Apps have reduced the need for paper booklets. “Know Before You Go” documents and other information are available digitally. Pictured: At the 2024 Facilisgroup’s emPOWER Women’s event, attendees find creative uses for paper. Photo by Jason Office

Love it or hate it, technology has become a part of our everyday lives. Event planners have certainly embraced technology as an effective means to plan and execute functions of all sizes. Attendees, too, have gotten comfortable with technology. Events and tech have become so intertwined, attendees expect to conduct most of their business for events — from registration to exchanging contact info with colleagues — on their phones or laptops.

Budgets dictate just how much tech can be integrated into the daily run of a show and its content, but planners agree it would be nearly impossible to manage events on the back end without some type of technology. Likewise, technology — including registration platforms and apps — has become second nature on the front end.

Jennifer Clark, owner of Emerge Events in Hattiesburg, MS, remembers the days of keeping track of every event detail in a binder. “I can’t imagine the old days of using binders. I still sometimes use paper, but I can’t imagine not being able to have instant data at my fingertips. You can do things so quickly. I rely heavily on tech for everything I do,” she says. She sings the praises of technology’s speed and efficiency. The event industry has shown it can be nimble and move fully online if necessary — yet it still recognizes the value of in-person events — so hybrid events strike that balance.

Getting Off on the Right Foot

At minimum, a user-friendly registration platform is a must, regardless of whether the event is in-person, online or hybrid. With the right platform, planners can manage registrations, calendars and multiple event details all in one place.

Cindy Carris is the travel, meeting and events manager for Paychex, an industry-leading HCM company delivering a full suite of technology and advisory services in human resources, employee benefit solutions, insurance and payroll, based in Rochester, NY. She oversees three planners who organize and execute meetings for the entire company. The meeting tool they currently use automates all internal events seamlessly. When Carris receives a notification about a new event request, she can log in and look at the scope of the event. If the request fits the parameters of a meeting, she will assign it to one of her planners based on their availability.  “Then, the information is already in the system. We know who they are, who their manager is, who their vice president is, because different levels of budgeting require different levels of approval at our company,” Carris says.

The requester must also share whether they need ground transportation, hotels, air [flights], and other logistics, including a proposed participant list. “From our perspective, it cuts down on the number of conversations back and forth we need to have with someone, so you at least have an outline of what they want,” says Carris.

Outside of Paychex’s internal tool, Carris is seeing a lot of new registration tools and “badge products.” If they are tech-enabled, attendees can “connect” their badges and swap contact info. A global company like Paychex needs more. “I’m seeing a lot of standalone technology. We need something that’s all-encompassing,” she says. “We use an all-encompassing meeting and event tool — it actually does more than we need it to. It’s great to have something that registers people and prints badges, but I need something that does everything — budgeting, capturing historical data, offering the ability for multiple paths to registration, so when I have a large meeting, I have different things offered to different people.”

Cvent is a favorite platform due to its ease of use on both the back and front ends and its many capabilities. When Sam Lee, corporate events manager for promotional products platform Facilisgroup in Brentwood, MO, started at the company almost three years ago, they had just started using Cvent. Fast forward to today, and Lee and her team have used most of its features, including the event app. “Going back into old records [prior to using Cvent], we don’t have as much information, and keeping that historical data is really helpful,” she says. “It’s also helpful on the attendee side — it gives them all their information immediately. If there’s a question, they can go to the app and find the answer easily.”

Lee said they “pay a little extra” for the secondary platform that powers the app, but it’s been well worth the investment. Its newer features, such as the ability to upload an interactive map of an event venue, have been very helpful. Lee explains it works much like a mall map, with “You Are Here” markers to help users navigate often-overwhelming event spaces.

Richard Reynolds, president, Medical Systems Group, Olympus Corporation of the Americas, speaks at the company’s 2024 sales meeting. Planners at the company say technology has enabled them to plan larger meetings. Photo by Chris McGinnis / Courtesy of Olympus Corporation of the Americas

Tech Can Streamline Any Event

Lead capture is in high demand at the trade shows Lee has attended (Facilisgroup attends a few trade shows a year and hosts a few of their own), so platforms with this capability are sought after. Swapcard is another platform gaining traction. Among its many features, it allows event organizers to tailor experiences for attendees, such as exhibitor and content recommendations and engagement tools like polls and Q&As, as well as other features for exhibitors, sponsors and data collecting.

Clark has also used Vizibo, though she says Cvent remains a favorite among planners. “The downside to all of this technology is planners are also expected to be magicians and technicians,” Clark says. “There are so many platforms out there, and there’s no way to know all of them. Many platforms came out during the pandemic and they’ve been bought out or changed. There’s so much out there.”

Rebekka Morgan is the executive director of creative services and event operations for the Olympus Corporation of America in Center Valley, PA. Among the many events she oversees is the company’s National Meeting of the Americas, formerly known as its national sales meeting. The event draws 1,400 people and features over 16 agendas over eight to nine business units — think 16 different sales meetings happening under one roof. It’s a massive undertaking that requires a meeting tool that can handle that amount of data and coordination. Meredith Start is the executive business project manager at Olympus, serving as assistant to the president and assisting Morgan with event logistics for the National Meeting. She previously used Crowd Compass; now, both Morgan and Start praise Cvent. “We first used Cvent as a site selection application for sourcing,” Morgan says. “As time evolved, we found out they had an app. So our first taste of the platform was site selection; as we learned about their other tools, we looked into more of their offerings.” Now, the team uses Cvent and Attendee Hub [a Cvent product that allows planners to create customized interactive experiences for attendees] exclusively.

Start says various features work together to streamline the whole process for both the planning team and attendees. Start or a team member can post the meeting’s entire robust agenda. “We have 90 rotations within 16 agendas, so that’s something like 800 sessions. Attendees can choose the sessions they want to attend. We also have maps and can pin locations on maps.” They use push notifications so all trainers across all divisions can customize the content. If something changes, a push notification is sent out and the new information uploads to attendees’ agendas. In past meetings for physicians, the events team has uploaded promo videos to the app to create “teaser” videos.

It’s been a game changer to go from a booklet with every detail of the planning to using technology, according to Start. Morgan adds, “We wouldn’t be doing a meeting of this size without something like this, because there’s just too much manual work put into it. Printing books, agendas — we couldn’t do what we do without a system like this.”

Choosing the Right Platform

In-house planners have the advantage of choosing a meeting tool that meets their needs. Independent planners don’t always have that kind of flexibility.  As a best-case scenario, a client will ask the planner to recommend a platform. It’s not unusual for planners to use multiple platforms at a time. “In one event, I could be using WhatsApp, GoogleSuite — the amount of tech stack you’re using is insane. For each client, you have to get educated on who is using what,” Clark says.

When Clark is asked to help select an event platform for a client, she first asks them about their goals. This helps to identify (and ultimately narrow down) options. “A colleague and I were recently tasked with finding a tech tool for an event. It’s overwhelming at first.  Engagement was [the client’s] biggest goal for the app. We created a big spreadsheet, populated it with data, and said to the client, ‘Here’s how [each platform] performs with your priorities.’ Everyone has priorities, so it helped to show how each performed.”

Budget plays a big role in choosing the right tool as well. “There are other tools out there we could potentially find, but for us, we were already using Cvent as a site selection tool and just happened to learn it also has an app,” Morgan says. She was already satisfied with the results she was getting with Cvent — learning about its other functionality was a bonus and meant she didn’t have to invest in additional software.

Carris uses an RFP process when researching and selecting software. When it’s time to “shop” for the right provider, Carris and the travel and tech analysis in her department do a comparison of the new product versus the one they’re currently using. “You look at the pricing, but you also have to consider if there are other tools needed. For instance, do we have to build in an internal connection? We just did a full-on comparison that’s not quite done, but it’s good to let your vendors know you’re doing your due diligence,” she says. When Carris and the analyst have all the necessary information, Carris speaks with her meeting planners, as it affects their daily job functions. “We’ve been with the same vendor for 12 years; we do an analysis every three years. Right now, our current tool is fulfilling all of our needs,” she says.

Attendees do expect some level of technology at events, though they’re not always comfortable with every aspect of it.  Lee considers tech an important element of events today. “Everyone is used to being really high-tech and getting all this information on their phones, but meeting them where they are is really important to stay engaged,” she says. “We can have live Q&As, or an attendee can text their question to a chat and we can put it up on the screen — some people are too shy to raise their hands and ask their question. With tools like QR codes, the person scans the QR code and we have their name and all their registration information, so we know they’re fully accounted for.”

Getting Ahead of the Game

Lee and her team have also used tech to prep registrants beforehand. They create “Know Before You Go” documents and webinars for registrants, which are shared on the company’s software platform and walks them through the event app. “Here is the information. Here are the other attendees. Setting that expectation beforehand is really important,” Lee says. “Many of our attendees come to our events year after year, so they get used to it.”

Clark has seen tech used as an incentive or enticement to get people to register and boost engagement. “We’ll populate event apps with information they can only get through the app,” she says. “We’ll have a connections spreadsheet the attendee can populate. People still like paper so there has to be a ‘printable’ option.”

Tech has unquestionably streamlined the event planning and execution process. Even the most expensive software provides significant cost savings for planners and clients. “Before we used Cvent we had so many emails and so many booklets we had to print. Then we’d have to print extras,” Lee says. “When I broke [costs] down after the event, I said we could be spending the same amount, or even a little less, on a meeting tool. I thought we could save on printing costs, and the sustainability piece was also important.”

With so many ways to integrate technology into events — from the back-end for planners, front-end for attendees, and content purposes for presenters — there is no shortage of tools available. However, it’s important to be clear on goals and how you plan to integrate tech into an event at all levels. C&IT