The specific benefits that technology can bring to your events

Each of these points deserves careful consideration and a strategic approach, but let’s get to the point: here’s a reminder of the key benefits that technology can offer you.

Communication and call

• Start with the CRM. Defining your target audience starts with an analysis of your CRM, which is key to clearly identifying your target audience (who buys from me, who is a current lead that I absolutely must attract…), but also to identifying potential personalization opportunities (see below).
• Personalized messages. Are you sure you want to send the same message to someone who has attended your last five events as you would to a newcomer? To someone with a buyer profile as you would to someone in marketing? Today you can segment by broad profiles; tomorrow (or even today, in fact), with AI, you’ll be able to fully personalize your messages.
• Digital marketing. Your event is the perfect candidate for retargeting and other digital marketing strategies. Avoid sending out a generic reminder email to everyone: distinguish between those who have opened or clicked on your invitation and those who have ignored it. For example, someone who has opened it multiple times probably deserves a follow-up call.
• Analyze your clicks and save this information. Your pre-event emails are a source of insights: you can see who has clicked on each part of the program and thus determine what interests them. This is valuable information for your sales team, for personalizing your messages, or for determining which sessions will be most successful.
• Pre-event messages. Once someone has confirmed their attendance, don’t stop communicating with them there. You can send personalized reminders based on what you know interests each person, thereby whetting their appetite. A teaser video for a session you know they’re interested in, for example.
• … and meetings to build connections. To build connections before the event, you can organize online meetings on specific topics: anyone who has signed up for a particular session can participate in a 30-minute warm-up to prepare for the session and meet other interested participants. This way, you generate interest, build relationships, and make people more eager to attend.

Event experience

• Seamless access. Today, many tech companies have self-service badge kiosks, so long lines may be a thing of the past (don’t forget that this is people’s first impression).
• Entry control… and access control. Access can be granted by staff scanning a QR code, or through a gate that automatically verifies entry via RFID. And if you want to make a lasting impression, install a screen that automatically displays a personalized welcome message, such as “Welcome, Roberto.”
• Real-time tracking. Whether via Wi-Fi or NFC, you can track people’s movements and see which booths and sessions interest them.
• Interactivity. Your sessions can be interactive, whether through voting, collaborative word cloud creation, or question management (allowing you to filter questions and avoid the endless stream of questions from people seeking the spotlight). Note: Avoid using these technologies as a “cool gimmick.” Work with the speakers to determine what you want to learn from the audience, and design the entire training program with this in mind so it doesn’t feel like an afterthought.
• Wristbands and other ways to engage. Technology makes it easier for your audience to take action and communicate: a QR code to download information about a product, to request a presentation from a speaker, or a wristband to connect with another person. All of this helps attendees achieve your goals and lets you know what interests each individual.
• Session summary. AI now makes it possible to record all sessions and generate automatic summaries. But it goes a step further: you can have each attendee receive a summary of the event tailored to their interests.

The result: data intelligence

This is the end result—the immense value of the event: if you integrate technology into these different stages, you strike gold. You know who is interested in which topic; you know who has had which experience; you can enrich your CRM with a wealth of information and follow up with personalized sales outreach. Yes, Excel is appealing because you have something up and running in a minute. But investing a little to implement technology is truly worth it. Now, we’d also like to remind you of some key points for developing a technology strategy for your events, and we’d like to share what Nadine Vienne, Head of Internal Events at Nissan Europe, told us: thanks to technology, she went from simply organizing company events to providing insights to her executives. That’s worth so much more.