Actual article date: Jan 23, 2016

Ever thought of meeting your event technologies providers with better knowledge of what is going to be discussed? The follow technical jargons will help you navigate and breakdown an event technology better to suit your individual needs.

1. API

We have spoken to numerous event planners who still do not fully understand what an API is. To set things straight, API stands for “Application Program Interface”. In layman’s terms, an API is an agreement between two systems stating: “If you give me this instruction, I will perform this action, or return this information”. It is a list of commands a program can send to each other; simple as that.

But that’s not all. Having a robust API is required for seamless integration between systems. A robust and stable API system will be able to do CRUD: “Create, Read, Update, Delete” on the required data and is able to handle capacity or scale. Do ask your event technology provider to show you case studies.

Some providers would already have public APIs which are free to use (for example, Eventbrite). Personally, I believe that public APIs should be a standard for event tech as it is already the standard in the faster moving technology sphere (Think, Google, Facebook, Baidu. All these companies are already providing really good APIs with excellent documentation). Be skeptical when a provider charges you a “consultation fee” just for them to provision an API for your event.

Lastly, integrating 2 systems does not mean that both system requires APIs. For example, at Jublia, when we integrate with registration systems, we use the registration system’s API. Not the other way round.

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2. Adoption rate

You might be familiar with download rates as “adoption rate” but keep in mind that every person might potentially use more than 1 device to download the app, or download multiple times if they deleted it. A better gauge might be to track unique downloads; this means if an attendee downloaded the app twice, it’s counted as 1 download.

Of course, the above is just 1 metric. There are numerous metrics that you can base your judgement upon. Keep in mind though, a metric that works for a event technology may not work on a different event technology. If you are specific and proficient enough, you should zoom into setting the relevant metrics for different features within an event tech.

Simply said, be entirely clear about your KPIs and based on them, set your standards of “adoption rate” of the event technology.

Last but not least, avoid vanity metrics. Vanity metrics are numbers that look good on paper, but creates zero business value for your event. For example, how would number of app downloads impact your event? A better gauge will be how many event attendees used the app actively to find what they are looking for and if they actually find it, you know that experience will bump up the satisfaction index of the event.

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3. SaaS

SaaS means “Software as a Service” where the software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted by the vendor. SaaS products give you direct control on editing the software’s content. Typically, SaaS solutions have a short lead time to launch as the software is already built and tested. Furthermore, SaaS solutions are typically maintained by the vendor at no additional cost to you and therefore, you will see SaaS evolving to get better over time. SaaS solutions may be limited in add-on features that falls outside of what is being provided. Companies providing SaaS will most likely bill you extras if you require the provider to manage the system for you (unless specified otherwise).

Do not mix up SaaS providers with development agencies. Development agencies typically build apps to your specifications from ground up and you are billed for the features you desire. You will not see any improvements on apps from development agencies unless you pay to further maintain your app.

The most important point that you will want to look out for between a SaaS and a development agency at the end of the day will be performance.

SaaS typically generates much more data (from all the events they work with) and is therefore in the best position to build a solution that end users want and not something the event planner thinks the end users wants, resulting in the best performance for your event. Having said that, the quality of the SaaS also depends on the people developing it.

Jublia is considered a “managed SaaS”. We use our data to advise you and help you design and setup the best networking tool as a SaaS for your event (at zero extra cost).

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I hope the above clarifies the terminologies for you! Let me know if you have any further questions or extra jargons that I haven’t yet covered and I will be glad to answer them.