- Automated Check-in Will Increase at Events
There is nothing worse for attendees than arriving to an event that is about to start only to find a huge queue. To help ease some of this pain, some event planners are adopting ways to automate check-in. While big events might have special check-in kiosks, smaller planners are benefitting from apps or QR codes that can make event check-in easy and fast, so that attendees don’t have to be out in the cold waiting. Expect to see smoother check-ins thanks to automation this year.
- More Event Planners Will Be Adding Products to Ticket Sales
Does your keynote speaker have a book or a line of products that they want to sell? Thanks to advances in technology, you can help these important people get their products into the hands of attendees from the point of ticket sales. Attendees will appreciate taking care of all of their purchase needs in one sitting. You can include these items as part of the price of admission, or list these products as add-on items to the ticket sale. Depending on your deal with the speaker, you may choose to collect a commission on these product sales or not. Expect to see more upselling on ticket sales this year.
- Event Planners Will Harness Data to Drive Further Interactions
From demographic registration data to app check in, there is a lot you can learn about clients in the ticket sales data. With this vast amount of information about attendees at your disposal, the party doesn’t have to be over once the goodbyes have been said. Expect more event planners to study customer data after the event is over, in order to continue conversations from the event, as well as to sell follow-up products and to promote future events.
- Event Navigation Will Get Easier Thanks to Advances in Digital Mapping
People appreciate when things are simplified, especially if they are visiting a place they’ve never been before. Event planners can use tools that will automatically create maps to the location of an event that can be shared right before the conference, making it easier for attendees to show up on time. Once they have arrived, indoor positioning systems such as Google Indoor Maps, can help people find their way inside. IPS can help people navigate convention center halls. Expect to see more map integration this year.
- Personal Data Protection Will Increase Among Event Planners
GDPR rules go into effect in May, meaning that anyone running an online business will have to ensure that they are protecting consumer data more carefully. In response, we expect to see more event planners adopting data policies that follow these rules, ensuring that data is collected, stored and used in a compliant manner.
