How can you make sure that sponsors and exhibitors are happy with taking part and get the most out of your event?
Technology can be a very good way to achieve that without raising costs or workload, in at least four ways.
Here they are.
1. Give them websites
Building a website is an essential step in organising an event, because it is a key tool for promoting it — but you can ask a great deal more of it.
You could, for example, create a dedicated section, a showcase page or almost a mini-site for every sponsor and exhibitor, where each company can not only manage its presence properly, hand out material or provide information, but also offer services tailored to the event and exclusive to it.
Complicated?
Demanding, certainly, but capable of delivering strong results. And not all that difficult if you have the right tools to hand — for example a CMS (content management system) that reduces the need to have a developer or a webmaster always available, and that lets you build small sites simply and edit them in real time whenever you need to.
2. Use an event management platform
An event management platform is not only a tool for the people who organise and run the event: it can offer a great deal to exhibitors and sponsors too. It can be used to manage the flow of people towards stands and exhibitor activities more effectively, making the experience smoother and better organised for visitors. And if it collects data accurately and efficiently, that data can be turned into working tools during the event itself. That way, exhibitors and sponsors can use the information gathered to optimise their presence at the event and identify trends and business opportunities.
The right event management software can also personalise many information flows, from push notifications to newsletters, making communication more effective not only for the event but for each individual sponsor and exhibitor. Everyone at the event can then feel part of a shared project, and make the most of being there.
3. Offer integrated services
You already do it for your event; do it for your exhibitors as well. Do what?
Think in terms of experience, which means connecting several tools to create broader and more productive worlds of meaning.
Take an example. Sponsored webinars are the classic way to give visibility to brands, to companies and to their products and services. By now they are practically a fixture at every event, so familiar that they risk feeling routine. So why not enrich them by combining them with other tools, for example with gamification? Or go further and build more elaborate structures, where the workshops connect to one another and are supported by learning and engagement tools that make them even more useful for the people they are aimed at.
After all, creating value is essential to success — and value can certainly be measured.
4. Share the data straight away
It is easy to provide data at the end of an event. It is also what everyone expects. But at that point, even if the data gives a complete picture of performance, it can only be used to plan ahead — which usually means next year’s edition, or some future event.
If the data is made available straight away, in real time even, it can be used to do more of what people appreciate most, and to avoid waste and optimise resources. It becomes a way of giving people what they want, in the best and most effective way. Of course, the whole structure underneath that planning has to be able to change just as quickly and flexibly, to become whatever it needs to become, but having a compass is already a good step towards finding your way through the maze.
So, back to the question we started with: how to add value to the presence of sponsors and exhibitors at an event. The tools can be many and varied, and they depend on a number of factors, starting with the type of event and the kind of people who will attend it, both as attendees and as investors. So how do you choose?
The first answer is: by asking the right questions, beginning with how to put sponsors and exhibitors in a position to bring real value to the experience of the people attending the event and, at the same time, to produce value for themselves and their own business.
Sound familiar? It should, because it is the same perspective as the person organising the event, who has to work on everyone’s experience so that it brings value to their own work.
The second answer is: by equipping yourself with the right tools, tools that not only make the event organisable and manageable, but also give something to everyone who can increase the value of the experience you want to create, exhibitors and sponsors first among them. Whether that means websites, data, communication, engagement and networking tools like the ones in our examples, or others better suited to the particular experience you are building, the difference is made when these tools are shared across the board and can therefore create an ecosystem in which the different perspectives and the different goals feed each other.
And then, of course, you need a good conductor to hold it all together, with a unified vision and an eye fixed on the finish line. That, though, is called experience and professionalism in event management.