How to Run Unforgettable Corporate Events with Event Technology

One of the most common pitfalls with corporate events–all types of events, really– is the misalignment that often occurs between your event goals and  the event technology solution you’ve purchased.

When you are choosing event technology to manage registration, digital signage, event apps, whatever, you need to be clear about how these solutions will help you accomplish the unique goals of your event. This will help you sell through this tech spend to your boss and run a more memorable event that delivers the right results.

The thing is, when you are running multiple corporate events annually with different goals, you don’t have the time or capacity to seek out a different solution for each event.

And that’s why it’s much simpler to choose an event technology platform that is highly configurable and enables you to customize your registration, digital signage and event app to suit the unique purpose of the event.

Aligning event technology with event goals

Let’s get a little more practical. For example, you could choose to use the same event app platform to run both sales kickoffs and annual general meetings but to meet your goals, you may require different functionality.

For example, to help increase networking and engagement  at your next sales kickoff, you could create game-based challenges through your event app. But light-hearted games may not be the right fit your Annual General Meeting.  Instead, you may be looking for functionality like live polling to vote on specific topics for discussion.

The important point to remember is that you can and should customize your event technology solution to align with your events’ goals.

Here are some ideas on how to run different types of corporate events through a single event technology platform:

How to Kick it at Sales Kickoffs 

Sales kickoffs are important to start the fiscal year off on the right foot. Typically the goals of these events are to ensure that sales team members are well educated on the product(s) and energized and excited to dominate sales targets.

Here are a few tips to ensure you kick it your next kickoff:

• Go paperless by storing and securing important presentations, training documents and product information and making it easily accessible to all sales reps anytime and anywhere.
• Spark new relationships by incentivising your team with a networking game where attendees are encouraged and rewarded for meeting new team members and leadership executives (Download our Ultimate Guide to Gamification).
• Increase engagement and excitement to ensure your team is ramped up and prepared for the upcoming sales year. With in-app engagement tools such as Group Discussions, live polling and Q&A, you can create curated conversations in-app about key learnings and encourage live discussions during important educational sessions.

Review Company Goals at the AGM

Annual General Meetings are mandatory meetings which cover important information about an organization’s overall status, reviews the previous fiscal year and financial reports and some key business decisions may be made.

With shareholders, C-level executives, members of the Board of Directors and other key leadership involved, branding and security are of utmost importance.

Here’s how you can accomplish these goals with an event app:

• Ensure security by uploading financial documents into a secure app and make sure that access is controlled to attendees lists with password protection and other security measures.
• Impress the key players with a branded & sleek looking design and ensure they have quick access to the agenda and other important details at their fingertips.
• Capture feedback and make in-the-moment decisions through audience response tools such as in-app Q&A and live polling.

Create the Perfect Debut at your Next Product Launch

Product Launches are organized to show the latest and greatest offerings of that company and build sales momentum. To ensure success, a product launch must successfully reach several different audiences and ensure that each gains excitement and positivity about what they are seeing.

How can event technology help?

• Educate attendees by making it easy for your attendees to learn more about your product. Upload product information, videos & paperless handouts into a custom-branded app so your attendees can access the information whenever they want.
• Create buzz on social media by integrating with your social media platforms and allowing attendees to interact and spread the news about your product. You can pre-select a twitter hashtag ensuring everyone is using the same one and incorporate Live Display – digital signage with a live tweet wall!
• Eliminate Q&A hassle and ensure clarity by allowing attendees to submit questions through the app and eliminate the hassle of a microphone.

Deliver Value at Partner & User Conferences

Partner and user conferences are important for an organization to build strong relationships with its customers and prospects by connecting them with the right information and people.

Here’s how to use an integrated platform to ensure a measurable return on investment:

• Create a seamless registration experience by implementing an online and integrated registration solution. It will be easy for attendees to register, painless to manage and simple for you to capture those important pre-event questions around dietary restrictions, session preferences and other important details.
• Encourage knowledge sharing onsite by allowing attendees to interact with both the session content and other customers through engagement tools such as live polling, Q&A and Group Discussions.
• Demonstrate event ROI by creating custom reports with a seamless platform and built-in analytics. Dig into the details so you can understand what your attendees loved and where there’s room for improvement in the future.

Maximize Exhibitors’ ROI at Tradeshows 

Tradeshows bring customers and prospects to meet with organizations to learn more about their products or services. The key is to ensure that sponsors or exhibitors feel that they are getting a return on their investment for being there and that attendees leave with the information they were looking for.

This can be easily achieved with the following:

• Highlight sponsors, exhibitors and partners by ensuring that each has some digital real estate to share company information, product news and more. Increase exposure of your key partners by utilizing your event apps’ homescreen, creating banner ads and using sponsor ribbons.
• Guide attendees effortlessly through interactive mapping by demonstrating where each exhibitor is located. No more flipping through pages and pages of exhibitor booth numbers!
• Increase exhibitor traffic – Have a few exhibitors that aren’t getting the traffic they expected? Through gamification, it’s easy to encourage attendees to visit specific booths so those exhibitors are sure to return back next year.

Create an Incentive Trip to Inspire  

Incentive trips are a chance for attendees to kick back and enjoy the payoff from all of their hard work. They want it to be stress-free but you also want to make sure that it’s seamless and easy to contact everyone even when they aren’t all together.

Event apps make it simple to keep in touch with all your attendees:

• Provide everything they need to know before they go by uploading key contacts, hotel details, shuttle times and activity information.
• Keep your attendees informed (even if they escaped to the pool for the day) with real-time alerts & notifications.
• Foster new relationships by allowing attendees to view the profiles of the people they’ll be spending their time with and allow them to send in-app messages to make a few new friends along the way.

Event technology is gradually popping up at all corporate events as it’s a great way to increase ROI, make changes on the fly and ensure attendees have everything they need in the palm of their hand; however, it’s important to remember, it’s not a one-size-fits-all. The right event technology solution can be customized to ensure your events reach their primary goals.

What Next?

• For more ideas on how to create game-based challenges for your corporate events, check out our Ultimate Guide to Gamification
• Learn how Live Display goes beyond social walls to help you capture sponsor ROI and keep attendees informed on-the-go