Furthermore, in such a jumble of speaker selection and invitation, it is not easy to maintain pace with the audience and keep them engaged while ensuring that they have a great experience at your event.

So, how can you be sure that you invite the right person to speak at your event? How about keeping the audience interested all the way through?

Check out this article for some helpful tips!

The future of speaker invitation and engagement process

As an event organizer, for weeks, you might have been scratching your head and pulling your hair out, trying to organize the best event possible. Do you want to start a new event? Are you having trouble lining up speakers for your annual user conference? Are you worried about their interest in your event, wondering how to keep them engaged after your tiring effort of selecting them? Below are some points that can come in handy for you.

Speaker Curation

Although reaching out to speakers who have been in the spotlight for a long time may be enticing, they may not be the best fit for your event. For example, a finance speaker may not be the right choice for your cultural event. In that case, you must find a speaker who aligns well with your event’s purpose, has a clear personal brand, and an established following. Since they play a vital role in promoting your brand, you can find someone who has a strong command of the subject discussed at your event and can capture the crowd’s attention with their presence.

Speaker Engagement

Speakers are often busy and find it challenging to make time to speak at events, but what motivates them to make time anyway? Is it the spectators or the money? Many speakers admit it is more about a crowded room than about money. Large crowds boost their enthusiasm and excitement. Being among the people prompts them to give the best speeches and elicit maximum reactions. As an event planner, you must recognize that people attend events based on their desires, identify these and meet them to build a good rapport with them. It will help you to build a bond with your speakers and reach the appropriate audience.

Speaker Presentation Alignment

Events are primarily about content and less about the discussion. Although this has remained a constant at all events, what has not is the structure and alignment of content presentations. Speakers are the highlight of an event. Their expertise in the topic of discussion, views, and presentation style will be what draws the crowd to your event. As an event planner/organizer, your job is to curate their presentation to benefit both the speaker and the audience. If executed well, you can keep your speakers happy and they more likely to make time for your next event as well, helping you to build a long-term relationship with them.

Speaker invitation process – what should you keep in mind?

When it comes to inviting speakers, various event promoters take different approaches. Some people use speakers associated with well-known companies (this is particularly true of large marketing conferences). Others prioritize storytelling and demand that their speakers be skilled storytellers. Others seek out long and meaty presentations, while few seek quick hits that keep the pace going. Here are three primary steps you must follow while approaching any speaker.

• Selection: Your first step will be to make sure that the speaker is right for your event. However, it is a bit tedious, but different event management software like Speaker Engage can come in handy.
• Invitation: Make your speaker invitation as simple as a standard mail or a phone call confirming the speaker’s availability. A lot rides on the success of the event and inviting the right people is key here. It is hard to verify all facets of the speaker, but there is nothing more intimidating than having the event fail. If you have over ten invitations, consider using the Speaker Engage speaker invite workflow to automate the entire process and get things done easier.
• Acceptance: As soon as the speaker accepts the invitation, send them a thank-you note, along with the event schedule and procedure, so that the speaker is aware of the event process and has enough time to prepare.

Speaker Engagement and Management

Nothing is more thrilling than getting your event in the limelight with a well-known speaker but finding the right speaker for your event, managing their requirements, and then keeping them involved in the event process is an onerous duty. Speaker Engage plays a vital role in reducing these burdens for you. Its various features will be of great help to you. Let us check out how these features are ingenious in speaker engagement and management.

Invitation

The invitation should be as simple as a formal mail or a phone call confirming the speaker’s availability. If the event is significant and more speakers are invited, manually doing it is tricky. You will have to search for the best emailing platform to ease your task in such a case. Well, not anymore. Speaker Engage, an all-in-one online event management software, can be your lifesaver. It helps you save your time in the creation and advance scheduling of your emails and provides you the option of sending a customized bulk message.

Profile Data Collection

Post speaker selection, it’s time to collect all important data about the speaker. With Speaker Engage, you can easily do this task; the tool offers an auto-generated application form, which you can send over to the speaker to fill. This way, the task of creating the form and filling data is off of your shoulder.

Content Management

Speaker Engage functions as a centralized content management tool, allowing you to store all related documents and files in one place. You can also request and save materials such as speaker profiles, abstracts, and presentations to each speaker and session profile. In addition, you can use the Resource Tracker to store resources such as contracts, analysis papers, and flyers so that all team members have access to them.

Speaker Readiness

With Speaker Engage software, you can provide speakers with all of the information they need to prepare for their content presentation. If you use this event management tool, you won’t have to worry about sending information individually because the software provides you with features like Bulk Notify, making sharing details more manageable.

Communication and Promotion

The Speaker Engage is helpful as an email marketing tool. It allows you to create email templates, which can then be used to fill out email forms. You can send emails individually or in bulk and can also schedule them in advance. The tool also assists you in creating personalized social media templates, which is critical for your event to reach your audience through different channels and aids you in acquiring more attendees.

Summing-up

Regardless of the type of event, almost every potential event will be held online, with speakers coming from everywhere globally. As a result, a powerful management tool would be your best bet to keep things sailing smoothly.

A futuristic tool that also serves to build communities. It engages both the speakers and the audience because engagement is a two-way street, ensuring a positive experience for all attending your event.

Speaker Engage is a suitable partner for all these tasks. It is not just an event listing platform but has multiple functionalities like speaker management, sponsor management, content management, and more. Underneath the creativity lies the future of innovation, and Speaker Engage is well ahead of its time.

Try a 100-day free trial package of Speaker Engage to feel the actual change of hosting and organizing a virtual event.

The post A Growth Hacker’s View: The Future of Speaker Invitation and Engagement Process first appeared on SpeakerEngage Blog.

Speaker Engage is the perfect tool for optimal event management since it is based on the idea of one-software for all. It is a cloud-based, fully integrated platform for curating speakers, supporters, and knowledge groups. Via centralized content management and automated workflows, the platform makes organizing and executing events simpler. Doesn’t that sound exciting?!

The WiC group utilized the Speaker Engage platform effectively to conduct their annual Summit. Let us see how this fantastic tool helped them in the smooth conduction of the event.

With an Aim to Empower Female Tech Entrepreneurs and Society

Women in Cloud (Or WiC) has been on a mission to encourage, motivate, and drive the growth of women-led technology companies since its inception. Every year, WiC organizes a summit where people from the tech industry come together to share their experiences. This year’s summit revolved around creating a transformative community of women leaders, entrepreneurs, and allies focused on global economic access and collective influence.

Women in Cloud (WiC) and Speaker Engage

The COVID havoc was on the horizon, and the situation was tense. Still, the WiC group’s determination to deliver what they promised encouraged them to look for an appropriate conference management software that could fulfill their needs. As a result of their research, the WiC team came across Speaker Engage, which met their needs more than efficiently. Speaker Engage’s unique features were enough to attract the attention of the group.

Let us look at some of the features that helped WiC successfully wrap up its Digital Summit 2021.

User Management

The Summit was aimed at transforming the global narrative, using the skills and abilities of countless leaders. Speaker Engage allowed the entire community to collaborate remotely, that too in real-time, to deliver the Summit message clearly. Furthermore, event organizers collaborated with all event stakeholders, including volunteers, vendors, and others interested in transportation and technology.

Speaker Management and Curation

Since the event took place online and the speakers wanted to offer their content through a medium that can do seamless content management, Speaker Engage was their best choice. The tool’s speaker curation and management features assisted the Summit in meeting its objectives. The tool also made it easier for the organizers to choose the right speakers for the Summit, with the help of the unique Influential Score feature it offered.

Managing Data

Without a place to store vital data, no event planning is complete. Speaker Engage includes a Resource Tracker that can manage all of your event-related tools. You can also sort the tools into categories based on your preferences. The tool alleviated the burden of data storage and management, allowing the event to run smoothly. With the centralized location Speaker Engage offered, everyone (including the speakers, sponsors, organizers, and even the attendees) got access to the available data.

Seamless Communication

Anyone who has used Speaker Engage is familiar with the flawless structure that helps organizers, speakers, and sponsors communicate. This aspect of the tool caught the organizers’ attention because there were too many speakers, organizers, and sponsors to handle all the while ensuring the Summit ran hassle-free. The communication happened seamlessly and was one of the biggest reasons for the grand success of WiC Digital Summit 2021.

Social Media Attention

The Summit was happening online, and the organizers were worried that it would turn into a word-of-mouth affair. Speaker Engage helped Summit facilitators in this mission. With customizable tools, organizers built social media campaigns, added videos, uploaded photos and other details, then delegated team members to review responses. The social media planner and calendar made it easier for promoters to scale their social media campaigns.

Event Directory

There is an Event Directory on Speaker Engage. While this feature is a premium one, it can help elevate any virtual event. The feature caught the summit organizers’ attention, and they made the most of it. The organizers used this functionality to boost attendance. They also utilized this feature to gain premium status, taking their event to another level.

Summing Up

Unlike other organizations with ‘special sessions’ for women, WiC realized they had to go deep and wide. They needed tech leaders, female entrepreneurs, community leaders, and organizations all at one place to influence and provide long-term solutions that benefits hundreds, if not thousands, of people.

Using Speaker Engage aided the Summit’s success, achieving a high Return on Investment (ROI).

Speaker Engage is a multi-faceted tool developed by event organizers for event organizers to make their lives easier. With Speaker Engage, organizing and advertising virtual events is effortless, allowing team members to take charge and accountability, making way for consistency and transparency during the planning process.

If you need expert advice or assistance in organizing your event, please email us at support@speakerengage.com, and we will be happy to assist you in putting together the event of your dreams!

The post How Speaker Engage Was Used for WIC Digital Summit 2021 first appeared on SpeakerEngage Blog.

It is true, we are missing out on experiences such as traveling and meeting people in person. But virtual events have managed to hold their fort and are doing surprisingly very well. According to a poll conducted by the Professional Convention Management Association, 81% of people expect to hold more virtual events in the future. And there is good reason to. Let’s see some major reasons why virtual events are useful and why an increasing number of people are adopting them.

1. Virtual events can be produced for less

Virtual events not only cost less to set up than in-person events, they are also open to more people. All you need is an invite and access to the internet to attend one. With a virtual event, you don’t have to make arrangements for venues, travel, or hospitality. If you plan and execute virtual events properly, they can give you more ROI than in-person events.

2. You can plan and execute a virtual event in less time

Virtual events don’t require you to transport people or physical displays, making them faster to set-up than in-person events. A small virtual event can be set-up and promoted in as less as 3-6 weeks. A large virtual event (with thousands of attendees) could take more than six weeks to set up. Meanwhile, it can take as long as eight weeks to set up an in-person event.

3. Attendees are more likely to attend a virtual event

Earlier, many people couldn’t attend as many events as they wanted to because they were averse to traveling. Many also had busy work schedules, in addition to the family and home responsibilities. All these ate into their event plans, and only people who absolutely couldn’t miss an event made it to in-person events. But the rules have changed now. Online hosting of events has made events accessible to more people. Today, we see more people attending virtual events than ever before.

4. Virtual events connect people from over the world

One of the significant disadvantages of in-person events is that they are limited by geography. For example, you want to attend a Metallica concert in New York City but you stay around 100 miles away, in Hartford, you have to think twice about attending. Virtual events give an excellent opportunity for cross-border networking because they are not limited by geography. If you are a business or event planner with global aspirations, this is a huge plus point. Here’s a post on the rise of the event technology strategist.

5. Virtual events can lead to more effective conversations

Holding a virtual event often costs a fraction of what it takes to have an in-person event. They also attract attendees from diverse locations. This makes it possible to hold virtual events for even niche events. With virtual events, you also have an opportunity to really impress your audience, rather than merely skimming the surface. Moreover, attendees at a niche virtual event are more likely to be interested in your product (or service) than others. Here’s a post on how to effectively market a virtual event.

6. Virtual events give a lot of insights and data

Asking people to fill up forms during and after in-person events is a bit of a hassle. But you need that data to find out what type of people are attending your event and other particulars. A filling of forms precedes many virtual events. Virtual events are also easy to record. This is an invaluable resource for salespersons who want to find prospects for their product (or service) or marketers who wish to find data points to fine-tune their strategies.

6. Virtual events appeal to high-profile speakers

High-in-demand speakers are hard to pin down for an in-person event unless you offer something substantial in return. In fact, you may not be able to get a high-level executive even from your own company to speak at your in-person event, especially if they have to travel a lot. But in virtual events, there is no traveling involved. This feature makes virtual events more attractive to high-in-demand and C-level speakers.

7. Virtual events are much easier to scale than in-person events

In-person events can be scaled only to the extent of the capability of the venue. With virtual events, you have the option of using a videoconferencing app or a dedicated streaming service. As a result, virtual events are much easier (and faster) to scale to accommodate a large number of people at a fraction of the cost. And more people mean better reach and visibility.

8. Virtual events can keep pace with your offerings

If you are about to launch a new offering or make a significant announcement regarding your product, and you want it to be interactive, a virtual event can help. Now, you no longer have to wait to accumulate a large product pipeline and introduce all of them at once at an in-person event. Instead, you can make more frequent announcements via a virtual event.

9. Virtual events help you qualify leads more quickly

It is possible to integrate appointment calendars with virtual events, allowing you to follow-up with prospects, even as your events are running. In short, virtual events enable you to qualify leads more quickly and lead them down the sales funnel faster.

Running a virtual event is both easy and difficult at the same time. You not only have to come up with creative ideas to make your event attractive to your audience; you also have to find the right technology to ensure the event passes off smoothly. Here’s a post on the latest trends in event technology.

How good it would be if you had a platform to curate and engage with at least your speakers! But don’t give up yet because have some good news for you!

Speaker Engage is a fully-integrated, cloud-based platform designed by event organizers for event organizers that helps you curate and delight speakers & sponsors by streamlining the event planning and execution process. Sign up for a demo today!

The post Top 10 Reasons Why Marketers are Increasingly Taking to Virtual Events first appeared on SpeakerEngage Blog.

However, it is not easy to conduct and manage virtual events. It requires thorough planning and an investment of time and effort for its successful promotion and execution. Your event marketing strategy must be on point to provide participants with a terrific experience and ensure the event’s success.

Here are a few tips on how to promote a virtual event in a better way to meet all of your objectives.

A- Create an attractive landing page for the event

A landing page is where the users go to in order to learn everything about your event. Since the first impression has to be the best, the landing page you develop for your event must stand out with vital information presented appealingly. The landing page should give out the complete information regarding the event, with the registration link pushing visitors to join the event. The page should be detailed and attractive to draw the attention of the user. Some of the essential information that has to be added to the landing page are:

• Time
• Date
• Agenda
• Speaker information

• Sponsor information
• Registration link
• Payment option (if any)

B- Make use of existing database for email marketing

Email marketing is still the most effective marketing strategy to drive results. Send out email newsletters with a clear subject line to your target audience. Come up with an engaging email campaign and share valuable information to educate your audience about the event updates. The email should have complete information regarding the event. Make sure to hook your audience with exciting updates and offers, such as discounts and early-bird offers.

C- Leverage your social media channels

Promoting your event on social media platforms is one of the best ways to reach more people. And there are endless ways to do so. Understand your audience and their behavior patterns; this will help you come up with the perfect plan to market your campaigns. Craft distinctive, appealing social media posts to increase engagement and generate leads. Here are some ideas that you can follow:

• Spread the word by creating a hashtag.
• Share eye-catching images and videos optimized for each platform.
• Publicize the event’s unique selling points widely.

• Promote early bird offers and deadlines, driving urgency to boost registrations.
• Increase engagement by creatively introducing the host.

D- Boost promotions through your partners, sponsors, and speakers

Involving your speakers, partners, and sponsors in the promotion efforts of your event will help you gain exponential results. When the speakers promote your event on their social media channels with the relevant content and hashtag, it will help you get their audience to the event. And, when the sponsors and partners promote your online event, it reaches new audiences and has tremendous effects on the turn up. Encourage them to share the event’s details with their contacts and followers so that the word gets out. Sharing the registration links, social media page links, graphics, announcements, etc., is a step in the right direction.

E- Prepare attractive videos for promotion

We all love watching original video content. Videos are a crucial aspect of your event promotion strategy. Several studies explain that with a 2-minute video, you can hit the engagement jackpot. Thus, create a short video (no longer than 2 minutes) showcasing vital information regarding the event and share it on all social media channels and YouTube. Make it funny and engaging, and use your social media hashtag somewhere in the video.

Summary

Virtual events can seem tricky. However, with a proper and sound marketing plan, you can easily promote your event, which will help you drive as many participants as possible. Follow the ideas mentioned above and promote your event successfully.

If you are planning to organize and promote your virtual event, contact us. We will help you ease your task and guide you every step of the way.

YouTube description: Promoting a virtual events sound very tricky. But it doesn’t have to be. Watch this video to learn a few tips and tricks on how to promote your virtual event in the best way possible.

The post 5 Smart Tips to Top Your Virtual Event Marketing Strategy first appeared on SpeakerEngage Blog.

Online events are not going anywhere. A simple Google search will throw up many competing webinars, Q&As, and live streams for any topic under the sun. With a plethora of online events fighting for attention, it can be quite challenging to get people interested in your event.

So, if you are planning to shift your in-person event to an online event, how do you ensure that it receives the most attention? Here are a few things that you can do.

1. Set the right expectations

When you hold an in-person event, you have to be clear about your content to promote it adequately. These rules apply to online events as well. Setting expectations is a necessity to get what you want, the way you want it. Online events differ in their content, and your audience will want to know what they are signing up for before committing their time and money.

You can follow this logic when you send emails to your registrants as well. If you remind them why they were interested in attending the event, they are more likely to turn up for the event. Here are a few tips for boosting your webinar marketing strategy.

2. Encourage your speakers and employees to speak about the event

The more people talk about your event, the better the publicity. Requesting your speakers, employees, and other stakeholders (sponsors, co-branding partners) to talk about your event on their personal platforms, is an excellent way to get some free publicity for your event.

Start by sharing a link to the event with them. If you want to go further, share marketing collateral like posters, videos, and other content as a part of your virtual event’s marketing strategy. The latter’s advantage is, it will make them more likely to share your event with their audience. Here’s a post on how you can increase attendance at your virtual events.

3. Take advantage of co-branding opportunities

Co-branding is a strategic alliance of multiple brands for a single product (or service). It is a great way to enter new markets and boost awareness about what you are offering.

In co-branding, you partner with another brand or sponsor to create an event and inform your audience about the event together. It allows you to piggyback on your co-branding partner’s popularity. But you must ensure it is a partnership where all the parties are benefited.

4. Enter your event in an online event registry

An easy hack to increase your event’s visibility is to enter your event’s details on an online event registry. This is an excellent way to market smaller events or ones where you have a limited marketing budget.

Speaker Engage’s online event directory is a good place to start. It allows you to discover events by date, location, industry, and event type. It is a one-stop shop to find exciting events and webinars and you can also benefit from the co-branding opportunities it offers you. Click here to explore how you can scale up your event using virtual event marketing strategies and ideas.

5. Track the success of your marketing efforts

Management guru Peter Drucker says, ‘if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.’ If you are spending time or money arranging a virtual event, you will want to track its performance. This way, you can discover which of your marketing strategies are working and which are not.

There are many ways to track site visits and registrations. To measure site visits, you can use Google Analytics. To discover returns on social media marketing expenditure, you can use their propriety analytics platforms. To find out where the registrations are coming from, you can use UTM links.

6. Create a virtual event that people want to attend

The marketing of virtual events is similar to that of in-person events. But there are some key differences. For one, you can market a virtual event to a broader audience (even a global one). Secondly, the virtual event marketplace is very competitive, and you may have to vie with others to grab eyeballs.

Third, the goal of marketing in-person events is to get people to purchase tickets. For virtual events, the purpose of marketing are many, to get people to register for the event, to remind them to log in at the right time and to get them to follow a call to action after the event.

Finally, don’t forget, the goal of conducting a virtual event is to inform people about a product (or service). The way you pass this message along will largely determine the success of your event. Looking for ways to get more people to turn up at your event? Speaker Engage is your best partner for all online event planning and management tasks, with futuristic tools and online event management software.

Meanwhile, if you want to simplify how you manage and coordinate your events as an event manager, try Speaker Engage. Sign up for a demo today!

The post Top 6 Virtual Event Marketing Plans for a Successful Event first appeared on SpeakerEngage Blog.

The catch is, new technologies are always on the horizon, and it can be a challenge to keep track of what is relevant and what is not. Here are some useful trends in event management technology to increase ROI from your events.

1. Wearable tech

Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled smart badges and wristbands can help attendees extract more value from events. For example, wearable tech can be used to make cashless payments, gain exclusive access to different parts of an event, receive marketing collateral, and more.

Wearable tech can also control access to events, increase check-in speed, help to monitor attendees’ behavior, and improve security with fewer staff involvement. Note that, in exhibitions, not all the booths get the same footfalls. Event strategists can identify such stalls and take action to increase footfalls.

2. Facial recognition

Today, most high-footfall events require attendees to upload their photographs for registration. Here’s how it is done. When attendees are standing in queue to mark their presence at an event, their facial features are scanned using a particular reader. Matches lead to personalized actions, such as printing badges with the guest’s photo on them, transferring digital vouchers (for food), and swag bags to attendees.

Facial recognition can streamline guest touchpoints and generate data to enhance the quality of future events. It allows event planners to automate critical tasks, lower workforce requirements, and other miscellaneous costs.

3. Projection mapping

In projection mapping, videos are projected onto objects to deliver a spatial augmented reality experience. The items can range from buildings and theatrical stages to small indoor objects. When used strategically, projection mapping can create excitement around an event, leading to better engagement.

Projections needn’t be limited to videos – they can be any creative content – maps of the layouts, art displays, social media walls, and more. It can transform spaces without undertaking physical construction or deconstruction, giving event planners more bang for their buck.

4. Second screen

During some event segments, such as meetings and presentations, you can expect attendees to use their smartphones. It is called ‘second screen’ technology and can create engagement with attendees while enhancing your learning and understanding of their behavior through insights.

Attendees can use the second screen to follow presentations, take part in text-based Q&A sessions and quizzes, and even take notes. It also enables attendees to view tables, graphs, videos, social media pages, and websites. Second screen technology improves the attendees’ experience, keeping them attentive and engaged with events.

5. Indoor wayfinding

You might have used Google Maps for navigation at some time. Similarly, with indoor wayfinding, attendees navigate through the event venues. It works through Bluetooth beacons installed at strategic locations in event venues that transmit signals to mobile apps.

Indoor wayfinding has the potential to replace indoor signage, saving money event planners might otherwise invest in producing, shipping, and placing these signs. Attendees will also appreciate that they no longer have to ask people for directions. Another benefit is the opportunity to incorporate proximity advertising, delivering better event ROI to your sponsors.

6. RFID tracking

Radiofrequency identification uses radio waves (through a reader) to identify information stored on a tag that a person wears. Event planners can use RFID technology to identify attendees, streamline entry into venues, and prevent fraud. They can also use RFID to track attendee behavior and build their profiles for sending targeted messages.

The analytics you gain from RFID tracking can be used to improve events by tracking how popular an event was, how much time a guest spent in an exhibitor’s booth, and more. RFID also helps security staff do their job better, helping build trust.

7. Event planning software

Now that you have all the tech in place, the next task is to plan the event itself. And if you are going to have multiple speakers at your event, we know how difficult it can be to coordinate it all.

Speaker curation can become chaotic without proper planning. You have to find the right speakers, sort them into speaking slots, send reminders to confirm attendance, manage social media engagement, track engagement with attendees, maintain relevant files related to the event, and more. An event planning software can help streamline this process. Check out Speaker Engage to manage this aspect of your event.

8. Geofencing

Geofencing creates a virtual perimeter for marketing purposes by using location-based technology such as NFC, RFID, or apps. When the guest enters the geofence, it triggers pre-determined actions such as event check-ins, advertising, and push notifications.

Geofencing provides enhanced value to customers by introducing them to new deals, offers, and information they wouldn’t have known otherwise. It also delivers analytics to improve future events and deliver better ROI to sponsors.

The Covid-19 pandemic has necessitated a digital transformation, and event planners are struggling to find novel ways to conduct events. While virtual events have replaced location-based events, the change has come at social capital. The lost social capital can be regained by bringing in technology to recreate in-person experiences, relationships, and opportunities, crucial to making any event a success. Here’s what Chaitra Vedullapalli has to say about the digital transformation underway in the event industry.

Meanwhile, if you need assistance with managing and coordinating events with your speakers, consider giving Speaker Engage a shot. It eases the event planning process while removing the bottlenecks likely to crop up when you design an event with speakers. Sign up for a demo today!

The post 8 Event Technology Trends That Can Enhance the ROI of an Event first appeared on SpeakerEngage Blog.

Hosting virtual events is not as easy as sending out zoom invites. Hundreds of variables come into play – starting from participants being hesitant to attend a virtual event to ensuring access to all participants. Adding on, there are other variables that aren’t in the control of the event management team, such as laptops running out of charge, microphones and earphones being faulty, or even noise from the participant’s or speaker’s surroundings. Keeping this aside, it is imperative to digitally innovate every stage of the virtual event to provide your participants’ and speakers’ a seamless transition.

Before we transform every stage, let us delve into the event industry’s broader facets, and how to change them digitally with a thorough event planning.

1. USER EXPERIENCE

The success of a virtual event lies in the participant’s experience. One of the key objectives of an online event must garner as much attendance as possible.

Since the digital transition has been relatively new, people would still be skeptical about attending online events. There are people out there who aren’t as tech-savvy as the rest of us. The event must cater to their requirements as well and should focus on complete audience engagement.

Technology or tools used at every stage must be intuitive and straightforward enough for anyone to get through with minimal or zero assistance. This way, participants will trust you considering the effort put across to ensure their convenience.

The future of the event industry lies in technologies such as Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. It is time that the sector harnesses immersive experiences starting now. Incorporate immersive experience sessions to guide participants through the technology and its background – this way, you ensure your participants are ready for your future events.

Even though VR and AR have mainly been used for promotional purposes, the gaming industry have been involved in hosting all VR games for a while now. VR League is one such community that hosts championships for Esports. That’s right, all participants take part in the event in virtual reality. Few of the esports played at VR Leagues are Echo Arena, Onwards, Alyx, and so on. Grab a sneak peek into their fabulous world.

2. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND MACHINE LEARNING

Many speak about AI and ML taking over the world in the future. Well, news flash – it already has! AI and ML have made their way into every aspect of our day-to-day lives to collect data and learn from them. These codes are so advanced that they can predict our actions well before we know about them.

The event industry can tap into this data and make experiences more personalized. Taking feedback would be easier – deploy a chatbot to your attendees instead of them filling out forms. The data collected by the AI can help in crafting agendas and objectives for upcoming online events.

Deploying chatbots on your websites on landing pages or even on your Facebook page, and collect information when people interact with the chatbots. For instance, 42chat is one such chatbot that can be deployed real-time during your event or conference and have conversations with your attendees.

With that, let’s move on to digitally transforming events.

3. SMART EVENT PLANNING

With the whole world behind doors and looking out through their screens, teams must collaborate online.

Event experiences will be seamless for the participants if it is seamless for the team. Speaker Engage does just that. Event organizers can create, collaborate, and craft events seamlessly through Speaker Engage – an intuitive cloud-hosted event management platform. It has everything from speaker and sponsor management to communication to content curation to social media campaign tracker, and so much more. Using Speaker Engage can not only move your team online but do so with ease and poise. Adding to that, it can also save you loads of time. Speaker Engage can also store documents and contacts within it, by the way.

4. AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT

As mentioned before, User Experience plays a huge role in an event’s success. This is where programmatic advertising software comes in.

Programmatic advertising enables you to post ads with little or no human interaction. The software also allows event organizes to laser target their audience and advertise directly to them. With budget and ad-targeting algorithms, the software will recommend the best-performing sites to post ads – based on historical data, while eliminating unnecessary media spending.

While posting ads, take into consideration the engagement quotient of the ads. It must be designed to provoke action from the viewer. Predictive analysis and AI can help pinpoint the different types of interactions or engagements that work with your audience.

Adroll is one such software that collects data, analyses it and suggests better marketing decisions from targeting to placement to pointing out better performing ad copies.

Getting your event noticed has to do more than interactions and engagement. Take a look at how you can get your event noticed.

5. SENDING OUT INVITES

E-invites go from e-mail marketing to filling forms to automated curated experiences. From filling out registration details to uploading pictures and downloading the event schedule – all of it needs to go online. Preferably on a single platform that is easy to use and share.

At the invite stage, it is most crucial to establishing trust with your participants. The more comfortable and more user-friendly the invite and the following registration process is, the more they would want to attend more of your online events.

Along with the invite, share a few videos or talks that are either educational or fun – your call. The aim is to keep them entertained and engaged. Speaker Engage has a few in-built templates to send out as invites to your potential attendees.

6. LIVE AT THE EVENT

Once an event goes live, the need of the hour is to keep them entertained and engaged. Agendas must be charted out to ensure the same.

Technologies are available that can track a person’s body language and eye movement to calculate their interest. Collecting this data would allow event organizers to customize their events further.

While moving events online, interactions must also be moved online. Online chatrooms and lounges must be incorporated to keep your attendees mingling and socializing with each other. It is here that you can experiment with AR and VR tech – guiding your attendees through the experience to ensure zero hand-holding in the next similar experience. These experiences can be improved and scaled, as suggested by your AI through the chatbots that collect feedback.

Airmeet, a virtual event hosting platform, allows attendees to be seated(virtually) in a lounge and interact with other attendees. The speakers and event organizers can congregate in a separate backstage area and they can also visit the lounge to interact with their attendees.

7. AFTER-EVENT EXPERIENCES

Even with offline events, there were always after parties – so why not have it online? Organize a simple catch-up session after your events, host an online concert, or even a movie screening. These after-event social experiences grant the attendees a peek into what they may expect from the next event you organize.

Always make sure you take feedback from the attendees. Conduct surveys that can help you tweak and improve on your attendees’ event experience.

With all that said and done, the future of the event industry is banking on hybrid events. With several countries lifting restrictions, people can attend events in small numbers. At the same time, events must also be run online for the rest of the participants to attend. This hybrid model ensures that your events have high attendance and reaches people across the globe.

With rampant digital transformation, event organizers have to adapt and evolve at every stage to dish out better user experiences for their attendees.

The post Top 7 Event Strategies to Leverage Digital Transformation and Enhanced Audience Engagement first appeared on SpeakerEngage Blog.

Yes, it doesn’t sound as exciting as going to an actual event where the opportunity for networking is huge and the chance of signing up your next lead is really high. In case of a virtual event, however, you might be talking to someone who is in their pajamas and who is unsure of how online business networking works.

Love it or hate it, virtual events are here to stay. The huge savings in cost notwithstanding, marketing agencies have come up with solutions to all the problems described above.

With some clever tweaking of already existing platforms, virtual events can be hosted now with a virtual backstage, a virtual networking session, and even a virtual Q&A session.

Necessity, indeed, is the mother of all inventions.

Unwilling to let go of crucial market share, companies are now leveraging virtual events in a big way to promote business and generate new leads.

Are you still on the fence? Well, you’ll find yourself in sparse company.

Even technology giants like Microsoft and Cisco have jumped onto the virtual event bandwagon.

Worried About Leads?

If you already have a well-established marketing strategy, you have everything you need to host or attend a conference. But now that the game has gone online, some rules of the game have indeed changed.

One of the most important questions that will no doubt pop up in your head is “How do you advertise your virtual event?”

Yes, you can go the traditional route and create fancy ads and promote on social media. But wouldn’t you rather advertise it on a platform where you’re more or less guaranteed to get registrations?

A platform like the Speaker Engage Event Directory perhaps?

Speaker Engage has been deeply involved in all stages of event management for a while now. Our marquee software is the go-to resource for event organizers who want to conduct events at scale without the stress to match.

One of the things we noticed was that people were really clueless about how to drive registrations for their events.

To solve this problem, we came up with a simple listings page here.

It may look simple, but the power of a good listing is well-known to most marketers. Getting your event listed on well-established platforms like the Speaker Engage Event Directory can make or break your whole planning.

The “How To”

Before you list your event here, make sure your registration page is live and prepared to handle the traffic.

1. 1. Head over to https://speakerengage.com/event-directory/

You will be greeted with a long list of upcoming industry events. As you can see, bigwigs in the tech industry have their events listed on our page.

1. At the top of the page, click on “Submit Your Event.”
2. In the “Submit Your Event” page, fill out your event details. Ensure you have a catchy 250-word event description on hand. Think carefully about the industry your event is catering to and select accordingly. In the Event Type dropdown, select In-Person or Virtual. Most importantly, enter the correct event registration URL. This is what people will use to register for your event from the Event Directory page

Once you’ve successfully submitted your event, our moderator will reach out to you if we need any clarification.

And just like that, your event is now listed on a high-traffic, spam-free, niche-relevant website!

Of course, you can even list In-Person events on the Event Directory, but we don’t think those are gonna take place any time soon. Until then, hosting virtual events is the way to go, and getting your virtual event listed is crucial to its success.

Submit your event today!

The post A Brilliant Event Planning Technology to Get Your Virtual Event Noticed first appeared on SpeakerEngage Blog.

You turn to The Meeting Pool because they look like they know what they’re talking about.

The Meeting Pool is a dedicated platform for all things tech in the event industry. It’s a gigantic repository of the most updated tech news, an educative tool for all your tech-related queries.

So how does it work and what’s so special about it?

Simplification of Everything Complicated

The Meeting Pool has hundreds of articles on technology; this has already been said. They are neatly categorized into Apps, Business, Event Industry, Social Media, and Tech.

How is this helpful? As anyone in the tech industry will know, event tech comes in all shapes and sizes. You can categorize your requirements and localize your search with these sub-tabs, which allows you to narrow down on the solution to a specific problem without much hassle. If you’re a casual searcher whose dream of running an event is somewhere far down the line, an article like “Top Ten Apps For Keeping a To Do List” will come in real handy.

Customizable TECHBars

A unique offering from The Meeting Pool is its TECHBar, fully customizable – and comfortable – tech lounges for events. This “interactive and approachable spot” is staffed by the company’s subject matter experts on a variety of topics tailored to a variety of audiences. It also allows the audience/participants to use it as a catch-up space to have quick one-on-one meetings or to check their emails.

The added advantage, of course, is the full-time availability of their SMEs to answer tech-related questions. If any of your attendees feel that they need help with the event app, The Meeting Pool SMEs will also walk them through it, helping them experience your event to its fullest.

Event Tech Directory

Now we did say that The Meeting Pool was all about tech in the event space. Their Event Tech Directory proves it.

It acts as a meeting ground for tech companies and event companies by helping the former to list their technology while helping the latter to discover it.

The ‘Discover Tech Companies’ option helps event organizers to find their most appropriate tech supplier to ensure that you depend on the best tools for your event. As a tech company, you get the option to list your tech for that event organizer out there who really needs it.

And thus, a partnership is formed.

Another added advantage? You get to promote your event through The Meeting Pool, ensuring a much wider reach for it.

Industry Resources

The Meeting Pool is a pool of knowledge as well. It has a vast repository of whitepapers, infographics, and ebooks from events they have supported.

Event Industry Calendar

What better way for an event enthusiast to stay on top of what’s happening in the industry than a calendar that spans across verticals? That’s what the Event Industry Calendar does. For those who plan, organize, and attend events, this is the perfect place to know what’s what and where’s what.

Advertising Options

Remember when we said you can advertise with The Meeting Pool a couple of paragraphs ago? They have multiple options for this. For starters, the Event Directory Listing is free. You also have the option to upgrade your listing for better exposure.

The other advertising options are:

• Display advertising: through banner ad positions
• Content: by featuring your whitepapers, ebooks, and infographics on the platform
• Contests: like custom interactive campaigns on social media
• Newsletters: by being featured on their weekly newsletter

Ready to Dive Into the Pool?

So there you have it. The long and short of how The Meeting Pool can be your perfect accomplice in event management. The way we see it, they add a unique value to the whole idea by offering a whole lot of stuff, all in one place.

The post The Meeting Pool: A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place first appeared on SpeakerEngage Blog.

We did it to create access for strategic opportunities that are available when they can engage with speakers, sponsors, and their community. We are so excited to get a stellar review we got from the folks over at Event Manager Blog (Event MB) here.

In case you haven’t heard of ‘em — unlikely if you’ve been in the event organizing scene for long enough — Event MB is the “go-to online resource for Trends, Technology, Innovation and Education for the event industry.”

Over the years, Event MB has published numerous reports that have since become industry-standards with around 120,000 downloads! So head on over to their site and download some of their awesome FREE content like Social Media for Events or Engaging Events.

You work for months on organizing your event with a fear of failure gnawing at your insides. Event planners, managers, and strategists around the world are all too familiar with this emotion. That’s exactly how we felt too while we were building the Speaker Engage software. But the joy of seeing the final product in action and being well-received more than makes up for it.

It’s Worth It

Speaker Engage is a fully-integrated, cloud-based platform, designed by event organizers for event organizers. Our aim was to pitch a solution to event organizers who want to curate and delight speakers and sponsors with engaging communications, content, and logistics to remove the chaos from event planning and execution.

And so far, it looks like we have figured out a way to help you get your job well done!

Let’s face it, organizing a mega event with a thousand moving parts is a nightmare!

A nightmare none of us are ready to face without a robust toolset at their disposal. Something like a Swiss Army Knife perhaps. Yup, that’s what Speaker Engage is for event planners and organizers.

And here are the pros of this Swiss Army Knife according to Event MB:

• Centralized platform including speaker, sponsor, resource, and agenda management
• Allows for multi-event management
• Simple interface with real-time dashboards for managing speakers, talent and sponsors
• Facilitates time-saving micro-actions
• API integration capabilities
• Email communications to speakers and sponsors
• Influencer classification
• Compliant with GDPR and PII policies

If your eyes just lit up, and you’re wondering why you haven’t already signed up, head over here and claim your free 100-day trial.

Here’s What You Get For Free

With Speaker Engage’s robust curation platform and real-time dashboard, event planning and execution become seamless. Instead of relying on disjointed emails, spreadsheets, and texts, stakeholders can create and centrally manage ongoing communication to build valuable connections, authentic partnerships, and collaborate to bring great ideas to life.

Did someone say “AI?”

Yes, we have that too. And not just as a buzzword. Our automated workflow that takes care of speaker curation, schedule management, and several other awesome features is powered by an intuitive and continuously learning AI system.

With a centralized content management system, organizers can now reinvent their communication strategy supported by AI to automatically optimize productivity.

What really sets Speaker Engage apart is that as event organizers, we’ve built a platform to cater specifically to the daily needs of planning and orchestrating events. Our AI-enabled platform helps with:

• Speaker and Sponsor Community Management
• Automated Workflows
• Agenda and Session Management
• Master List Management
• Event-related Resource Management
• Social Buzz Automation
• Multi-event Analytics and Management
• Email Automation and Tracking
• Social Media campaign planning & execution (shhh.. It’s coming soon too)

Re-organize How You Organize Events

Yes, we know, AI-enabled this, AI-powered that. If you want a human touch, reach out to our product experts and schedule a demo here. Say No to excel sheets!

We will take you through all the features included in this power-packed software. Hope you don’t mind lengthy demos cause we’ve got a lot to cover.

The post Speaker Engage Featured on Event Manager Blog! first appeared on SpeakerEngage Blog.