Article actual date: May 6, 2021

The Meeting, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) industry was one of the many global markets that took a drastic hit due to Covid-19. PCMA’s survey findings showed that approximately 87% of events had to be cancelled during the early stages of the pandemic [1]. Events at one point had to be fully virtual, meaning attendees had to attend an event online via their laptops or mobile devices. For an industry that thrives on human-to-human interaction, the pandemic has certainly imposed an unprecedented imperative to rethink events with social distancing measures in place, one arm’s length at a time.

Informa states that 2021 is most likely to be the year for the return of physical events, as COVID-19 vaccines ignite recovery in consumer confidence [2]. However, as we enter the second quarter of the year, the road to recovery seems to have hit a plateau. Anticipation for the return of full-fledged physical events is running high, with audience interest and engagement on virtual platforms cited as the predominant limiting factor faced by event organisers alike [3]. As physical events gradually transition their way back into our lives, where do hybrid events stand in our industry’s future?

Hybrid Events, a Next-Generation Event Model

Combining both physical and virtual elements, a hybrid event takes place on-site with a limited number of attendees present, alongside others who participate remotely through a virtual platform. Early hybrid events saw simpler, one-dimensional formats. Apple, for example, adopted the hybrid model in 2019, in which CEO Tim Cook took the stage at the Steve Jobs Theatre to present to a live audience of over 1000 physical participants, with over 2 million attendees online.

Fast forward to 2021. The pandemic has revolutionised hybrid events, paying greater attention towards garnering total user engagement. Virtual and on-site presenters can now connect and engage with audiences in two-way interactions, through features such as live chats and Q&A sessions. On and offline attendees are able to interact and socialise as well, with smart business matching capabilities becoming an integral part of event technology platforms.

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Piloting Hybrid Events in Singapore

The Event Industry Resilience Roadmap (IRR) recognises hybridisation as the new normal, acknowledging the model’s potential as an avenue for monetisation. With future-proof planning and support from the Singapore Association of Convention & Exhibition Organisers & Suppliers (SACEOS), we were able to witness hybrid events taking flight from local grounds.

Geo Connect Asia (GCA) 2021 was Singapore’s first large-scale hybrid event that took place this year. The two-day event hosted close to 1000 physical attendees and over 1000 delegates across the globe attended online. The GCA was among one of the first few trade shows to trial the physical-virtual event model in Singapore, setting an optimistic precedent for a paradigm shift towards hybridisation.

Similarly, the PCMA Convening Leaders 2021 (CL21) showcased Singapore’s capacity to host successful hybrid events. The event was held at the industry’s first hybrid event broadcast studio located in Marina Bay Sands, where it hosted 300 attendees while broadcasting live content to 3000 virtual attendees worldwide. By employing the means of a virtual platform, CL21 was able to ensure the longevity of their event — attendees now had post-event access to content and sessions on demand, from the convenience of their desktop or mobile platforms.
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The Future of Hybrid Events

As hybrid events continue to shine bright in Singapore’s MICE industry, a survey conducted by Singapore Tourism Board indicated that 91% of event organizers were keen to incorporate the new model into their events.

The rising trend of having both on and offline event platforms then raises an important question — are hybrid events a mere stepping stone for the return of physical events, or are they in a league of their own?

With countries around the world ready to take their next steps into recovery mode, physical events are making an aggressive return to the scene [5]. However, the hybrid event model stands strong, allowing event organisers to reap the benefits of both on and offline event formats. Furthermore, with advancements in the event technology industry, problems such as low rates of engagement are being bridged by incorporating engagement solutions into virtual event platforms. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the industry’s need to remain versatile and adaptable against the ever-changing challenges posed by the global landscape. While the hybrid event model is not without its flaws, it has proven to be the sustainable option for event organisers in times of crisis. The future is now, and hybrid is here to stay.

Do you think that hybrid can be the new normal? Talk to us at info@jublia.com or reach out to anyone you know at Jublia!

Overview

There has been a noticeable increase in the number of Virtual events at present. Organizers are finally done playing the waiting game. For many, this is a last hurrah to revive their event business from the dry spell of past months. While the whole world is waiting on bated breath for Live events to come back stronger than ever, the data shows us that they would have a better chance hoping for a format that will be slightly different. Hybrid.

What are Hybrid events? They are events that host both Virtual and Live attendees under a unified experience encompassing people networking and content discovery. Organizing Hybrid events are the best way for event planners to continue running the legacy concept of Live events, on top of which, to benefit from brand new offerings that the Virtual formats hold. With this, event organizers can have their cake and eat it.

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve launched an entire suite of services for Hybrid events this month. These new innovations are being used in concurrent on-going projects that we are very excited about. As the industry navigates this new format there are bound to be uncertainties, which is why we are in the midst of releasing a concise White Paper specifically to address your doubts. Here are some of the questions we hope to answer:

• How do I run a successful Hybrid event for an international audience?
• What are some revenue and monetization models for Hybrid events?
• How do I manage business matching successfully in a Hybrid setting?
• What are some successful case-studies of existing Hybrid events?

Speak To Us!

We would love to hear what other questions you like us to answer. Let us know by writing to us at info@jublia.com or by speaking to anyone from our team whom you’re familiar with. If you like to be the first to receive a copy of the White Paper once it is out, do let us know right here. We hope to hear from you soon!

Actual article date: Jul 9, 2015

Many would agree that Business Matching has evolved to become an important element in our conference and exhibition events today. These networking solutions have been built to help these events achieve what they were meant to from the very beginning — connect and bring like-minded people together. The question is, do the users know how to the best out of these platforms that have been provided to them?

Being in the Business Matching industry has given us insight to what are some of the best practices one can have while using a Business Matching tool to maximise the networking value they get out of any event. Here are 3 simple steps.

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1. Focus on quality, not quantity

Ever so often, we would spot a handful of users who would mass send meeting requests to almost every other event participant, and would subsequently email the Concierge to why have none of them responded. The answer is simple — your meeting requests have not been sent to relevant connections. Some may think that this is the best way to secure as many meetings as they can for the event, as some requests are bound to be accepted out of the lot. But think about the time that would be wasted for both parties when you realize that there is little networking value in the meeting. That time could have been spent gathering insights from a talk or mingling with the right people at the F&B area.

So when sending out your meeting requests, do try to keep them focused to what your networking needs are and to see if they can be mutually beneficial before sending your request. Make use of the profile information to understand what the company’s interests are, and if you have time, go the further step to do some research on what they offer. This would go a long way into securing relevant connections for you at the event, and will also give you a clearer idea of what you can discuss with them during the meeting itself.

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2. Spruce up your profile

Your profile is the only thing that other parties would see, so do make sure that it captures the right attention! First thing would be to check if all the existing information on your profile is correct. Sometimes due to a large attendee database, tiny mistakes can be found here and there which can be corrected and saved quickly.

Also, most of the time the only information that would be automatically seen on your profile would be minimal and sparse. It is up to you to fill up portions like Personal Introduction and Company Description to let others know more about you, your company and where your business interests lie. Do keep your write up within the text limit as well! With this bite sized information added on to your profile, relevant people who see this would naturally be keen to meet you and find out more.

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3. The Concierge is there to help!

We understand that for most of you, you can hardly find the time to scroll through list of event participants, and much less figure out how to use the platform. If a Concierge service happens to be provided along with the Business Matching platform, then you’re in luck! The Concierge would be like your business matching secretary for the event itself and you can consider half the job done, but only if you know how to use the service in the right way.

Firstly, help them to help you by giving them as much information as you can on who you would like to network with. There are thousands of other users on the platform at each event, so you can’t expect them to know what company you are from and what your networking interests are. Subjects like industry, position, country and even the company’s name would be extremely helpful for your Concierge to help find suitable recommendations out of an exhaustive attendee list. Try to be as specific as you can! Do mention if you are unable to meet during any time slots during the event to ensure that all meetings arranged on your behalf will be well suited to your schedule.

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Having a robust digital platform does wonders for your events, regardless of the type. One of the biggest advantages it provides is the longer event lifespan and evergreen content, which makes event engagement pre, during, and post-event possible.

However, it doesn’t mean that you can sit back and relax, and let your digital platform work on its own. Digital platform is a tool that will allow you to reach a higher level of your event’s success.

For example, you can start your event engagement before the event itself actually starts. Building the hype to draw attendees’ interest and anticipation, encourage them to register early and allow them to bookmark their meetings, and receive personalized recommendations beforehand.

When the D-day arrives, your attendees can navigate the event conveniently and know what to expect. They can even find the meeting booths easily without worrying they will get lost inside the venue and waste their precious time.

Now, what about post-event? When the bubble is about to pop and the excitement of upcoming events sweeps down the shore, how can you still engage them and make them come back for your next event?

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How to Nurture Relationships with Attendees Post Event

The ultimate goal of post-event engagement is attendees’ retention. In the case of yearly events, which most event organizers typically do, it’s a massive success when your attendees are willing to come back for the next round. 

It can be many things: your event left a deep impression on them, and they gained lots of benefits from their attendance, which make them want to come again. 

Nurturing the relationship with attendees is not an easy feat, but not impossible either.

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Go beyond practical means

There are various ways you can retain your attendees’ loyalty once your events end. First, you can send thank you emails as you send them off; later on, you can mail them content that they might miss; and keep them connected with many follow-ups and teasers for your upcoming events.

The aforementioned ways are practical and actually not enough. Your digital platform is capable beyond that, and you can utilize it to step up your event engagement game. 

Among attendees with common interests, build a small online community to keep them connected and engaged all year long instead of reaching out to them personally — even though it’s still important to do so.

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Digital platform is highly needed, but it can’t work alone

While a digital platform prolongs your event’s lifespan and makes all kinds of engagement possible, you can’t solely depend on it. It can’t work on its own, keeping your attendees’ engaged and making them willing to attend your next event without direct involvement from you as the organizer.

So if you wonder why your attendees' retention is failing despite having the best digital solutions, maybe you depend too much on it, expecting the software to keep conversations between attendees going.

Improve your event value proposition by utilizing the digital platform to enable attendees to access product information, curated content, and networking opportunities. On the other hand, attendees can use this post-event data to extract commitment to your event brand and measure customer satisfaction and loyalty.

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Small but frequent events to build community

According to event industry experts, small but more frequent events with more focused topics and purposes like 1-1 VIP meetings help to keep your attendees engaged post events. It serves as a side dish that complements the lack of entirety of blockbuster annual events.

Through micro-events, you give attendees better networking opportunities that they might miss during their annual event attendance so that they are still able to find the best match for their interests.

As they are continuously engaged in-between annual events, you can familiarize them with your upcoming events and retain them as your recurring attendees.

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Plan Your Event With Us!

A digital platform surely brings a lot of benefits to your events. But it’s also important to note that to make it work, manpower remains a requirement. 

With our decade-long experience, Jublia’s best-in-class solutions have proven their adaptability and steadfastness during the global health challenges for over two years, resulting in an even better digital platform that perfectly blends into any type of event.

Follow us on LinkedIn or drop an email to info@jublia.com to plan your event today!

When the world saw a new light of reopening earlier this year, we were all welcoming it in high anticipation, thinking that we finally can return to our default as human beings: socializing with each other, making face-to-face connections, and mingling in the crowd.

In the event industry, many are gearing up for live events after two long years of hiatus. However, things didn’t go as smoothly as everyone expected. Last month, Skift Meetings reported that event attendance saw a 35% drop from the last stats in 2019.

There could be various reasons behind the numbers, but one thing that we can be sure about is that the pandemic has shaped attendees’ behavior differently. Those who at first had been complaining about staying at home all year finally found their convenience in the new way of life and started questioning whether it’s worth traveling only to attend an event.

This is definitely not good news. For trade shows where building solid relationships with clients and generating leads are arguably better done in person, the declining numbers of onsite visitation become another challenge that organizers must tackle.  

But the show must go on. While we can do our best by harnessing the best potential of the dwindling crowd, it may affect exhibitors’ ROI. Suppose we shift our perspective and see this phenomenon as a blessing in disguise. In that case, it leaves room for improvement for organizers, tech providers, and exhibitors: how to augment the value of your live trade shows and make them worth attending in person?

Boosted ROI = Higher Value of Live Trade Shows

High ROI for exhibitors remains the constant in trade shows. Organizers will be able to harness the maximum potential of their events by leveraging digital technologies, which in turn add value to their events and become powerful tools for exhibitors to prompt more audiences to come onsite.

Sustainable networking opportunities must come first

That live events occur only within 2-3 days from the gates opening to closing is such a traditional way of thinking. While it is true, the networking must kick-off before event days.

Organizers and tech providers must be capable of providing sustainable networking for all event stakeholders pre, during, and post events. For example, following the attendees onboarding through registration, allowing them to access event-related information from the exhibiting companies, distributors, and many more. Thus, they will be able to schedule their agenda prior to the event days and make an advanced appointment for 1 on 1 meeting onsite.

Nevertheless, the mere days of the event itself are the core of the interaction journey and should be spent on the most important part: bringing those conversations made pre-event days with finesse: face-to-face interaction, deal-making, and collaborative handshakes.

After saying goodbye for the day, post-event networking takes place in the form of bringing the conversation to a landing and wrapping everything up nicely.

Analyze your event data and use it to your benefits

Data analysis should be conducted not only after the event ends but throughout the event days itself. A good tech provider will enable you access to real-time data, which is essential for organizers and exhibitors' decision-making process.

To be able to analyze your data effectively, one of the most important things is to make sure that your data is clean enough. Clean data means good-quality data which are all useful to improve the value of your events. Other than that, clean data also reflects the capability of your tech provider.

A good tech provider must be able to provide you with robust solutions and various data to ensure you can attain only valuable data. Only then can you use your data for downstream activities such as engagement, lead generation, and networking.

Utilize digital advertising for brand exposure

Advertising is a great way to give brand exposure to your exhibitors. While physical advertising onsite will be undoubtedly successful, the power of digital advertising shouldn’t be underestimated.

Digitally advertising on the event platform will open the door to higher exposure before the event days come. This is the upside that onsite advertising doesn’t have and could be optimized to promote brand activation for your exhibitors. 

Brand activation in the likes of sponsored push notifications, logo and banner placement on the event platform, and logos on emails sent to the attendees will draw more attention and eagerness for onsite visitation, leading to greater returns for organizers and exhibitors. 

Holistic Engagement Hub As the Vehicle to Skyrocketing ROI

Choosing a robust technology provider with proven capabilities is critical for your event's success. All your strategies to boost ROI for exhibitors can be perfectly executed with a holistic engagement hub.

At Jublia, we are deeply involved in every stage of events, from registration to customers’ satisfaction at the end of the show. Our best-in-class solutions are specifically tailored to cater to each of your event’s needs, as unique as they are. 

Plan Your Trade Shows with Us!

With almost a decade of experience in empowering LIVE events with digital solutions, Jublia understands the importance of digital platforms for any type of event.

Let’s discuss the most suitable solutions we can tailor to suit your event’s needs. Drop a message to info@jublia.com or follow our LinkedIn today!

Actual article date: Dec 15, 2014

If you have followed our blog for awhile, you will have noticed that there are many articles like 3 Steps to Take your Business Events to the Next Stage and Importance of user engagement and service that looks at suggestions of how networking can be improved at your event. This time we will do it differently; I will be sharing in 3 steps, the mistakes that I have noticed some organisers made with regards to their event networking.

1. Buying only a networking software

This might sound like an oxymoron appearing on the page of a company that builds networking software for events. However, we have seen many events, big or small, make the mistake of just simply purchasing a software or app for networking at their event.. and were left scratching their heads, thinking why no one actually utilised/downloaded the app, during the post-event review. Networking must be recognised as a highly personalised experience and it cannot simply be replaced by technology or a software. It requires a human touch to it. Technology can only facilitate networking and organisers still need to promote and service their customers networking need.

The service experience for your stakeholders is as important, if not more important than a software.

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2. Restricting networking

We have seen events that tries to restrict the possibilities of networking in the name of ‘control’. We have also seen appointment/networking systems that have numerous,and often complex, rules in their usage.

Imagine you are a customer at an event. You will definitely appreciate a networking process that simply allows you to effectively get to your relevant prospects.

Technology wise, there is also no good reasons to implement too many networking rules. Presently, technology can allow you to build the type of networking that is the most flexible in facilitating the most relevant networking for your customers while allowing you to retain control over the whole process.

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3. Zero emphasis on “Contacts”

We know that most customers attend events with two aims in mind: to learn “Content” as well as to meet relevant “Contacts”. Traditionally, we have seen events that solely emphasises on “Content” to attract ticket sales while leaving “Contacts”, event networking, to the Wild West. Because of the increasingly competitive “Content” landscape, many organisers are starting to realise that there is much more potential in boosting the equally important “Contacts” portion of their event — by bolstering the community effect — as a point of differentiation.

Unlike “Content”, many organisers may already realise that it is not easy to make the “Contacts” portion of an event successful. This is because most customers do not actually know how to get to relevant prospects easily. That is why they attend events in the hope of getting to them. This means that the organisers’ now plays the difficult role in carving out the easiest path for each customer to reach his/her destination.

This puts increasing stress upon the traditional form of event management. However, with the right networking platform/tool in place, “Contacts” can be engineered for the best performance for each customer’s ROI at a manageable level of stress.

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Dubbed Asia’s most important co-located business technology event, the grand return of Tech Week Singapore organized by CloserStill Media saw massive success. Taking place at the wonderful Marina Bay Sands, the ninth installment of the event gathered more than 22,000 visitors from technology leaders, key influencers, and buyers within the industry’s giants.

About Tech Week Singapore 2022

After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, Tech Week Singapore finally returned with an ever-exciting in-person event. The high enthusiasm led to thousands of visitors and hundreds of exhibitors from the industry’s big players like Huawei, Grab, Darktrace, NAVER Cloud, Amazon Web Services, and many more.

The event presented seven award-winning co-located events including Cloud Expo Asia, Data Centre World Asia, Big Data & AI World Asia, DevOps Live, Technology for Marketing Asia, and eCommerce Expo Asia. The success of the event was surely not an overnight magic — Jublia as the tech partner for the event has spent hours of hard work tailoring the solutions to meet the event’s needs.

Overcoming the Challenges Together

Jublia has a decade-long experience powering over 7,000 events across all formats worldwide, and each of them possessed its own unique challenge — not less for Tech Week Singapore this year.

These seven co-located events involved global teams, multiple vendors, and hundreds of sessions — which all need delicate attention to minimize issues and bugs that may arise.

The goal was clear from the beginning: to create a platform that enables users to plan their days at the event while making sure that business matching between VIPs, delegates, exhibitors, and trade visitors could run smoothly.

With thousands of tech sessions in 11 different theatres on site, it required a platform that can consume the details dynamically to bring together engagement and matchmaking under one roof. 

Jublia worked hand-in-hand with CloserStill Media in their European timezone to make it happen, which also involved training sessions provided by our Customer Success team, as the organizing team at CloserStill Media wanted to be familiarized with the platform itself. Working with a big, global team has always been a challenge — especially when they come from the other side of the globe. But the organizer’s cooperation and openness while taking our advice became key factors that made all the sessions enjoyable.

Rakim Asher, Senior Digital Strategist at CloserStill Media shares his positive experience in activating event digital values with Jublia.

Digital Co-Pilot That Enhances the Physicality Onsite

The biggest concern of any live events would be the onsite chaos, especially for several co-located events under Tech Week Singapore. This is the crack where the digital platform comes in: assisting the attendees in their content discovery without spending too much time figuring out who, when, and where to meet.

The native Branded Event App powered by Jublia allowed users to plan their agenda ahead of time, as well as set up meetings and bookmark the panels they’d like to attend. On D-day, the push notifications served as a reminder that ensured they wouldn’t miss anything.

Worth highlighting is the interactive floor plan that worked as a personal navigator for each user, enabling them to move conveniently across seven different sub-events and eleven theatres on the two floors of the venue.

The color-coded floor plan shows which booths belong to which events, helping attendees to not get lost inside the vast venue.

Hands-On Support by Our Crew Onsite

In addition to working hard behind the scenes, we also deployed our crew onsite to give attendees first-hand support in using the digital platform. Under the “Jublia Engagement Hub” signage booth, we were able to directly assist attendees with their digital tools, including sourcing and finding certain sessions or booths.

Jublia pays attention to every single point that makes up the event, from event planning with the organizer to friendly assistance to all end-users. This in-person assistance was a part of our onsite activation, which is the ultimate touch point to close the loop on our wholesome engagement hub experience. Through face-to-face interaction, the less digital-savvy attendees were able to gain the most out of their onsite visitation with a digitally enabled help desk onsite.

The Numbers Speak for Themselves

Tech Week Singapore recorded impressive numbers of engagement, showing how the event platform was effectively used by the attendees. Hundreds of content items were well-curated on our digital platform to make it easier for users to find sessions, panels, booths, and people that match their interests.

More importantly, users’ satisfaction levels were highly positive with their onsite visitation.

Plan Your Events with Us!

Our contribution to the success of Tech Week Singapore 2022 has proven the flexibility of our robust solutions, which cater to the event's needs. Working in tandem with the organizer and other vendors, this event has ended with a bang! You can also check some of our photos onsite here!

Harnessing our decade-long experience matching people and content in the industry, we always put our client's needs as a top priority because one event is not like the others. 

How far is the preparation for your events in 2023? Have a talk with our Solutions Specialists by dropping a message to info@jublia.com to see what we can do, and follow our LinkedIn today to keep up with our future updates!

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Actual article date: Feb 26, 2016

Recently a topic that I have been thinking about is how do shows actually fail after chancing upon this old article on a mega tradeshow that never saw the lights again. Here’s a timeline of events from WSJ.

That though, is just one example amongst the whole exhibition world where shows rises and fall.

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This is a reflective post to share my thoughts and I welcome you to share your ideas in the comments below too.

The reasons behind why shows fail are complex and here’s what I personally think are key reasons that lead shows to their grave:

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1. Industry dynamics

Industry changes have the biggest impact on events outcome. During boom times, shows accelerate their growth within industries that is leading the boom. For example, during the construction boom in the Middle East, shows grew so huge that venues have to increase their capacity to accommodate the events’ requirements. There is however, not much an organiser can do in the greater context of how boom times occurs and we just have to ride and try to lead the “wave” as competition of similar shows arises.

So what happens when an industry falters after a boom? This is when the competition between shows for a declining audience becomes serious as naturally, only the strongest shows survive. This brings me to my next point.

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2. Misunderstanding of attendees’ needs

During boom times, there is a good chance for organisers to be misled by the fact that their shows is growing because they have hit the right notes with their attendees; since the attendence is increasing anyway. It is usually not that obvious during boom times when gauging whether if attendees needs are closely assigned to your event goals. This is until when the boom starts to plateau and when the audience starts to evaluate and choose to commit only to shows that bring them the maximum benefits/ROI. The attendees’ needs should be more obvious at this stage and organisers need the right processes to measure the sentiments and behavior to gain the right insights.

Armed with the right insights into the attendees’ needs, shows need to evolve past their present capabilities to bring added values to their audience. This may also be the time when organisers choose not to because…

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3. Complacency

“My show is currently the leading show in the industry and I don’t see why I will need to do more or explore something new”, is frankly, a reason I have heard before. This statement makes sense as typically, the leading shows already have their deep roots within the industry channels to be able to bring in the audiences as well as matured and valuable programmes in place.

However, I do believe that to have a long term aim in place for sustained lead on an industry, shows and their programmes need to evolve to compound on their own successes and not end up as a victim of their own successes.

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4. Thinking that one actually understands attendees’ needs

“I have done this show for X editions and I know my attendees well. They will not use this.” is also quite a common reason that organisers give on why they will not approach their show in a certain new direction. It is a perfectly fine statement to make as many organisers genuinely do understand their event attendees. However, in some instances, when further asked on how did they actually find out their attendees’ needs, organisers cite from a myriad of reasons like ‘I spoke to a few of my delegates and sponsors’, ‘we did a few focus groups’ or that ‘my survey responds from 10% of my delegates’.

In the greater scheme of things, if one is running an event that is sees hundreds or thousands of attendees, it is important to base reasoning on measurable and sufficient data. It is important to measure well and in a scalable way, reaching as many of the attendees as possible to avoid falling into the fallacy of thinking that one actually understands their attendees.

Good Reasoning and Good Data have to back each other up in a good way.

Article actual date: Dec 22, 2020

Overview

TravelRevive 2020 was the first hybrid MICE industry trade show to be held in Singapore under the newly developed hybrid event trade show prototype for safe business events. Powered by ITB Asia & Singapore Tourism Board (STB), the 2-day event was part of efforts to maintain Singapore’s visibility as a tourism destination and facilitate networking for local travel trade during these trying times. The event sought to provide a platform that trials safe business events as well as safe itineraries and pave the way for the future of MICE events in Singapore. TravelRevive was in fact the first of its kind in Asia Pacific with international attendees since the beginning of the global pandemic, a crucial step towards bringing back more exhibitions and trade shows locally.

This hybrid event organised by Messe Berlin (SG) provided a glimpse of Singapore’s progress in the reopening of business events, and also gave the attendees a feel of a safe and personalised experience. To adhere to the safety measures, attendees had to be separated into cohorts of 20 and interactions were limited across groups. On top of that, everyone who was involved in the event was provided TraceTogether tokens in order to facilitate contact tracing.

With star-studded panels for conference sessions, well-executed exhibitions, and business matching opportunities through pre-scheduled 1:1 meetings, TravelRevive was a massive success for everyone involved. We are proud and thankful for the opportunity to be the technology partner chosen to power the business matching experience, allowing for trade visitors, buyers and exhibitors to have meaningful meetings that we are sure will develop into prosperous business relationships. The event was also complemented with virtual conference sessions that allows for a wider global audience to connect with the regional travel businesses.

Attendees had the vital opportunity to meet a huge variety of relevant exhibitors and search for potential prospects. Everyone also had the chance to reconnect with one another, exchange ideas and reimagine the future of travel, especially after such a long time of not being able to see each other in person.

Even though there were strict rules and regulations that were put into place, TravelRevive still managed to host close to 1,000 total attendees, including 65 foreign delegates from 14 different countries.

The Solution: Jublia Hybrid

Majority of the event took place onsite, the team at Jublia was responsible for managing and facilitating business matching activities that were happening at the event itself. Jublia Match 360 was implemented to create an end-to-end experience that was able to effectively satisfy the attendees 1:1 meetings needs, with many of these meetings resulting in buyers and exhibitors making deals and plans together for the year ahead.

There were a total of 36 exhibition booths which were set up, however, due to the strict regulations being put into place, each booth only allowed for 1 individual to be stationed at any point of time. Each exhibitor also got their dedicated meeting pod to take discussions further. These booths and pods were equipped with plexi-glass panels, which enabled physical interactions to be held safely.

We are proud to share that the majority of the attendees were satisfied with the capability to discover and arrange meetings with relevant attendees through our platform. This is evident as the average customer satisfaction score for the event was 4.1/5. In addition to that, more than 75% of the attendees were satisfied with the ability to match pre-event. These statistics once again proved our capabilities in delivering success and powering a successful hybrid event.

Feedback

I like how easy it was to toggle within the portal, as it allows me to arrange meetings conveniently.

- Far East Hospitality (Exhibitor)

I was able to effectively access the availability of attendees after receiving the meeting requests, which allowed for an instant confirmation.

- Tradewinds Tours & Travel Pte Ltd (Buyer)

The entire set-up (both virtual + onsite) was fantastic. There was always immediate assistance being rendered throughout the entire event. Major props to the operation team behind this event.

- Furama Hotels Singapore (Exhibitor)

I really enjoyed using this platform as it allows for an easy and concise way to access all the attendees at the event.

- Knowcross (Trade Visitor)

Conclusion

All in all, being able to attend a hybrid event again after such a long time made us all reminisce about the physical interaction that is vital in all trade shows. TravelRevive was the first of its kind, and we anticipate more of such events to happen in the near future. Events like this is definitely crucial in helping attendees to gradually transition back to the type of events that they were used to. We would like to thank Messe Berlin for this partnership which turned out to be a huge success!

As we are counting down the days left to a new year, we are also proud to share that in the previous month, we managed to surpass over 1 million meeting minutes! We are humbled by the support and we aim to continue to deliver even better results in the upcoming year. If you are thinking of hosting an upcoming event in 2021 and would like to know how Jublia can power your event, feel free to reach out to us at info@jublia.com! We have made it our primary responsibility to help every single event organiser to transition to digital formats, especially during these critical times.

Summer Sourcing Week 2020 is a one-stop sourcing online platform for buyers and suppliers to continue exploring business opportunities in industries including lighting, electronics, ICT, medical & healthcare, houseware, fashion, home textiles & furnishings, gifts & premium as well as printing & packaging. We’re extremely grateful to have the opportunity to partner with Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) for one of the region’s largest and successful fully virtual event.

Solution: Match 360° Virtual

The safety of exhibitors and buyers has always been a priority for the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC). Considering the current development of the coronavirus outbreak, and in line with the health measures taken by the government, a decision was made by the organiser to shift from a Hybrid setup to a full Virtual expo.

To support this direction, we deployed Jublia’s scalable platform that allowed attendees to interact with sessions, exhibitors and products easily. The event was powered by Match 360° Virtual with our own proprietary 1-to-1 video meeting to support the thousands of scheduled virtual meetings.

The robust involvement from HKTDC’s team who tirelessly facilitated each individual meetings across the end-to-end meetings platform assured the audiences; many of whom are attending a virtual expo for the first time. Such robust facilitation has ensured the matchmaking success at this event.

Jublia’s Match 360° platform has proved itself to be scalable to HKTDC’s in-depth meetings programme and meet our operational needs for SSW GO. We are impressed with Jublia’s team personalised consultations and support which helped us to craft a successful virtual event. We look forward to further refinements to bring our collaboration to the next level at Autumn Sourcing Week | ONLINE (16–27 Nov 2020).

- Peggy, Manager, Business Matching

Here are some top statistics that we’ve collected over the four-week virtual event campaign.

1. User Adoption

We experienced a high user adoption rate for Summer Sourcing Week 2020 of over 80%. Jublia was well prepared for the scale and ensured that platform access was smooth for each audience.

2. Meeting Potential

Over 100,000 meeting requests were sent, showcasing the immense interest to engage in top-level networking. These results have boosted our confidence that we’re moving in the right direction.

3. Platform Activity

Of the 4-week virtual event engagement campaign, we facilitated over 150,000 platform visits that garnered above 500,000 profile views. This is a huge validation to the relevance of the event for the audience. The extremely high engagement means that each user is coming on the platform at least 15 times over 4 weeks.

Feedback

The online platform was convenient and simple to use. The recommendations system allowed me to meet like-minded individuals and I had a great number of fruitful meetings. Awesome!

- Buyer, Shopee

Great content, relevant matches. Being able to meet people from all around the world was one of the main highlights of the event. I would love to be back next year!

- Exhibitor, Cloud Trade Enterprise

A well-organized virtual event. With in-person gatherings being put on halt, having this online platform to facilitate virtual meet-ups as an alternative was fantastic. Time well spent!

- Buyer, Grendel

Key Takeaways

Things have been ramping up in the events industry with organizers attempting to make a slow return to offline events. We’ve noticed that many organizers have opted make their events Hybrid. Although there are still many question marks surrounding new event formats, one thing we are sure about is that — Virtual and Hybrid are here to stay.

Meanwhile, our team at Jublia has been committed to continuously deliver new innovations to help our clients and partners the best we can. It is a privilege to have the opportunity to collaborate with Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) and their team of forward thinking leaders. We look forward to growing with HKTDC in the many editions to come!

Speak To Us!

We’re already helping some of the biggest trade shows and conferences pivot their events to Virtual and Hybrid. If you are keen to explore what we can do for you in terms of new event formats, do reach out to us. Either drop us a note at info@jublia.com or talk to anyone from our team whom you’re already familiar with! You do not have to go through this alone.

Actual article date: May 2, 2014

Jublia is honored to have the privilege to present and speak at MIT Technology That Matter Series: An Evening with Young Innovators. Organised by Koelnmesse in partnership with The Hub and MIT Enterprise Forum, this industry event highlighted the exciting stages of innovation in the young startup scene. This event also marks the official launch of MIT Technology Review’s prestigious Innovators Under 35 competition.

It felt surreal sharing the startup journey of Jublia to a crowd of audience. We’ve come some way and have still much to learn! Most of all we were glad to be able to contribute back by sharing our journey with our fellow startup comrades as well as with industry players. One of the take point home points that I hope the audience left with was our belief that we needed to make a conscious effort to be adaptable today. This is something that we’ve tried our best to imbue our company with. Be it being adaptable to our clients and their needs or even to the global market. We don’t assume to know what our clients want, instead we listen to feedback, improve and innovate according to what our clients desire. Of course maintaining a level of focus and niche in our offerings goes without saying! We are fortunate to get the opportunity to think about dramatically transforming the way people network and we’ll do our best to go the distance. After all, life is 10% what is throws at you and 90% how we adapt to it.

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We are used to going to conventional live events, which unfortunately still has a lot of paper waste to this day. With all the brochures, namecards, event maps, and so much other paper needs, the carbon footprint just keeps piling up. Especially since an event can waste up to multiple tonnes of paper, an equivalent to a lot of trees being cut down. Not all that surprising when a tradeshow alone can generate an approximate of 170 trees worth of paper waste.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, businesses produce 23% of global emissions. If this keeps going, there will be no earth to run your business in. It’s time for all kinds of businesses –no matter how small or no matter the industry– to gear up for real change and impact. Below, you can take that small first step and learn how.

How much paper waste is actually going on?

Imagine an event where there are 100 exhibitors and is expected to gain 4,000 attendees. Now let’s assume that one exhibitor prints 500 brochures and 500 business cards, usually weighing about 25g per brochure and business card. That totals up to 1,250 kg of paper for a medium to large sized event. That’s equivalent to almost 10 trees just for brochures and name cards alone.

If only there was a way to make your events more efficient, cost-effective, AND cutting down carbon footprints instead of trees……well, what if we told you that it’s right under your nose?

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So, what can we do to prevent this from happening?

There are many ways to plan a greener or sustainable event but everything starts with how aware you are about the waste you are currently –or potentially– producing.

Once you know the number of the potential waste produced at your event, it’s time for you to find out how to prevent that from happening. From transportation emissions to reducing food waste and so much more, there are many things to look out for to help you create a sustainable event.

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How does event tech help in all this?

Everything you need to know in just a few swipes

Your event information can all be highlighted and shared in a single platform that is accessible to everyone. With tools like our web platform or our event app, you can avoid the hassle and cost of providing your event information on brochures. On top of that, your attendees can also effectively save time - they no longer have to flip through pages just to look for the information they need about your event.

Meetings management all in one (paperless) go

Manage, track, or trace your meetings and agendas all in one platform effectively for all event stakeholders. There’s no more checking printed schedules back to back to check all the agendas and meetings scheduled. Search for everything you want to know and track everything you need easily in one go.

Navigate seamlessly from the palm of your hand

Event brochures usually include a map to help attendees navigate around the venue and find their meeting places or booths. Event maps are usually deemed necessary or even mandatory due to it being the only source of direction for attendees. But once the event is over, they only add to the total of paper waste produced on your event. Not to mention, they are usually static and can oftentimes be confusing. Well with advanced event tech like our AI Maps feature, you not only reduce the paper waste, you can also help your attendees navigate much more easily and seamlessly.

Digital namecards

Prevent the excessive use of paper by creating digital namecards. Each attendee and exhibitor can exchange contact information within just a few clicks, without the hassle of having to flip through a handful of name cards just to find the card you need. You’ll have them saved on the cloud, so you don’t have to worry about getting them lost or accidentally throwing them away. Because all you need to know is all –literally– just a swipe away. For a deeper analysis of your attendees and helping your exhibitors get the valuable data that they came for, you have other advanced tech like our Jublia Scan.

Attendee information all just a scan away

If you’re excited with the idea of digital namecards, wait til you hear about lead scanners. Help your exhibitors find the right market and potential customers with just one scan through their phone and one integrated engagement hub like our Jublia Scan. With this, your exhibitors can find out more about the attendees’ information, wants, needs, purchasing behavior and so much more beyond just the usual basic information.

…..and so much more

From highlighting content in our digital platforms for your attendees to access later on once they've left the venue, to so many more tools to explore on our digital platforms, it is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint in events.

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Check the “green event” bucket list on your event checklist for 2023 with us

Now that we know the steps you can take to improve your sustainability in events, it’s time for you to find the right tech provider who could help.

With a decade of experience enhancing event experience for all kinds of formats and adapting to all the changes the industry goes through, Jublia is eager to explore and innovate more to make sure everyone gets the best out of your events.

Drop us a message at info@jublia.com or follow us on LinkedIn to find out more about how we can enhance your attendees’ event experience and get a demo now!

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Overview

Lately, many of our partners and clients have faced disruptions to their Live Event plans, and we take this matter personally. In fact, we’ve made it our primary responsibility to assist every single event organiser to digitize. We’re not asking you to consider jumping on the bandwagon — we’re telling you to own new virtual and hybrid formats for events to come.

The truth is, just because your Live Event can’t take place doesn't mean your event can’t exist. The need for business networking and meaningful content discovery has never been higher.

Challenge

Jublia powered the 1-to-1 meetings and content discovery for a US-based Energy Summit (who have requested to stay anonymous), as we’ve been doing consistently for the other events achieving great results. Post-registration, attendees were meaningfully engaged by our team of engagement specialists leading up to the actual Live Event. The aim has always been for people to attend the event with a curated list of pre-scheduled meetings, alongside pre-selected sessions to take part in.

That all changed when the State gave a ruling, barring all mass gatherings. This obviously threw our client into disarray. Contracts had been signed. Sponsors had already done up their booths and physical event banners. The venues were booked weeks in advance. Food and drink had also been pre-catered. Now what..?

On that fateful day, we received a call from a rather anxious Event Director telling us that Murphy’s law was hitting them hard. There were over 400 1-to-1 meetings booked — this was the pride and glory of the show and what majority of the attendees were paying good money for. The organiser was at a dead end and reached out to us for a solution.

Solution: Match Virtual

Within 24 hours, a day before the actual event, Jublia converted the entire Live Event into a Virtual Event.

1. Transformation Time
   To the surprise and delight of our clients, we made the transition from Live to Virtual in under 24 hours.
2. Meeting Performance
   All pre-planned 1-to-1 meetings took place without a hitch. This maintained the event value as conversations continued with zero downtime.
3. User Adoption
   We saw an overwhelming adoption of the platform, above 90%. The attendees were adapting to the new format quicker and more seamlessly than anyone thought.
4. Sponsorship ROI
   Most importantly, the key stakeholders of the event — the Sponsors — were highly satisfied. This gave them the confidence to continue investing in our client, which also means continued business for us.

Key Takeaways

What happened behind the scenes is often unknown to most. At Jublia, we employ an agile working culture that allows our team to move nimbly and with speed (not haste, because everyone knows haste makes waste). On top of that, we have a transparent communication channel with our client (as we do with all of the events we partner), which allows us to get first-hand information on problems the moment they arise.

We‘ve also noticed that attendees are generally very receptive to the change of format — from Live to Virtual. In fact, they are often grateful for out-of-the-box pivots that show a sincere interest in their well-being and business objectives. A cancelled event equals loss of business which is a definite lose-lose situation for all parties. Being able to execute the transformation so quickly means a great deal to everyone on the Jublia team. We want to thank all of our clients who have taken a leap of faith and trusted us to deliver.

Speak to us!

If you are in dire need to make the switch from Live Events to Virtual Events (or even to Hybrid Events) we’re here for you. Reach out to us anytime at info@jublia.com or talk to any member of our team that you’re in touch with. You do not have to go through this alone.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the world around us, impacting various businesses and industries, with a reported expected annual growth rate of 37.3% between 2023 and 2030, according to Grand View Research. Additionally, around 64% of businesses believe in a significant benefit of AI, helping to increase their overall productivity. This demonstrates the growing importance and confidence in AI’s potential to transform and revolutionize business operations. 

The events industry is no exception to the AI revolution. AI-powered technologies are already being used to improve the event experience in a variety of ways, from providing personalized recommendations to real-time insights. As AI continues to mature and develop, its impact on events is only going to grow.

The Role of AI in the Events Industry

AI is playing an undeniable role in the continuous advancement of the events industry. With its ability to discover patterns, search data, translate languages, answer questions, and make predictions, AI is poised to have a transformative impact on the industry. Some may even question how far AI will go in the events industry. However, the combination of AI and human intelligence will be essential to driving the event experience to new heights.

For event organizers, the main goal of planning and organizing an event is to create a fulfilling experience for all stakeholders. AI is helping to achieve this goal, particularly in the areas of attendee experience and data analytics, as these two areas are intertwined. This impact can be seen when taking the attendee’s event journey into consideration.

Intelligent Personalization

AI-powered predictive analytics can help deliver personalized attendee experiences, helping attendees maximize their event experience by discovering new opportunities and connections relevant to their interests. This type of intelligent personalization can take different forms, impacting the attendee experience throughout the event phases from start to finish.

Before the event:

• Attendees can receive personalized recommendations for sessions, meetings, speakers, and exhibitors based on their interests and past behavior.
• AI can be used to generate personalized agendas, helping attendees to meet the right people and attend sessions that align with their interests at the event.

During the event:

• AI-powered event apps allow users to access their individual agendas and schedules, pulling up event information in the palm of their hands.
• Push-notifications can be enabled in the event to update and inform attendees of their upcoming scheduled sessions and meetings. 

With the aid of AI to deliver personalized attendee experiences, event-goers are able to make more efficient use of their time, leading to increased engagement, and higher satisfaction levels. 

On-site Navigation

Artificial Intelligence in events is more important than ever when it comes to wayfinding and on-site navigation. Events are, more often than not, held in large and complex event venues, and attendees can find it difficult to find their way around without a guide. 

With AI-powered maps, on-site event navigation becomes a breeze, saving them time and frustration, and allowing attendees to efficiently make their way through  the event halls.  

Before the event:

• Event attendees can take a look and play around with the event map from before the start of the event to identify the locations of sessions and booths of interest to them. It helps them to schedule their agenda more effectively, time-wise and energy-wise.

During the event:

• AI-powered Maps can provide personalized routes and wayfinding assistance, making it easy for attendees to navigate even multiple event halls, optimizing traffic flow, and attendee navigation.

This means that for event organizers, your event map needs to not only be easy to read and use, but also easy to create and customize to better suit your attendees’ needs.

Data-driven Lead Scoring

Data-driven lead scoring, automated by AI, is a valuable tool for both attendees and event organizers. For event organizers, having lead scoring data allows them to gain insights into attendee engagement, identify qualified leads, and measure the ROI of their events, all valuable information to relay back to their stakeholders and to determine the success of their event.

Meanwhile, having a lead scanner tool with an automated lead scoring feature helps exhibitors with data-driven lead generation, making the most of their event experience by quickly and easily identifying and connecting with the most promising leads, while providing event organizers with valuable data about attendee engagement and interests.

During the event:

• Attendees can use the lead scanner to quickly identify leads who are most likely to be interested in their products or services. This can save them time and effort, and help them to make the most of their networking opportunities at the event.
• The lead scanner can also help attendees to qualify leads by providing insights into their interests, demographics, and engagement with the event. This information can help attendees to determine which leads are worth pursuing further, and how to best do so.

After the event:

• Connecting with leads and prospects is now easier and simpler with easy access to their contact information. Event attendees and/or exhibitors can build relationships with leads and follow up with them after the event with a more established and concrete plan based on the collected data.

Sentiment Analysis

After an event, event organizers are focused on gathering and analyzing data from event exhibitors and attendees. AI-powered sentiment analysis can help event organizers to gather and understand attendee feedback in a more efficient and effective way. 

Sentiment analysis is a natural language processing (NLP) technique that uses AI to identify and extract emotions and opinions from text. By using sentiment analysis to analyze attendee feedback, event organizers can quickly and easily process large volumes of feedback to identify trends, patterns, areas where they excelled, and areas where they can improve.  Sentiment analysis is a valuable tool for event organizers to identify event insights with speed, efficiency, accuracy, and granularity. 

For event organizers, this information can be used to improve future events in a number of ways, such as identifying popular and unpopular sessions, speakers, and exhibitors, Understanding what attendees liked and disliked about the event and Identifying areas where the event experience can be improved.

After the event:

• After the event, attendees provide feedback through post-event surveys. This feedback is analyzed using sentiment analysis to identify trends and areas for improvement. This information is then used to craft better future events.

This then comes full circle where, these data-driven insights can then be applied for future events to improve event experiences, by providing personalized recommendations and attendee experiences. Attendees can feel a greater sense of satisfaction as they feel that their feedback is being heard and acted upon, leading to increased engagement.

Event organizers can use and evaluate the ways AI can be applicable in events and use them as a foundation for future event planning. The inclusion of AI can create a continuous cycle in an event, which doesn’t stop even when the event ends. This will in turn improve planning, execution and post-event analysis, helping organizers to create more efficient and effective events that meet the needs of their attendees and improve the overall experience.

Power your Events with AI

As AI continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more innovative and transformative applications of AI in the events industry. AI is poised to play a major role in shaping the future of events, and event organizers who embrace AI early will be well-positioned to succeed. With Jublia as your event engagement partner, we can help show you how our 360° Engagement Hub can help you boost your event performance and experience, allowing you to efficiently gather data and gain insights through our AI-powered solutions. 

To explore how Jublia Engagement Hub can be customized to align with your specific event needs, schedule a consultation with our Solution Specialists to discover how this versatile platform can help you achieve and exceed your event goals.

Article actual date: Sep 22, 2021

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‘I want my event to succeed.’

This statement is (and always has been) the one common goal shared by every event organiser throughout the vast landscape of business events. The differences, however, become apparent when we dive deeper into the specifics: what is success for your events?

Historically, events had associated success with basic metrics like square metres of exhibition space sold or total number of registered attendees. But in today’s context, there exists data-driven return on investment (ROI) indicators that are able to more accurately portray an event’s performance. For instance:

• Today’s exhibitions can gauge their success off of the total number of 1:1 meetings and even include the average closed deal price amongst their attendees.
• Conferences, on the other hand, can measure total engagement and fall-off rates for every one of their content sessions.

These indicators enable you to specify and highlight key operations that can truly make or break your events, but there’s one major roadblock in the way: What kind of data is needed to fuel your ROIs?

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Let’s illustrate this with a banner on a sponsor’s booth. How can the organiser determine the number of people who have seen this banner? Or better yet, how many people actually took interest and followed through to inquire about the sponsor’s products?

Proving ROIs: Pre-digitisation

In the days before the pandemic, the most enterprising of organisers would deploy beacons, which would interact with the attendee’s event badge and capture their footfall as they pass certain landmarks.
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These can be used to map out an activity heatmap, showing an approximate number of people who passed by the banner across a certain time frame.

We can term this type of data as basic data — providing a general overview of the bigger picture at hand, basic data is what we come into contact with on a daily basis (think spreadsheets) and are largely dormant, as it is processed and siloed away from other datasets.

On its own, basic data is sufficient to power simple metrics like total footfall or attendee demographics, but don’t make the mistake of being content with basic data as the be-all-end-all solution in proving ROIs in its entirety; we still can’t prove the amount of follow-throughs and leads that the example’s sponsor banner had generated.

In fact, it goes beyond just using a single dataset to effectively prove the ROIs of an event. Other industries have caught onto the big data trend of connecting large datasets to uncover new insights, and that’s what our world of business events should strive for.

Of course, big data has immense requirements to kickstart, but the idea of connecting data still holds value for any organiser.

Proving ROIs: Post-digitisation

Connected data, as the name suggests, amalgamates basic datasets from varying sources to create an all-encompassing analysis of your event. While you can obtain connected data from live or virtual events, the concept truly shines in hybrid situations where data from both online and offline sources are incorporated together to greatly enhance the amount of insight at one’s disposal.

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In the case of the sponsor’s banner example, online platforms would have banner advertisements that are able to capture the number of click-throughs on top of total views.

Couple this with the beacon capabilities mentioned earlier, countless data possibilities are now within reach. One such example involves computing the banner’s engagement efficacy by taking the total number of exposures and click-throughs over the total number of impressions.

With this, we can now categorise booths or ad placements depending on their engagement rates. This provides a reliable gauge for organisers to optimise benefits by reserving the best outlets for top-tiered sponsors.

Data-driven Success

Through the interconnectedness of diverse and dynamic datasets, hybrid formats empower organisers with an unparalleled level of data intelligence that reinforces an event’s offerings. When used correctly, this opens up new monetisation opportunities as part of an organiser’s initiative to better engineer audience ROIs.

On the same note of interconnectivity, insights shouldn’t be chained to a specific platform. That is why industry-level initiatives like VSef help to strive for a data-driven future with common data standards amongst event tech providers, encouraging organisers and their events to draw the maximum potential from their datasets, and Jublia is proud to be part of it.

Want to learn more about how hybrid data can benefit organisers or your clients? Perhaps you’re curious about the most recent developments in the hybrid event sphere? If so, check out our newest white paper on deciphering hybrid opportunities now!
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Prefer a more personal approach to hybrid formats? Speak to our Hybrid Specialists at Jublia by simply emailing us at info@jublia.com or send us a message on our Linkedin!

Article actual date: Mar 30, 2020

Jublia partnered with a leading health innovation conference in the Las Vegas, United States late 2019. The event was designed for senior executives in the health industry and brought together more than 7,000 leaders to solve healthcare’s most pressing problems. The event creates the highest level of curated networking.

Objective

We were tasked to facilitate highly relevant and meaningful 1-to-1 meetings for two completely different curated matchmaking programs. One, The Hosted Buyer program, which connects qualified buyers and influencers who are decision-makers for their organisation. Second, The Funding Founders program, which matches healthcare technology startup CEOs and founders, with leading investors in a series of quick pitches for investment success.

Solution: Match 360°

The event had very specific matchmaking requirements because of the curated and exclusive nature of the meeting programs. We had to deliver two completely different setups, which ran concurrently on all the days of the event. These are exactly the types of challenges that we live for. Our solution Match 360° is built to be highly flexible and customized, taking into account a myriad of matchmaking permutations. The event facilitated their largest turn out of 1:1 meetings yet, and here are some top stats gleaned over a 3-week campaign period:

1. User Adoption
   We saw an amazing adoption rate of 99% with over 90% of attendees within the program having at least one highly curated meeting.
2. Meeting Potential
   Over 20,000 meeting requests were collectively sent through Match 360°. A huge validation of the exclusive matchmaking concept.
3. Platform Activity
   In just 3 short weeks there were over 25,000 platform visits and a stunning number of profile views … over 60,000. Wow.
4. Meetings Performance
   We facilitated over 6,000 meetings and our data shows that more than 85% of all the meetings were rated as highly satisfied.
5. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
   The event received the top grade for their NPS — Scoring positively over 60% (any score 0% is considered positive, so they won by a mile).
6. Customer Satisfaction (CSat)
   Jublia achieved a mean CSat score of 4.3 / 5.0. We are pleased but we’re striving for full marks in the next edition.

Feedback

The Web App (Match 360°) made it super easy to seek out individuals for whom a meeting would be worthwhile for both of us, send the invite and quickly receive a response, as well as track the schedule.
(Digital Health App)

The Hosted Buyer Program provided a structured opportunity to guarantee I made connections that will hopefully lead to a fruitful partnership.
(Healthcare Provider)

Great energy and inspiration. Wide industry opportunities and networking. It was great for getting the pulse on what’s happening in improving healthcare through innovative and transforming systems.
(Care Management Platform)

Best conference I have ever attended! I was able to meet with over 100 people that could potentially bring new solutions to our health system in a very efficient way. This was time very well spent!
(Health System)

Key Takeaways

Some of the important success factors that contributed to (matchmaking) success for the event were: our deep 2-way discussions that allowed us to better understand the intricacies of the program envisioned by the team; the trust and support that was rendered by the organizers (allowing us to work fully in our own element as much as possible); as well as the flexibility of the Match 360° solution to fit various meeting complexities. We’re emboldened by the results and are exploring new cutting-edge ideas with the organizers for future editions — Stay tuned for the next business matching success.

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Live events are not just slowly getting back into the scene, they’re coming back with a large “boom”. Some event venues are even experiencing a whopping 20% increase in events per week. That’s great news for all organizers and attendees alike as the excitement of attending an on-site event is inevitably strong. However, with the overwhelming number of events, how do we stand out and make our live event more memorable? Well, with a well thought out engagement hub, anything is possible!

From meaningful conversations and great connections, to engaging features and providing ease in gathering important information, an engagement hub is extensible in features to empower your live events by utilizing the platforms’ useful features to make the experience more unforgettable for your attendees. So how can you use it to its maximum potential?

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Make an amazing first impression from the get-go

Attendees tend to come back to events that they are familiar with. In fact, according to Marketing Metrics, the success rate of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%, while the success rate of selling to a new customer is only 5-20%. So reach out to your previous attendees and tempt them with a whole “new and improved” experience that more importantly addresses their desires and feedback from last year.

This is where an event engagement hub helps! When you deploy a digital hub, it not only helps with your attendees experiences, but it helps you to understand and effectively analyze your attendees behavior. A hub usually also functions as a feedback platform where audiences have an outlet to rave or grouse about your event. Capturing those behavioral touchpoints and feedback sentiments enable you to make data driven approaches that actually improves over the past event edition.

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Prepare and execute a well-thought-out event

From the venue directions to your best techniques to continuously engage your attendees throughout the event, ensure that you prepare every “nook and cranny” of your event. Organizers often (understandably) focus more on the major parts of the event. They tend to overlook one of the main key factors of making a memorable event: putting themselves in the shoes of the attendees.

Ask yourself: What events were memorable to me and why? How can the attendee find the venue and directions around? How can people have a safe space to talk and make meaningful connections?  and take these questions into consideration.

With this in mind, plan your live event with digital platform features that could continue engaging your attendees and assist them as a co-pilot throughout their event journey. Arrange a time for attendees to connect and talk to each other and the speakers of the events face to face. Or maybe equip your digital platform with a feature to help them chat or schedule a meeting with each other. To help them go around the event, you can also prepare and explain detailed directions to the attendees through an event app. Or you can prepare a feature on your digital platform to help them locate the booths and tenants they’re interested in. 

It is most important to view digital features as an added “fabric” that wraps around your live event, enhancing your audience's ability to better discover event offerings that you have painstakingly created for them.

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Never underestimate the power of post-event engagement

Your event is not finished as soon as the last attendee exits the venue. In fact, it’s one of the best times to engage more with the audience with post-event engagement while the “event high” is still present.

Considering the many sessions, meetings, talk shows, and an array of tenants they can visit, not every attendee has the time–or energy and capacity–to consume all of the excitement all in one go. With post-event engagement, you can ensure that your attendees make the most of the event by providing them with the contents that they might have missed out. This is all possible with a digital platform as organizers can provide video-on-demand options from sessions, presentations, and all kinds of content that the attendees can revisit in the post-event dynamic.

Another reason to power your live events with digital platforms is the opportunity to create more meaningful and sustainable connections between all the involved stakeholders. Just because your event ended, doesn’t mean the networking session does too. With features like in-app messaging systems and 1-1 meetings, you can ensure that your attendees can share contact information and take their discussions further.

Active post event engagement like this results in more audiences signing back into the hub. It also presents a fantastic opportunity for organizers to collect more genuine feedback. This feedback, again coupled with behavioral analytics, gives organizers a 360° view of their customers' journey in their event, hence providing them actionable insights to improve and attract back highly valued audiences.

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Sit back, relax, and plan your events with us!

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Article actuald date: Apr 15, 2018

An event organiser has a million and one things to do, but somewhere right at the top of that list is creating continuous, sustainable and self-growing attendee engagement. Technology seems to be the answer to this problem.

Most events today are empowered technologically because of their tech savvy attendees. Whether technology is being used as an enabler or an unfortunate disabler is a question of understanding how technology is adopted at shows, and how users react and behave around it.

Technology has proven to be the game changer anytime all the time, and that’s why it is important that we are not seduced by “noise”, rather, be highly objective in analysing how the technology that you adopt for your event would improve the bottom-line and boost your event’s brand retention.

Remember to design a tech-enabled event that makes sense to your attendees, customer facing, as well as to your organisation, behind the scenes.

Solve the most fundamental needs first

In the same way that Maslow’s Hierarchy starts with our basic human need for air, water and food before moving on to other things — the same applies to the basic attendees’ need when participating at your event. What is the simplest reason people attend your events for?

Event attendees want to meet other people who are relevant and who are able to engage in meaningful conversations with them, potentially to bring some kind of business value to help them reap tangible returns on investment with their time spent at your show.

Event attendees also want to learn new and exciting content. Whether it be navigating through the grid of exhibitor booths collecting brochures as they pass, listening to sporadic product showcases that litter the exhibition floor, or attending conference sessions hosted by thought leading speakers who are experts in the industry.

Delegate feedback at global events have consistently revealed as good as the experience may be, the chief aspect attracting them to attend the event year after year basically boils down to relevant contacts and enriching content.

Whatever technology thats being used, it needs to solve these two fundamentals first.

It is never a game of who has more features

Have you ever heard the saying — too many cooks spoil the broth — or — simplicity is the ultimate sophistication — or — less is more — ? Is gamification really necessary sometimes?

Always ask yourself whether a feature that you are investing in has the potential to bring real business value to your attendees and your event. If there is no clear value, chances are the feature will come at an unnecessary expense or complexity. Look for technologies, applications, platforms and solutions that are easy to setup. For instance, does the setup require months or days? Also do the features solve an inherent need, or are you being hoodwinked by novelty gimmicks?

In-app games are a good example in some cases. It may seem exciting to gamify your event, but you would need to invest a lot of time and effort into make this feature widely and wildly used by your attendees. Worst, if you managed to get a sponsor for this, then you would also have to prove its value to your sponsors in dollars and cents. Don’t be fooled by the spike in engagement at first launch, the difficulty comes in sustaining that level of engagement throughout the event.

Networking features are another good example. A large number of apps (and the number continues to grow) claim to have networking features, but there is actually a very wide range in abilities among them. Some platform simply allow attendees to connect through social media. Others just provide a basic chat feature. There was once I had to delete the application within an hour of downloading it onsite because I was spammed with messages every minute by different people! In most cases, only platforms with a 360° engagement process, backed by relevant user interest will produce higher event satisfaction.

Learn and be empowered with the data

Our industry thrives on data, that’s why the MICE community is constantly talking about data and investing in data analytics or data mining tools to get as much pertinent information about an attendees’ behaviour, and most importantly interest. As more and more technology is used at events, more digital touch-points are being established with delegates via pre, during and post event engagements. It is at this level where I believe the true playing field for event organising lies.

Any event organiser who is able to marry the technology implemented together with acute data-driven objectives and assessments will be the winner at the end of the day.

A technology that enables you will be able provide transparent engagement metrics — clicks, views, download rates . Because knowing these numbers, for instance the percentage of adoption, not only proves whether you’re using the right channels to get to your audience, but also clearly shows you how your investment into that particular technology is being spent. I know of an organiser that spent over 10K on an application with just 100+ downloads amongst a much bigger pool of attendees. That’s painful.

When you’re ready, take this a step further by also understanding how deeply attendees use various features. This will give you valuable feedback to iterate your process further.

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