From productions of The Nutcracker ballet to light parades, vendor markets, and Christmas concerts, the holiday season is full of festive events. It’s a wonderful time to get together and celebrate the joy of the season.
However, it’s also a time of chaos—end-of-semester school events, gift buying and wrapping, and family gatherings make the holidays hectic. When people go to a holiday event, the last thing they want is to experience more disorganization.
As an event manager, it’s your job to ensure that your event is as enchanting and stress-free as possible for your guests. Similarly, your mind is sure to be buzzing with everything that goes into event planning. You’ll want to make your event as smooth as possible for yourself, too.
That’s why choosing the right event registration platform is crucial for success. Registration is the first interaction guests will have with your event and the basis for your behind-the-scenes operations, so you must ensure your system sets the stage for an effortlessly magical time.
Customizable, User-Friendly Registration Forms
There are all sorts of holiday events requiring different pieces of information from attendees. When you create your registration forms, your software program should allow you to customize your fields so you get everything you need and nothing you don’t. Remember, you risk losing registrants’ attention by asking too many questions, so only include relevant and necessary information.
Your landing page and forms should also be easy to navigate. Registrants will be turned off by a slow-loading website or poorly designed interface. To keep attendance high and allow registrants to return to their holiday planning, make sure your registration process is crystal clear and lightning fast.
Social Media Integration
Your marketing plan should include every facet of technology. Your event should be highly visible to your target audience, and social media integration is a vital component of visibility.
Find a registration program that integrates with your social media accounts. This allows for seamless sharing across different social media platforms. You can use this to draw in new registrants, drum up excitement in the time between registration and check-in, and bring in both returning and new guests for future events.
QR Codes
Many holiday traditions are rooted in the past; people love to see local productions of A Christmas Carol and feel transported back to Victorian England. But guests won’t be impressed if your event’s technology is as antiquated as Ebenezer Scrooge.
The days of checking into an event with a pen and paper are long gone. Today’s technology requires event registration and check-in to be streamlined. That’s why your registration platform should utilize QR codes.
Whether you email registrants a personalized QR code before the event, include one on their badge, or use another method, QR codes make everything faster and easier. It only takes a moment to scan one and grant your guest access to all the holiday magic that awaits. Your registration software needs QR codes to minimize chaos and keep everything running smoothly.
Real-Time Analytics
Having access to real-time analytics is a pillar of every event. It allows you, as the event manager, to monitor registration rates, demographics, and attendance. The best software programs even track attendance at different areas of your event so you can add more seating, accurately gauge food and beverage amounts, and let guests know when an event is filled.
Accessing real-time data is critical for a successful event—for both you and your guests. You need to have as much information at your fingertips as possible during the event so you can gauge its success and adjust accordingly for the future. And your guests need information so they aren’t stuck waiting to get into an exclusive session only to find it full. The frustration that comes from knowing they could have spent more time at another exciting part of your event is detrimental to your brand.
Because of this, you need a registration software program that provides you with immediate, updated analytics.
Primed for Seasonal Success
As the song goes, the holidays are “the most wonderful time of the year.” Your guests will come to your event hoping to escape from the hustle and bustle of this time of year and instead enjoy the warmth and comfort of the holiday season. To keep guests adding tickets for the next event to their Christmas list, make sure your registration platform has all the necessary components for success.