The emergence of new technologies and the development of existing technologies has drastically changed the way organisers plan events in recent times. Ultimately, regardless of the type of event or industry of the company, businesses must embrace the new technologies on offer.
Digital and Tech solutions make events more unique, interesting and deliver new experiences for your delegates. Introducing technology also makes it easier, cheaper and provides a more efficient method of working for the organisers themselves too.
Providing an individual experience, tailored to an attendee’s interests and preferences, can make events more effective and more engaging. Consequently, personalisation is one of the most important trends in the industry right now.
Let’s review how you can personalise the delegate event experience.
1. Personalised Invitations & Registration
In a world of mail merge and generic information, personalisation makes you feel a little more special as a recipient. Personalising invitations can be simple and effective. By tailoring them as much as possible to the invitee, you can greatly increase their chances of attending. Imagine receiving an invite that includes your name, your company and a paragraph about why you specifically invited (e.g. John, following our conversation in December last year…)
Your delegate management system can help you tailor your questionnaire to a specific type of delegate, for example, “attendee” or “exhibitor”. In doing so you can create multiple ‘trees’ in the back end of your system, which personalise the next set of questions asked, dictated by the attendee’s responses. You capture the information relevant to them, making their registration feel as though it’s been built specifically to their needs.
2. Personalised Communications
Your digital registration system can also help you personalise all your email communications in the run up to your event. A personalised bar code for entry to the event, a printable personalised agenda or even personalised information on where and how to pick your Vegan meal are just some of the features you can integrate during your pre-event communications.
3. Personalised Check-in
When you walk into a pub and the barman remembers your name and favourite tipple it makes you feel special, right? Human’s may not have the capability to remember that level of recognition for thousands of attendees, but technology can.
Facial recognition technology exists so that is can allow an attendee to simply walk up to a camera and be instantly recognised. Their name will appear, and they will be able to enter the event without the need for tickets or barcodes. Great for exhibitions, or you could link this to badge printing, so their badge is automatically printed upon arrival.
4. Personalised Signage
Wouldn’t it be great if signs could be more personalised? With radio frequency technologies like RFID, they can be. Set your attendees up with smart-badges, encoded with information they provided at registration (name, company, and sessions they plan to attend).
Through RFID antennas in the badges, attendees can then receive a personalised welcome on media screens as they enter the venue, as well as see tailored information appearing on signage. How good would this be for a VIP entering the VIP lounge at your next event?
5. Personalised Agendas
Digitising your registration means you can integrate the information captured into a bespoke event app, providing each delegate with their own personal log in username and password. Imagine being welcomed by the App with your name, your details and your chosen sessions you wish to attend. By pre-loading the delegates choices (or even by them selecting it on the app pre-arrival), you are immediately providing a tech platform by which each delegate has a bespoke agenda.
It makes your app a lot more useful by only showing users information relevant to them. They can also be sent push notifications to alert them to their next session. Attendees no longer have to feel like just a number.
6. Personalised Networking
Networking is increasingly listed as one the main reason people attend events like conferences. By integrating networking tools as part of your digital registration process or event app, attendees will be able to see who is attending that may be of interest to them and set up meetings with people they want to meet. Again, this can be linked into their personalise agenda mentioned above.
Artificial intelligence exists whereby the technology matchmakes using data from attendees’ social media profiles like LinkedIn and Facebook, and recommends people to meet, sessions to attend or even products that would be most suited to them.
You can also use tech to swap contact details. Digital units which also act as USB sticks are available so that you simply touch your units and they swap your pre-loaded contact details. Plug it into your computer and instantly you have all the details of the people you met with no more business cards!
7. Personalised Gifts
Why give a coffee mug with just your branding on, when you can give a mug that bares both your branding and the name of the delegate? On-demand printing is now possible and it’s a great way to personalise your gift.
Already popular are things like personalised tins of sweets or calendars, where names are creatively integrated into the images for each month. You can even get fortune cookies with customised messages inside for different attendee groups. Companies pushing the boundaries when it comes to what’s possible with personalised event giveaways include Barclaycard
Conclusion
Personalisation during your event makes it more rewarding for everyone by providing enhanced and unique experiences. And thanks to new technology, it’s getting increasingly easier to gather the data you need in order to “know” your attendees better (just be sure to let them know you’re collecting it and the reasons why).
Hippo Events’ are a Corporate Event Planning agency offering free Global Venue Finding and End to End Event Project Management. Talk to us about how we can help you integrate Tech into your next event!
Hippo offer Event Project Management and Global Venue Finding services. Please feel free to contact us today on 01372 460 100 or email on enquiries@hippoevents.co.uk