Events are a repository of data! Here’s how you can tap it.
Analytical tools used during events can be powerful sources of data-rich in consumer information. These tools can offer an insight into what exactly your customer wants so that you could deliver better and more impactful experiences in the future and get your business’ cash counters chiming.
There are several event apps, event management software, contact manager apps, event ticketing solutions, survey software etc. that can help in gathering data. Here are some ways through which you could tap the potential of your data to generate profits:
Event Ticketing/Registration Solutions: Facial recognition is fast-emerging as a ticketing solution that can make ticket lines move faster by simply checking in attendees by scanning the faces as they walk through a kiosk. Before coming to the event, attendees first register themselves by linking their social media profiles or uploading a selfie on the registration portal. On the day of the event, the tool identifies participants by scanning its database of photos in real time. Several such cost-effective and intuitive face recognition tools are available in the market. Apart from saving time, these can also prove to be valuable storehouses of consumer data. However, while using such technology, ensure that it follows strict security protocol, encrypts images, and deletes all the images after the extraction of the face’s geometric.
Event Apps: It could be worthwhile to create event applications for large-format events that occur periodically. These apps can enable attendees network with each other, access information or other special offers and create a personalized schedule. For the organizers, the app could prove to be a powerful data collection and revenue generation tool as it could help identify the delegates’ choices and tastes by storing their profile and click rates. By identifying the interest of the consumer, organizers can use targeted messaging such as in-app advertising, push notification etc. and help exhibitors and sponsors communicate with their customers in a more meaningful manner. Explara is one such comprehensive event management software, which also empowers you to create your own custom branded event app through its Emaxio tool.
Smart Mats: The event marketer of the future could use smart mats that measure footfalls of attendees can offer a deeper understanding of their behavior. They can be placed at the site of the event to measure the number of people who stopped by a stall or the amount of time they stood before a branded standee. Armed with such data, event organizers can validate their footfall data to exhibitors and sponsors and increase revenue.
Survey Software: Filling out a feedback form, physically or online, right after an event, can get tiresome. That is why event managers are increasingly considering the use of survey software and chat bots as a feedback gathering channel. Chat bots can store interactions they have with the attendees across all stages of the event and not just at the end. Most attendees might also find it easier to offer a chat bot an honest opinion about the event as compared with a real person. To speak to a chat bot, attendees can log in through their social media profiles or by offering other sets of data. In this way, the chat bot can gather feedback on the event and gain access to the attendee’s social profile creating a valuable pool of customer data. Explara has its own event survey software functionality called Survey Builder to aid in easier conduction of attendee surveys.
Event Management Software: Event planners are increasingly automating several administrative tasks through event management software. Such software could help you create a social media page for your event, sell tickets, and track sales and registrations while gathering insights of customer behavior. Some software come with in-built registration tools that capture and organize visitor data. By accessing the visitor’s social media preferences and other information, it helps you segregate them according to their profession, age, gender, region etc. After analyzing data, some software could also create reports that could quantify the success of your event, increase brand value and aid in revenue generation. Explara provides you such reporting through its centralized dashboard.
Contact Manager Apps: In the heydays of event management, an event organizer's diary would be a complicated mess of phone numbers. However, this is no more the case as a host of contact manager apps available online could organize contact information in a smart and efficient manner. These apps simply import your contact lists from your phone, email and social media profiles and automatically send them targeted messages such as reminders, birthday greetings, special offers etc. They could also identify key people in your contact list and bring their social media communication to your attention. If your app contains contact information of all your attendees, it could help filter them out based on various criteria and use that information for future events. A brilliant case in point, the Contact Manager of Explara.
While consumer data collection is one of the key aspects of organising an event, managers must ensure that they follow ethical ways of data management and comply with the laws of the land. For instance, if you have a list of European contact details, you may need to prove how you obtained access to that information and if those people volunteered to give you that information for your event. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation mandates all event organisers to disclose data retention periods and if you’re legally authorised to process the attendee’s identification details and other information collected during the event. Further, customers must be given a choice to opt out of sharing their data and organisers must have proven consent from all attendees before gathering their data. A few regulations also ban organisers from sharing or selling data for purposes other than the event itself.
At a time when data collection is an indispensable part of event organisation, ensure that you differentiate yourself by protecting your attendees’ identities and using the data ethically and responsibly.
