The smart technology revolution is revolutionizing the global events industry. According to a survey conducted early this year, 82% of event organizers used custom mobile applications design skills specifically for their events to increase awareness and reach. Event planners understand its many advantages; four out of ten event organizers use digital event management platforms like Arion ERP for event planning purposes.
Event tech vendors are under immense pressure to deliver software platforms that will add value for event planners, with corporate event numbers continuing to skyrocket each year. The ideal tools should not only streamline internal processes but also facilitate venue selection and vendor management more smoothly - such as having a venue directory built-in, customizable vendor profiles, and user-friendly interfaces that simplify managing details such as catering, entertainment and transportation needs.
Event management systems with features like calendar design, integration, attendees management and real-time updating make planning simpler for planners to keep pace with the competition. Event-planning software helps event professionals save time and effort and reduce errors or miscommunication between themselves and clients; event professionals are freed up to focus their energies on providing unforgettable experiences surpassing clients' expectations.
What Are the Best Features of Event Management Software?
User-Friendly Interface
Event planners need an intuitive interface to quickly navigate their system and gain access to its various key features. Event management platforms should feature well-organized interfaces with straightforward menus and tooltips; also, their dashboard should offer shortcuts and real-time analytics for ease of use.
An intuitive interface lets the user locate what they need quickly, providing an exceptional user experience while eliminating confusion or irritation.
This feature reduces the training needs of host companies and their staff, saving both money and time by shortening learning curves for new users. An intuitive interface simplifies and speeds up tasks such as setting up events, inviting attendees, managing registrations and adding attendees - increasing overall productivity while saving time and increasing efficiency.
Customizable Event Registration & Ticketing
Attendance is of the utmost importance when organizing any event, which is where an event registration feature with customizable tickets comes in handy.
Event planners can use this software to easily customize an easy registration process tailored specifically for their unique event requirements, from creating user-friendly registration forms, types of tickets and price structures through payment options to payment methods and registration methods.
An effective event ticketing and registration system includes features like waitlists and group registration to maximize revenue and attendance. Embedding registration forms directly on event websites lets participants complete registration quickly while creating an aesthetically pleasing appearance across digital touchpoints.
Event management software of high caliber will include robust security measures to safeguard sensitive attendee information and payment details, such as SSL encryption and PCI compliance, and payment gateway security - giving event planners, attendees and media peace of mind during events.
Three-Attendee Engagement and Communication Features
Event software should provide your attendees with features to design customizations to engage them and increase communication to improve their experience and ensure maximum participation from attendees.
At your fingertips are customizable email templates, automatic reminders and personal event schedules to keep attendees up-to-date. Furthermore, social media integration with event-specific hashtags will generate buzz before, during, and after the post-event as it increases reach while simultaneously building community among attendees resulting in long-term satisfaction and loyalty for you as an organizer.
Event management software typically contains features designed to stimulate engagement during events, including live polling and Q&A sessions, leaderboards or badges - interactive tools which keep attendees involved while giving invaluable feedback that can be used to refine future strategies.
Budget and Financial Management Capabilities
With an event management application with featured events tailored specifically to an event planner's requirements, navigating finances and budgets shouldn't be so challenging. Software should include robust financial and budget features to address event budgeting requirements.
Event planners can easily stay on top of their finances with customizable templates, automated tracking and real-time financial reports. Event organizers must compare budgeted expenses against actual expenditures to detect any overruns, as this allows for informed resource allocation decisions.
Software should provide insights into the financial performance and success of events, including ROI/profitability analyses, so you can evaluate their event strategy efficiently while pinpointing areas for improvement. Budget and financial tools enable event professionals to navigate this complex world precisely.
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Event Promotion Tools and Marketing Materials
Event promotion and marketing tools should help increase attendance while optimizing event ROI in this highly competitive industry. Event management software must-have features that enable effective promotion to reach the target audience quickly.
Use event websites and email campaigns to craft an engaging story about your event that resonates with attendees. Event marketing tools like audience segmentation, personalized communications, and remarketing can be leveraged to reach specific attendee personas that ensure you reach the right crowd at each event.
Event management apps with features like marketing performance tracking and event analytics provide invaluable insight into your promotion strategies, helping to optimize marketing activities while making informed decisions about event planning.
Event planners who invest in an event management application with robust marketing and promotion capabilities can increase event attendance and ensure their success.
Reporting And Analytics For Data-Driven Decision Making
Making informed decisions and driving event success requires making data-driven decisions in today's world. So, having post-event analytics and reporting tools that offer real-time insight into event metrics like attendance, engagement, and revenue is imperative.
Event management tools used by event professionals must provide customizable reports tailored specifically to their needs, enabling them to mine deeper data to uncover actionable insights that help shape strategies and a subtle event performance.
Event planners can utilize advanced analytical capabilities to spot trends, growth opportunities, and anticipated hurdles and mitigate risks when planning events. Integrating data-driven decisions into event management processes leads to more strategic event execution, improved results, and higher ROIs.
Mobile App Functionality and Integration
Modern society demands mobile event apps as part of the event management experience for attendees and management alike. Your software must incorporate mobile integration to enhance attendees' experiences while streamlining event administration - featuring customized agendas and interactive maps to keep attendees engaged at all times.
Integrating your event management app with your mobile application enables you to monitor app usage, engagement metrics, and session attendance data.
Mobile apps can facilitate collaboration and networking among event attendees while allowing exhibitors and sponsors to promote their products or services and generate leads. Event planners who invest in software with robust mobile integration will enhance attendees' experiences at their events while increasing event success.
Eight-Seamless APIs and Third-Party Integrations
As event professionals, we rely on various tools and platforms for event planning. Software must offer third-party APIs and seamless integrations to simplify planning events efficiently and create a cohesive ecosystem integrations can include CRMs, email platforms, payment platforms, social media platforms or productivity software.
Integrating event management software into your existing tech stack will allow you to establish a central hub containing all your event processes and data, eliminating manual data entry and decreasing the chances of mistakes.
Customize your software by adding third-party integrations that suit the event requirements to meet its exacting demands and ensure its success. Third-party APIs and seamless integrations into event software are an invaluable way of streamlining planning processes and increasing efficiencies during their preparations and execution processes.
Scalability and Customizability
As event professionals, we rely on various tools and platforms for event planning. Software must offer third-party APIs and seamless integrations to optimize event planning efficiently while creating an ideal ecosystem this may include CRMs, email platforms, payment platforms, social media platforms or productivity software as integration points.
Integrating event software into your existing tech stack will enable you to establish a central hub that houses all the event processes and data relating to it, thus eliminating manual data entry while decreasing the chances of error.
Customize your event software by adding integrations from third parties that meet its exacting demands to meet those exacting expectations and ensure its success. Third-party APIs and seamless integration into event software provide invaluable ways of streamlining planning processes while increasing efficiencies throughout preparations and execution.
Security and Compliance
Security of event information is of utmost importance given the growing threats posed by cyber threats and data breaches. A robust event management system should include advanced features like data encryption, secure log-in options and regular upgrades in its protection features.
Event Management Systems must abide by three laws, the Americans with Disabilities Act and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, in order to avoid legal penalties, fines or damage to reputation.
This feature can significantly lower the risks of cyber attacks, data breaches and other security incidents - in terms of finances, legal ramifications and reputation damage - while simultaneously increasing attendance at events while building confidence with attendees and stakeholders, encouraging word-of-mouth advertising of events by attendees or stakeholders alike and brand recognition through word of mouth promotion or word-of-mouth promotion of brands committed to compliance and security measures can give event management systems advantage in competitive environments - customers, partners or sponsors may show increased interest in companies which demonstrate commitment towards compliance and security initiatives versus companies who lack such measures in place.
Support and Training Resources for Superior Customers
Event management software should offer excellent support resources, such as 24/7 customer service, extensive knowledge bases, and comprehensive training materials to guarantee success and an effortless user onboarding customer experience to build a base of happy customer with social feed in virtual events as well as social events in custom fields via assistance of key features to organize events with ease and events in bulk. This will guarantee a positive platform experience from start to finish and an onboarding experience for newcomers.
Regular software updates, new features and peer support can keep you at the top of your game in event planning and help create successful events.
What is the Importance of Event Management Software?
Managing events can play a vital role in your company's operations. You must plan and sell tickets for any event, whether a concert or a webinar. Even though event management is often complex, event management software can make it much easier.
Manage Your Event Location
Location for events depends upon their nature; for instance, hosting a conference requires accommodating many attendees, booths and spectators, whereas selling seats to classrooms might only require less space. Without effective event management software to coordinate these details, you would become the go-between between critical information sources and their recipients - acting like an intermediary. Event management software acts as the intermediary, translating that data and ensuring it's presented where it needs to go.
The software makes it simple and understands intricate details, like when planning an event like a conference where presenters must be located orderly across an open area. Event management software will assist with organizing logistics around booth placement.
Attendees Management
Your source of revenue comes from those attending your event - conference presenters and ordinary spectators alike. Tickets to classes may even form the core of some companies' business model - the event being their product. As with any business venture, its success relies on efficient management in an organized fashion, much like physical stocks or inventory.
Businesses often need to deal with multiple events in different places simultaneously. They must manage all the data that each generates and customer interactions that arise as part of those events. Event management software should help manage this daily flow of data associated with certain events for maximum profitability.
Generate Reports
Event management software provides attendance reports to provide insight into how well your business is doing. In terms of karate classes, one might see that there are always full classes with waiting lists forming due to overwhelming demand. This information allows the business to evaluate whether more classes or larger class sizes must be added for optimal operations.
Transactions Complexes
At times it may be necessary to register multiple people at once - for instance, if a company wants to train multiple staff members simultaneously - using event management software allows the user to enter group details quickly and present them directly to organizers so everyone is sitting together comfortably. Event planning software turns minute details that might otherwise become burdensome into transactional assets that help move operations smoothly.
Communication with Event Attendees
Use software to communicate effectively with attendees of an online event and of all sorts of events. Make sure the necessary information reaches those in need and send reminder emails about upcoming events. If your business runs multiple events simultaneously, tailor each email individually so all necessary info gets through to each guest attending each one.
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The Events Industry: Trends to Follow for 2023
Over time and particularly over recent decades, event industry trends have rapidly evolved. Businesses must constantly reinvent themselves to adapt to changes brought on by emerging technologies that impact how attendees engage with events - whether via social media platforms like Instagram and single applications like mobile applications or face-to-face encounters. How can organizations keep up with this rapidly shifting market? This post outlines seven trends the event industry must follow by 2023 for your own informational benefit. Keep reading.
Why Is The Events Industry Changing So Fast?
Interests and information continue to evolve ever-increasingly, giving rise to new terminology like FOMO that replaces what once seemed commonplace. Given this reality, any industry catering to people's desires must evolve rapidly.
The events industry must also keep up with new forms of entertainment, technology and areas of interest that bring people together. Audiences have become more demanding over time; they don't want to attend events with inadequate planning, space or information.
Event specialists are in high demand. In addition, their expertise has become an increasingly essential element of marketing and sales strategies. While it may have played a small part in selling and entertaining products in the past, today, it represents a massive industry with its own technologies and trends.
What to Expect in the Events Industry in 2023
As event professionals, what can we anticipate and plan for in 2023? Here are seven things to think about when anticipating the changes. Hope you enjoy it.
Event planners and brands have already started taking steps toward this end, while some are still learning. You can leverage technology to speed this up further.
We're pleased to provide Arion ERP event software. Not only is it event listing software for your site; this powerful event management software also lets you organize a hybrid event and online event by making quick edits; receiving payments, managing attendees or issuing refunds quickly with just two clicks.
Our event management system meets international privacy laws. It is equipped with top-of-the-line security and control measures while completely accessible, improving SEO for events as visitors browse your online calendar and discover them more efficiently. Furthermore, Arion ERP event software enables businesses to take full advantage of industry trends. Get in touch today to explore what Arion ERP Event offers or discover how else we can assist. Contact us to discover Arion ERP's features or any additional ways we may assist.
Event Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
AR is quickly becoming an engaging form of entertainment, offering users access to virtual environments through smartphones or other devices. Businesses are using this new technology to enhance customer service, provide additional details, and sell more products.
Event industry participants have also taken an interest in virtual reality technology. VR headsets allow visitors to immerse in a different reality, seeing and feeling what others cannot. VR not only creates an unforgettable experience for event attendees but can also help businesses reach customers in new and unexpected ways.
Virtual reality technology events like E3 or BlizzCon use virtual reality (VR) to showcase their latest games while offering VR testing zones for consoles. Gaming companies often employ VR to encourage healthy habits and get people moving during downtime.
Gamification has expanded into various areas to help develop and acquire new skills, with virtual and augmented reality becoming key tools in practicing those abilities. We should expect more events featuring VR/gamification in 2023 - plan your event now to stay ahead of the game.
Social Media: A Tool for Event Promotion
Social media is becoming integral to event planners' strategies as consumers rely on it daily. According to a poll conducted earlier this year, 64% of attendees base their decisions about attending events they see online when making their selection decision.
Social media has quickly become a trend in the events industry that will only become more prominent over time. Though not directly replacing other advertising techniques like flyers and word-of-mouth marketing, social media still plays an integral part in how individuals access event details and decide if and when they attend them.
Social media continues to be one of the best tools for measuring the acceptance and success of ideas and events. So, social media integration has become one of the major trends within the event industry technology trends.
Attending Events Has Changed Dramatically With The Advent Of Mobile Technology
Mobile devices are increasingly used by attendees at events to gather event-specific information. A survey shows that over half (52%) use their smartphone when attending an event, and this trend will likely only grow over time as more and more attendees adapt.
Recent years have witnessed an explosion in apps specifically tailored for events. Users can search events, see event schedules and reservations, and purchase tickets - these apps, while not as ubiquitous as some social media platforms, are becoming popular within the event industry.
Event planners who fail to utilize mobile technologies risk time and money by not effectively employing these innovations. A research revealed that 72% of event organizers believe event technologies play an integral part in modern event management - you could plan better events by developing apps or using event software; remote event planning technology as an event organizer, sharing it across social media or newsletters to make your event even more widely advertised;
Live Streaming Is A Great Way To Draw In Attendees
Online live streaming has never been more prevalent; companies use live-streamed events as an effective marketing strategy and platform to showcase their services or products to target audiences. Most live-streamed events take on an event-like format that could persist into 2023.
Gen Z and Millennials are more likely to engage with brands and attend events than other generations while being open-minded towards innovative or unconventional concepts - leading many companies to opt for digital influencer partnerships rather than billboard or magazine ads as advertising mediums.
The New Event Trend: Sustainability
The technology was developed without considering how it would impact our environment. Still, there's greater awareness regarding its environmental effects, and we work towards finding sustainable energy solutions while maintaining lifestyles. 2023 will bring a need to promote and adopt sustainable events as part of its events industry development roadmap.
The COP26 Sustainability Report did an outstanding job examining sustainable events and ways to promote them. Planning these events involves many variables - economic concerns and climate concerns are some; partnership is important, as is encouraging sustainable behavior, healthy living using eco-friendly sources, and creating lasting legacies are just.
Technology and energy usage are becoming cleaner. Event organizers should encourage attendees to utilize sustainable transportation options when attending their events and hire locals as event staffers, which will enormously affect people's behavior and decision-making in 2023. Furthermore, as people become more conscious about protecting the environment while leaving an impactful legacy for future generations to follow, so too will services and technologies be promoted by event organizers, and promoted services and technologies will expand accordingly.
Accessibility Of Digital And In-Person Events
At Access4 Events, we understand that accessibility for events goes beyond being just another trend: it is an absolute requirement. Unfortunately, many event planners are still uncertain how to create virtual events or find venues that accommodate people with disabilities, thus rendering events inaccessible for some attendees. So what steps can be taken to make events accessible for all attendees?
By 2023 we believe people and organizations will place great value in digital accessibility and adhering to accessibility agreements. Event professionals need to know how technology can increase accessibility; voice recognition software such as Siri is widely utilized today to do this job - voice recognition needs to become common practice at events catering to disabled attendees too. More events and job fairs than ever before now focus specifically on disability inclusion. Event venues are expected to implement standards of accessibility soon, which will further promote inclusion within their events and fairs.
Privacy and Security at Events
Privacy regulations are evolving quickly. In many countries, customer personal data and customer testimonials have become as valuable as financial data for decision-making purposes. This demonstrates how valuable we are as providers to consumers - as we should manage the data of event attendees accordingly. What personal data may we gather from event attendees, and what actions may we take with their information? Furthermore, is there an ideal length of time we should keep this data on our server or continue sending emails to marketing past attendees.
Event organizers in 2023 must exercise extra care when collecting attendees' personal and financial data, which includes attending individuals. Our primary aim should be making our digital world as safe as possible as we depend more and more on it. 2023 will see an escalation in security regulations as we become increasingly dependent on technology; event professionals may focus more on topics related to payments, sensitive data and software engineering as their top priorities.
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Conclusion
Event planning can be complex. Finding an appropriate venue, inviting attendees, coordinating schedules and accommodating everyone involved are some difficulties associated with organizing and planning any gathering.
Event management software enables event planners to plan and coordinate all details related to an event with ease, including communicating with all those involved and planning out every last detail for optimal execution of it all. Event planning software simplifies this task by handling complexity effectively while streamlining event coordination processes.
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