Large-scale business events and expos are excellent ways to introduce information to new people, to forge lucrative business relationships and to create a name for yourself as an event planner. Unfortunately, they are a bit chaotic and it’s tough to keep an eye on all the attendees throughout the day. It’s important to take measures to track where visitors are going during the day and to gather as much information about them during the visit as possible. This information makes it easy to create better events in the future and can help boost your business nicely.
The Benefits of Collecting Attendee Information
If getting information about where your event visitors are walking and what they are most interested in during your meet up seems daunting, just know that all the work will pay off in the end. Obtaining this information will allow you to run more productive meetups and events in the future, making your company more profitable as well.
Improve Future Event Planning
It’s difficult to decide how to set up an event when you don’t know what the attendees want, but once you know what they are most interested in and where they will want to visit the most, you’ll know exactly how to set up subsequent events.
Take on vendors that your attendees are going to be most interested in. Also, consider grouping vendors that specific segments of your attendees are going to be most interested in. This gives them time to use gather devices because they will not have to walk all over to see the things they are most interested in. In return, you’ll be able to collect information about attendee movements and interests at an even greater rate in the future.
You can also consider focusing your events around the most popular vendors, or be providing them with more space or a prominent location than the less popular options. This improves the overall flow and appeal of your events for the people that attend them.
Enhance Event Quality
It’s in your best interests to make your events as enjoyable as possible. The more attendees like them, the more likely they are to come back again in the future. That’s why you have to do everything that you can to make them appealing, and to help create a setup that they are going to like. With more information about what they will like, and where they will want to go, you can create a top quality event setup that’s going to make most attendees happy. In return, your events will gain in popularity. You’ll be perceived as a higher quality event planner and will get to work with high profile clients in the future, making your business more effective and profitable.
Make Exhibitors Happy
The final key to being successful with event planning and getting the most out of your events is to make your exhibitors happy. The best way to do this is to give them just the environment they need to be as successful as possible with the visitors. If exhibitors are making professional connections and building a base of new customers, they are going to be thrilled with your events and want to attend more in the future.
By using advanced event technology that helps visitors connect on a more personal level, you’ll enhance the experience for everyone and help exhibitors be more effective. By creating a more visitor-friendly layout, vendors will get more time with interested customers and less time with people looking for booths that they actually want to visit. Overall, everyone should be much happier with the setup and the experience if the event is planned well. That’s not difficult to accomplish when you know enough about the attendees.
Obtaining Attendee Information
We’ve already established why it makes sense to collect information about an attendee. We’ll now go over how you can accomplish this goal. There are a few different strategies that are in use today, and each of them has some real benefits – though it will be difficult to decide which is the best option overall without testing each one out. Read on to learn how to get as much information out of your visitors as you possibly can, while hopefully accomplishing your other goals as well.
Collecting Attendee Information Covertly
While it’s important to get as much information about your attendees as possible, it’s also important to be discreet about it. You don’t really want to make it obvious that you just want an attendee’s data. That’s why it’s best to create another reason attendees to provide their information to you. A prize or raffle contest is an ideal cover because it offers something of value, and it makes it clear why you need their information. Most people have a hard time saying no to a free giveaway, especially if the process to enter is made simple enough. While it won’t work well just to ask what an attendee wants or to ask for their information outright, creating a legitimate and valuable reason to obtain that information makes it very easy to get.
Collect Attendee Information at Booths
One of the simplest ways to gather information about visitors at an event is to get it from visitors that come up to booths. This is easy enough to accomplish by using things like prize raffles that require a name and an email from the attendee in order to register to win. Consider setting one of these up at each of the different booths throughout your event, and you’ll be able to learn about attendees’ interests as well as their movements during the day. Be sure to add a timestamp feature on each of the tickets, or to ask the attendee to provide the current time when submitting their entry.
Track with NFC Tags
One of the most efficient ways to track attendees movements and interests is with NFC tags. NFC or near field communication is a system where chips communicate with one another. It would be very affordable to embed NFC chips into attendee name tags, and then convince them to register to different booths by simply tapping their tag on a booth chip location.
Booth operators could do a prize raffle, offer a brochure or another piece of information in exchange for a chip tap. By taking the time to set up NFC technology, it’s possible to track detailed information about attendees and which booths they interacted with – as well as what times they attended the event and its different sections.
Create a Personalized Experience with Bluetooth Beacons
Bluetooth beacons are an exciting and affordable technology that makes it possible for vendors to create a personalized experience for different types of visitors. A Bluetooth beacon costs as little as $5 apiece, and they transmit information and collect data over a range of up to 100 feet. This makes it very easy to collect information all over the venue and get very accurate movement information as the days go by during an event.
In order for this technology to work properly when tracking attendees at an event, it’s important that they understand how it works to have them leave the custom app open and running the whole time they are there. Event organizers and booth operators can make this happen by making the app a central part of the experience, using it to provide useful information such as a map of the area, lists of show and presentation times, and by allowing the vendors to push custom information that the attendee likes while they visit a booth.
Bluetooth beacons are one of the best technology options for collecting information about an attendee while creating a positive experience at the same time.
Implementing a Tracking Method
Now that you know about the different tracking methods that are available, it’s important to take some time and actually try them out. Pick one or two different methods and try them at your next big event. You’ll be surprised at just how successful they can be and how much you get out of the experience. You’ll be able to take that information and apply it to future events, making everything function smoothly.
Educate the Exhibitors Thoroughly
Before trying a new method to obtain visitor information, make sure your exhibitors understand how the technology works and how they can leverage it to improve their results. Be very clear about the new technology and explain it to them thoroughly. If your exhibitors understand what is going on, they’ll be much more likely to participate in the tracking method, which is crucial for everything working out.
Educate the Attendees
Be sure to send out an informational video, have a meeting, send out a flyer or an email that explains to event attendees exactly how they can benefit from your tracking method. If it’s something simple like raffles, just make them aware that this tracking system exists so they can utilize the prizes to their full potential. If it’s something more complex like a Bluetooth beacon, explain the technology briefly, explain how to get everything set up and stress the benefits of using it during the big day. Really take your time to inform the attendees of the tracking technology and talk it up as much as possible so they will want to use it.
Track the Results
While it’s good to find a technology that you enjoy or one that you get good results with, that doesn’t mean it’s the only technology that you should use. Instead, consider utilizing multiple tracking methods at the same time and testing them against one another. By testing out several different tracking methods at one event, you can find out which works the best and even find good combinations of methods for better results. Don’t be afraid to test things out as you figure out the best way to squeeze information out of your event attendees. It will pay off in a big way.
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