Event Management Software Contents
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Eventdex TE GUIDE T PLE O M O C A Event Management Software contents Introduction to event management technology 1 Benefits of event management software 2 Buy or build: Is that the question? 5 Things to consider while buying event management software 8 Conclusion 14 Introduction To Event Management Technology Event organizer's job is stressful, with countless tasks to complete at an impossible pace. Event planners are blessed with a unique gift of being able to visualize both the larger picture as well as the minute details needed to execute their events. They are both a people person and a task master, a quality which is extremely rare to find. However, human brain has its own limitations and chances of errors can always creep in. No wonder Forbes in 2017 called “event coordinator” the fifth most stressful job. With an endless task list to complete in such a short span of time, event management software and systems have become a necessity for event pros around the world. Of course, in house systems can help you manage tasks, but these systems may not always help you achieve the level of sophistication your attendees expect today. The pace at which the meetings and events industry's landscape is changing is very evident with the smartphone boom and the coming of event technology. If no two events are the same and one size doesn't fit all, then how can your in-house systems support the different needs of your events? A crucial step for any event planner is to take a decision if he/she wants to use event technology to manage events. Microsoft Excel can help you manage simpler events like a small board meeting, but for complex events that involve a lot of stakeholders, online registrations, housing and travel and attendee engagement you may want to weigh your options. Let's see what event management software can do for your events and how it can make you look like a star of your events. www.eventdex.com 1 Benefits of Event Management Software While many organizations rely heavily on event management software to run their events, others still depend on manual processes or disconnected systems. Event management technology can streamline your entire event planning process, right from budgeting, event registration and marketing to attendee engagement, post event feedback and event reporting. Here are the top benefits of event management technology that we just cannot overlook: Boost Event Registration Event management technology can streamline the process of setting up and managing registrations. It can also increase your registration numbers by providing potential registrants a smoother and easier event registration experience. You can also boost attendance by spreading the word of your event with a little help from social media and email marketing tools. Event management software allows you to send personalized emails based on the actions that your registrants take. www.eventdex.com 2 Quick Attendee Check-In First impressions create an ever-lasting impression. On the event day, use event management technology to speed up the check-in process and eliminate long queues of attendees. Event technology can replace your printed attendee lists with portable devices like laptops and tables that can check in attendees just by a single click or swipe. It will also instantly sync registrant data with your contact database. Engage Attendees Boost attendee engagement with the help of various capabilities of event mobile apps. With mobile apps, you can host engaging games like scavenger hunt or even conduct live Q&A and polling sessions. Some apps also allow you to leverage social media feeds of your event posted by attendees. Display these posts live at your event and make your attendees feel important and valued. Moderate Content For VIPs Event management technology allows you to moderate content according to the attendee type. You can send special messages to important guests at your event and even alert your attendees when special guests arrive. Technology can help you send customized event fee as well as different offers or pricing for different types of attendees. www.eventdex.com 3 Launch Post-Event Surveys To improve future events, event technology allows you to gather post-event feedback from attendees. Technology simplifies the method of sending these surveys and records results in an efficient manner. It also gives you a deeper insight to measure and benchmark your events with past events. Measure Event Success Measuring event success is a crucial part to determine which events performed better. Whether your event aim is to boost sales by lead generation or provide memorable attendee experience, event technology simplifies the way you track important event data. With the help of event technology, you can see event results and create customizable dashboards to show it to your c-suite and senior management. It also allows you to analyze results and highlight what worked and what did not. Now that you've understood the key benefits of event technology, the obvious thing that comes to the mind is whether you should buy it or build it in-house. The next chapter draws a comparison between the two to help you take a much better decision. www.eventdex.com 4 Buy Or Build: Is That The Question? The dilemma of buying or building an event management software is not new. Many planners struggle to find the right business solution approach to implement it. Event planners need to take several factors into consideration, including strategic goals, required software support and external partners. Here are the top six reasons why you should buy an event management software instead of building it in-house. Know Industry Standards Before your organization even begins to build an ? event management solution, you will have to do a thorough research to determine the industry standards. While knowing industry standards is critical to your events' success, the process of collecting data is time consuming and you already have so much on your plate. You just cannot afford to devote more time on this rather than spending it on planning your events. On the other hand, buying an event management software gives you features specifically designed keeping in mind industry standards and best practices. www.eventdex.com 5 Integrated Event Management Platform Creating an integrated event management software is time consuming and requires tons of expertise and resources. However, buying it can not only save your precious man hours but also give you a much higher ROI in the long run. An integrated event management platform not only helps you streamline and automate manual event planning tasks, it adds more time in your day to help you plan your next event. The platform covers the entire event lifecycle and provides an enhanced experience before, during and after the event. Robust Reporting Reporting with an in-house system can be time consuming if not inaccurate. Proper reporting requires years of right data to prove ROI and understand the performance of events. An integrated platform, on the other hand, can provide easy access to several customizable reports with key metrics. With the right metrics, get the necessary insights to understand your events better and improve them year after year. The platform saves all your events information to help you analyze your events year on year, quarter on quarter or even month on month! Frequent Upgrades A dedicated team of developers are always working on enhancing the user experience of an integrated event management platform so your events are always up to date with the advancements in the meetings and events industry. The team not only upgrades existing features, but also introduces new features and functionality alongside better user interface. In contrast, updating an inbuilt event management technology can incur substantial recurring costs of maintaining and adding new features to software and websites. www.eventdex.com 6 Integrations And Reliability Against popular belief, an event management solution can integrate with several leading software solutions and CRM and marketing automation solutions. Moreover, in most cases a technical team of highly skilled people work closely to monitor the platform to ensure stability and security. In contrast, building a web-based system with a backend database can be quite expensive and tedious and you'd require more staff in the team to ensure a stable and reliable database backend. Customer Support An inbuilt event management system can develop a snag and hiring addition staff is an expensive and temporary solution to the problem. Having robust documentation and training as well support are imperative for the success of your software. On the ip side, most companies that provide an integrated event management software have a dedicated team of people always there to help you when you need them the most. Companies provide online, phone, chat and email support so that customers can reach out whenever required. These were our top six points that you should consider while choosing to buy or build an event management software. If you consider buying the software then the next chapter will help you with the key things to consider while buying an event management software. With so many options available in the market, it is easy to get lost and end up with a solution that doesn't really work for you and your events. Read the next chapter to understand and know the common pitfalls event managers need to avoid before spending their money on a thing as important as an event management software. www.eventdex.com 7 Things To Consider While Buying Event Management Software While many organizations rely heavily on event management software to run their events, others still depend on manual processes or disconnected systems.