You’ve finished planning and executing your event. Your guests have all left, assuring your employees of their positive experience. You’re happy with the way everything turned out.
But you still feel like something was missing. That extra oomph. The wow factor.
Now that it’s time to plan your next event, you want to make sure all your guests come away with not just positive but raving reviews. You wonder how you can make that happen.
The answer is to follow these tips to make your next event a smashing success.
Simplify the Registration and Check-In Process
Far too many guests go to register for an event and find a lengthy, confusing form to fill out. When they finally finish registering and head to the event, your guests find a slow-moving line of people stretching outside the door. Guests are trying to check in, but parts of the process, such as registration, are slow and complicated.
Don’t let this nightmare become a reality for your guests. Make sure you use a convention registration software program that allows you to simplify and customize your registration forms to get guests through the process quickly and easily.
Likewise, your software platform should also encompass the check-in process. One-click VIP upsells and self-serve event check-in kiosks help shorten and streamline check-in. With the right software, your guests will complete check-in within just a few minutes instead of waiting in an endless line.
Make QR Codes Your All-Inclusive Guide
Another thing that will give your guests a negative experience at your event is to use outdated technology. With technology evolving so quickly, sticking to pen-and-paper methods is not only slower and more prone to human error, but it will make your guests think the information they’ll get at your event is just as obsolete.
A simple way to incorporate today’s technology into your event is to use QR codes. You can use them on venue signs, guests’ badges, and any other convenient place.
A QR code can function as attendees’ all-in-one information center. When they scan the code, their mobile device will take them to your event’s landing page, where they can see a map of the venue, each day’s schedule, and menus. They can also receive real-time updates so no one is left in the dark, even when they’ve gone to their hotel for the night.
Prioritize Sustainability with Badges
Just as your guests will be looking for technology firmly grounded in the 21st century, they’ll also want to see ways you’ve prioritized sustainability at your event.
A simple and surprisingly effective way to do this is to utilize onsite badge printing for events. You’ll inevitably have registrants who were unable to attend your event. When you print every guest’s badge during check-in, you’ll cut down significantly on wasted plastic or paper by avoiding pre-printing badges for every registrant.
As an added bonus, printing badges on demand drastically reduces the time each guest spends in the check-in line. Instead of supplying several employees with a box of pre-printed badges to sort through, guests can simply print their badge when they finish checking in and quickly move to the event. It’s an efficient, impressive, and hassle-free process.
Emphasize the Guest Experience with Real-Time Attendance Tracking
You may have heard of using real-time attendance tracking, but you might not have thought of it in the context of enhancing the guest experience.
The reality is that when you use event attendance tracking software, you can make your event an amazingly intuitive and personalized experience for your guests. When you know how many guests are in each room, you’ll know whether you need to add extra seats. You’ll have an accurate estimate for food and beverage orders, so you don’t have hungry guests or piles of uneaten food at the end of a meal.
Tracking attendance can also help you plan a better guest experience for future events. Understanding exact attendance records at every session can help you decide which speakers to reach out to again and which weren’t as successful. You can also see which session topics and styles, like meet-and-greets or group brainstorming sessions, were a hit with your guests and which fell flat. With all this data, your future events can be tailored even better for your attendees.
Set the Stage for Success
Nothing is more disheartening than spending months planning an event only for it to fall flat. Whether it could have gone better in your guests’ eyes or your own (or both), you don’t want to be left feeling defeated and unsure how to make your event better.
Luckily, making your event impactful and impressive doesn’t have to be an all-consuming task. By simply using an event management software program that incorporates new, high-powered technology, you can ensure your event is a crowd-pleasing experience for every guest.