Do You Need To Invest In An Event Management System? Here’s What Event Organizer, Joe, Says [An Eventify Case Analysis) 

Let us introduce you to Joe. An event organizer with 14 years of experience organising events. Joe has seen and done it all. He has manually checked in 500 guests to an auto expo in Texas, reached out individually to speakers to form a panel on “The Benefits of Using AI in drone development”. In addition, he has been hands-on about each aspect of his events. In his 14 years, Joe has more or less seen it all, including the benefits of adopting an event management software. 

Sounds relatable? Well Joe is you and you are Joe. 

No! This isn’t our attempt to confuse you but to reinstate that event organizers are benefiting from digitising each aspect of their event process. If Joe, with a traditional approach to managing events and limited technological literacy, can adopt event management system software, then what’s stopping you?

Planning To Close This Article? 

We know what’s stopping you. The pressing question - is investing in an event management solution worth the investment or the long hours of budgeting that you and your accounts team have in front of you?

Let’s go back to Joe. He will answer this for you.

In August of 2023, Joe organized a conference on ‘Tech Culture Fuelling Growth of Young Entrepreneurs’ (TCE). This event was sponsored by the likes of Alphabet, Adobe, Enigma, and Doximity. Joe’s list of exhibitors included Enigma, Asana, Trello, Notion, Monday, Wrike and many more. Joes attendee turnout for this event was 4500 guests. An unfathomable number to Joe who’s previous events saw footfalls of 1500 attendees. 

Joes goal though was higher attendee turnout. Which then translates into more eyeballs for sponsors, more leads for exhibitors and a higher event engagement with Joe and his brand. The latter then helps Joe secure a higher attendee turnout for future events. 

Let’s dive into how Joe leveraged Eventify, an event management system software and it’s features to boost his event attendance. In addition, Eventify has allowed Joe to streamline each step of his event process - all courtesy Eventify’s suite of intelligent features. 

To know more about how Joe and Eventify achieved this, let’s go back to August of 2023 and the steps Joe took to not only plan but execute a successful event. 

Why Joe, the Event Organizer, and His Team Need an Event Management System Software

Joe is in the initial stages of executing TCE.  He has been working with an event planner to narrow down the event's goal, venue, offerings, exhibitor booth maps and more. With the plan in place, Joe is now working with his core team of 15 people which includes marketers and marketing interns, PR personnel, event coordinators, venue managers, and event designers. Joe also has a list of 150 exhibitors and 60 sponsors who have confirmed their partnership. 

This year though, Joe has a new team member on his payroll - an event management computer software. Joe after consulting his tech team has installed Eventify to streamline and automate multiple processes including registrations, ticketing, attendee onboarding, speaker onboarding, and session scheduling amongst others.

Here’s what Joe’s event looks like with a strategic plan coupled with a streamlined and cost-effective solution in place. We will share snippets from our experience and of course, Joe’s behind-the-scenes process, to tell you exactly why you need an event management system software.

Pre-Event Planning Phase

Even if your event is not on a similar scale as Joe’s it’s best to start planning at least 8-9 months prior to the event. You can take a leaf from Joe's plan to set a strong foundation for the event.

Identifying Target Audience

‍Joe is clear that his target audience is young entrepreneurs, in the age group of 29-45, who are co-founders or founders of SaaS startup’s. This specific targeting of your audience will help you narrow down on sponsors, stakeholders, and exhibitors who add value to your event. The TCE conference is ideal for young tech entrepreneurs looking to scale their business and learn about tech driven solutions that can be added to their offerings.. This is because the invited exhibitors and sponsors showcase tech-driven and AI powered solutions that elevate their existing SaaS solutions. The needs of the target audience need to be met by the offerings of exhibitors.

Joe's Tip

The right target persona charts a clear path for you to walk on and to curate all other aspects of your event. So follow the Pareto Principle and spend 80% of your time in creating an ideal buyer persona.

Identifying venue and allocation of booths

‍Joe relentlessly works with his event coordinator to finalize a conference hall in Western Colorado. Once finalized, Joe then works with his team and creates a virtual booth map. Joe has designed this booth map on Eventify and has shared it with potential exhibitors via email. These interactive booth maps allow exhibitors to view available spaces and block them.

Identifying and Onboarding Speakers

‍Joe’s PR team has finalized 19 speakers from a list of 45. These speakers include marketing heads, ex-CEOs, board members of tech firms, and SaaS analysts. The speaker list also has representatives and experts chosen from sponsors of the event. This finalized speaker list is then bulk exported (in a specified format) onto the Eventify platform. You can also manually enter the details for individual speakers.

The best part for Joe and his team? Speakers are given access to their respective bios - which they can then edit and modify to represent their best self - thus saving time for Joe's team to focus on other important aspects.

Joe's Tip

‍Speakers are crowd pullers so make sure you market them well. Encourage speakers to attach their works, papers, thesis, and even portfolios to the event app. This free access is a huge pull for attendees and helps them engage with their favorite speaker.

Preparation for the type of event‍

Events are categorized as hybrid, in-person, or virtual. Joe's event is hybrid to make it possible for all professionals across states to attend the event. To make the virtual part of the event a success Joe is using Eventify's in-built social media feed to help all attendees interact with each other. Attendees on the ground share updates on the app which are then picked up by virtual attendees. In addition, Joe’s technical team has created links and added them to Eventify's virtual sessions with a predefined timer. Once the event begins at the venue, virtual members can view it on their screens - all in real-time.

Ticketing and Registration

‍This was a big one for Joe and his team. In the past, registering attendees, exhibitors, and speakers was a hassle. It required manual intervention leaving room for human error. With Eventify the team now sends emails with booking links to the target audience. Eventify integrates with most payment gateways - thus ensuring a safe and secure transaction. With ticketing being streamlined using event ticketing software, registration is easy for Joe and his team.

Joe's Tip

‍Leverage the RSVP feature in your welcome/ onboarding notes. This helps you manage logistics depending on the actual number of attendees who will be present for both paid and free sessions.

The Execution Phase

It's event day! Let’s look at how they use Eventify to manage crowds at check-in points and encourage networking and engagement through the event.

Self-check-in Kiosks

‍The lines at any event's registration desk are a huge deterrent. No one likes standing in long queues - let alone restless entrepreneurs who have limited time and energy. Joe understands this pain area of his attendees and has set up a self-check-in kiosk at the desk. This setup operates with the help of a QR scanner and requires the use of a simple tab or phone. Attendees scan the code and register themselves for the event. It’s fast, efficient, and leaves no room for human errors.

Joe's Tip

‍Digitizing event check-in is great but don’t obliterate the human touch. Ensure your team is present at the desk to help with any technical difficulties. In addition, a warm smile and a gentle welcome are humane elements that attendees need in equal measure.

Automated Badge Printing

‍An extension of the self-check-in Kiosk is the automated badge printing feature of Eventify. Prior to the event, Joe and his team designed a customized badge on the Eventify dashboard. This badge includes fields for the attendee’s name, event logo, and job title. The badge was further customized to align with the brand identity (color schemes) of the event. Once attendees register at the self-check-in kiosk, their personalized badges are printed in under 3 seconds. For Joe and his team, this eliminates 80% of the hold-up at the event entrance

Joe's Tip

‍Badges aren’t trivial accessories but the first tangible experience of your event. Invest in creating high-quality, premium badges that attendees will love to flaunt. On Eventify’s dashboard, you don’t even need a designer to create badges. The simple UI helps you create professional badges in no time.

Notifications and networking

‍Approximately 20 sessions are planned for each day of the 2-day event. Even with an event guide shared on the app, Joe is aware that attendees can forget about sessions that are of interest to them. To eliminate their absence from sessions, Joe triggers notifications 15 minutes before each session with details of the session’s topic and speaker’s name. This helps keep attendees notified of sessions.

What Joe also realizes for this event is that while his goal is lead creation, his attendee’s goal is networking. To meet his goals, Joe is now meeting the goals of his attendees. Joe is leveraging Eventify’s chatrooms and community rooms to get people talking. Engagement is necessary for any event and healthy networking is a strong marker of engagement. Each attendee has added an interest tag to their profile. These tags are then matched using Eventify’s matchmaking feature. Similar interest areas are the perfect ice breaker for attendees to get talking.

Joe's Tip

‍Encourage attendees to add multiple tags. This helps them meet diverse people from across the industry.

Gamification

‍This isn’t just another buzzword in the event circles. Event Gamification is great for retaining engagement - and that’s exactly why Joe is using it. Tech conferences can get boring even for the most interested attendee. Yet Joe can’t afford for people to leave the event mid-way, not show up for day 2, or worse not show up for future events. To spice things up Joe is tapping into the competitive spirit of his attendees by introducing gamification. Joe has chosen 5 games with scores from the Eventify dashboard. One is a customized treasure hunt for attendees titled ‘Find Your SaaS’. Another is a replica of the popular Candy Crush game. Joe has introduced these games between sessions to liven up the attendee's interest.

Post-Event Metrics

It’s been 8 months since TCE was successfully executed. How do we know that it was successful? Joe’s event metrics told us. Here are some metrics that Joe’s team is closely monitoring post-event.

Sponsors and Lead Data

‍Sponsors are the backbone of any event; leads are the oxygen that keeps it alive. With Eventify, Joe has gathered on how attendees engaged with sponsors. From profile visits to top sponsors on the app, the team has insights on what transpired during the event and coupled with areas of improvement. For example, many attendees engaged with sponsors whose presence was seen on the splash screen of the app. This piqued the curiosity of the attendees about the sponsor

Feedback Metrics

‍With the feedback feature on Eventify, Joe's team is gaining clarity on which areas of the event need improvement. For instance, the consistent feedback from attendees is that the session on AI-driven automation could be longer. What they wanted was an in-depth session. While this metric may not directly convey ROI, it tells Joe what attendees are interested in and what to plan in the future.

Session Attendance

‍Since most attendees logged in with their session schedule, the Eventify program was able to track attendance. In addition, virtual attendance was also tracked. This gives Joe clarity on attendee turnout and how well the event was managed on a larger scale.

These are features and tools on the Eventify dashboard that proved beneficial to Joe and his team. Your event might have different needs which can easily be incorporated on our platform.

Why don’t you book a free product demo with us? Even the most average Joe can figure out our platform. It’s so easy to use, highly adaptable, brilliantly intuitive, and cost-effective.

Don’t take our word for it! Take Joe’s and other event managers and brands working with us.