Event Management Software
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Compare the Top Event Management Software of 2021
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Event Management Software Guide
Event management software is used by organizations to manage and organize events, shows and meetings with tools like marketing, payment processing and registration. Compare the best Event Management software currently available using the table below.
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1
GoToWebinar
LogMeIn
GoToWebinar erases the headache and hassle from webinars. No matter your goal or skill level, you’ll quickly see why so many love the GoToWebinar platform. Go from preparing a webinar to presenting in fewer steps – and have a lot of fun along the way.
Starting Price: $89 per month -
2
Boomset
Boomset
Boomset provides an end-to-end solution for in-person, virtual and hybrid events. The award-winning live event functionality - like digital entry management and on-demand printing - fully supports the virtual solution. The virtual web and mobile platform includes features like live streaming and prerecorded concurrent sessions, virtual exhibitor management with lead capture, and attendee engagement via 1-to-1 video calls, live chat, polling, gamification, and Q&A. Coupled with our best-in-class customer support, Boomset makes event management simple for organizers for all types of events, anywhere in the world.
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3
Hubilo
Hubilo
Hubilo is a market leader in the Virtual and Hybrid event platform space. Hubilo is helping organisations across the world reimagine the future of events and navigate an emerging event landscape. Hubilo makes it possible for organisations to provide an engaging & interactive event experience to their global audience and transform the way people connect, interact and host events. Hubilo will become the central system of records for the event industry and unlock massive insights and value from their event by tracking interactions and engagement metrics across attendees, sponsors, organisers, and speakers.Founded in early 2020 and headquartered in San Francisco, Hubilo is a fast-growing SaaS company and is backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Balderton Capital, and several renowned angel investors.Hubilo is trusted by a growing list of global brands like United Nations, Roche, Informa Markets, Tech in Asia, Fortune, AWS, Siemens, Cognizant, Veritas Technologies, GITEX, & several others.
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4
RegFox
Webconnex
The best registration for your event! VIRTUAL or IN-PERSON, RegFox is the most flexible & affordable system on the market today. If other clunky overpriced solutions have you feeling frustrated and ripped off, RegFox is for you. We believe registration should be the easiest part of your event. We’ve already helped over 50,000 customers just like you process over $3B. Thousands of the world's leading brands use RegFox for online registration. Regfox is simple, intuitive yet incredibly powerful. You get total branding control so the registration forms look like your organization. RegFox is packed with awesome features for virtual events and live events. Best of all you only pay 99 cents per attendee. Create your account * Customize your page *Celebrate your success. Stop wasting time and money. Instead have a registration experience you are proud of.
Starting Price: 99 cents per attendee -
5
Brazen
Brazen
Build powerful virtual hiring events and online career fairs. KPMG, CVS Health and Starbucks rely on Brazen to attract 3x more qualified candidates. Universities use the platform to host multi-company career fairs, student & alumni networking events, virtual orientations, and more. Brazen is much more than a video interviewing or web conference tool, with features including multiple event booths, live video broadcasting, one-on-one chat (through video, audio or text), automated chatbots and more.
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6
Canapii
Canapii
Canapii is the coolest, and most highly featured, event platform designed for virtual events in 2020, and ready for hybrid events as they restart in 2021. Canapii supports video meetings and streams HD quality keynotes across PC browsers and mobile apps. Canapii delights the user, while event organizers can become Superheroes. Canapii sets itself apart from pure-play software providers by providing white-glove service via its experienced events executives, which is why the world's most prestigious tech companies are customers. Automation is core to Canapii. Registration, travel arrangements, personal agendas, and meeting approval systems are built in. Canapii is truly global, the customer decides which language to set the tools in, support is available 24x7, live translation services are available and time zones handled smoothly.
Starting Price: Free -
7
Event Ready
Event Ready
ERs Virtual and Hybrid platform allows you to decide on whether a live with a virtual component or strictly virtual or live is what you need for 2021. What Event Ready gives you is flexibility, customization and not a one size fits all software. We make it easy for speakers or admin to upload the videos or to link to zoom for live presentations without needing degree in programming. Easy to use, flexibility in how it is presented and service that will be there the entire process. If you decide to do a live conference then Event Ready has your back as we have been doing live events since 1992. We can also offer you the hybrid option. We have features like accreditation, interactive floor plan, speaker management component, BEO, mobile app, housing, email tools, survey, and 24/7 reporting. Contact us for a discussion on how we can help you moving into 2021 and beyond.
Starting Price: $5000.00/year -
8
Tocca
Tocca
The B2B virtual event platform to engage audiences & maximize ROI. Branded, flexible, and interactive virtual space for all your events and meetings. Why Tocca? Fully branded event within minutes. Flexible platform, adaptable to all your different event needs. Fully integrated with all your internal systems. Easily re-use past events and save time Competitive pricing. A virtual space that simulates in-person events. Sponsors & booths. Sponsors can hold virtual booths in the lobby and attendees interested in their offerings can watch videos, request documentation, and engage with a representative. Games: fun for them, data for you. Entertain attendees with interactive games and prizes! Engage them with milestones and collect data on their interests. Multiple tracks & sessions. Create multiple different sessions and tracks suited to your needs. Attendees can freely enter and leave at any time.
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9
Ticket Tailor
Ticket Tailor
Ticket Tailor is an event ticketing platform for event creators of any shape or size. Whether you are organizing a small one-off event, or selling tens of thousands of tickets, you can be live in just minutes with our robust and feature rich platform that will scale with your event. We are famous for three key reasons: - best value platform with the lowest fees - simplicity and ease of use, without compromising on features - exceptional customer support to answer any questions you have We offer a complete ticketing solution: - direct payouts with Stripe and PayPal - customizable check-in questions and order confirmation email - design studio for event page and widget - free check-in app - seating chart tool and reservations - free team access - white-labelling options - recurring events and time slot managament - online event links - integrations with MailChimp, Zapier and more - open API You dream it, we'll ticket it.
Starting Price: $0.26/ticket -
10
Perenso Cloud Show
Perenso
Perenso Cloud Show, a virtual trade show platform, enables you to reach a larger audience and utilizing sophisticated commerce transactions, attract and retain revenue. Cloud Show represents the aspects of a physical B2B trade show as closely as possible including: -a customizable lobby -facilitating interaction between vendors and attendees with live chat -brandable vendor booths -viewing and sharing vendor content -doing deals and negotiating live at-show -placing complex orders at-show Utilize Perenso Cloud Show as an online only event, or in conjunction with a physical show (with the Perenso Trade Show platform) to provide a hybrid event solution.
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11
Localist
Localist
Localist is the only platform that combines event management with marketing automation. With all the tools you need in one place, you will increase attendance for all event types (online & offline, paid & free) and drive your organization’s growth. Localist was built for community managers and marketers. It’s an easy-to-use, maintenance-free platform that doesn’t require coding. With extensive integrations and an API, the platform works with all of your existing tools (website CMS, CRM, video conferencing, member management and community software). Localist centralizes the event listings process with a streamlined workflow. Departments, chapters and affiliates within your organization can add events, but the power to approve and publish remains in your hands. You can also aggregate and automate email and social media marketing for all events across departments and rest easy knowing the platform is protected with standard security technology to provide privacy and data encryption.
Starting Price: $850 per month -
12
SpotMe
SpotMe
SpotMe is an all-in-one virtual event and conferencing platform. Whether live or on-demand, planners can easily deliver highly engaging online or hybrid experiences. Provide attendees with breakout sessions, networking opportunities, personalized agendas, two-way communication options, and gamification. Meaningfully increase engagement, obtain useful audience data, and give guests the quality event they deserve. SpotMe provides solutions to 250+ global enterprises through a no-code building platform and professional services for each step of the event process.
Starting Price: $4,800 per year -
13
Regpack
Regpack
Regpack is an online registration and payments system used by more than 7,000 organizations worldwide. Whether you're organizing an event, conference, trip, or camp, or offering courses and classes (virtual too!), Regpack can help you make online registration a breeze with its unique technology and comprehensive set of features. Regpack comes with a form builder, automatic billing, integrated online payments, built-in automated communication, surveys, group registration, discounts and coupon codes, comprehensive data reporting, and more.
Starting Price: $125 / month -
14
Tix
Tix
Successful events start with Tix. Feature-rich ticketing including integrated e-mail marketing tools, social distancing seat maps, timed admissions, donations, up-selling, season ticket renewals, custom branding, web site integration and more. All risk free with no term commitment and low fees. Contact us for a Free Demo today!
Starting Price: $0.25 -
15
Event Essentials
Event Essentials
Event Essentials is a revolutionary web-based event management platform that streamlines tasks, promotes events, organizes data, and provides online sales of Tickets, Registrations and Merchandise. Manage all aspects of your events Bands, Artists, Vendors, Sponsors, Live Auctions, Donations, POS, Resources and more. Specifically designed for organizers and promoters of Fairs, Festivals, and Events, this Event Tech solution offers users an easy access to real-time event files and vital data, from anywhere at anytime. By using Event Essential, you can have a convenience-driven and easy-to-use system that enables you to collect and consolidate forms in digital format, track customer sales, and reduce overhead costs while increasing your sales and productivity. Event Essentials is based in the United States.
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16
Planning Pod
Planning Pod
Save 62+ hours every month and streamline your processes with Planning Pod's suite of 20+ easy-to-use tools for event & venue professionals. Our venue management software suite offers venue managers & staff an all-in-one platform for tracking every detail related your event bookings - including booking calendars, email communications, BEOs, food-&-beverage orders, floor plans / room layouts, leads, proposals, invoicing, payments & more. Our event management software gives event planners, corporate planners, meeting planners & non-profits a single place to collaborate & manage thousands of details. This includes attendees, budgets, timelines, tasks, floor plans, registrations / ticketing, communications & more. Our event floor plan tool makes it easy to create professional event layouts in minutes and is also included in our event software and venue software packages. Join the 20,000 event pros who rely on Planning Pod's tools every day. Try it free for 14 days!
Starting Price: $19/month -
17
Aventri
Aventri
Rather than cancelling your events, consider going virtual? Aventri can now power virtual, hybrid and in-person events. Aventri's all-in-one event and meetings solution has powered over 300,000 events, helping our customers realize their event and business goals by driving savings and increasing returns. Our event management technology gives you the power to collect, manage, and analyze attendee and event data, so you can make more strategic decisions and improve future events. Aventri's fully integrated event management software platform provides event & meeting planners with event registration, event marketing, project & budget management many more capabilities, combined with best in class onsite solutions from badge creation and printing, to onsite check in and access control.
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18
Odoo
Odoo
Odoo is a fully integrated, customizable, open-source software packed with hundreds of expertly designed business applications. Odoo’s intuitive database is able to meet a majority of business needs, such as: CRM, Sales, Project, Manufacturing, Inventory, and Accounting, just to name a few. Odoo is an all-in-one software solution designed to meet the needs of companies, regardless of their size (or budget). The unbeatable, seamless nature of Odoo helps businesses become more efficient by reducing redundant manual processes, which helps companies save countless hours of labor. Every module is interconnected to provide a fully-integrated experience from app to app, and users can automate many processes that would’ve otherwise required manual inputs into multiple applications. Odoo keeps all business functions in one place, allowing teams to collaborate with other departments from one unified platform in the most efficient way possible.
Starting Price: $12.00/month/user -
19
vtenext
vtenext
vtenext – the CRM for Digital Innovation Transform and Innovate your company with vtenext. It allows you to engage your customers into your business processes using a specific technology. It can also be used to manage processes generated by internal customers. The most important advantages of adopting vtenext are: - Improving the Return On Investments (ROI) - Facilitating internal communication by breaking down internal barriers - Having a 360° knowledge of the customers - Designing, automation and digitalization of internal and external processes - Acquiring a Lean management method - And many more!
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20
Accelevents
Accelevents
Accelevents is a powerful but affordable all-in-one virtual event platform known for their ease of use, impressive feature stack, and 24/7 live support. The platform offers robust virtual event hosting features including ticketing/registration, live chat & polling, virtual exhibitor booths, A.I. powered networking, gamification, and more. Event organizers can live stream to the main stage or break out session using either a built-in steaming studio, or integrate with an outside streaming platform. Whether hosting an event for 100 people or 100,000+ Accelevents will allow you to create a virtual, in-person or hybrid experience that your attendees remember. The virtual lobby allows attendees to access a newsfeed bulletin, a dynamic agenda, or even shop in your store. Accelevents understands the value of an event sponsorship, so they’ve developed a suite of ad placements & interactive tools that set the stage for dynamic sponsorship packages.
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21
KORONA
COMBASE USA
KORONA offers innovative POS software with unique features built for retailers, ticketing and event operations, and quick-service restaurants and cafes. The subscription service comes with automatic updates, full, 24/7 customer support, and zero contracts, fees, or surcharges. With KORONA, businesses get an array of features to improve operations and increase efficiency and insight. Detailed reporting, inventory analysis, product performance, promotions, loyalty, employee management, vast integrations, multi-store management, online retail and ticketing, hardware options, and credit card processing options are just a handful of the point of sale features that make KORONA the fastest-growing POS solution in the U.S. Learn more by setting up a no-commitment free trial or scheduling a product demo. Your dedicated account manager will walk you through each feature your business will use to succeed.
Starting Price: $49.00/month -
22
Arlo Training Management Software
Arlo Training Software
Arlo is for training providers who want to save time and crush sales targets. It is a complete training management solution to promote, sell and deliver instructor-led, online and blended learning. Arlo takes care of your public training schedule, private in-house courses and ongoing training contracts, so you can manage your whole business in one system. It saves you time by automating manual processes and helps you grow with slick ecommerce and marketing tools. See for yourself by starting a free trial. https://www.arlo.co/register
Starting Price: $89.00/month/user -
23
Expodoc
Expo Projects
Expodoc is a management tool that optimizes the planning, organisation and communication for trade shows, congresses and events. The program improves the workflow for all parties concerned: the organiser, venue, exhibitors and service providers. All our projects combine our customers'​ experiences and our employees'​ expertise. This allows us to create specialized features for the industry. You can ‘Mix & Match’ those features yourself and create the perfect tailor-made solution: - Floor Plan Design - Floor Plan Management - Online stand reservation - Interactive Floor Plan - Online payment - Order Management - CRM - Information & Document Management - Exhibitor Management - Multi Attendee Types - Pricing & Deadlines - Invoicing - Multi users & events Discover all ingredients of Expodoc on our website: www.expodoc.com/en
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24
VBO Tickets
VBO Tickets
VBO Tickets is a feature-rich ticketing platform designed to help organizations of all sizes. Cloud-based and mobile compatible, VBO Tickets is a white label, all-in-one software solution that seamlessly embeds into any existing website and Facebook page. With VBO Tickets, promoters can easily create events, set up a payment gateway, add tickets, market their event, view reports, communicate with their customers, and more. Key features include Box Office, Ticketing, Reporting, CRM, Donations, Marketing, Memberships and Subscriptions, Mobile, and more.
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25
Entegy Suite
Entegy
A powerful event technology platform empowering creators, inspiring attendees and rewarding stakeholders. The Entegy Suite is a flexible event technology platform with multiple branding and sponsorship opportunities. Products include: - event apps - networking and gamification tools - live audience polling, Q&A and discussion - attendance tracking - lead capture for sponsors and exhibitors - registration - badge printing solutions for any budget
All About Event Management Software
Event management software contains business solutions that cover many aspects of organizing events from the planning stages to the post-event phase. There are end-to-end systems which include tools for an event’s entire lifecycle. Other apps focus on specific processes pertaining to organizing an event including surveys and analytics, schedulers, floor planning, ticketing, and registration.
Why Should Event Management Software Be Used?
There are many benefits to using event management software. This kind of software can systematize or simplify processes in the back-office with regards to running a specific event. These solutions provide cost savings, accuracy, and efficiency from the pre-event, the event itself, and the post-event. We will discuss the following benefits of the software below.
Consolidation of Different Teams
Event management software includes one platform that coordinates all activities and tasks for not just your event team, but for other teams including travel management, accounting, logistics, and sales and marketing. It’s easier to associate all of the connected items across your business. Changes made to one item, as an example, can activate alerts on similar items, guaranteeing that everyone has the most up-to-date information. Situations which necessitate quick coordination between teams include a change in menu, increase in attendance, or a shift in venue.
As well as vertically from the manager all the way down to the field worker, this platform can also make communication clear and open. Managers will be able to see all aspects of their event operations, while ground crews efficiently work in-sync, circumventing inconsistent or conflicting outputs.
Lower Overheads
Your event operations will have top-down and across visibility, making it easier to keep budget caps, which will lead to higher returns and savings and be able to control expenses. Event management software is even good with automating some event management processes, resulting in less time spent completing these tasks. Staff time will also be reduced.
Furthermore, a small team will be able to perform numerous tasks with the help of a solid event solution. Tools such as autoresponders and data management, self-service online registration, and a web-builder that’s coding-free can achieve many time-consuming back-office procedures in organizing events. You will not only save time but money by not having to solicit extra contractors.
Other cost benefits include cumulative spending in order to receive better deals from suppliers and helping your business find the lowest-cost venue for your budget by scouring online sources thoroughly.
Smoother Workflows in Your Event’s Entire Lifecycle
Some event management software solutions will help you plan and promote as well as assist you with on-site operations and post-event evaluations. There are tools included for reporting post-analytics and surveys, event marketing, and event management. The tools take the burden of building your own database off of your shoulders. One example includes online registration which allows participants to enter all of their information instead of you. Your database can be sorted for targeted email marketing. Similarly, you can conduct surveys on your database that will find insights based on no-shows, location, attendance and participation, the ability to run analytics, or conduct post-event analytics to assist you in improving your next event.
It’s also faster and more efficient to find suppliers with event management software because it can send out requests to different vendors quickly. Quotes can be received within a few minutes up to a few hours.
With clockwork precision, on-site tools can allow you to do a walk-through of your participants. Online registration databases can sort non-paid and paid participants while printing the badges out all at once. Internet-connected laptops or mobile payment make on-site payments easier to process.
Event Marketing That’s More Focused
Long-term promotion is critical to the success of any event. Depending on its sophistication, years and even months before the event takes place, the solution can assist you with media and blog placements, mailing lists, online communities, and aggregating social media mentions so you can begin to engage with prospective participants. There are some solutions which involve using communication channels to get questions or feedback from potential participants, or you can create a mailing list for targeted and staggered email marketing phases as the event date approaches. Dashboards can provide you with an overall view of the marketing KPIs of your event including media pickups, leads, and number of participants along with a social media engagement level (shares, likes, mentions). You will be able to see how near or far you are on opening day from your target with combined data on the promotion of your event.
Efficiently Managing Your Data
Event management software can run post-event and real-time analytic insights, organize online registration information and sort the information for different email marketing campaigns. Centralized databases allow users to access the same data, which will eliminate misinformation. Various parties would be notified quickly of any changes to the database such as the program, venue, or number of participants. Reports and documents would be consistently updated all throughout the organization. Likewise, the time that would be needed to create reports for different teams, documents, or lists would become more simplified as each team would be able to refer to just one file.
Event Management Software Types
There are many different kinds of event management software which are categorized by their feature set. The majority of the features are considered a type by themselves as well as independently packaged. The list below will not only explain the different types that are available but will answer questions related to how the software works:
- Ticketing apps - Ticketing can be specific to a certain functionality or can be part of an event management system with increased functionality. This app not only allows you to see tickets online, but it also features some additional tools such as customization and attendance management.
- Polling apps - This is a consistent tool many event organizers use, but they can have their own category. Live polling is a tool included with the apps that can provoke audience engagement either in a crowd or in a small room. The apps can display live graphs with real-time polling results that can reach a global audience by becoming assimilated into social media networks.
- Web conferencing - This kind of software can come as a suite of different management tools or can fall under a category all their own. The tools that are available are specific mostly to online-only events like webinars and have features that can gauge anything from large conventions to small meetings.
- Event scheduler - These kinds of apps not only allow your customers to do their own booking but feature availability in real-time. They can instantly communicate with you for certain requirements, allow you to pay online, and reschedule the date on the platform. This event tool can also help you avoid miscommunication regarding appointments, free you from having to manually process every booking, and get rid of scheduling conflicts.
- Open Source - They’re limited to particular functionalities including a scheduler or form builder, but they are completely free to use. As your needs become more complex, there are a variety of free apps available that will let you transition to paid plans later on.
- Front-to-end - That covers everything in terms of putting an event together starting from pre-event to event and the post-event. They give you the tools you need to streamline or automate field and back-office processes and include survey and analytics functionalities to provide you with insights into metrics such as revenues, expenses, feedback, and attendance as well as event marketing features that will assist you in promoting your project.
What Event Management Software Does
What Event Management Software DoesThe next question people often ask is how event management software works. What does it do? The best way to find that answer is to ask about what the features are. These solutions will offer you tools to cover the stages of the arrangement, the event itself, and the after-event. We will identify some of these key features in this guide.
Tools for Event Marketing
The great thing about event marketing is all of the tools that are available for you to use. They can promote an event to solicit leads and reach a wider online audience. There are three different types of marketing channels including media and blog sites, email marketing, and social media. Some of these tools may vary, but the actual solutions themselves feature a basic event calendar, integrated mailer, and an event website mailer.
What the event web builder does is create the landing site for your online registration as well as your pitch. Similarly, many event solutions include plug-and-play builders that have drag-and-drop functionality, making it easy for anyone to create an event page without any issues. A few of these solutions include a mobile version, which is also a good thing to have in the age of smartphones. You will be able to access your web builder from any place, anytime.
For email marketing campaigns, mailers cull information from your online registration. You can send a variety of emails throughout all of the stages of your event with certain themes, fostering needs, sending a call to action or a reminder for early-bird specials, and encouraging feedback. You can brand your own mailers with merge fields personalized to give your message more engagement. As part of your media standards to backers, the mailer can display sponsorships or track data in real-time.
Integrated or built-in event calendars can show event-goers different programs planned across all of the event dates. Other solutions let participants click on specific programs or dates on the calendar where they are able to sign up for a space.
Registration For Online Events
The modification of entering registration information from a computer to participants is one of the best features event management software has to offer. Online registration makes all of this possible because participants can input all of their information straight into the database for the event. More sophisticated solutions permit multi-session or multi-track registration, allowing guests to sign up for the workshops or programs they would prefer to attend. These systems feature restrictions including a unique ID system or registration code for each guest to protect your data’s integrity against trolls and spam. On-site processing and event marketing can also be implemented into the database.
On-Site Event Management Tools
Onsite tools safeguard the fast processing and clockwork precision of guest appearances. In addition, cloud solutions can enable laptops with an internet connection to become self-service registration booths for attendees. Online or mobile payments empower guests to complete transactions with their own payment gateway or credit card, which allows your registration team to shift their focus towards checking their guests in. Labels and badges will be printed accurately from the main database.
Payments can be easily cross-checked from a portal online and invoices can be printed right away. The same goes for documents including agendas and brochures.
Some reports can be run in real-time on-site so you can keep a close eye on KPIs such as available slots, meal selections, revenues, and number of attendees. Live-stream tools can broadcast snippets of your event numbers or display all of the numbers to add some extra social engagement to your ongoing program.
Managing Your Database
Databases are a core function of all event management software packages. It pulls together analytics, mailing lists, on-site guest lists, and online registration. Be sure you look for export/import functionalities, cloud communication, workflow management, help desk, and sorting variants to extract different integration and metrics with strategic CRM business systems.
Managing Your Budget
Managing your budget is another very important feature that allows you to calculate your savings, re-estimate expenses, and monitor your funds. This module encompasses all of your transactions related to the event and accurately maintains your budget details from line items to high-level estimates for a precise ROI. The feature can track quotes or deals, payments being made, and also estimate the average cost per attendee to scale your estimates.
Event Reporting
Event management software can run analytics anytime before the event, during the event, and after the event is over. This will enable insights to help you make a sound decision. Some of these solutions will let you report in real-time to assess expenses, attendance, and other important metrics and make necessary adjustments to keep your event on target. Reporting takes on many forms including drill-down details or summaries that can be shared with sponsors, partners, teams, and stakeholders. It’s also possible to track trends with the event analytics module to assist you in building one of your best practice sets. Finally, you can make your reports customizable so you can focus on more important metrics for other events in the future.
Feedback Surveys
Some event management software solutions will let you produce feedback for your event which will allow you to gauge the failure or success of your event to help shape future events. Personalized surveys can be created for targeted attendees. The issues your attendees raise on your survey will help to improve your event, while the merits you received from your feedback can be built on and replicated for your next event. This tool can also sort out contacts in your database who are engaging and divide them into possible leads for your CRM enterprise.
Things to Think About When You Purchase an Event Management System
There are many reasons to ponder when you purchase an event management system. Of course, price is one important aspect, but there are some other important things to consider before you purchase such a system:
- Social media - It’s important to use social media to get the word out about your event. There should also be support for or integration with social media posts or a live social feed. In addition, you can stream on YouTube or Facebook to add more depth to the coverage of your event while inviting more participants towards the tail end of the program. Live streaming can be either uploaded for SEO or converted to recorded content.
- Service and support - When you receive a new event management system, learning how to use it can prove to be quite challenging. Support is necessary to help your team transition into running events faster and more efficiently with the new hardware. Vendors should always provide support 24/7 or with a response time that is no longer than 48 hours.
- Ability to scale - You might be managing small projects right now, but one day you might want to grow your business. In this case, you want event management software that will grow along with your business to be able to handle more attendees, provide support for larger events, and include more features for logistics, marketing, and other factors. The pricing plans available will help you make a more informed decision about the solution’s scalability.
- Integration - You will rarely use this solution for processes related to the event. There's a number of business systems that have an impact on the data and workflows of your event such as accounting for financial and cost management, a help desk for addressing tickets, mobile payments for on-site registration, workflow management to approve processes and create task lists, and travel management that books transportation and rooms for all of your guests.
- Functionality - If you want to cover a portion of the event or all of the event, end-to-end will prove to be quite valuable in terms of preparation, the event itself, and after-event stages. They are useful for recurring or large events too. However, there are some solutions that don’t provide all of the tools you need. These tools are perfect for users who may have specific requirements or for small projects. If you are on a shoestring budget, though, you should only subscribe to the important tools you need for your event.
Types of Buyers
Depending on the size of your business, it’s imperative that you choose the right event management software for your needs. There are several buyer types to consider:
- Large enterprises - These are companies that specialize in large events and host on-site events often. The events are connected to concurrent online events that work in-sync with their counterparts offline. Your business should look for features that will bring offline and online event registration into line. They should also consider an event management solution with a suite of modules they can pick and choose from according to their needs.
- Mid-size and small businesses - Mid-sized establishments operate with up to 100 employees who specialize in a particular area. These companies need to consider a system that is best-of-breed and specializes in their role. One such example are businesses that hold on-site or online events. If you’re holding an event on-site, you will need features such as sessions management, barcode scanning, badge printing, guest list management, on-site visitor management functionality, and venue management. If you’re holding an event online, you need features such as event reporting, event marketing, online registration management, and ticketing.
Trends to Understand About the Market
One trend you need to understand about the market is big data analytics. Event organizers need to do more than just collect registration and attendee information in order to customize the experience for their attendees. There are numerous customer preferences which can be retrieved by tracking the online activities of their customers including their shopping preferences and posts on social media. Big data analytics let businesses study and aggregate the data so they can distribute personalized content to their users.
The other trend you need to understand about the market is beacon technology in attendee management. Beacons are based on Bluetooth low energy (BLE) technology that will go a long way with regards to personalizing the experience for your customers. Beacons can be used to welcome attendees walking into an event, followed by an app notification that opens a map up automatically to escort them toward the registration desk and through the event. Beacons can encourage and engage people to connect with other attendees which could increase registrations for events in the future.