In our previous blog, we discussed 5 biggest challenges that will impact the event industry in 2019 and beyond. In this blog, we’ll discuss how event tech solutions can help you overcome the 5 challenges.
Challenge 1: Shrinking budget
At IMEX America: Event Planning Trends (and Challenges) to Watch for in 2019, 64.4 % of respondents of a survey told that they don’t expect fundings for events to enhance in 2019.
Prices of services like hotels and banquet halls continuously rise. Transport fares also keep increasing. If organizations don’t increase budgets for events, the onus lies on you. There are ways to cut down on events’ expenses without compromising on the quality of the event experience.
Solutions for Challenge 1
a) Are you sure that you have paid for the right speakers? Enough attendee feedback can help you make the right decision. If not having enough feedbacks is one of your constant pain points, poll and survey apps can relieve it.
b) AI-based chatbots can analyze people’s sentiment, reply accordingly and offer services. Human agents can take control of conversations based on signals like confidence score. You can save money on staff recruitment.
c) Requirement-based selection of event apps can help us save money. If there are only 10 to 15 attendees in an event, there is no need to purchase an event app that can help attendees manage hundreds of sessions and personalize their agendas with slots for multiple meetings. Some event apps are built to manage in-house conferences or intra-departmental events with a small number of attendees.
Challenge 2: Data privacy concerns
According to the Breach Level Index of a digital security company Gemalto, 10.4 million records were compromised or stolen every day in 2016. The financial impact of data breaches may escalate in 2019 and will exceed potential fines.
Solutions for Challenge 2
a) It is your responsibility to ensure that only authorized admins can get access to private information of attendees. The solution to this problem is to choose an event app with robust security features.
b) Event organizers can publish their privacy policies and terms of use on event websites, under separate menus. Privacy policies include information about how event professionals will use data shared by attendees. Overall event rules are explained in the terms of use page. Before registering for events, attendees should go through privacy policies and agree to terms of use.
Challenge 3: Long hours
Extra hours of meetings are not challenges in themselves. The challenge is to maximize the utility of total time spent in events. Every minute spent in events should add value to event experiences.
Solutions for Challenge 3
a) Face recognition technology can speed up the process of check-in. Event apps integrated with face recognition software have been introduced in the market. The tool can significantly cut down on check-in time at events with thousands of footfall, every day.
b) If attendees spend a considerable amount of time to find locations of restrooms, cafeterias, session-halls, exhibitor booths etc., it is a waste of time. AR can simplify the navigation process. AR-based event apps can superimpose visual landmarks on mobile devices of attendees and guide them to their destinations.
c) You can help attendees to use breaks between sessions, more meaningfully. One of the ways is to demarcate areas for private workstations and provide attendees with all facilities like Wi-Fi connection, chairs, tables, refreshments etc. Attendees can come to these workstations during breaks, check official emails, send replies and have their lunches, simultaneously.
Challenge 4: Experience, undelivered
Event professionals are apprehensive of the impact of shrinking budget on events experiences. The challenge is how to offer the best events experiences without escalating events expenses, too much.
Solutions for Challenge 4
a) Incentivize attendees to cover most of the booths. Organize games like Scavenger Hunt and add fun with AR. Attendees have to find QR codes placed throughout events venues, earn points and win prizes according to leaderboard positions.
b) Personalized agenda can help event attendees to schedule and manage meetings easily. In large scale events, multiple sessions are held simultaneously. It is hard to keep a tab on them. With the help of personalized agenda, attendees can fix meetings, sync meeting timings with their mobile device calendars, get notifications on changes in schedule, cancel meetings etc.
Challenge 5: Technological Challenges
According to Milton Rivera, the VP, Business Development and Strategy, American Express Meetings and Events, “In the last 18 months, there has been an explosion of technology emerge for every part of the end-to-end meetings and events process.” The challenge is to choose the best event tech solutions from hundreds of solutions available in the market.
Solutions for Challenge 5
a) Have you ever asked yourself why do you need an event tech solution? Don’t choose event tech tools because of peer pressure. First, evaluate your requirements. Next, design a strategy to implement technology in the best possible ways. Finally, execute your plans. Your ultimate aim is to maximize events output. Technology should help you reach your goal.
For example, when you use chatbots, you not only speed up the communication process but also reserve human resources for works that need special skills. People can immediately get responses from chatbots without waiting for live chat support (a study conducted by SuperOffice CRM has revealed that the average wait time for live chat support is 2 mins and 40 secs). AI-based chatbots can analyze human sentiments and respond accordingly. If chatbots can’t solve a problem, human agents can take over conversations and solve it.
If you’ve less manpower, you can use chatbots to engage with attendees and quickly solve their queries. Chatbots can help you give better experiences to event attendees.
b) Before choosing the right event tech solution, you should find the answer to the following question. How can you add value to events with the help of event tech solutions? For example, event tech solutions like virtual meeting technology can connect attendees who can’t physically attend events because of some serious ailments.
Think about how can technology add value to the lives of event attendees, exhibitors, delegates, etc. It will help you make the right decision.
Data security, event experiences, strategy, and value-based decision making are top things to keep in mind in order to overcome the 5 biggest challenges which will impact the event industry in 2019 and beyond.
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Stay tuned for more blogs on events industry in our next editions.
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