Organising MICE events can be a complex challenge, above all because they are often large events, with big audiences and a mix of attendees in terms of both profile and interests. So how do you reconcile the need for a varied offering — one that satisfies different audiences — with the equally pressing need for that variety not to disorient attendees, leave them lost and push them to give up on getting the best out of the experience simply because “it is all too much like hard work”?
One possible answer to that question is: “By creating personalised journeys”. But how can that be done without ending up organising many different events inside a single container, which would become extremely costly in terms of both resources and energy?
All it takes is clear thinking and the right technology. So let us look together at three ways it really can be done, and at the concrete benefits it can bring.
1. Let every attendee create their own tailor-made event
Imagine attending a large MICE event with a programme packed with sessions and appointments. In all likelihood, if we look closely, every attendee at that event will have different interests and specific objectives, and creating a tailor-made experience for each of them would be a titanic undertaking. So why not get round the problem by giving attendees the chance to select the sessions, topics or speakers that interest them most and add them to their own personal calendar, effectively creating an event tailored to their needs, tastes and interests? The result would be not only greater user engagement, because they would feel more central to proceedings, but also the chance for them to plan their attendance efficiently, making the experience more effective. Complicated? Not necessarily. Through a system of tags inside an event app optimised for the event, every attendee could easily build a personalised agenda with the details of each appointment and use it to organise activities and movements, wasting less time and energy and coming away more satisfied.
2. Do not underestimate the value of restricted areas
When we talk about MICE events, we are often talking about events that involve attendees, delegates and delegations, speakers, sponsors and exhibitors. And while all that variety is undoubtedly a richness, experience tells us it can also be very demanding. In these cases, giving each group the chance to withdraw into quieter restricted areas can be a considerable advantage, both in terms of personal comfort and in terms of the efficiency of networking which, as we shall never tire of repeating, is fundamental to any event.
We can already hear your question: but how much space do I need? Once again, not necessarily a lot.
Or rather, not much in terms of square metres, but perhaps a great deal in terms of technological performance.
The areas we have in mind can fit in the palm of a hand, if they are virtual, and still be perfectly capable of creating different spaces for different types of user. And personalised journeys, and spaces for consulting and storing confidential documents, and vouchers, tickets, passes, badges and so on. Naturally, in these cases access to each restricted area can be set up in advance to assign permissions and privileges, and will have to be tied to a login and password to guarantee the strictest confidentiality of the data.
Inside it you can then offer a whole range of services and opportunities — some common to every type of event, some more thematic — such as, to give one example, the option to create personal profiles with photo, details and contacts so as to be visible to others and interact with them. That way you not only enrich the experience, you also encourage the exchange of information and the building of relationships.
3. Do not forget marketing
Whenever we talk about personalising experiences in the world of business events (and not only there), we are necessarily talking about marketing too. More than that: about personalised marketing. We all know that one-to-one marketing is, in general terms, both one of the highest-ROI actions and one of the most expensive; we also know that every activity in which people choose, act and decide brings with it the acquisition of a fundamental resource: data. So rather than “doing yet more things”, in these cases it is a matter of optimising what you are already doing, and specifically of making better use of the data you already collect. That data can in fact be turned, relatively easily, into the ingredients for equally personalised marketing, which will therefore be not only better targeted but also more welcome, and so more effective.
And while these are three thoughts on what personalisation can bring to events as large and complex as those that normally fall under the broad definition of MICE, there could well be others, more or less tailored to the features and the needs of each event. What we want to stress here is that the only limit in this field is the imagination and the design ability — anything but narrow — of the people who organise these events. And that technology can be an excellent ally in delivering these projects and putting them to work to produce results.