Actual article date: Sep 19, 2014

The Digital Edge for Events, Part 1

In the next couple of articles, we explore the theme of The Digital Edge for Events. From choosing strategic event tech partners to managing your event’s big data and more, we show you how to capitalise on digital tools, giving you an edge over others in the events industry.

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Strategic Partners or Event Tech Vendors?

Website development, registration systems, business matching applications, Q&A and polling platforms are just a few examples of the different technologies organisers use in event planning to enhance attendees’ satisfaction. With such a huge variety and choices in the market these days, the choosing process becomes increasingly complex. Managing all these different event technology may become especially problematic if one does not have the technical know-how to understand how it works, or to coordinate all the solutions seamlessly. Event organisers want to use a long term solution that works so that they can continue to use it for their other events. Therein lies several questions; how do you decide which event technologies to use? Would you rather build something yourself or work with a technology provider? How are you going to maximise the use of this technology solution? And most importantly, what is the ROI for adopting these technologies?

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That’s where strategic partnerships come in.

Instead of simply focusing on an event tech’s functionality, event organisers need to look out for several other aspects from the provider as well. Requirements for support and understanding from tech partners is highly essential as the events industry becomes loaded with more and more complicated technologies. A vendor that empathises with your business objectives and develops a plan WITH YOU is definitely a partner to keep.

There are several things one should look out for which would help to determine if someone is a mere vendor or a strategic partner.

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Develops the Plan With YOU

As mentioned earlier, do they aim to understand your business objectives and genuinely strive to help you reach them? Are they simply trying to sell you their product, or helping you achieve more by using it? Having a vendor that first sits down, hears you out, and then develops a plan with you, would be able to best fit their solution and craft a much better win-win situation.

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Support and Commitment

One vital point is the degree and kind of support they offer, such as pre-event training of your on-site team on how to use the tech available, and their flexibility in dealing with your queries and needs. The company should be committed to helping you and constantly putting in effort into maintaining and bettering the relationship.

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Competency

Are they a well-known player in the market and do they deliver? Check out their case studies, reviews and recommendations from other event planners. Obtaining some statistics would be a good way to evaluate too. For example, what is their event tech adoption rate as compared to the industry’s average? These are some of the best ways to gauge the company’s competency.

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Digestible Analytics

A survey by specialist recruitment firm Robert Half polled 800+ CTOs from a range of industries and revealed that data mining occurs very often — at 96% in Singapore, 90% in the UK and 70% in Australia, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Germany and Japan. Also, data collected is used by a large 42% of Singapore companies when making business decisions. However, there are inadequacies of data mining.

Some companies have too much data, or lack skilled professionals to help understand it. Therefore, an organiser should look out for a strategic partner that helps you understand and gain valuable insights from data collected. Metrics for measurements should be clear and concise. Are there tools that help to provide not just a whole chunk of data, but frames the numbers in an easily digestible way? Not all of us analyze data on a regular basis! Therefore, information provided should be easy to grasp and use.

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Innovation and Integration with Other Tech

Another important aspect is its ability to integrate with other tools, platforms and event tech, ensuring that everything connects seamlessly. You would not want to keep accessing and crossing from one platform to another! Its emphasis on innovation and user experience is vital too. They should be striving to better the experience of your attendees through constant improvements on their product. Are they developing their products to fit with the next wave of new data technologies?

To maximise your ROI, focus not just on the capabilities of the product but also, keep in mind to search for strategic partners instead of mere vendors. This way, everyone grows together.

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