We know it well: data is a valuable resource for event organisers, because it gives a detailed picture of the event, of how it performed, of its strengths and of its weaknesses. It is there to analyse what went well and what can be improved in future editions, and to account for activities and results to stakeholders. But what if it could also help you save?
Cutting unnecessary spending and concentrating resources on what matters most, working out which activities have the greatest impact on the audience and on sponsors so as to optimise them, and negotiating better contracts are all decisive elements in the success of an event. These days they can make the difference between running another edition and not running one at all. Having a solid base of data on which to take the most useful decisions can genuinely become an ace up the sleeve for the more far-sighted event organisers, provided that the data we are talking about is not only reliable and available when needed, but also strategic with respect to the objectives. Let us look at some examples: in practical terms, how can data help us save when we organise an event?
1. For you and your staff:
Monitor spaces and flows to deploy your team as effectively as possible
Not only in times of pandemic, but generally whenever events are organised inside limited spaces, there are two needs to hold together. The first is giving the event the dynamism it needs to keep attendees active, to create opportunities for networking and connection and to guide flows towards the strategic spaces (from the more institutional plenary rooms to the exhibition area). The second is making all of this manageable and organised, not only for attendees but also for the organisation and its staff. It can be disastrous for an opening or closing plenary to face a half-empty room, but it is just as important to avoid crushes and queues at the stands or, conversely, demonstrations and workshops — perhaps sponsored by significant investors — failing to get the prominence they deserve.
Many of these flows are usually managed by the organisation’s own staff, who defuse risky situations and optimise everything by informing attendees and monitoring movement and crowding. Supporting that professional skill with the most useful data, available in real time and in a practical, straightforward way, therefore gives your staff one more tool for doing their job better. At the same time it means simplifying human resource management, optimising it and cutting costs and waste, because staff can be moved, increased or reduced according to real need and to the contribution they can make to the success of the experience.
2. For your investors:
Provide less information, but sharper information you can build effective marketing on
The anxiety to provide useful information to those who have committed resources and funding often leads to collection and processing structures that are not only inefficient but risk producing far too much data. And we know that having too much data, in the end, is like having none at all, because if data is not systematised and usable it is hard to turn it into something you can plan and act on. This applies particularly to the data we want and need to give investors, since the information the event can supply is absolutely strategic for them and represents the return for which they invested. Giving them information they can build effective marketing on means enabling them not to waste time and money on initiatives that will lead nowhere and, on the contrary, to invest in the event even more strategically. And for the organisation, of course, it means saving money, because only the highest-value data gets produced — and perhaps also presenting it better, so that it earns more.
3. For your speakers:
Provide detailed information that helps them produce more effective and engaging content
If you build every touchpoint through which your event’s audience comes into contact with it carefully and strategically, well before it starts, you can collect information that saves both you and your speakers time and money when putting together programmes and activities. Through the data people are asked to provide when they request information or register for the event, you can start straight away to know them better and to understand which content and which proposals are the most useful, the most engaging and the best suited to the objective for which the event was created. If you add newsletters, surveys or the option to download content ahead of the event, the amount of information you can collect grows further, letting you optimise every downstream process, starting with the ones that involve speakers directly as they prepare their talks and their materials.
All very nice, isn’t it?
But where is the data, how do you collect it and how do you analyse it, so that all of this does not become a job — and a cost — in its own right?
Having the right tools from the start is a good solution, in fact an excellent one. Turning that information into a set of genuinely usable tools is just as strategic.
So where do you start?
A single platform that already does much of the work and makes it available simply and clearly is a good starting point. If you want to see ours, you can request a personalised live demo and use it to start talking about your next event. That way you can see in real time how you can start saving straight away.
Just click here: