If you’ve ever attended a professional event, you probably understand how
complex things can get for the people running the show. Event hosts have a
lot of tasks to handle in order to put up a perfectly managed event. That’s
why they often make use of feature-rich Event Management Software to
simplify logistics and management.
Such platforms not only take care of the nitty-gritties involved but also
help analyze the impact of such events and facilitate their comparison with
the desired outcomes. But since there are hundreds of event management
software available in the market, choosing the perfect one which will be
able to deliver the kind of performance and quality you seek can become
challenging.
That’s why we’ve compiled a list of a few must have features the ideal Event
Management Software should possess. When selecting such a tool for your
upcoming event, a quick check of these features can assure you make the
right choice.
Features of a useful Event Management Software
Different phases make up an event from start to finish. To simplify
understanding them, we’ve categorized the list of desirable features as per
the phase of the event they’re relevant to.
Features for Pre-Event activities:
The best way to let people know about your event is through a
dedicated website that highlights the planned activities and other
relevant details about the event. A great-looking informative event
website gives away a good first impression of the event you’re
planning. Also, the same website can be used to facilitate attendee
registrations in an easy manner.
A useful event management software must therefore support event
website creation which is equipped with attendee registration forms.
Managing multi-day events is often more complex than single day
events since hosts need to sort the day, time, and slot for each
activity. If you have a clearly planned out agenda ready, tackling
things can become much simpler.
The event management software you’re considering should have Agenda
Building capabilities with which you can make a sort of a blueprint
for your upcoming event. The agenda can then be shared with
colleagues for approvals, suggestions, and discussions.
So before picking a platform, ask this, does it let you build event
agenda?
Each attendee might have a different goal in mind for attending your
event. The best way to accommodate different attendee goals would be
to offer varying ticketing options, each offering specific targeted
results. Something like a basic ticket, a slightly upgraded version,
and a VIP ticket.
The platform you’re eyeing should thus support a bunch
of Event Ticketing options and the possibility of handling discount
codes.
To let your target audience know about your event, the ideal
strategy is to craft and send out hand-picked invites highlighting
significant event activities. Once attendees have registered for
your event, just before the d-day, you should send out polite
reminders to let them gain the impression that their presence makes
a difference.
However, manually creating personalized invites and
handling timely reminders is a mountain of a task. Instead, you can
take the help of an efficient event management software to get
access to a range of inbuilt invite templates which once selected
can be turned into hundreds of personalized invites within a few
clicks.
Does the platform you’re thinking of include such an
ability?
Features for During Event activities:
The primary activity you need to perform when your event starts is
managing attendee check-ins. Usually, it is a multi-step process
that includes tallying if the registered attendees have arrived,
issuing dedicated badges to them, and taking care that all of them
have the required material to participate in the event.
A resourceful event management software can help you
automate all these tasks. As an attendee arrives, you check his
registration status and hit the checkbox, a badge with pre-stored
information about his name, occupation, and industry is issued, and
his attendee kit is handed over to him.
The ideal event management software should hence be
able to perform such a task.
Features for Post-Event activities:
One of the best ways to engage audiences is to
conduct event surveys. What most people appreciate is a channel
to voice their opinion. Through a survey, they get that chance.
Spend some time drafting exactly what you wish to ask them – it
might be information like thoughts on the venue you picked, or
feedback on the questions your speakers asked, or anything else
– and then collate all the data you get through an intuitive
interface which can offer you valuable insights.
Needless to say, your targeted platform should
support survey creation, information storage, and a way to
analyze the data once collected.
As already hinted at, one of the key features of
the platform should be data analysis, for what use is a
corporate event if you can’t analyze the findings from it to
improve your business strategies.
Therefore, the event management software you wish
for should include reporting and analytics features and
preferably come with intuitive interfaces (like dashboards) to
manage things.
And now, let’s sum up
While those are the primary features you should look out
for when selecting secure, flexible, and easy-to-work-with Event
Management Software, there could be several other desirable things
in such a platform. Can you think of any? We’d love to know your
thoughts!