The future of event registration
In this article we’ll discuss how the two types of event registration will evolve in an effort to simplify and streamline the event registration process. Firstly, pre-event registration, which entails getting a “yes” or “no” response from a guest to confirm whether they’ll be attending an event. And secondly, on-site event registration is the process whereby a guest “checks in” on the day of an event.
The pre –event registration process will evolve in several ways:
Our frenetic pace of life means we now have less time than ever before. Coupled with the fact that we’re constantly being invited to an ever-growing number of events, achieving the holy grail of a positive RSVP is becoming increasingly more difficult.
Guests will need more persuading than ever before.
In the past, event registration entailed the simple act of sending out some email invitations and then collating the responses from guests. As our lives get even more hectic, people will be less likely to respond to to email invites due to limited time and the vast amount of invitations they receive.
As spam filters become more sophisticated, more email invitations will end up labelled as spam.
The beautiful, carefully designed invitation that you spent all night making? It probably won’t see the light of day thanks to over-enthusiastic spam folders. What this means for event planners is that essentially, there’ll be an increased need to optimise your event registration invitations in order to ensure that they land in the inbox of your intended recipients.
Another method that will help event planners combat this problem will be an increased focus on “call downs” – a follow-up in the form of a phone call.
Communicating with your guests verbally gives you the opportunity to find out why they haven’t responded – they might have been too busy to reply, the invite might have landed in their spam folder, or they just weren’t bothered. In any case, adding a human connection to an email invitation will become an important part of your pre-event registration process.
These services will also be outsourced – most companies have neither the time nor personnel needed to follow up with their guests. Outsourcing a call down service will streamline the process and ensure its efficiency.
Invitations will become more intuitive.
Facilities that remember pertinent information about your guests will grow in popularity. If someone has told a brand that they’re a vegetarian at a past event, this will eliminate them from having to repeatedly give you the same information, and it’ll make them feel valued by your brand when you remember their preferences.
On-site event registration has traditionally been a time-consuming and complicated process.
As even the most seasoned event planner knows, not everyone who’s registered to attend an event will show up on the day. Setting up an event registration desk is a way to consolidate the number of guests who’ve arrived with the number of people who said they’d attend and then ended up being a no-show.
They’re typically set up behind a desk complete with a PC, a printer and a tangle of extension cords.
Event organisers will start to use tablets instead – eradicating the need for a whole lot of heavy equipment that takes ages to set up and then break down again.
Having to hunt high and low for a plug point in order to activate your modem only to have the power cut out half way through will become obsolete and everything will be orchestrated from an iPad or similar tablet device.
Companies will start to outsource their ushers and administration staff – freeing up valuable personnel to network and attend to the needs of their guests.
Instead of using your own employees to carry out the administrative task of checking guests in on the day of your event, event managers will opt to use hired help to ensure that their own team is on hand to network and represent the brand.
Send SMS and email blasts to guests at the event
Event planners will be able to use platforms to communicate with guests throughout the event (and after the event) – eradicating the time-wasting performance of attempting to notify everyone (via a loudspeaker) that the proceedings are about to begin. As your realtime database is updated as guests are checked in, you’ll be able to conduct real time reporting – which will allow you to determine invaluable information like the number of guests who’ve yet to arrive – allowing you to make informed decisions about things like when procedures should begin. And instead of frantically searching a sea of faces in a jam-packed venue, you’ll instantly be able to determine whether or not your all-important VIPs have arrived.
Image Credit: The Ergo Lab
