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Events Industry has undergone a vast amount of changes for the betterment of attendees and also improved upon them, raising the standards and adapting to the latest event technology as well.
There are several reasons why an individual or a company delegate would like to attend a business event. And amongst those, the major is Networking. Business Networking is nothing new in the events industry. For professional to discuss their business ideas or to market their ideas in an event, event networking is the best way!
But have you ever wondered how to make your event a huge success? No doubt in the fact that more the number of event attendees, the maximum will the event ROI. What can be done in order to maximize attendees at an event?
Event Technology is an answer frequently heard to this question now. With the various trends year after year and improvisations, event technology has indeed revolutionized the face of the event industry. Now, event planners have numerous event technology tools and event management software at their disposal to automate their tasks.
With the inception of event technology in the sector and apt usage of this technology will definitely yield up good results. Let’s see how!
1. Event Networking Platform — A networking community builds to improve on the user experience at events. Not only the user can see the list of event speakers and event attendees but also with the vast range of features provided can book a one-to-one meeting, post on their feed, share pictures of the event, keep up with the agenda of the event, and so on.
In-app chat feature allows you to connect with other attendees and get to know each other professionally as well as personally. You can also chat with event organizers, event influencers or speakers if you miss out an opportunity for a meeting.
For event organizers, the entire event networking community platform is a DIY. All the features starting from what to display in a feed, who all can look at your profile, which attendees to add; everything is customizable.
Such a seamless event technology allows event attendees as well as event organizers and planners to maximize the audience engagement at the event.
2. Gamification — Gamification takes event networking to another level in the aspect of audience engagement. Live Polling, Live QnA and networking games surely attract attendees.
One of the reasons the engagement amongst the attendees is increased with the help of gamification is to highlight the rewards. Live leaderboard and scores can be displayed at the event venue to encourage the attendees to participate.
3. Speed Networking — Event planners try to be as creative as possible for the event as successful as possible even in terms of networking. Being creative in the ways of merging creativity, event technology, and event networking, a new term got coined, Speed Networking. It basically means a meeting format to accelerate business contacts.
Using this kind of meeting style, event professionals set a target to meet with few attendees and engage with them at the event, discussing and setting up a meeting or event exchanging their contact information.
4. Event Apps — Event apps are the most simple yet effective form of event technology that has been adopted by almost all the event planners across the world and being received positively by the event professionals as well. With apps being designed for all the events, conferences, business meetings, and exhibitions; attendees tend to initiate communication through the features of the event apps.
“The priority of attendees attending corporate events in 2018 is networking (82%), learning (71%) and entertainment (38%). Self-improvement is important to 37% and time out of the office is appealing to 16%” — EventMB
5. Social Media — Social media presence is advantageous for one and all. Be it any kind of event, people post stories, go LIVE, share posts, feedback, blogs, and vlogs. Attendees love to share their experience on social media especially those who are influencers. People look forward to reading social media influencer’s stories and see their posts and get an idea of whether to attend the event.
“87% of companies believe that attendees share event experience on social media.” — Freeman XP & EMI
6. Destination Events — Venue of events play a vital role in attracting people to attend the events. Location matters a lot, even for the speakers, organizers, and planners It requires a lot of efforts to finalize a venue within a specified budget and with all the facilities available required for an event and for the comfort of attendees.
Destination events tend to maximize the number of attendees attending the event. With the help of venue management software that event planners are using the process of venue selection have been made effortless.
7. Interesting Group Activities — Group activities involving ice-breaking sessions, lunch/tea/dinner networking sessions, roundtable conferences, social media contests, post a selfie contest and so on are an amazing way to gather attendees and maximize the chances of interaction between them.
The role of event technology has interestingly risen in such events with the integration of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality devices used in the activities. ‘Post a selfie’ contest is a fantastic way to lure attendees in downloading the event app and go on with the contest.
Such interesting activities and contests keep the attendees fresh and allow them to connect with one another. Hence, another easy to boost the audience at an event and maximize the attendee engagement.
8. Good speaker lineup — It has been observed that the number of attendees attending the events depends on the speakers and discussion panels. Since people are influenced by the event speakers, they check out the speaker list and agenda and topics and then finalize their decision of attending the event.
Therefore, another way to maximize attendance at an event is to get a good speaker lineup. Event technology has enabled attendees to check out the event speakers using the event website and event apps provided to them.
“53% of event professionals say that their attendees want greater interaction with speakers at their events.”
While all the above points hold the priority of boosting the audience at an event, there are also certain factors which affect the presence of attendees at an event. One is a recent development in the industry i.e. experiential marketing and the other being event website and advertisements of the event.
Experiential event marketing has certainly taken an upsurge in the events industry with many event professionals adapting to the concept and applying it in their events.
“77% of marketers use experiential marketing as a vital part of a brand’s advertising strategies.” — EMI & Mosaic
Attendees always look and compare events with one another in terms of management, planning, and event technology used. And of course, What’s new? The “What’s new?” is a unique factor attracting the audience at that particular event.
To know more about how Hubilo can help simplify your planning process, click here.
Juhi Purswani is a major in Information Technology. Currently a Content Developer in Hubilo, she is a passionate writer and loves to research and explore new and unique topics. Working in an event-tech company, she is getting accustomed to the technological revolutions that are taking place in the event management industry. Fond of Dan Brown books, she is an avid reader of fiction. In her relaxation moments, she pens down her thoughts in the form of poems and quotes. You can follow her on twitter on @19_juhi.
