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Six Simple Rules for Your Event Technology Strategy

Six Simple Rules for Your Event Technology Strategy

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Eric Mottard
Eric Mottard
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Although Excel is still very much in charge, event-specific technology allows your events to be more personalized, more effective, more seamless, and more interactive—but none of this works without a well-thought-out strategy and organization. If you don’t have the budget or the time, forget about a technology strategy—you’ll just be applying quick fixes with little value. But in a world where value increasingly lies in data, it makes sense to develop this technology. Here are a few simple guidelines to keep in mind.

In this article, we’ll remind you of some of the benefits of technology for making your events more personalized, more effective, more seamless, and more interactive. Now let’s review some key strategies for how to work and how to adapt your project management to give technology the role it deserves.

Allocate a specific budget

It’s obvious: technology comes at a cost, and if you don’t think it’s worth the investment, stop reading this article. If you take a closer look at the world we live in, you’ll realize that the value of a company (and of an event) lies largely in data. How much? There’s no set figure, but some suggest 5% (which, frankly, doesn’t seem excessive to “go from a dumb event to a smart one”).

What is the digital department’s budget?

Your company likely has a digital department and probably a CRM department, each with its own budget, which they invest in gathering insights. The value of the insights you provide can justify these other departments contributing to your budget. Ultimately, what you do helps them meet their goals. Technology isn’t really experiential; it’s more of a layer that’s added on top.

Include it in the briefing

Make sure all your briefings include a section on technology. That way, you’ll avoid waking up three days before the event and scrambling to figure out how to incorporate questions from the app for the speakers. You know full well that you’ll be rushing around, so if you don’t have this clearly defined from the start, your event won’t have a technology strategy.

Work on this briefing with CRM / Digital

These are the key departments when it comes to data intelligence, so involve them right from the briefing, understand what they can offer you in terms of audience insights, and work with them to see what you can offer them. And they’ll offer you a lot: don’t forget that this is their world.

Incorporate it into every aspect of your event

Your exhibitors, your sponsors, your speakers… check with them to see if technology can help them enhance their event. For example, if you work with your speakers to identify three key messages to convey—and track them through the live voting—you’ll help them focus more on those messages and make their session more effective.

Set aside time at the beginning and at the end.

We hear countless stories about events that generate data that ends up sitting unused in a database. Think from the start about what you’ll do with the data—and, above all, who will handle it. Because, as you know, no one will have any spare time once the event is over.

It’s time to move beyond using technology as just a registration database for your event. But to make it truly valuable, there are no shortcuts: it takes a budget, collaboration, team time, and collective effort. Even in an industry where we thrive on personal interaction and theatrics, we can make it happen.

And check out here the very specific improvements that technology can bring to your events.

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