2015 edition

the digital guide to

the
event
upping your game and
boosting your resumé

planner's
playbook

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 the event planner’s the digital guide to

playbook
upping your game and
boosting your resumé

It’s an exciting time to be an event planner.

What was once a marketing discipline known primarily for planning parties and feeding the masses has grown
up to become a formidable work force that’s not only stealing the spotlight from advertising and PR—its
stealing their budgets, too.

As a result, event planners have had to up their game. From marketing strategy to social media to digital tools
and so much more, the role of event planner has evolved to include a wider variety of must-have skills and
expertise than ever before. Unlike the planners of the past, event planners today are, all at once, organizers,
community creators, marketers, innovators, experience managers, salespeople, tech experts and general
managers. It’s a must-have mashup of new talents and abilities. And it requires new thinking, training and
education.

We developed this ebook to help event planners become the well-rounded professionals they need to
be in order to be successful. Part crash course for those new to the industry, and part master’s course for
seasoned planners looking to enhance their skills or give their CV a boost. The Event Planner’s Playbook is
here to help you get a grip on what you need to know now to make it in this demanding and fast-changing
industry.

In this book you will get a deep dive into the marketing, technology and logistics best practices that are
making the most profound impacts on the event planning landscape, including:

How to connect with millennials in authentic ways

Innovative ways to get your community to promote your events
Social media best practices—what you’re not doing but should be
How to create and manage a killer event website
Plus, more than 75 more tips and ideas fresh from the industry’s brightest minds & best events

Event planners today are not caterers. They are the masterminds that transform brands and objectives into
innovative live engagements that can, and do, impact the bottom line. Let’s get you the recognition you
deserve. Let’s help you create a resumé that rocks. Let’s help you master your game.

the event planner’s playbook

 table of contents
Part 1. Marketing ‘Must-Haves’ For The Event Planner
How to Engage with Millennials at Events 5
Sponsorship Best Practices: Making Your Event Their Event 6
Four Ways to Get Your Community to Promote Your Events 7
Social Media for Events: How to Do It and Do It Well 8
Using Content Marketing Principles to Promote Your Event 9
Mission Possible: Inspiring Fun and Engaging Your Attendees 10

Part 2. Technology Tools and Best Practices

10 Questions to Help You Find Your Dream Event App Vendor 12
Why You Should Be Collecting Qualitative, not Quantitative, Feedback at Events 13
Event Websites: Three Things to Change Now 14
Boost Your Event Communication with Automation 16
Be a Hero: How to Integrate Event Software in Your Ecosystem 18
Overcoming Internet Connectivity Challenges 18

Part 3. Logistics Tips For The Modern Planner

Ways to Reduce No-shows at Your Events 20
How User Experience Drives Powerful Engagement 21
The Art of Inviting for Events 23
Ten Tips to a Successful Welcome Desk 24

Part 4. Resources
Websites, blogs and online resources to help you learn and grow 25
Contacts and more information about the contributors to this book 25

key
Looking to amp up your expertise in event technology? Want to brush up your community

Organizer Marketer Salesperson General Manager

Community Creator Innovator Tech Expert Experience Manager

the event planner’s playbook 3

 part 1
marketing ‘must-haves’ for the event planner
Events have always been an important part of the overall marketing mix, but more and more, event planners are responsible for driving
mission critical pieces of the marketing strategy through their events. Many event planners are even being tasked with mapping their
events to their company’s sales goals.

What does this mean for up-and-coming event planners? In short, there’s never been a better time to brush up on your marketing
skills. To compete in the world of events today, you need to know how, specifically, your event is going to contribute to your
company’s overall sales and marketing goals. You need to have a deep understanding of your target audience or customer—what
moves them, what excites them and how they have responded (or not responded) to your events in the past. You need to master
social media for events and know how to reach your customers through the right platforms, in the right voice and tone. You need
to be a great salesperson, with the ability to package up and sell your event to prospective sponsors, and then give those sponsors
the value they need from your event in both real-world and digital ways. You need to “see” your event as a content platform, and
smartly exploit every corner of it for use across other social and digital platforms. And – this is no small task – you need to be the
absolute best at creating fun and engaging live experiences for your attendees that go off without a hitch and deliver against all of
your marketing objectives.

Whew, right?

In this section of The Event Planner’s Playbook, we break down these marketing “must-have” skillsets into six key areas, and offer
dozens of actionable tips you can start using right now to make your event, and your career, more marketing-savvy:

Targeting. How to connect with millennials across your entire event strategy.
Sponsorship. Selling, and then paying for or offsetting the cost of, your event.
Community. Cultivating and then promoting your event through word of mouth.
Social Media. Six questions you need to ask to get it right.
Content. Five ways to imbed a content strategy across your event.
Engagement. Ways to make fun translate into engagement and ROI.

There’s never been a more opportune time to advance your career or prove your marketing value than now. Read on to get your
marketing mojo rising.

the event planner’s playbook 4

 how to engage with millennials at events
Everyone is talking about how to engage with millennials.
From b-to-b to b-to-c companies, it’s a group that senior level
management knows it can’t live without, but can’t quite put their
finger on, either. How can you get this younger generation to
interact with your brand, company or event? Here is a roundup
of top insights into the millennial mindset.
Technology is a Must-Have
First things first, understand that millennials cannot live without
technology. From the moment that dial-up internet was
invented–we know you all remember the AOL connection
sounds–they haven’t been able to do without it. They grew up
with it, so they need to have it accessible at all times. You do not
want a cranky or unhappy millennial on your hands.
What does this mean for events? Provide top notch technology.
This starts with providing free Wi-Fi that can handle the bandwidth
of your attendees. Do not let your internet connection timeout.
Even more important, provide ample charging stations. If a phone
or tablet dies while they are at an event and there is nowhere to
refuel, your millennial attendees will become lost. They need to
have the ability to be social, network and gather information in
real time with technology. Think about making your event bag
digital as well: electronic giveaways, discounts, partner collateral,
event information and more all on a USB card. You will be ahead
of the trend on this one, and they will thank you for that.
Social Media is Fair Game
Being in a generation that grew up on technology, millennials are
also over connected to social media. They expect to find things
out instantaneously. That being said, why are you reaching out
to them through email? Yes, they have their phones on them
and check their email daily, but millennials are on social media
minute-to-minute.
What does this mean for events? Reach out through social
media.
We all get tons of emails a day and it is hard to hear through
the noise. Why not go to where they already live–Facebook,
LinkedIn and Twitter? Promoting your event on social media will
attract millennials if it is done the right way. Start conversations
with hashtags and twitter chats. Start a community on LinkedIn
through groups and post updates daily. They want to be involved
and feel like they matter. If you give millennials the opportunity to
be an active participant with social media they will be more likely
to share content.
Stay Ahead of the Trends
Millennials are the generation that brought hipsters to the world,
so they obviously love to be ahead of the trends. In order to get
them to engage with you they want to see that you can offer
something that is new and different. They want to see that you
thought about new ways to reach out to your attendees.
What does this mean for events? Integrate new innovations and
tech trends into your event.
the event planner’s playbook
Just like millennials, event organizers want to stay on top of
trends as well. You need to be constantly looking for ways to
innovate at your events. Think companies like Catchbox and
Crowdmics who are changing the way that attendees project
their voices at events. Being able to use your phone as a
microphone or throw a cube around like a hot potato to speak is
just fun. Beacon technology is a new trend that event organizers
should start using as well. With beacon technology you can send
push notifications to your attendees when they walk by a certain
area on your show floor to let them know about an exhibitor in
proximity or a presentation that is about to start near them. This
goes back to this real-time information that millennials love.
Give Gamification a Go
Not only did millennials grow up during the start of the
internet, they also grew up during the age of video gaming.
Playing duck hunt or Super Mario was a weekly occurrence for
many millennials. As a result, they love a challenge and a little
competition—they can’t resist.
What does this mean for events? Incorporate gamification into
sessions.
Not only does gamification involve your audience in sessions and
deliver messages, but it also allows for networking opportunities.
That is something that is important to millennials as well. They
want to learn from their predecessors in the industry. Giving
them the opportunity to participate in a game with them is
genius. You can do this by working with all your speakers to have
them include a small game at the beginning of their session or
during it. Let them know that you will help them facilitate it.
Those are only a few of the ways that event organizers can start
to engage millennial attendees. It really starts with stepping in
their shoes. Remember the time that they grew up in: technology
dependent, gaming and more. This will help you realize what you
need to do get them to engage. It is as simple as showing them
that they matter. Give them authentic experiences where they
can get something that they could never get online. In the end,
all millennials really want is to be a part of something real and
that is going to positively impact them. So show them what these
real connections are, show them that you are more than just a
sea of session after session.
5
 sponsorship best practices: making your event their event
When courting a sponsor, you need to build relationships, show
value, give them an unbelievable offer and teach them how to
engage with attendees. Let’s take this a step further with more
tips, tricks and ways to seal the deal with event sponsors.
Know What They Want
Potential sponsors are choosing to be a part of your event
because they are expecting to see some kind of return on
investment, hopefully a big one. While you can’t guarantee a
big return, you can give them a little peace of mind by letting
them know the buying power of your event audience. If you let
potential sponsors know that your audience is capable of buying
and that there will be big decision makers in attendance, it may
put their sponsorship contract on the fast track.
Once you have the attention of some companies, you need to
create your sponsorship proposals. Skip the usual sponsorship
packages and create packages that are targeted to the needs of
these companies. The key is to listen to what they want, without
compromising your bottom line goal.
When you reach out to potential sponsors, see if they have any
great ideas that will bring more innovation to your event and help
them to meet their marketing goals. Then, create a sponsorship
package together that has your event goals in mind, but also
meets the needs of your sponsor. Team work is very important
and your sponsors will remember that you took the time to make
sure that their needs were met.
Don’t Treat Them as a Cash Machine, But as a Partner
You need to stand together with a common goal in mind—to
have a successful event. Sometimes in order to get sponsors on
your side you need to show them that they are a part of your
team and not just funding your event. This may mean offering
them a little something extra to give them brand awareness or a
bigger ROI. Some ideas:
The small plus: a demo table during lunch, an email blast
the week before, or an interview onsite.
Include them in the event debrief after the event to get
their feedback.
Allow them the opportunity to have some positive buzz
when you partner with a charity for the event, or give them
the opportunity to co-create content to be published
before or after the event.
the event planner’s playbook
Convince Sponsors With The Right Speech and Timing
Understand that for different sponsors and contacts you are going
to need to approach things in a different way. What might appeal
to one person, may not to the next. For example, a sales person is
going to respond positively to leads. When you speak with them,
make sure that you mention the big decision makers that will be
at your event and the amount of attendees. On the other hand,
when you work with a marketer you are going to need to show
them concrete data; results from last year, differentiation, added
value and opportunities. They will also care a great deal about the
price of the sponsorship.
Everyone has objectives that they need to hit in order to achieve
their goals, so educate yourself. Show people that your event
is the right event for them. That means you need to know your
target audience, behavior of the target (will they buy), results
from last year, potential reach, market size and more. Do your
research because you will get asked these questions. Would you
buy a house without looking at the market value and having an
official inspection? No, it is too risky. Don’t make the decision to
invest in your event risky for your sponsors.
Finally, make sure you know when to pitch your event. Most
businesses make their sponsorship decisions in the last quarter
of the year, so plan accordingly. It will take several months to get
approval on sponsorships from the right people, so make sure
you have your pitches out months before that.
Where Do You Find Them?
Now that you have a plan on how to get your sponsors, you need
to know where to find them. You can’t just Google “sponsors
for technology event.” You need to do your research. See what
companies make sense for you to have on board and if you can
get referrals from others. Here are our tips on where to look:
Social media. LinkedIn is a great way to find the right
sponsors by searching through groups. You can see what
their interests are, their company and where they have
done business before.
Create an advisory board with previous sponsors to help
attract future sponsors. Your past sponsors can give
feedback on sponsorship incentives/ideas/targets.
Create a referral program with others sponsors, so they
can recommend key people in the industry and act as
references to share what they gained.
Sponsorship will always be a win-win situation. It is a good way
for you to enhance your event financially and add new services,
entertainment or learning for your attendees. On the other hand,
it is good for the sponsors because they have the chance to
create new business, have more brand awareness and hopefully
a good ROI. When you are in the process of courting sponsors,
creating packages and convincing people to invest in your event,
think of it as a journey of discovery. You are embarking on a
new relationship with an organization and get the chance to
collaborate—it is more than just a hunt for money. Even if money
is key.
6
 four ways to get your community to promote your events
Planning events is a team
effort. You need to have a
production line of tasks in
place that will move projects
smoothly from one person to
another. Once the location
is booked, you move on to
finding your caterer, then you
start planning your seating
arrangements, then maybe you move on to marketing and so
on. More than just having to coordinate with your team to get
projects done, you need to coordinate with all your vendors and
sponsors to make sure that your event goes as planned. Yet even
with all of those tasks efficiently checked off the list, there is still
one integral part of your event team that often gets neglected or
missed in the planning process—your community, or network of
attendees.
There are 1.8 million meetings
in the U.S. each year, many with
fewer than 100 attendees
Corbin Ball states that there are about 1.8 million meetings in the
U.S. each year, many with fewer than 100 attendees. There are
two things to take away from that statement: One, with many
events having fewer than 100 attendees it is completely possible
to find a way to reach out to attendees on an individual level and
ask for their assistance in event promotion. Two, there are too
many meetings happening every year to not be taking advantage
of all the free marketing that you can do to expand your event
reach and grow your market.
In order to have your community and network “become your
speaker systems” for your next event, you need to give them
a reason to do it. We all hope that our community will be
willing to promote our event no questions asked, but most of
the time people like to have some sort of incentive or they just
need a push. And it is worth it to make the effort to invest time
into this community. After all, 84% of people surveyed trust
recommendations from someone they know versus the 42% that
trust online banner ads.
Let’s get started with a few tips on how to get your community
to promote your event:
Start A Contest
Who doesn’t like a good contest these days? Just because we
are adults doesn’t mean we don’t like some good ol’ fashioned
competition! Consider adding a component to your event where
you ask your attendees to get active on social media. AIBTM did
a great job of that at their event with the “Meet America Selfie
Challenge.” Attendees were encouraged to “Meet America”
during the event by taking selfies at booths with the green
#AIBTM diamond. Attendees won prizes for most creative selfie,
most original and more. This got attendees on their social media
sites posting pictures with the event hashtag. This was a great
the event planner’s playbook
way to get more visibility for the event hashtag, while at the same
time engaging their attendees in a fun way.
Give Them a Way to Join In
Your attendees want to feel included and that they matter. An
easy way to do this is to make their opinion count and show them
that their actions will have a direct result on the way that you
plan your event. The inaugural Event Tech Live show in London
in 2014 gave their attendees the chance to do just that. Like most
events, they had knowledge and learning sessions with industry
experts. Speakers were asked to send in videos submissions for
their speaking slot instead of written submissions. The reason?
Event Tech Live chose to crowdsource their speaking slots.
They put the power in attendees’ hands to choose who they
want to see and what they want to learn about. The advantage
of this is that you are encouraging your attendees to share with
their community who they want to see. Most people will start
campaigning for the sessions that they voted for through their
social media accounts. This immediately gets your show out
there to a whole new network of people.
Have Stellar Content and Keynotes
An easy way to get your attendees talking about and promoting
your event is to have amazing content and speakers lined up. It
is a natural instinct in people to share things with their friends
that they are excited about. Ever leave an amazing movie and
you can’t wait to tell all your friends about it? Right there you are
being a brand advocate by promoting that movie. You liked what
you saw and you want other people to share in the excitement!
The same thing can be said for good event content. When people
found out that Arianna Huffington would be a keynote speaker
at Silverpop Amplify in 2014, you started to see tweets pouring
in promoting the event. Even our own etouches representatives
that attended the event couldn’t wait to tell people who they
were going to see speak in a few weeks. That is why content is
key!
Just Ask
You never know until you ask right? So why not just ask your
network, community and attendees to share and promote your
event? Events do it all the time with their speakers, so why not
with attendees? In 2014, IMEX America sent its speakers an email
with speaker guidelines and points. One of the points asked if
speakers could promote their session on social media using their
hashtag. It is a win-win for both parties because they hopefully
bring in more people to the speaker’s session and the event gets
more visibility.
According to a poll on Special Events.com, 56% of respondents
use email to contact clients, so when sending out your event
marketing emails to attendees consider adding in a section
asking them to engage with you on social media. Maybe pose
some questions to them, something to make them want to post.
Consider asking what sessions they are looking forward to, what
exhibitors they want to see or what they like most about the
location. Something to start the conversation for them and make
them want to go on social media and finish it!
7
 social media for events: how to do it and do it well

Social media is the place for event organizers to drive excitement What happens to social media during your event? You need
around their event. It will help you to better understand your to make sure you have someone manning the social media
target audience, engage attendees and make those lasting platforms during your event. They can answer questions,
connections. All of those points will make your interactions pre-, keep your attendees up to date on the latest changes and
during- and post-event that much more meaningful. happenings, and even monitor the negative chatter (remember,
be transparent—their comments can help you make your event
The first thing that you need to do is come up with a strategy. even better next year). This will be when your social media is
You will use social media in different ways before, during and most active, so try to increase engagement even more by hosting
after the event, so you need to have a game plan. Here are six key a competition. Maybe post the best picture with your event logo
questions to ask to help you get started: on Instagram or host a virtual scavenger hunt. Something to keep
people interested.
Who are you trying to reach? Once you have that figured out,
you need to find where they live. If you are hosting a medical How do you keep people engaged post event? In short: by
congress, maybe they love to surf the groups on LinkedIn related keeping your event content alive. Some of this happens during
to associations they are a part of. However, if you are hosting an your event because you should be taking photos, videos, and
international tradeshow, Twitter is a great way to reach audiences capturing interviews with big names. All of these things will help
in different parts of the you share your content
world. Do your research, post-event with the people
your audience will thank who couldn’t come, and
you for putting time in to those who did and want
understand their needs. to share their knowledge
with the rest of their team!
What tools work for You can even use a tool like
you? Please, please don’t Social Dynamite to curate
be that person that still posts written about your
manually monitors and event content.
uploads posts to social
media. It can make you How do you measure
go crazy! Start using tools your results? Look at your
to automate the process analytics! What is the point
and monitor it, but make of all this if you aren’t
sure you are using the seeing what your ROI is?
right ones for your needs. Check the analytics on the
If you have a big team, social tools that you used:
use a collaborative tool your follower growth,
like Sprout Social to
monitor your mentions and automate posts within your team. shares, mentions, engagement rates and influencers (i.e. your
If you found that your audience is mainly on Twitter, TweetDeck Klout score). With all this information under your belt you can
is a great tool to follow hashtags, schedule posts and monitor make your social media strategy even better for next year’s event.
industry influencers.
Bottom line, do your research and come up with a plan. Nothing
What are you going to post? Don’t flood your audience and is worse than sloppy social media that isn’t relevant to your
attendees with information only about your event. They will get audience. So jump in, get involved and do social media the right
bored and start to stray away from visiting your page. Give them way.
valuable information that they can actually use. Share posts from
thought leaders, or give them industry knowledge and tips. By
not just trying to sell your event to them, they will start to gain
trust in you and realize that you care about giving them the tools
to succeed in the industry.

the event planner’s playbook 8

 using content marketing principles to promote your event
Content marketing isn’t anything new. Since the Michelin Guide
was first published in 1900 to encourage people to drive further
and replace their tires more often, people have been making use
of content as a way to promote their business. However, over
the last couple of years there has been a spike in people making
a concerted effort to promote their businesses through content.
But it can be a tricky challenge for event and conference
businesses to really take advantage of content marketing to drive
more registrations for their event and to open up conversations
with potential sponsors. Here, we share some tips on ways you
can use content more effectively within your market.
Capture Everything
If you’re a conference organizer you’ve got to get people standing
up and sharing content—great content that will really resonate
with your audience. You’ll be too busy running the event to take
in all that’s going on, but you can hire people to capture it for you.
Video is the default option, but if that’s outside of your budget, at
least get an audio recording as this will set you up for the rest of
your campaign.
Use Format Bias in Your Favor
Lots of people will have format bias and this means they will
prefer to consume their content in certain ways. Perhaps they’re
the kind of person who downloads podcasts to listen to while
in the gym, or maybe they read on their phone while waiting
for a train, or print everything out to read while waiting for their
flight connection. Often people with these different preferences
won’t overlap. This is your opportunity: the same idea or seed
of content can be repurposed into lots of different formats and
appeal to lots of different groups of people.
the event planner’s playbook
After your conference you can take your presenters’ slides and
upload them to Slideshare, video them and upload them to
YouTube, record their audio to create podcasts, summarize them
and release them as a podcast, compile transcriptions to bundle
them into a printable whitepaper, or reformat them into a Kindle
friendly ebook. Each of the different pieces of content will appeal
to a different group of people even if they all started from the
same place.
Let Your Community Help You Out
Some of the best websites in every b-to-b sector are driven to
some extent by user generated content; your attendees are all
potential contributors. To a lot of people public speaking is a
sweat inducing nightmare, but these knowledgeable attendees
would make great contributors to your website, producing
content that will deliver great results for your business.
Invite Prolific Creators of Content
You’ll probably already have a group of media partners, but are
there other non-conventional publishers who are writing about
you or your competitors’ events? They’re the people you really
want attending your event. Look to see who’s been doing the
post tweeting on your competitors’ hashtags, plus who’s written
post-event blog round ups. Then sort them out a complimentary
ticket to your event. They’re probably going to contribute great
content to the community.
Treat it as a Revenue Opportunity
Once you’ve established yourself as a publisher, as well as an
event organizer, you’ll be able to use your new-found year-round
audience as revenue stream. Try regularly hosting webinars and
distribute whitepapers you’ve charged sponsors to produce. This
content is great for your community, great for your commercial
partners and all contributes to your content marketing goals.
9
 mission possible: inspiring fun and engaging your attendees

Fun and conferences are not two words that often go together.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can explore new meeting
formats, embrace technology, and spark fun that will keep
your attendees engaged from the very start of your event. With
better engagement techniques from the start you will not only
keep your attendees attention, but you will help to increase
attendance. By providing quality education and lively speakers in
interesting ways you will find a nice balance between the fun side
and the serious side.

It is about having a complete experience, not just about how the

education is delivered or about fun. There are many components
throughout that you need to consider. Learn how to make
attendees feel comfortable by stepping in their shoes and finding
ways to make shifts in your event to make it better for them.

Presentation Style
Pecha Kucha: 20 slides 20 seconds for 6 minutes
Speakers are only allotted 20 seconds per slide and it automatically
moves whether they are ready or not! It helps keep your speakers
in line with their content and not all over the place. It forces them
to prepare ahead of time and really know what they are going to
talk about. It is a nice way to break up the conference throughout
the day with short bursts of “sessions” for attendees.
Ignite: 15 slides 20 seconds for 5 minutes
Similar to Pecha Kucha, Ignite gives you 15 slides for 20 seconds
or 20 slides for 15 seconds. 5 minutes may seem a little more
doable for people than six. This is great for attendees as their
attention spans are usually shorter and can see content quicker.
They also won’t see the fluff—just the good stuff.
TED Style:11 to 30 minutes
Speakers prepare a year prior to going on stage for TED Talks.
With a large engaging screen behind the speakers, there is a lot
of time developing slides that will get the audience engaged.
It is not the easiest thing to do and most events aren’t able to
lock down a speaker a year ahead. If that is the case just think of
how your can use these presentation style as a guide. How can
you better prepare speakers? How can you make slides full of
multimedia and engaging?
Seating arrangements
Stability Balls
Think about engaging the mind and body. Your body is focused
on balance and your mind is also engaged on what people are
saying. Attendees are always surprised when they walk into a
room and see this set up.
Concentric Circles
This will bring the entire audience closer to the speaker and
with fellow presenters. Speakers will need time to adjust to this
speaking style. They need to learn how to speak to the whole
audience not just ahead. That is why it is important to make them
aware ahead of time. It will offer a more intimate and engaging
experience.
Lounge Seating
People like to be comfortable, think couches and chairs. The
audience can get into their element and they aren’t itching to get
out of the desk chair type of seating.

Classroom style
The great thing about this is that everyone has their own
workspace and an outlet to encourage you to bring your tech.
People are more engaged – they are listening even if doing
something else.

Mixed Seating
Use parts and pieces of each. Mixing up seating is good for
attendees because they get to choose where they are most
comfortable.

For more, check out our webinar.

the event planner’s playbook 10

 part 2
technology tools and best practices
The technology we love and crave in our personal lives has become a critical part of every winning event strategy. And it’s up to
every event planner to make sure they’re up to speed on the tools and technologies that can not only wow and impress a tech-savvy
audience, but make your event’s backend management process easier, too.

Now, you don’t have to rush out and start learning to code, but you do need to have a handle on what attendees expect out of
an experience—and how you can deliver it to them. In this section of The Event Planner’s Playbook, we outline the six areas of
technology that can make the biggest impact on your event:

Apps. 10 important steps to finding the right vendor for you.

Data. The value of collecting qualitative feedback at events, plus how to do it.
Websites. Three tips for making a killer event website that delivers results.
Automation. Tools to make your event communication strategy more streamlined.
Integration. How to help your event website play friendly with all of your internal and external software and
social media platforms.
On-site. How to master the art of “always-on” on-site internet connectivity.

From event websites to on-site mobile apps to backend integration and, finally, tracking and measuring it all to see how you did, the
next 7 pages will help you make smarter technology decisions at every step in the planning process.

Better watch your back, Bill Gates.

the event planner’s playbook 11

 10 questions to help you find your dream event app vendor

When it comes to the success of your event, you want to make

sure you have the perfect event app partner on your side. Not
only will they provide you with the best app solution for your
conference or meeting, they will also give you world-class
service and support to help you deliver an even more amazing
experience.

But just like in our personal lives, finding your dream partner can
be a challenge. Let’s face it, relationships aren’t always easy–and
with so many fish in the sea, it seems like every event app vendor
is offering something to pull at your heartstrings.

Since a lot of us have almost no experience with event apps and

lot of experience in relationships, it seemed only right to help you
find your perfect match in a way we can all understand. Here are
10 things you can ask event app vendors to see if they’re really
the one for you.

1. Every time we talk, you give me nothing but your list of

boilerplate features. What more can you do to satisfy my needs?
Why this matters: If you need app functionality that isn’t quite
what’s being presented to you, find out how configurable each
of their features are to help you adapt to your audience’s needs.
And if you absolutely need functionality that doesn’t exist, find
out early on if they’re willing to go that extra mile for you–and
how much experience they have in doing so.
2. I’m warning you, you’re going to have to keep up with my
demands. I change my content a lot.
Why this matters: Look for an easy-to-use, web-based content
management system that allows you to change content on the
fly. If you want to keep this task off your to-do list, you can also
look for a vendor that offers professional services such as content
uploading, editing and updating.
3. I like you, but if we’re going to do this you’ll have to integrate
with my family of registration software.
Why this matters: Some event app vendors have already built
interfaces with registration software like etouches. Find out if you
can leverage these interfaces to streamline the development of
your app content.
4. Why can’t you see me for what I really am and give me a break
from your branding template?
Why this matters: Make sure your brand is truly reflected in your
app’s user experience. A vendor’s standard design template may
not be enough to accurately represent your brand.
5. I can’t just do long-distance all the time. I need your onsite
support.
Why this matters: A trained event app expert onsite during your
event is your best insurance policy against any unexpected
hiccups–and lessens the chance of adding grey hairs to your
head.
6. I also need my private moments. Let’s not make a photo
gallery out of everything.
Why this matters: It’s one thing to offer photo galleries in your
app. It’s another thing to have complete control over user-
contributed content and associated comments. Make sure you
have the ability to approve photos that will appear in the app
before they go live.
7. Okay, how about some ground rules: I need to control our
roles and permissions to feel secure in this relationship.
Why this matters: If you’re planning an event with a team, you
may need to control which team member can access and modify
which content.
8. Are you just like all the other vendors or will you be my 24/7
support?
Why this matters: Having event app support available around the
clock is critical, especially when you least expect it. Ensure that
you can reach your vendor by phone or email so your event is
covered no matter when or where it is.
9. If you really want me, you’ll change your event app games and
play by my rules.
Why this matters: If an event app vendor’s mobile game is not
quite what you’re looking for, find out how flexible they are when
it comes to changing the rules or point scoring.
10. What are you trying to say about my events with your
analytics?
Why this matters: Before you commit to a vendor, find out what
their analytics and reports will tell you about your audience and
how you can use these insights to improve next year’s event.
If analyzing data isn’t your cup of tea, ask if your vendor offers
analytics reporting as part of their professional services.

the event planner’s playbook 12

 why you should be collecting qualitative,
not quantitative feedback on your events
Do you send out a survey after your event to get feedback on
how you did? Most event organizers do.
On the one hand this is a good thing. Any business that listens
to its customers is a better company than those who don’t. The
thing is, this feedback is largely quantitative. “Rate us how we did
on this thing out of five.” “On these other aspects of our event how
did we do out of ten?” We know why we set up questionnaires
like this. Qualitative feedback can be messy and hard to deal with.
Plus survey software turns numerical data into nice charts. But
how useful is that data?
Sometimes at events, organizers will give the speakers feedback
ratings on their talk from the audience. You would receive
something like – You scored 8.23 on knowledge and 7.86 on
presentation style. In reality, that doesn’t help the presenter in
any way shape or form. What would they truly say to themselves?
I’ve got to make a real effort to make my knowledge come
across as an 8.57 instead.
This kind of data can be useful for event organizers where you
rank speakers or sessions on how popular they were. This has
uses. If you were in the room when that speaker delivered the talk
you could say who knocked it out the park and who you won’t
be re-booking. But, how much use would an organizer get out of
knowing which speaker was seventh most popular?
the event planner’s playbook
We all need more feedback on events, yet that feedback needs to
be useful. Here are a few ways to generate feedback you can use.
I’m interested in spotting themes and patterns in the feedback.
This helps you pick out the issues that you have to
respond to and the things you’re doing a good job with.
This gives you feedback you can respond to.
Lots of people complaining about the length of your talks being
too long–shorten them. People love the venue but hate the
wifi–sort that out. People wish you had more speakers covering
a certain topic–find people who can cover it.
Real feedback that you can actually do something with.
There’s another great outcome of seeking non-numerical
feedback: It’s much better for getting testimonials. If someone
sends some nice feedback, you’ve got your comment ready to
cut and paste onto your website. Just hit reply to that email,
ask their permission and you are good to go. That testimonial is
honest and going to help you get more registrations in the future.
Sound complicated?
It needn’t be, after each event, ask four simple questions. Between
these four questions, you usually get exactly the feedback you’re
looking for. The good and the bad. Something you can respond
to.
1. What did you like best about the event?
2. What did you like the least?
3. What topics should the next conference cover?
4. What things can we do to make the event better?
That’s it! Four simple questions and lots of useful feedback.
13
 event websites: three things to change now (seriously)
The event website is more important than ever in this digital
age. But the context has changed, both in terms of technology
and communication. If you are not concerned with marketing
efficiency, no-shows at events or getting more business you can
skip this.
#1: YOUR WEBSITE IS SURROUNDED
Yesterday, the website was pretty much the single digital point of
interaction with your audience. You had to put every aspect of
your event in it: location, sessions, speakers, partners, and news.
In particular, news is very difficult to handle: very time consuming
and you also need the right template/functionality to disseminate
it to your website. Then what about the reach you gain from
that–SEO (Search Engine Optimization)? Yes certainly, only if it’s
properly executed though.
Nowadays, your website is just a piece of the puzzle. Twitter, blog,
YouTube, partners, LinkedIn etc.: these tools/channels weren’t
there 10 years ago and they completely changed the
the event planner’s playbook
landscape of how to shape and disseminate content. The website
is now somehow more static in terms of live info: news goes to
the surroundings, with the benefits of accelerating your reach
into communities that are already part of this ecosphere.
It’s not about wondering if you should be using social media or
not. The picture is bigger. Social media for a fact is a part of your
ecosphere.
#2: YOUR WEBSITE IS EVERYWHERE
I bet you have one of those devices that have little icons and
a battery life status on the top corner. You certainly use them
to call your contacts, but I’m pretty sure you once clicked on
an email, or just went crazy and start searching… the WEB!!
You fool. Guess what? The number of mobile connections to a
website is growing exponentially and is about to exceed “classic”
connections. Currently 30% of website reach is made from
mobile devices.
14
 event websites: three things to change now (seriously) (continued

There are 1.8 million meetings #3: YOUR WEBSITE IS THE FINAL DOOR TO ACCESS THE EVENT

in the U.S. each year, many with
fewer than 100 attendees
You have to provide your user with a comprehensive website and
a good user experience. To achieve that, the modern world offers
two solutions; a responsive design, or an adaptive design. What’s
the difference?
A responsive design is an HTML page with a single code that
looks at the size of the screen. If it detects a large screen, you
have the classic experience, if you have a small (tablet) or very
small (phone) screen, you have a mobile (simpler) version of
the content. But it’s the same content, the arrangement is just
different.
Adaptive is when your classic website has a code that detects if
the connection comes from a mobile device. If yes, the user is
transferred to another page, mobile friendly: in this mobile page,
you can design completely different content and a new look
and feel. If you want, it can be completely “independent” from
your website. But it’s two templates that you need to maintain
(compared to only one page for responsive), but it offers more
flexibility. If mobile is important to your audience, it is the better
choice to design a great UI (user interface), for a better UX (user
experience) with adaptive technology.
Two other trends (and they pair with the need of mobile
responsiveness) are a single page event website and live CMS.
Single page websites are trendy. They are responsive and often
very visual. The downside is they will not fit if you have a lot of
content as you will have to scroll forever. This will not make your
day easier if you have functionality or a need to structure lots of
sections.
Don’t leave the door open, but make sure you give the keys to
the right people and that they won’t lose them or decide not to
come. Your website (and its ecosphere – see #1) play a huge
role. Your website is the final stage of the conversion. Make sure
you have CTAs (call to action–those links or buttons that lead to
your registration form) on every single page: each page of your
website can be a landing page from a Google search.
“Today, the event website has
one mission: conversion”
And CTA doesn’t mean one button; there can be multiple CTAs
leading to the same form, but with different verbiage, place in the
page, and shape (image, text, and buttons). Some people will see
one and not the other.
In conclusion:
#1: Use blogs, partners and social media to spread the word and
keep your audience informed. You maximize your reach, thus
your marketing effort.
#2: Remember a lot of people are looking at websites on a
mobile device. At least be responsive, if not adaptive.
#3: Your website is here to facilitate conversions. Do the basic
well (date, access, program) but have multiple CTAs on every
page.
Get more savvy about event websites. Watch this short webinar.

There’s also a new generation of CMS, content management

systems, feature tools that help you create pages without HTML
knowledge. With Froala for example, the administrator can
change the page without needing to go to the back end. You
edit the live page, bringing WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You
Get) to reality.

the event planner’s playbook 15

 boost your event communication with automation

From social media automation to email marketing automation to

seamless registration sync into your mobile app, it seems that if
you take just enough time to plan everything, you could pull off
an event all by yourself… Okay, so you couldn’t pull off a 3,000
person event by yourself, but all those tools would make the
process a little easier.

The important thing is to know that the tools are not only tools,
but solutions.

“Most people seem to just scratch

the surface with technology.”

The problem is that most people seem to just scratch the surface
with these technologies and never see them as an aid to help in
their strategy.
There is a difference between adding social media automation
into your social media plan and using it as a means to create a
tighter knit community online. Automation does not mean that
you immediately relinquish ownership to your real-time social
media or marketing communication rather that you now have
the time to better establish a relationship with your customers,
clients, and community. That means that it becomes part of your
strategy.
When it comes to events, automation can be a great solution for
communicating with your attendees year round. The tricky part
is that you need to decide how you are going to weave this new
process into your everyday ecosystem.
#3 Real-time communication: Keep what matters. Since you
won’t be automating everything, have a list ahead of time of
what you will always be communicating about in real-time. This
could be company news, investments, trending topics, product
updates, or customer feedback. Think of things that don’t have a
prescheduled start or end time and that you need to be able to
be a little more flexible when speaking about them.
#4 Find THE tool(s): When looking for a solution to add to your
already existing ecosystem, you need to make sure that it works
well with everything else. The reason you start to use technology
is to make your life easier. Don’t bring a new tool on board if it is
just going to make things complicated. Make sure that all of your
platforms work in harmony.

I Love When a Plan Comes Together
The key to adding automation into your marketing or
communication strategy for your event is finding a way to work
in a combined effort with your new solutions rather than using
them as one off tools. In order to do this you need to have a plan
in place.
#1 List your goals: What do you want your new automation tool
to solve? You are obviously looking into these solutions for a
reason, so write down your goals to see if in the end, the money
was worth the investment.
With a Little Help from my (Automation) Friend
Once you have your plan in place, it is time to get back to the big
matter at hand. The whole reason that these tools were created
was to make your life easier.
Tools like Sprout Social, Social Dynamite, Silverpop, Marketo
and more were developed to allow you to gain time back on
tasks and increase your efficiency in your overall marketing and
communication efforts. As previously stated, most people only
scratch the surface with these tools by implementing them and
forgetting about them.

#2 What to automate: Just because you can pre-schedule things These are not just tools! They are your solution to gaining more
does not mean that everything needs to be. Pinpoint what would time for human interaction. Take these steps to allow automation
be worth your time to schedule in advance. Some ideas could to breed human connection:
be event speaker content, event promotion, webinars and blog
posts. These are things that you know are going to happen in
advance and unlikely to change. Take the time a month or two
months before to work out a schedule for social media and
emails on the subjects.

the event planner’s playbook 16

 boost your event communication with automation
#1. When tweets are scheduled, emails pre-made, and press
releases are created don’t forget to actually take the time to
monitor them. Yes you planned this a month in advance, that
doesn’t mean that people are not going to have questions or
maybe that things have changed since then.
Keep an eye out for chatter around your communication. Also on
what is currently going on in your industry. Maybe the keynote
speaker at an event had to cancel, but the email you scheduled a
month ago mentions his name–make sure you update this! You
can never create and forget.
#2. Take time to actively start communicating with your clients,
audience or attendees. The reason a lot of people have a problem
with automation is that it removes the social aspect and real-
time communication. That is not really the case, people just don’t
know what to do after.
Once you determined what you will be automating, you now
have time to focus your efforts elsewhere. Maybe you wanted to
get more active in LinkedIn groups, but never had the time with
all your daily social posts. Now you can spend a half hour a day
getting involved in conversations and building your community.
Use this as a time to start engaging and getting active. That is
how you will become a leader or influencer.
the event planner’s playbook
(continued)
#3. Take the time to make things personal. Once you have sent
out your email marketing, start to monitor the open rates, clicks,
etc. Maybe you found that a few people are actively engaging
with your content, signing up for events, requesting demos,
doing whatever CTAs you have in your email–that is your chance
to reach out.
Automation is just the first step, the second is to build that
relationship. Send out a more personalized email next time
around. People like to feel special and like they matter. They are
most apt to pay attention to an email from someone they know,
rather than a corporation. So once you make the first touch
point, reach back out and show them that there is a face behind
the email!
“Remember that automation leaves
more time for real-time engagement.”
In Conclusion
Automation and communication can be a tricky thing to master
especially when it comes to events. The important thing is to
find what works for you and your organization. Realize that just
because everything can be automated, doesn’t mean it has to
be. Remember that automation leaves more time for real-time
engagement. Finally, never schedule and forget about your
content. Always monitor what you send out, look at reports and
see how you can better serve your audience next time.
17
 be a hero: how to integrate event software into your ecosystem

Just as people used to gather water in a jar collected from a

nearby river and carry it to their homes, some event planners are
still relying on ancient techniques to get information transported
from one point to another. You don’t have to manually carry your
data from point A to point B (let’s say Excel is your water bucket).
A robust integration strategy can help you to figure out what data
to distribute and where.

Today, your environment or ecosystem is made up of several

technologies, and they all need to talk to one another: event
management software, email marketing solution, CRM, CMS,
accounting software and more. You can’t afford to manually
download and upload information. Make sure you systems
integrate with each other.

Most importantly, look for vendors that offer a robust API

(application programing interface—in simple terms, a program
that helps you to retrieve information from software to insert it in
We are living in a world of information and technology, so let’s
another) and integration built with your ecosphere.
design it properly. Then we can all focus on something even
On top of that, there are some great products (for advanced
more important: delivering great human experience at events!
users) like jitterbit or Scribe that offer comprehensive integration
layers to software, facilitating the data management.
For more, watch our webinar on how to better understand and
leverage your event’s information ecosystem.

tips for overcoming internet connectivity challenges

There is a lot of exciting technology coming out at the moment
from beacons to augmented reality and mobile apps, but it all
requires one thing: the internet. Event organizers and visitors
need to provide a superior user experience for all of the
technology that they have at events. However, in an environment
where internet connectivity is unreliable how can you make your
attendees happy? The fact is: if you have spotty Wi-Fi, all is lost.
Technology is crucial on the show floor for different reasons.
Organizers need internet in order to get high quality data, greater
insights, and increase their yield. Exhibitors also need internet
to gather quality leads. Visitors will need internet accessibility
to increase their engagement, maintain a level of simplicity, and
create a lighter experience. Regardless of who you are, you must
capitalize on being efficient without internet.

Determine the lowest common denominator: When you

understand what the lowest common denominator is, which can
be seen as a badge or a ticket, you will automatically allow for
some success. An option that requires no internet, such as an
NFC badge, can create an interactive experience and will go up
from there.

Allow interaction: give your guests the opportunity to opt-in

for a more interactive experience. Technology that allows for
engagement will lead to a higher data value and a happy guest list.
Utilizing technologies like iBeacons, mobile apps and Bluetooth
interaction with leave your audience satisfied with their fill of
successful engagement, without the internet connectivity issues
that seem to be constantly present.

Take a deeper dive into internet connectivity tips you can use,
and check out our webinar.

the event planner’s playbook 18

 part 3
logistics tips for the modern planner
With everything event planners need to know today, it might seem like logistics are the last things you need to worry about. But any
seasoned planner will tell you—if you don’t get the core components of the event strategy right, well friend, you may have failed.
To be successful today, you need to be a master of budget management. And no budget is in the black without a strong turnout. This
means you need to become an expert in creating the kinds of invitations that get noticed and quickly accepted—especially by your
top-tier, hard-to-get customers and clients. You also need to have a methodology for assessing what impact no-shows will have on
your event. How will they impact your food and beverage budget? What impression will the empty seats leave on attendees? What’s
your contingency plan when your most business-critical attendees don’t come?

Somewhat new to the event planner’s lexicon over the past decade (but based on very old principles) is the idea of the User Experience,
also known as UX. Marketing and design experts are giving this topic fresh perspective and event planners are taking notice as they
think more thoughtfully about the customer journey through a live experience and how every single touch point, from the first
outreach email to the ease of use of the show app to the welcome desk to the cocktails at the networking reception, map back to
the overall UX.

And while it might seem less like a strategy and more like one more thing on the checklist, event invitations today are requiring more
expertise than ever before. As technology is setting expectations for consumers that everything can and should be customized,
successful planners are rising to the occasion to create compelling and highly personalized invitations. And they’re utilizing technology
in new ways, too, that make saying “yes” easier—and more fun.

In this section, we get you up to speed on what’s new in the realm of event logistics, and how you can transform those “event basics”
into game-changers for your event. Topics include:

Attendance. How to eliminate no-shows at your event.

User Experience (UX). What is it, and how can you leverage it across your events.
Invitations. The modern art of getting on your target attendees’ calendars.
First impressions. Ten ways to create a welcome desk that sets the right tone.

If you’ve read The Event Planner’s Playbook up to this point, you’re well on your way to being a highly-desirable, and highly-strategic
event planner. Ready to nail the logistics portion of this digital master’s course? Read on.

the event planner’s playbook 19

 ways to reduce no-shows at your events
Whether you run free or paid-for events, one of your biggest
worries as an event organizer is whether everyone you expect to
turn up is going to. No shows have a huge impact on an event
and its profitability. Over-order on catering, drinks and printing,
and you can wipe out the tight profit margin you’ve got. Here are
some approaches that have led to fewer drop outs at both free
and paid events.
Scarcity
Free events always have a much higher drop-out rate than paid
for events and the main reason is that they don’t value your
event enough. This doesn’t mean that paid-for events don’t lose
attendees too. When someone decides not to attend an event
they’ve done some simple arithmetic in their head. Is the thing
that takes precedence over the event more important than the
value they get from the event. If there’s a monetary figure event,
it’s much easier to make those sums. If your event is free you’ve
got to do all you can to increase the perception of the value of
the event. One of the easiest ways to do this is with scarcity. Your
ticket will have more value if you make it hard to get a hold of and
sought after. Now, when weighing whether to attend your event
or not they’re more likely to come.
Foresee the potential issues
When scheduling your event avoid clashes with competitors and
public holidays. Don’t run an event, for instance, on the same day
as a public election. If you do, it doesn’t mean you’ll get more no-
shows because everyone was desperate to vote. When there’s an
election certain schools act as polling stations and close for the
day. Attendees who are parents have to stay home and look after
their kids. So when scheduling your events, widen your net and
think about more things that might take priority over your event.
the event planner’s playbook
Drip feed reminders
Include the date and location of your conference in every single
email you send out to attendees. The logic being, every time they
get an email from you they’re prompted to check their schedule
to make sure they’ve not got a clash. Which brings us to the next
point…
Get it in their schedule
A lot of event management platforms and ticketing solutions will
now have links that prompt your attendees to add your event to
their diaries. We’re huge fans of this type of functionality.
If you’re running a small-scale event don’t be afraid to send a
meeting request out. It’ll help avoid those situations whereby an
attendee knows the date of your event, but they don’t put it in
their schedule because they know they’ll remember. A colleague
looks in their schedule, thinks they are free and double books
them.
Another approach we like is creating a calendar event, saving the
file, uploading this to your website and then linking to it. Then
when they click the link they download the calendar item and get
it in their schedule.
Understand your ratios
Drop outs aren’t an issue if you know about them and overbook
accordingly. You need to know all about the drop-out rates of
previous events. Are some events more prone to drop-outs
compared to others you organize? Does day of the week matter?
How long ahead of the event do you announce dates–does it
have an impact? Until you can answer questions like this you
can’t confidently overbook.
Make it easy to drop out
This might sound counterintuitive. You want to decrease drop
outs by making it easy to drop out? It’s not drop-outs that are the
problem, it’s anticipated drop outs that are the issue. By making
it easy and obvious how to cancel tickets or change attendee
details you make it much easier for you to keep track of who
won’t be attending your events. Allowing you either to overbook
or scale back your commitments.
20
 how user experience drives powerful engagement
In 2015, one of the biggest trends that will take hold is the
importance and focus on attendee experience. From meeting
design to event apps to innovative surveys and more, it will be
all about attendees. User experience can make your attendees
more engaged if you do it right, but you truly need to understand
its impact and how to use it at every stage of your event. We are
going to go step-by-step in understanding what user experience
is and the positive impact that it can have on your attendees’
engagement at events.
What is user experience?
User experience is made up of several important components.
While user experience is made up of a bunch of things, every
aspect counts in the long run. In order to understand user
experience, you need to know how user interface impacts it. User
interface is the way that you design something. When it comes
to events, UI is how you design your events from the format, the
technology used, the content of the sessions and more. All of
that will lead to your UX or how you measure your UI efforts.
Design is one of the biggest factors for a user’s first impression.
With visual data processed faster than text, it is important to
use as much imagery and innovative designs as possible in your
event promotion, on-site and in any marketing materials. People
like William Thomson from Tech Fest in London, do a great job
of using catching imagery to excite attendees from the event
website to social media and finally onsite. By doing this before
the event even starts, you give attendees a taste of what they
will experience onsite. Take note and remember you have their
attention, now you have to keep it!
Why is user experience important?
the event planner’s playbook
UI/UX is more than just finding ways to make your attendees
happy, it is about your investors, sponsors, partners, exhibitors
and potential leads. People invest in UX because it is based off of
hundreds of years of best practices in the real world on the way
that humans react to certain things. Think of it this way: you are
looking to hire a designer to decorate your house. Would you
go for the designer who has a beautiful looking website with
examples of their work and coordinating social media pages
to match; or would you go for the designer who doesn’t have
a website, just a Yelp page with a handful of reviews and no
examples of their work? Most likely you would go with the person
who has a nicely designed website and shows their work because
you are hoping it reflects on what they can actually do.
Image is everything in business. You could lose business on
having bad branding, so make the investment in a designer to
help with your company’s brand. $1 spent on UX can have an ROI
of $100 for your business. It is worth the work in the beginning to
see the happy faces of your attendees at your event.
How do you improve your user experience? (Part 1)
Now that we know what UX is and why it it’s important to
your bottom line, we need to know how to use it to actually
improve engagement. To start, UX isn’t just used at one part
of your planning process; it is about each step in the event life
cycle. Think about it for your registration, promotion, content,
networking, onsite logistics, and post event communication.
When it comes to using technology at your events you need
to have a dedicated individual that is there is respond to any
questions attendees and users may have. This can be for your
event app and social media accounts. You need to have a
quick response time to keep attendees happy and show that
you are listing to their needs. Forty-one percent of customers
expect companies to respond to their request in six hours–even
quicker if you are onsite! People will remember if they had a bad
experience at your event, especially when it comes to registration,
problems connecting with speakers and your event app. Keep
your attendees happy. Use technology that makes sense for your
event and know how to use it well.
21
 how user experience drives powerful engagement (continued)
How do you improve your user experience? (Part 2)
Gamification is an important and fun aspect to bring to any event
to boost user engagement. However, you need to do more on
social. Create an event specific hashtag that attendees can follow
for the latest information and to join the event conversation. Just
do your research and make sure that you have an original hashtag
on your hands. Our friends from evvnt wrote a great article on
the anatomy for the perfect event hashtag.
Once you have a unique hashtag use it on Twitter, Facebook,
Instagram and Google+ to stay connected to your audience.
While hashtags aren’t used on LinkedIn you cannot ignore
this social site when it comes to engaging attendees. See if
your event speakers are okay with you putting their LinkedIn
information in your emails to attendees. This will allow people to
connect with them pre event to get their questions answered and
make meetings! Even starting an event group where attendees,
exhibitors, suppliers and speakers can communicate.
All of this social activity is something that needs to happen pre,
during and post event. Companies that engage attendees at all
steps of an event have better ROI and engagement. You also
need to remember that your event is not just a one or three day
ordeal. You have a community of people that are following your
activity. You need to keep updating content and finding a way to
start conversations in the community. This will lead to a better
user experience in the long run because your event will be seen
as more than just a onetime thing. So be sure to update all your
social accounts weekly – not just when your event is running!
the event planner’s playbook
What are the results of good user experience?
It can be hard to see if you had good or bad user experience if
you don’t take the time in the beginning to find ways to measure
your results. Obviously if you see people saying bad things about
your event on social, you know you didn’t do something right.
But you need to see if the steps you took to engage people
actually yielded results.
Track the amount of shares that you got on posts related to your
event. Put it into a social reporting calendar that starts from your
pre event communication. Post event, go back and see what
posts did well and got the most conversations started. If you used
gamification in your app, go to your app provider for details on
how to look at the reports on who was most engaged. Reporting
could not be more important when it comes to user interface
and experience. You need feedback on what people liked and
without reporting you have nothing!
As the infographic shows: 95% of people agree, good user
experience just makes sense. Take the steps to ensure that your
users and attendees will be happy and get them engaged.
Now do you understand the importance of user experience? It is
something that happens at your event whether you plan for it or
not, so take the time to make sure you are doing it right. Invest
time in finding out how you can make the experience better for
the attendee from when you start planning your event. Step in
their shoes and think what you would be looking for from an
event. Then execute it! Make sure you have put the steps in place
to measure your results.
Get the full infographic here.
22
 the art of inviting for events

No matter what type of event you organize, you will need to

convince your invitees that yours is a can’t-miss event. Here are a
few ideas that will help you make your invitations more effective.

Make it personal
Make your invitees feel special. A lot of invitations are personalized,
but still give you the feeling that it is a mass sending directed at a
mailing list. As an invitee you don’t feel you even have to respond
if you cannot make it to the event. The right tone of voice and the
right type of message make a big difference.

Wedding invitations are very personal, usually they are printed on

beautiful paper and your name is handwritten on the invitation.
Every detail shows that the organizers really want you to be their
guests. Take those personal invitations as a source of inspiration
even if you are organizing a very serious conference.

Every invitee pays more attention to an invitation they receive

from a person they know, rather than an organization they know.
If you organize a client event, then involve all your colleagues
who have direct contact with clients. They should all invite their
own relations. For the invitees it is more convincing if they receive
their invitation from a person they know.
Very Best Arguments
“Only use your very best arguments.
Your weaker arguments might convince
your invitees not to show up
Consider personalizing the first paragraph for every single invitee
or for different target groups on your list. One very successful
organizer in the Netherlands always sends out three different
invitations for his event. The different invitations target different
groups of invitees. That way he can use the very best arguments
to trigger the invitees.
Reaching the full potential
The full potential of your event is usually bigger than your own
list of invitees. You can use your events to grow your business.
If you organize a client event, prospects will often be welcome,
too. But how can you reach these people if you don’t have their
contact details? One way is to make use of the business press in
your sector. Give away some practical tips based on the theme
of your event. People may want to learn more and then sign up
for your event.
LinkedIn is a great tool to hunt for individual invitees. Next to
the search field you will find the ‘Advanced search’ button. That
functionality lets you search on combinations of companies and
professions. If you want to invite the marketing director of Coca-
Cola you can find the name and contact details in that way.
Testimonials
Ask participants to write a short testimonial as part of your event
evaluation. In the next invitation, you can use a few of these
recommendations. This method convinces people to buy books
and to book holidays. It works just as well for your corporate
event

Webinar
Watch the webinar with more practical tips in the art of inviting
for events. Catch it here.

the event planner’s playbook 23

 ten tips to a successful welcome desk

If you want to make sure that you hear your attendees say – you
had me at hello – then you need to get your welcome desk in
check. That doesn’t mean just making it look pretty either. You
need to make sure that the team that you have on the desk is
prepared. It is all about planning in this industry isn’t it?
When it comes to your welcome desk, make sure that you have
a knowledgeable staff that is professional, friendly and ready for
anything that may come their way. The welcome desk is ground
zero of your event. It is where everything happens; where people
will come for answers and congregate, so you need to know how
to handle the situations. Because despite all that happens, it is still
the first impression that people will have of your event and you
can’t slack. You need to have a successful welcome desk.
Set Goals
It is important to plan and set expectations for your welcome
desk before your event. Know who is going to be in charge of
what, and make sure they are clear on what their roles are. You
don’t want your team fumbling over who does what. In order to
make sure that the team stays on track, designate a leader. Have
them be the person in charge and the one who will deal with all
the big issues that arrive.
Be prepared for anything to happen. Do this by covering all your
bases ahead of time. The desk is ground zero, so people are going
to come to you with all their questions. If you are not prepared to
answer them, you need to be able to get in touch with the person
who is. Have a list of who is in charge of what and make sure you
have a way to reach them in case an issue should arise.
First Impressions Are Everything
You will never get a second time to make a first impression, so
don’t mess it up. Make sure that your desk is clean and organized!
Many times people have badges or lanyards spread all over the
desk and have no system in place for check-in; don’t be one of
those events. Have everything running smoothly.
You also need to remind your team that they need to look
good too. See if there is a dress code and if not, business attire
or business casual is always the way to go. You need to look
presentable at all times. That means NO GUM. Don’t be one of
those obnoxious chewers when someone is trying to speak with
you.
Going further than your outward appearance, you need to make
sure that you are always welcoming. You don’t need to always be
high energy, but don’t be a downer either. Find a happy medium
that lets your attendees know that you are glad to have them
with you.
When it comes to your welcome desk, you need to think: how
would I want to be treated? I’m sure you would hate to have
people there that are unprepared, not knowledgeable on the
event and just look sloppy. You expect the best, so give them the
best! Make them fall in love with your event from the moment
they lay eyes on your welcome desk.
Now, this is only a fraction of what you need to do to get your
welcome desk in check. Watch our webinar on creating a killer
welcome desk here.

Speaking of issues, have an emergency kit with safety items,

medical items, desk supplies and those miscellaneous materials.
Someone may come to you looking for some needle and thread
for a rip in their skirt and you need to come to the rescue. Your
attendees will appreciate that you thought of everything.

Having a backup plan for tech is so important. If you are using

software like etouches that is online, you need to make sure that
you have strong Wi-Fi or have an Ethernet cord to connect to
the internet.

If you are scanning badges or printing them on site what are you
going to do if you lose power for 15 minutes (it happens, believe
me)? You don’t want to tell your attendees to wait for 10/15
minutes, so have a printed list ready to go. You can check people
in with a marker and a paper as a temporary solution. All solutions
are good if your attendees aren’t waiting.

the event planner’s playbook 24

 part 4
more industry resources
At etouches, we have a strong focus on content and industry knowledge. We strive to provide our audience with resources that
they can use at their disposal to enhance their place in the industry and continue their education in the events space.

the wethink blog

etouches webinar series
the rethink newsletter
the content library

Throughout the industry there are companies, websites and content creators that are producing webinars, blogs, articles and videos
that are influential in educating our growing industry. To expand your event resume even more and to continue to grow your event
planner playbook, bookmark some of the top spots for content.

Event Manager Blog

Eventplanner.tv
Bob.tv
Techsytalk
Event Industry News
The Meeting Pool

the contributors
This ebook was created with the help of some of the etouches wethink bloggers and webinar presenters.

Kristen Carvalho | @kristencarvalho Kelvin Newman | @kelvinnewman

Senior Content & Social Media Manager, Founder & Managing Director, Rough Agenda
etouches

Matthew Harris | @mattiasharris Erik Peekel | @erikpeekel

Co-founder, KONDUKO Meeting Designer, Aaaaha! the Actor Factory

Liz King | @lizkingevents Nicola Rossetti | @nicorosstweet

CEO, Liz King Events VP of Global Marketing, etouches

Joe Kitos | @quickmobile

Partner Manager, Quickmobile

the event planner’s playbook 25

about etouches
etouches is a leader in in-cloud event management software. Covering every major function in the event planning
lifecycle, etouches is a top choice among event professionals. Founded in 2008, the company has more than 900
customers in 35 countries. The multilingual, multicurrency software offers registration, event website creation, survey,
email marketing, scheduling, speaker/exhibitor/sponsor management, seating, project management, budgeting, venue
selection, booth purchasing, social networking and mobile app creation. The state of the art event platform created
by event people for event people serves a global customer base that includes corporations, planners, agencies, and
associations.

For more information on how etouches can help you love your event software, contact:

etouches corporate headquarters

13 Marshall St.
Norwalk, CT 06854

+1 203 403 9470

sales@etouches.com
www.etouches.com
@etouches

love your event software