Nowadays, planners have access to multiple digital solutions that can alleviate the logistic and event marketing workload, scaling up the outcomes. There's no shortage of event management software and apps designed to suit each professional's needs. The use of event technology is gradually becoming the guarantee of successful results and positive ROI.
Event tech companies are getting better at providing the necessary tools that CMOs and planners can use to generate offline and online engagement. Additionally, access to valuable solutions help event professionals build personalized experiences for different audiences, while also successfully navigating potential generational gaps between their attendees. It’s only a matter of time until all planners fully adapt these digital solutions to solve their logistic and marketing challenges.
However, until this happens, it's important to highlight the discrepancy between the unstoppable advancement of event technology and the lack of knowledge planners need to make well-informed decisions.
As meetings technology expert Corbin Ball notes, "One challenge for meeting planners is how to sort through the blizzard of information they have coming at them so they can make the right choices." Often, planners won't understand the real potential of event technology and end up using it for the wrong reasons.
This issue is stopping them from leveraging the true value of digital planning and marketing platforms, subsequently generating frustration and disbelief. To prevent this from happening, here's a list of the wrong reasons professionals must avoid when deciding to incorporate event technology in the planning journey:
Wrong reason #1. Searching for basic solutions
There's nothing wrong with wanting to automatize redundant and annoying logistic procedures. However, it's important to keep in mind that event technology can do so much more ... If you used event software platforms or apps solely for digitization purposes, you’d fail to realize and harness the true potential of these tools.
You see, even the most mediocre event technology can handle logistic automatization. What's important to keep in mind is that before choosing a digital solution for your events, you must craft a strategic vision about what you want to massively improve and scale up.
For example, you can search for something that, apart from covering the logistics, offers complete marketing and attendee journey automatization, easy-to-use B2B platforms, or invoice generation features. Take one step forward, analyze what you actually need (apart from a tool that will help you automatically update the attendee spreadsheets), and go for something that will truly boost your team's efficiency.
Wrong reason #2. Wanting to keep up with industry trends
This will always be a bad idea. Trends come and go, yet you’ll have the same planning and event marketing issues. The problem here is that you won't purchase an event management platform or app to solve concrete challenges you have and amplify your event’s ROI. Instead, you’ll do it just because everyone else does. As a result, you won't have a clear vision about how these digital tools can truly improve your workflow.
Wrong reason #3. Believing this will attract more attendees to your event
People don't care if they can access the event program from an app instead of a printed booklet. That will not influence or convince them to register. If you want to attract more people to your event, use powerful marketing strategies. Of course, event technology can definitely help you with different promotion techniques; yet, you must understand that an event management platform or app, by itself, is not the guarantee of a higher attendance rate.
Wrong reason #4. Become a 'better' professional
Let’s clear this up: using event technology does not automatically equal being a more successful planner. It can definitely enhance your skills, yet it's not a requirement. There are plenty of incompetent event organizers who use the latest event technology, and conversely, there are incredibly amazing professionals who can plan and run awesome events with basic digital resources.
Wrong reason #5. Aiming to 'disrupt' your attendees' experience
It’s no secret that event mobile apps and platforms promise a higher degree of attendee engagement and/or better interaction between your guests and the event itself. Moreover, event technology introduced the gamification feature that you can use 'to disrupt' their experience.
There's nothing wrong with that, but if your only reason to purchase an event app or platform is to gamify your event, don’t bother. Gamification is not just another fancy must-have. On the contrary, it's a complex concept that only few planners understand. Before deciding to gamify your event, you must have a clear idea about what you want from it and how you want to change your attendees' behavior.
Call to action
Before deciding which event management platform or app to adopt, write down the event planning and marketing concepts you want to improve. Ask yourself what your needs are and how event technology can help you add massive value to your attendees (and team members). Carefully analyze your motivations, design a strategic vision about the future planning workflow, and then start searching for a digital tool that suits your needs.
