4.0020%
$10020%$20$20
$50020%$100$100

Use Scarcity To Drive Event Demand

If your audience knows your previous event was sold out, chances are they might feel rushed to get their tickets early for the next event you host. With this in mind, you may choose a smaller venue to host your initial event as a strategy to increase demand for future events. Don’t forget to announce the selling-out situation when promoting a new event to encourage your audience to move quickly to secure their event tickets.

Offer a Top Tier Ticket Package

A premium ticket package and other cheaper options may make lower-priced tickets seem more attractive, increasing demand and sales. Even if you don’t sell too many higher ticket prices, this can help with regular-priced tickets. The VIP offers, which may include exclusive access perks, will appeal to a segment of your attendees who are looking for the best.

Promo Codes

Create promo codes for specific segments that can help push sales through referrals. For example, you can create a special code for your speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors so they can share the event with their audience. This will help increase your promotion reach, as your “partners” will promote directly with their audience, who might not necessarily know you and your event. Partners will feel more motivated to promote the event, knowing they are offering their audience a benefit while strengthening the relationship with you. Provide them with assets to share on social media to help with the event promotions.

Similarly, you can create promo codes for niche influencers in your industry so they can share the event with their audience.

5. Use Unique Ticket Pricing Strategies for Virtual Events

Ticket pricing strategies are even trickier when it comes to hosting virtual and hybrid events. As these events become more popular, the industry is in the process of figuring out the best ways to monetize these events. Here are a few ways you can price your virtual events:

Offer Flexible Event Ticket Pricing Options

Sliding scale: Rather than having a set price, you can offer attendees a sliding scale to give them options for how much they can afford according to their financial situation.

By donation: You can also offer attendees to pay by donation, so they choose how much to pay for the event. In this case, it can be wise to add a “suggested donation amount’ to educate them on the value of the event.

Free, excluding premium components: Another route you might consider is hosting your event free of charge but charging premium amounts if attendees want to get access to specific event components like the online networking platform, high-profile speaker sessions, or exclusive content. This option lets you set several ticket tiers so attendees can choose what suits them most.

Anchor Your Ticket Price On Desirable Experiences

In addition to offering an exciting program with a diverse agenda, you can anchor your price on additional experiences your event can provide, including:

Networking opportunities: Give your audience more points of interaction to create and strengthen connections. You can justify a healthy ticket price for your virtual event when you give attendees an exciting opportunity to connect with peers meaningfully.

Exclusive touch-points with experts: The chance to connect with experts privately or in small groups can be a huge selling point for attendees who value one-on-one time or exclusivity. This can take the form of private meetings or limited-capacity Q&A sessions where guests can connect with people at the very top of their field for an opportunity to pick their brains.

On-demand flexibility: Many virtual events are free to watch live but paid to have on-demand access to watch the recordings. This can be a good way to attract ticket sales as well.

6. Develop Strategies for Where & How To Sell Event Tickets

Your sales strategy should cover the channels you’ll be marketing through and how the sales will be executed.

Sell Event Tickets Online

Ensure customers can buy tickets to your event online. Selling online not only makes it convenient for customers, but it also frees up administration time for you and your team. One of the easiest ways to offer online sales is through an event registration platform. In addition to scheduling and attendee log-in capabilities, this type of platform offers features like different pricing categories, promo codes, and group passes.

Sell Event Tickets At The Door

It could work in your favor to offer tickets at the door as well as online, though this depends on the type of event. People could turn up at the last minute, which could help you fill up your event. However, you might want to charge slightly more at the door to encourage people to buy well before the event.

How to Use Marketing Channels to Sell Event Tickets

As for marketing, you should explore the different channels you’d like to market through.

  • Search engines – You can use pay-per-click (PPC) or search engine optimization (SEO) to reach more potential leads through search engines.
  • Social media – Leverage your social media channels. Social media could be a highly impactful way to get your message out there, generate awareness for your events, and reach a large group of people without expensive paid advertising. Concentrating on the two or three platforms your target audience uses the most is helpful. Ensure your attendees spend time on these platforms and that the content you share is tailored to your target audience and the platform.
  • Customer database and re-targeting – Email your customer database and consider re-targeting leads who’ve shown interest in your events.
  • Your network – Ask your event-management team, caterers, vendors, and other partners to help generate word-of-mouth interest in your events. Ask them to forward emails to their network and share posts on social media.
  • Advertising and sponsorships – Expand your reach through billboards, radio advertising, local press, social ads, other paid advertising media, and related channels like sponsorships.

Leverage Effective Ticket Pricing Strategies & Sell Out Your Events With EventUp Planner’s Event Ticketing Platform

Sold-out events are the result of careful ticket pricing strategies and sales rather than chance. With a detailed ticketing strategy designed for your target audience, you’ll be better positioned to generate awareness, accelerate ticket sales, and sell out your events.

Want to learn more about how to sell out your events and make them a financial success? Download your ticket pricing strategies guide today. Or book a call with our team to learn how EventUp Planner (formerly Attendease) can help you.

3 Questions You Should Be Asking About Your Event Data Analytics

  • Event Management News
3 Questions You Should Be Asking About Event Data Analytics

This is an exciting time to be digging into the event data analytics generated from your events. With so many new tech tools and sophisticated insights, event planners can be very strategic in increasing the ROI from conferences, trade shows, and events.

To get started and instantly learn more about your attendees’ interests and behaviors, here are some important questions you should be digging into: 

Question 1: Where Do I Find My Event Data Analytics?

Event analytics can be found in several different places. Your event website, registration platform, and your virtual event platform (where applicable) will all provide you with important data regarding performance and visitor interactions.

Your Event Website

Data from your event website will tell you a lot about your marketing. Is your message clear? Is all the relevant information about your event clearly and readily available on your site? Are people finding what they’re looking for?

To get answers to these questions, check things like how long people stay on your site, how many pages they visit, and where they go next after they leave your site. Also, what pages are they spending the most time on? Are they the ones they SHOULD be spending the most time on? Or is this a sign that your content is confusing to them?

The goal is to get people to stay on your site and spend time researching and navigating to the links you’re sending them from each page on your event website.

Ultimately, the end goal is to get them to convert and register for your event. Those conversions can happen in many different tools, depending on your event tech stack. We’ve separated registrations out since not everyone manages them from their event website CMS tool.

Your Online Registration Platform

There are many different tools you can use to take and manage your event registrations. (We wrote this blog on event registration software if you need help finding the right tool for you.) However you manage them, the data you can pull from them will help you understand more about the attendee experience. You’ll also be able to understand if you’re targeting the right audience with your event.

If users are making it partway through your registration flow and then bailing out, that could have a few meanings. Maybe your registration flow is too long. The flow could potentially get confusing. Or worse, maybe it’s broken! These are all things you need to follow up on and look into in order to ensure people are making it through your registration flow.

If users are bailing from your form, maybe it’s too long. Or maybe you’re asking questions people aren’t comfortable answering so early on in your ‘relationship.’ Only ask for the minimum amount of information you need to get the user registered. You can ask them more questions about themselves AFTER they’ve registered.

If your website visitor numbers are high, but conversions are low, consider doing some testing on different elements of your page and form to increase conversions. Wordstream is a great website with data-backed blogs on landing page optimizations, among other marketing tactics.

With Attendease, you can choose to just use our online registration tool as a standalone feature, or you can use it with our full suite of event management tools.

Your Virtual Event-Hosting Platform

If you’re hosting virtual or hybrid events, there’s a lot of juicy data to be had to help you understand how your event performed in your virtual event platform analytics. Check for engagement statistics when you share polls, Q&A, and chat, for instance. What percentage of people are engaging? How often are they engaging? What types of things are they engaging, more or less, with? Does the drop-off rate increase as your event goes on? What sessions are people staying to the end for?

The types of event data you can dig into with virtual events seem almost endless. You can use what you discover from your virtual event data to improve future virtual and hybrid events.

If you’re using a comprehensive event management platform such as Attendease, all of your event data analytics can be found in one place. 

  • TIPAnother (free) source of important online performance data is Google Analytics. Google Analytics is available to you no matter what type of event planning software you use.

Question 2: What Data Can I Get From My Email Outreach?

You can learn a lot about your pre- (and post-) event marketing by digging into your email analytics. There are endless email automation platforms on the market that event organizers use. The easiest way to manage it is to have email automation capabilities available in your event platform. Another way is to find one that integrates easily with your event platform.

Check for open rates on your emails first. Of all of your emails sent out, how many are getting opened? The more people who open your emails, the more you know you’ve found the right audience. And if a lot of users are clicking on the links in your email, that’s an even better indication you’ve hit your mark.

Open rates can also often mean that you just hit the nail on the head with a great subject line. What you really want is people clicking through on the registration links in your emails.

Check for unsubscribe and ‘marked as spam’ rates next. If you’re getting a lot of these, you’re emailing the wrong people. The good news here is that this can ultimately help your open rates in the future. The more people you get off your list who will never open your emails, the better. The bad news is if too many people unsubscribe, it could hurt the future deliverability of your emails, as you’ll get marked as spam by email providers.

  • TIP: Don’t send your emails out to everyone in your database. Segment your list and only send it to people you truly think would be interested in your event so you don’t ruin your email deliverability.

Question 3: Why Is The Net Promoter Score So Important?

Feedback from event attendees is key in gauging the success of events. A robust event management platform will allow you to easily gather useful data, such as the “Net Promoter Score” from your attendees after they have experienced your event. This particular analytic is a gauge of loyalty and customer satisfaction. Net Promoters are your most important influencers and well worth knowing inside and out.

  • TIPNet Promoters are your loyal fans who will sing your event’s praises to their friends and colleagues. They generally account for about 80% of your referrals. Net promoters can also help you close new sponsors or exhibitors with their passion for your business.

Event data analytics will provide you with actionable information and deep attendee insights. Data on how your prospects and attendees interact with your marketing efforts will help refine your future marketing outreach. Get ready to take action on these insights. You’ll be able to translate them into responsive marketing strategies and create your most attended event yet!

For more about how to develop an analytics-rich event strategy featuring your event website, registration, and event apps, download our FREE Ebook Event Analytics: The Fundamental Guide to Executing Your Event Right

Attendease is a cloud-based marketing automation solution for corporate event managers and teams. We’re a modern, feature-rich event software that enables you to manage a wide range of events of all types and sizes.

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 Attendease 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 Attendease is a good fit for your organization, download our Platform Overview.

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

Debunking the Myth of All-in-One Event Management Software with Lindsay Martin-Bilbrey

  • Event Management

We recently spoke to Lindsay Martin-Bilbrey, CEO at Nifty Method, about the concept of all-in-one event management platform. We talked about why this concept is flawed and what approach tech providers and event planners can take. Here are some key takeaways from the conversation with Lindsay where she debunks the myth of all-in-one event tech. 

Technology has become more and more part of the event planning landscape, whether to manage registration, event agenda, abstract, AV team, food and beverage, and more… While event planners are eager to find a tech solution that can do everything under one roof, the reality is much different. There has never been a platform that could truly fit all of these moving pieces together. 

As Lindsay shared, event tech platforms begin by creating one really great piece of software that solves one really big problem. If they can do that really well and without bugs, they can then help solve another problem. 

So, building a solution that can navigate from procurement to abstract management, food and beverage, registration, and more is something hard to come by. Lindsay even questions if that’s ever going to happen. 

What drives the need for all-in-one solutions?

In our recent LinkedIn Live, Lindsay shared three main influencers in the drive for all-in-one solutions:

Price

Planners are often solving for price. It’s easier to buy in volume with everything under one roof because then you can negotiate. You can check 15 things off your checklist, and that’s going to lead to money savings. 

Procurement

When you look at it from the enterprise perspective, those brands are managing a lot of moving pieces: procurement wants it to be simple. They’ve already signed and had the security teams jump through a lot of hoops. So that price and procurement run hand in hand. 

Simplicity

It is not uncommon for things to go completely wrong on the day of the event. If you only use one platform on a virtual or hybrid event and that platform breaks, that’s scary. But it’s also just one vendor to deal with.

How to build the perfect event tech stack

It always comes down to the event goals. What are you trying to do and solve for your attendees, exhibitors, sponsors? At Nifty Method, the event’s team uses what they call the Event Tech Maturity Sheet (you can download yours free here). 

In this requirements gathering document, you are able to break down the different elements of actually managing the event so that you have the answers to what you need before talking to a vendor and so that the vendor can understand what your desired tech stack looks like. 

Questions you may add to your requirements gathering phase:

  • What do you have? 
  • What do you need? 
  • What’s important to you? 
  • What’s good to have?
  • What’s a must-have?

In this process, you need to think about all stakeholders (including attendees, sponsors, exhibitors, leadership, and others), the goals for each of them, and how you intend to achieve those goals. 

Just as you would plan with an in-person event, going from one room into another and having space and time to interact with people in the hallway, you need to have that same approach in a virtual scenario. What specific things would you like to happen to achieve those goals? You can add that to your requirements gathering document also.

What a foundational platform looks like?

The event management platform is really just one of the things in the grand scheme of planning the actual event. The platform you choose will depend largely on the type of event you manage and its specific requirements, be it a large trade show, an incentive trip, a traditional annual conference or user conference, etc. 

When shopping for that foundational solution, I think I would turn some of that question back around and challenge the sales teams at the event platforms to reverse engineer. As planners, we don’t know what we need, we know what our needs are, and those things don’t necessarily translate well.

So the baseline lies in the vendor’s sandbox to develop and build a one-sheet or a capability deck that those of us doing research can go and check. That’s why the Event Tech Bible is so great for event apps. Then we can go to the peer network to learn more about those vendors – Do we like these people? Are they good? Will they be kind to us? Are they affordable? 

Lindsay Martin-Bilbrey Quote

An event tech horror story

I think it would be a user conference we did last fall. We’ve chosen a platform that did probably 98% of everything we needed. And then the platform went dark for our livestream audience. 

The issue was coming from the vendor’s servers. It’s like Marriot was open, but no one could get in the doors and you had everything inside. We have decided to almost build the entire first day in Vimeo, and to tell the 9,000 attendees online that we had to move from one platform to another. 

This is a great example of putting all of our eggs in one basket, all of our networking was there, together with sponsorship, partnership agreements, the actual presentations with the exception of this small audience we had at the program site. 

That is the single scariest example of how it’s been over the last year, not having a backup, because even when you test it, it can still go wrong. I wish many of the tech platforms could allow us to copy and paste the event into one of our instances and move it into a backup platform in case it goes awry.

As an agency response to that, when we work with a client to set an event up, we build a second backup on a second platform entirely, so we’re not dependent on somebody else’s servers. 

I’m not the only one with this kind of story. There are lots of people who’ve had that on a number of different platforms. This is not platform-specific, sometimes the internet goes down. Sometimes it’s raining really hard. Sometimes there’s a hurricane. And just like you would have a backup plan when there’s the hurricane in Miami and you need to go north to Tampa, you should be able to do the same for a virtual experience.

Lindsay Martin-BilbreyWalk-though a requirements gathering process with Lindsay Martin-Bilbrey

To dive deeper into the discovery process Lindsay uses with her clients at Nifty Method, she showed us how she uses the event Tech Maturity Sheet and the requirements gathering. Watch the clip below to hear from Lindsay. Video player

Conclusion

Rather than seeking the mythical all-in-one event management platform, the way to go instead is to choose foundational tech platforms that can cover 60-70% of the needs of your event portfolio, and then seek out additional event management tools to complement it. You can use these dedicated tools to cover more specific aspects of your event like networking and audience response. 

And to future-proof your events, it’s crucial that you take a few steps back. Evaluate your event goals and the experience you’re looking to deliver to your guests before committing to event management platform. In other words, you need to think from a design-first perspective. Here’s another article to dive deeper into this concept and to help you choose the best event management platform for your needs. You can watch the full conversation with Lindsay here.

How software for hybrid events creates an engaging experience for your virtual attendees

  • Event Management
The complete guide to corporate meeting management software blog banner

Out of sight, out of mind. That’s what they say. And while you’re out tending to your attendees in person, your virtual attendees are out of sight, but don’t for a second keep them out of mind! 

Attracting and engaging virtual attendees is one of the biggest challenges for the modern event planner. Here is some humble advice software for hybrid events to get you ahead of the pack. 

Hybrid Events and The New Challenges They Bring

The no-show rate for virtual events is 35%. That is a damning indictment of the respect these events are given. However, it’s still early days for hybrid events. As planners continue to improve them through technology and experience, these events will surely see the no-show rate fall. 

And even after getting them to log on, the battle for hearts and minds isn’t over. Attendees in person are not likely to get their phone and headphones out in front of you because that’s rude. But your virtual guests, for all you know, could have their Play Station on in the background. They could be romping through entire seasons of their show on Netflix. 

So you get the point, your virtual attendees need to be wooed and enthused. In this article, you’re going to get 10 direct and actionable tips that can increase your engagement and connection with them at your next hybrid event. 

1- High Production Value 

For in-person events, you put a lot of effort into making your venue look professional, exciting, and you treat it as a reflection of your business as a whole because that’s how your guests will see it. 

The same reasoning has to stand for the virtual realm. If your attendees log into an uninspiring zoom call to see people having fun in real life, they’re going to be disheartened and feel like second-string guests. For your guests logging in, they need to feel like they’re attending a special occasion. 

2- Creative Ice-Breakers

Laughter is like magic when it comes to breaking the tension between newly acquainted strangers. Speaking to Spacehuntr CEO Dietrich Moens, he said, “my team loves ice-breakers, especially for our brainstorming sessions. It changes the whole dynamic of the session. Traditionally, these games are quite generic and cringey, but with a bit of creativity, they’re really fun.”

To experience a bit of the magic yourself, check out the Spacehuntr teams favourite Creative ice breakers for conference networking here. As well as being great for setting a great tone for your events, they’re delightful! 

3- Gamification

It’s easy to get poetic and philosophical about things, but to be as concise as possible, gamification works because it’s fun. 

It doesn’t hurt to dangle a carrot to your guests every so often either; the promise of a prize draws focus like nothing else.  

4- Quality Content

This seems like common sense because it is. You should always strive to produce quality content. But considering the new challenges faced with the nature of this event, the stakes are higher than ever. 

The future of quality event content should follow the timeless maxim that less is more. So cut the fluff, kill your darlings, as they say. Focus on shorter sessions packed with value. 

5- Quality Software for Hybrid Events and Networking Tools

The chance to network is a major part of the allure of corporate events. That allure has been lost in hybrid events. You can address that right now by investing in quality software for hybrid events. 

And business is booming in the event technology industry too. There are new apps all the time, and with stiff competition, you can guarantee there will be quality and innovation out there. 

For instance, we’re very proud of our new virtual networking platform. Users will build an attendee profile with their photo, job title, company, social media profiles, and email address. Of course, this feature is optional, so you can pick and choose how to build your profile to your taste – or not at all if you prefer privacy. So get in touch with us to arrange a free demo for our all-in-one event planning platform. 

6- Live Polling

Real-time information on how your attendees feel is great. It gives you a warrant to be adaptable as your event rolls on. It’s also a mechanism that requires attendees to be in the moment and focus on what’s going on. What’s more, it’s also great for collecting invaluable data. 

7- Live Q&As

The strength of your Q&A is largely dependent on the quality of your content. If your attendees are bored, they’re not going to have questions. So, in short, a live Q&A is a way of sustaining an already existing engagement. 

8- Exciting Guest Speakers and Entertainers 

Getting in entertainers for your event isn’t essential. But it really does make a difference. Imagine your event is french fries. Everyone loves french fries. But you know what makes them so much better? Sauce. Think of entertainment as the sauce to your event. 

A big name can be a big part of your marketing too as for what kind of guest, that’s an exciting question. It could be a well-known figure in your field to deliver a keynote speech; it could be a comedian, musician, or influencer; it could even be a magician. 

9- Virtual Event Bags 

Virtual event bags can be physical swag bags sent to attendees’ homes before an event or electronic ones. Both are always appreciated because everyone loves a freebie. An attendee is less likely to no-show if you butter them up with a goodie bag. 

Branded merch, event programmes, event-related activities, you can be creative here. Here are some ideas you can use. 

With an electronic event bag, you can include things like gift vouchers, discount codes, free trials, and so on. 

10- Don’t Lose Them in The Breaks. 

It’s tragic to see hard work going to waste. It’s all well and good to engage your virtual attendees, but don’t lose them in the breaks. 

You can do this with three simple tricks:

  • Leave them wanting more. As in, trail something exciting they’ll be doing when they come back. 
  • Give them stuff to do. Is there a feedback form, a game, a task, something entertaining you can offer to keep them occupied? 
  • Don’t leave them for too long! 

Wrapping up 

And there you have it, 10 ways planners can engage and connect with virtual attendees during hybrid events. As noted before, the no show rate to these events might be daunting, especially considering the wide consensus that hybrid events aren’t going anywhere. 

But take this article and the small fact that you’re reading it to the end as proof that event planners are determined to figure this thing out. And if you happen to have some genius ideas of your own, we’d love to hear from you!

PS: Looking for software for hybrid events to support both your in-person and virtual event needs? Check out Attendease’s hybrid capabilities and talk to our team to see it in action!

5 Key Takeaways from Anthony Vade on Event Pricing Design

  • Event Management

With COVID-19 and the event industry pivoting from in-person to virtual formats, we saw a big shift from a pricing standpoint. Many events and conferences that used to have a high ticket value were now being offered in a virtual format for free (or for a fraction of the price of its in-person version). This change in pricing mentality brought yet another challenge to the industry.

But the uncertainty around event pricing models isn’t new. In our latest Live Talk with expert guest Anthony Vade, Director, North America at Event Design Collective, we discussed how to get to strategic price design so that event planners can better monetize their events. Here are five key takeaways from this conversation.

1. Practicing Price vs. Value on Event Pricing 

There’s always a balance between what is the price versus the perceived value, or the actual value that is received. If people can find value, they’re more likely to open their wallets. We must consider that people will make decisions based on who they align with, who they buy from, and which event they get involved in. 

At Event Design Collective, Anthony and his team have been doing a lot of study into this over the last 10-15 years to try and understand how do events specifically provide value and how to articulate that value so that the stakeholders associated with the events are more willing to make the investments they are asking them to make. 

ANTHONY VADE QUOTE

2. Information delivery is not enough

Sending information down a camera to the remote participant is not enough for them to get the value they want. Because the internet is full of information, we can source it from anywhere, for free, at any time. So if we, as event professionals, are just doing that – we’re competing not only against other events and in-person event experiences, we are competing against the internet itself, which is impossible to beat because there is far more information available for free. 

In that method of delivery, what we have learned is that we are looking for intimacy and close connections with people and content. Bringing that human element is what is proving to be a bit of a challenge. 

But we’re seeing some shifts already happening. For example, Fast Company has made its keynote sessions with some big names free to watch. But if you want to get in-depth information, participate in hands-on workshops, or network and connect with peers, then you must pay a premium at various different scales for that. That’s because we recognized early on in the pandemic, that the value comes from that form of engagement, not just in engaging with the content. 

3. Value of in-person vs. virtual experiences 

TED Talks had a really interesting event pricing model pre-pandemic, where they had an absolute premium price to attend in person – I think the tickets were from $5,000 to $7,000. They also had a live stream that you could subscribe to at a much lower price or you could choose to watch the recordings on-demand, free of charge. 

That’s a really interesting approach pre-pandemic but, unfortunately, it did fall into a model where the in-person had higher value because of its high-touch and high-intimacy level.

We, as an industry, need to be willing to experiment and prototype on the kinds of experiences we can deliver and how we can attribute value to those experiences until we find the sweet spot that justifies the additional expense (for virtual experiences). And while we figure out this framework, we still need to think about creating free content to keep our audiences engaged with our community. It’s a big challenge for the entire industry.

4. Event Pricing Design

The first key that every event professional should take on board is mapping the stakes:

  • What is at stake, 
  • Who’s involved, 
  • What their contribution is, 
  • What their expectations are.

At Event Design Collective, we go through steps to map high-impact stakeholders, including sponsors, attendee participants, event owners, etc. We get our entire team to collaborate and bring their perspectives into understanding those stakeholders so we can then validate what we think that stakeholder wants. Go to them directly and say: Hey, stakeholder, we think this will provide value to you. And this is what we think you’re willing to pay for it. Did we get it right?.

So often, we ask the stakeholders what they want, and they come back to us with what they think we want them to want, because we’re here to please each other. So doing the inverse, and starting from you and your team, can make the difference. 

Once you validade the stakeholders’ goals, you can then analyze if and how your event can help to achieve those outcomes. This is how you get to provide value and to justify the expense that all the stakeholders are putting into it, whether they’re buying a ticket or sponsoring a tradeshow booth. 

5. Event Design

In order to plan the event pricing strategy and the value delivered at the event, Anthony uses the Event Canvas Tool and its associated design Methodology with his team and clients (you can download yours free here). Watch the clip below where Anthony walks us through this process. Video Player

If you’d like to dive deeper into the Event Canvas and how to use it, we’d like to invite you to join an Event Canvas Taster Session for free (normally a $60 value). The event will happen on October 26 2021 and you can register here to get the promo code and join free

Conclusion

In our Live Talk, Anthony shared that we tend to look back at the pre-pandemic past with rose-colored glasses when we are actually quickly falling into the trap that behavioral psychologists call hindsight bias. We are biased to think that things in the past were better when it may not be the case. Monetization and pricing model challenges were always there.

In order to find the right price for your event, it all comes down to event design. Truly understanding your stakeholders and what they’d like to achieve with your event so you can deliver the value they expect and find the right price for that experience to happen. You can watch the recording of the full conversation here.