The huge growth in the event technology industry has certainly made event professionals’ lives that little bit more bearable. From online ticket sales to event management software, to email automation the notoriously difficult and time-consuming task of collecting tracking and analyzing data has been streamlined.
Data is everywhere and drives everything. It cannot be ignored or underused. It is vital for understanding the ROI of your event.
“It’s like, you mean to tell me you’d prefer that I throw an event for 500 people, and you agree that we should spend money on that. We’re going to throw the event for 500 people, and you think what we should possibly do is throw the event, have everybody come, and have no way of actually measuring their likes, dislikes, behavior, interests, how long they stay, where they went in the room, what topics they were interested in?. It’s like, if we don’t do this, we’re just going to have flowers and music and drinks, and everyone’s going to leave” Ryan Costello, Event Farm
Are you collecting the ‘right’ data?
Firstly it is crucial to define what you want to know, which requires knowing what you do not know. This sounds like a riddle but it is very simple. Think about the aims of your event (product showcase, brand awareness, education etc.) and now consider what parameters you need to measure whether or not you meet this aim. For example, if the aim is education, is it enough for everyone to turn up or should you measure information uptake via a quiz? Do you need to know who was there, what they liked, where they went, why they came etc.?
The key measure of an event’s success is the ROI, if you have no data to prove this, you cannot be sure of the success of your events. Once you know what you need, it is easier to work out how to get it and make your event tech work for you.
Event registration software is the best way to keep track of who attended your event and can be used to calculate the drop-out rate of invitees or even ‘uninvited attendees’. This can be used to target your post-event communications and can be useful when planning your next event — are those uninvited attendees an untapped customer base?
These days most event registration packages offer pre-registration, which has been shown to increase attendance; pre-registration makes the event feel more “set-in-stone” than on-the-door registration.
Traditionally, the focus of data collection was pre- and post-event, but there is a wealth of data ready to be collected during your event. With event management software, such as Duuzra, it is possible to track every click, tap and view of every delegate using the app. This provides a true insight into which pieces of content were most popular and which features were most utilized by delegates. This data is invaluable when planning your next event and also when analyzing the success of your event. If certain features are not really utilized by delegates these can be left out of the software next time, streamlining the app.
Actionable Insight
Consumers love to feel involved. Using event software to push polls or allow audience questions is a great way to involve your delegates and create a truly interactive, engaging experience. It also gives unrivalled insight into the opinions. The best time to get an opinion on a session or a speaker is to ask delegates whilst content is fresh in their mind.
For example, if the aim of your event is product showcase, pushing out a poll or feedback form after the initial reveal of the product can give a great initial measure of how well-received the product is. At a product launch for a previous client, the initial product feedback was poor, resulting in the company postponing its product release to address the feedback received; this could have otherwise resulted in huge losses for the company. Without the use of the Duuzra content pushing, they would have had no feedback on this product.
Short digital feedback forms are more likely to have a good return rate over traditional paper forms and can be pushed out at the end of each session or at appropriate intervals throughout the day. This is certainly more favourable for everyone involved than the multiple page paper feedback form handed out at the end of the day when people are ready to leave.
Analytics
Your analytic set up is what determines whether you’re really using event data to its full potential. The days of pouring over spreadsheets are over. From do-it-yourself to do-nothing-yourself there are plenty of options when using event management software.
Now that you have determined what you need and how to collect it, the key is to manage and analyse this data. So if it’s a product showcase, are you interested in the positive or the negative responses or would you like a comparison?
Duuzra’s in-house analytics team can do all the hard work for you, providing slick, easy-to-understand reports so you can focus on the important part — what to do with your insight.
Data is a valuable resource that is there for the taking, providing unrivalled consumer insight and the most reliable measure of your event ROI. Be sure not to waste it!
