by admin | May 26, 2021 | Event Industry, Tech, Trends, Virtual Events
Video conferences, business networks, and community activities are becoming increasingly popular with each passing day. According to Global Market Insight, the video conferencing market reached USD 14 billion in 2019 and is expected to increase at a CAGR of more than 19 percent between 2020 and 2026. But as these meeting methods scale new heights, the process of selecting the speakers and sending invitations is becoming increasingly complex.
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.
by admin | Mar 23, 2021 | Marketing, Tech, Virtual Events
Achieving your virtual event’s goals can be defined as success. But how do you get to know if your event achieved the event’s goals? How do you calculate the return on investment (ROI) of your event, which will help you learn whether your event produced the results you anticipated or not?
Curious?
Speaker Engage team hosted a webinar on the planning and realization of Return on Investment (ROI) for virtual event. The group of experts – Chaitra Vedullapalli, Erin Northern, Raisa Noelle, Samira Rehman – went to great lengths to clarify the intricacies of ROI and its advantages.
The committee addressed their most recent event, the WiC Digital Summit 2021, to explain how they used the best practices to achieve a positive outcome.
Deeper into the discussion, the panellists discussed the attendee’s perspective and what they expect from an online event or webinar. The experts explained their efforts on producing high-quality content, as the content is the lifeblood (ROI) of every successful event.
Key Takeaways
- Enabling Value: Value addition is something that all virtual event attendees search for. If the event adds value to their time spent, they will likely attend the company’s other activities.
- Platform selection: The webinar addressed the proper platform selection process, where it was unanimously agreed that creating an inviting environment where all attendees feel comfortable and engaged is critical. The platform is significant for customer engagement and is a strong return on investment (ROI).
- Social media: Social media is at the forefront of today’s marketing environment. Creating sharable social media posts were critical. The advantages and disadvantages of social media was discussed in depth as it is one of the locations where the event is advertised. Social media is expanding the event’s reach and assisting in achieving a strong Return on Investment (ROI).
- Event layout and formation: If the event organizers focus on their proper event channelling and formation, they can gain good return (ROI) and a successful event.
- Event’s timing: Choosing the right time will help you calculate your event’s ROI more efficiently. The event should not be held prior to lunchtime, too early in the morning, or too late at night.
There were several issues that the panel discussed and clarified on how to efficiently deal with them using the proper approach. The primary aim of the webinar was to assist event planners in finding their event’s blind spot and figuring out how to get out of it as easily as possible.
Speaker Engage and Speaker Management
The panel discussed on how speaker management plays a crucial role in the success of any virtual event. The reach of the event will soar to new heights if the coordinator chooses a well-informed and accomplished speaker for his/her event. A speaker who is going to address the event can advertise the event from his/her social media and entice more participation, which would help the event.
Speaker Engage, as a platform as well as a communication tool, helped the event facilitator organize their event quickly and efficiently. To make an organizer’s life more straightforward, the platform serves all on one plate. With its robust marketing features like bulk emailing and social media promotion, the Speaker Engage minimized event coordinators’ efforts in its publicity.
The webinar was more than just a meeting of prominent voices; it also implemented a game-changing concept for the event planning and organising environment. The panellists shared their perspectives, which are vital to any event’s performance when it comes to producing a healthy Return on Investment (ROI).
Watch the full webinar to get deeper understanding.
by admin | Feb 12, 2021 | Marketing, Tech, Virtual Events
We are happy to announce that the Speaker Engage™ Web App is now available on AppSumo as an exclusive one-year deal.
For a limited time only, you can purchase an all-inclusive one-year subscription of Speaker Engage™, for just $99 (regular price $3,995). Here’s the AppSumo link to the offer.
Don’t miss this opportunity to experience one of the best event planning and execution application on the internet that has advanced features such as content curation, content management and communication management with speakers and sponsors.
Also included are features such as agenda management, social media content management, dashboards, and more. Here’s a sneak peek into the offer.
What is Speaker Engage™?
Speaker Engage™ is a cloud-based event platform to minimize manual tasks and automate workflows throughout the event planning process, particularly around engaging speakers and event talent. It consolidates event planning tasks, speaker and sponsor curation, and communications in one place. It is designed to enable micro-actions that planners can perform efficiently and quickly.
Why you need Speaker Engage™
- Curate all your speakers from one place
Speaker Engage™ is an organizational tool that allows planners to manage their speakers, sponsors, and event resources in one place. It is a fully integrated, cloud-enabled platform that can help event organizers and planners centralize their event planning and execution to perfection, reducing time wastage by 40% and turning them into rock stars.
- Organize your content through dashboards
Speaker Engage™ includes speaker, sponsor, and master dashboards to view data that you’ve collected in each of these categories at a glance. It also assists with the process of soliciting, selecting, and managing speakers and sponsors.
- Manage content using action and resource trackers
Speaker Engage™ comes with action and resource tracker functions enabling planners to view their to-do lists and incorporate all relevant event documents within the platform. Communications with all speakers and sponsors can be managed through the platform. The system is also compliant with major data security regulations, including GDPR and PII.
Don’t forget, Speaker Engage™ takes the chaos out of planning and executing. Here’s a list of features included in the AppSumo offer.
About Speaker Engage™
Speaker Engage™ allows planners keep track of various aspects of speaker and sponsor coordination in one place. The app also comes with functionalities like email marketing and agenda management. It aims to save planners time on day-to-day tasks by facilitating micro-actions, while allowing for efficient workflows within a team.
We hope you will enjoy this offer as much as we loved giving it to you. See you on the other side!
by admin | Jan 7, 2021 | Marketing, Tech, Virtual Events
An efficient event management software is an ideal friend for all event planners. A couple of years ago, most events were physical, and there was no room for virtual ones in most cases.
Right from planning to execution, every bit of this process used to be manually done, and hence it cannot assure you an error-free organization. COVID-19 had fastened digitization of vertices in general. People and organizations are searching for efficient event management tools that can save time, keep them organized, and take care of even the minutest of details.
Now that the scenario has changed completely, plenty of event planning and marketing software is available in the market. There are platforms with customizable properties enabling us to design and plan our event as per our specifications. And the challenge is to identify and choose the right software that satisfies our requirements in the best possible way.
Let us take a look at the top six event management & planning software available in the market.
Aventri
Aventri is an ideal event management software for any event planner or marketer managing anything from small staff meetings to huge conferences. This software is very flexible. It can power virtual, hybrid, and in-person events efficiently. So far, it has successfully delivered over three lakh events and is recognized as one of the top event management software of 2020.
Aventri has elaborate features with all the critical elements needed for seamless event planning and execution with minimal effort. Each specific component has multiple subdivisions, making it the go-to platform for all kinds of events.
Speaker Engage
Uncomplicate event management with Speaker Engage. As a fully integrated, cloud-based platform Speaker Engage helps event planners find and engage speakers and sponsors with engaging communications, content, and logistics to remove the chaos from event planning and execution. The platform offers solutions to event organizing challenges using its intuitive and well-thought-out functionalities.
Speaker Engage is designed and built as a platform to cater to the daily needs of planning and orchestrating events. Through an automated workflow and dashboards, you gain seamless communication that increases your productivity. Creating and centrally managing ongoing interaction with this robust curation platform will help you build valuable relationships, genuine partnerships, and collaborations that bring great ideas to life.
Speaker Engage is the right partner to manage your virtual event flawlessly and seamlessly. The software can be used as your event planner, and its in-built functionalities can ensure smooth communication between your speakers and sponsors. It lets you keep track of the many aspects needed to coordinate the speakers and sponsors in one place. While it includes various functionalities like email marketing and agenda management, seamless and effortless communication, and assured data security, centralized content management forms the platform’s backbone.
Eventsquid
Eventsquid is one of the popular event management platforms that can take care of virtual events that are ideal for operating any event during the global pandemic where a physical gathering is impossible. It has a simple UI which makes it a user-friendly software for both hosts and attendees. Eventsquid is featured in the top 20 event management software of 2020 and is the best ease of use event management software of 2020.
The software features of Eventsquid include registration, event booking, event management, and meeting. All the mentioned features have sub-sections that facilitate hassle-free event planning, even for first-time users. An event manager can plan and organize multiple events within the platform. It is a paid platform, and they do not have a free version, yet a free demo is available.
Eventbrite
Eventbrite is a robust event planning software with a range of personalized tools. An event planner can use it to organize all kinds of events in a jiffy. Users are given an option to enhance their events by actively encouraging them to think ahead and schedule critical tasks and dependencies.
Eventbrite does not charge for free activities, whether small or massive. The platform provides a comprehensive range of tools and features that make it effortless for anyone familiar with basic computer knowledge to develop, promote, and manage their events.
The platform helps users plan and organize every detail, including promotional activities, before the event. Eventbrite allows the organizer to create and share event promotion and activities on different social media platforms. They can also take care of real-time tracking of all the events integrated with other websites with ease. These activities are managed through a single dashboard, which provides all of the event’s associated updates.
Whova
Whova is a simple yet powerful mobile event app backed by advanced technologies to improve the overall experience. They have separate apps for networking and event management systems, respectively. The Whova app brings intelligent networking to all the events, and the Event Management System brings the mastery of your event app to your fingertips.
This award-winning mobile event app’s Event Management System provides seamless data importation from Eventbrite and other registration systems, comprehensive scheduling and management, and personalized event logistics insights along with exciting add-ons such as sponsorship listings and file sharing.
Whova enables your event to look classy and trendy with cutting-edge technologies of event management. Organizers get to engage the attendees with an immersive event experience.
Boomset
Boomset is the perfect platform to create a virtual or hybrid event experience. It has a web and mobile platform for easy ticketing sales, live streaming and pre-recorded sessions, live chat, private Q&A, etc. It is a trusted and popular event management platform amongst event planners, marketers, event and marketing agencies, IT departments, HR professionals, and many more for end-to-end live and virtual event solutions.
The dashboard with an elaborate subcategory for virtual events makes it a perfect event management platform in the current scenario. Boomset can complete your registration process smoothly and seamlessly for attendees. It has a few interesting extra functionalities, like asking custom questions at check-ins, making every registration personnel’s job much easier.
Now that we have shared a comprehensive list of event management platforms and apps convenient for events of different nature, the event’s success lies in planning with the help of an ideal platform that suits your demands.
by admin | Jan 7, 2021 | Marketing, Tech, Virtual Events
Achieving your virtual event’s goals can be defined as success. But how do you get to know if your event achieved the event’s goals? How do you calculate the Return on Investment (ROI) of your event, which will help you understand whether your event produced the results you anticipated or not?
Curious?
Speaker Engage team hosted a webinar on the planning and realization of Return on Investment (ROI) for the virtual event. The group of experts – Chaitra Vedullapalli, Erin Northern, Raisa Noelle, Samira Rehman – went to great lengths to clarify the intricacies of ROI and its advantages.
The committee discussed their most recent event, the WiC Digital Summit 2021, to explain how they used the best practices to achieve a positive outcome.
Deeper into the discussion, the panelists explored the attendee’s perspective and what they expect from an online event or webinar. The experts explained their efforts to produce high-quality content, as the content is the lifeblood of every successful event. The better your content is, the higher will be your ROI.
Key Takeaways
- Enabling Value: Value addition is something that all virtual event attendees search for. If the event adds value to their time spent, they will likely attend the company’s other activities.
- Platform selection: The webinar addressed the proper platform selection process, where it was unanimously agreed that creating an inviting environment where all attendees feel comfortable and engaged is critical. The platform plays a significant role in customer engagement and helps gain a strong return on investment (ROI).
- Social media: Social media is at the forefront of today’s marketing environment. Creating sharable social media posts is critical for every event. The advantages and disadvantages of social media were discussed in-depth.
- Event layout and formation: If the event organizers focus on proper event channeling and formation, they can gain good returns (ROI) and a successful event.
- Event’s timing: Choosing the right time will help you gain more attendees and ensure a smooth run of your event. The event should not be held before lunchtime, too early in the morning, or too late at night.
There were several issues that the panel discussed and clarified how to resolve them using the proper approach efficiently. The primary aim of the webinar was to assist event planners in finding their event’s blind spot and figuring out how to get it fixed as quickly as possible.
Speaker Engage and Speaker Management
The panel discussed how speaker management plays a crucial role in the success of any virtual event. The event’s reach will soar to new heights if the coordinator chooses a well-informed and accomplished speaker for the event. A speaker who will address the event can advertise the event from their social media and entice more participation, which would help the event.
As an event management SaaS, Speaker Engage helps the event facilitator organize their event quickly and efficiently. To make an organizer’s life more straightforward, the platform serves all on one plate. With its robust marketing features like bulk emailing and social media promotion, the Speaker Engage minimized event coordinators’ efforts in its publicity.
The webinar was more than just meeting prominent voices; it also introduced game-changing strategies for the event planning and organizing community. The panelists shared their perspectives, which are vital to any event’s performance when producing a healthy Return on Investment (ROI).
Watch the entire webinar to get a more profound understanding.
YouTube description:
Excerpts From a Webinar on Understanding ROI Planning and Realization for Successful Virtual Events
A webinar is not just an informative event. It is also an excellent opportunity to advertise your company to potential customers. This can only happen if the audience takes away something substantial from the webinar, or there is a danger that it will be like any other webinar. Watch this video to learn the key takeaways from a webinar on how to host more informative and value-driven webinars hosted by SpeakerEngage.
#ROIplanningandrealization #eventmanagementSaaS #eventplanningandorganizing
Watch the entire webinar to get a better understanding.
by admin | Dec 24, 2020 | Event Industry, Marketing, Tech, Virtual Events
There was a time when it was understood that ‘events’ meant ‘in-person’ events. But not anymore. Marketing has changed a lot from the last year or so. One major development is virtual events have taken center stage in marketers’ priorities.
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!
