During the current wave of the covid-19, one of the containment measures was to avoid large gatherings. The strict containment measures and restrictions on the gathering made it more difficult for companies and organizations to hold any public meeting or gathering. Most of them resort to different virtual events to cope with the situation and technological developments. Virtual event management involves the use of online platforms to manage all the events processes. This article provides a complete insight into the event management platform.
What is an Event Management Platform?
An event management platform is a system or software that incorporates various tools, which help to streamline an event planning process. The system achieves its goals by offering features that address different aspects of different event management within a single package or product. Organizations or companies use these systems to manage both the small and large-scale events in their organizations. The events may range from trade shows, festivals, conferences, professional organizations meetings, and product launches.
Benefits of Using an Event Management Platform
With the difficulties of physically managing an event, especially large-scale events or during the pandemic, most organizations have opted for different event management platforms. These platforms have numerous benefits that ensure the smooth running of any event. Let’s look at the benefits of using event management platforms.
1. Easy to manage
It’s easier to manage your meetings or events when using an event management platform. The platform helps you keep track of the event’s flow and all the moving parts to help ensure the event’s smooth running. Tracking of the events makes it easy to organize and identify any issues that may affect the smooth running of the event, unlike when having manual management. Some platforms like EventAIR have dashboards that show all the elements of your event from the registration, reporting, payments, and promotion to the venue. It provides a holistic view and brings everything or steps in simpler forms to help get a successful event.
2. Saves time
The various event management platforms generally help the organizers to save time. They achieve saving time by ensuring that all the processes are automated. The automating processes include registration, booking, payment, and follow-ups, thus making the processes quick and streamlined. In addition, the presence of a centralized and integrated system helps to bring everything in one place, making it simple, effective, and faster to manage.
3. It cuts down on the costs
An event management platform will be important in cutting down the cost of an event by enabling you to track all the spending. After tracking down the spendings, the system allows you to analyze them against your estimated budget through their user-friendly dashboards. This process allows you to ensure your spendings achieves a maximum return on the event’s investment. These systems provide the simplest form of managing your payments and controlling your expenses, thus saving more and achieving higher returns.
4. Improved data collection
Unlike the manual systems, where it’s very hard to keep the manual log for attendees’ preferences and details, the event management platforms help simplify the process. Through the automation of all the processes, it makes it easier for the collection and organization of events data. The system makes it easier to capture all the leads during any event, enabling you to send personalized emails. Additionally, the software keeps your data updated and regularly manages it using a data protection technique that ensures that they comply with current regulations.
5. Allows for proper analysis of your data
With numerous features such as reporting, polling, and analytics, most event management platforms allow easy access and analysis of event data. The organizers can also get feedback from the attendees and then generate reports, which can help you draft the appropriate mechanism for improvement next time. The systems also allow you to check the different segments and break down the data to determine the specific areas with success and those that require some improvements.
Tips for Choosing the Right Event Management Platform
With the evolving technology, an event management platform comes with numerous advantages like making work easy, proper data analysis, saving cost, and many others. However, to achieve these benefits, it’s important to choose the right platform. Below are tips that’ll guide on choosing the right event management platform:
1. Ensure it supports events of different formats
With the current situation, you’ll see the emergence of different formats of events, including the combination of both virtual and in-person events. It’ll be essential to choose a system that allows multiple formats to ensure an easy transaction from one form to the other. It may be confusing, time-consuming, and costly to manage an event using two systems, making it a top priority to choose a centralized platform for all the events.
2. Check for the integration of different management tools
When checking for the right event management platform, it’s important to consider checking the platform’s integration with different tools, including the traditional ones. The tools will be essential in creating the event’s website, setting up a registration process, hosting the program, and tracking payments. Having all the necessary tools in the platform will help you have an efficient process helping to save on cost and time.
3. Ensure the platform allows for virtual networking
While looking for a suitable platform, it’s important to consider checking one that allows all the attendees to stay connected and updated. The system should have features like discussion forums, chat feeds, live videos, and integrated social media channels to achieve this objective. Virtual networking will be vital for allowing an impactful in-person event.
4. Check for a system that integrates easily with the system and tools you’re using
Choosing a system that can easily incorporate your system and tools from the registration and booking to the main event will be important. For example, if you want all payments through certain mobile money, it’ll be good if you want a platform that offers it. This property helps to achieve a seamless transition and minimum issues when integrating the systems.
5. Ability to customize the platform
Customization of the platform will be important to ensure that you market and build your brand. Thus, it’s important to consider choosing a platform that allows you to customize it to your brand’s name. It allows all the features to align with your brand’s identity, providing a consistent experience to all your attendees. Before you choose a particular platform, ensure that it allows for full customization of its features.
Bottom Line
With the current development and issues surrounding large gatherings, an event management platform plays an important role in simplifying and supporting your event management process. With its features, the system helps achieve the best event management by saving time and cost, making the management easy, and providing proper data analysis. Nevertheless, to achieve these benefits, it’s always vital to consider choosing the right platform. The above tips will be essential for choosing the right event management platform suiting your needs and preferences.