In your company, are you responsible for booking venues, facilities, restaurants and organizing transportation for meetings and events?
| Keeping Up With the Changes |
As a meeting and events planner, you know the importance of staying current when it comes to all aspects of meetings and events. You want to be up to date on all of the latest registration techniques and know how to work all of those social media websites so that you will have the upper hand on planning.
To be honest, it is time consuming to keep up with the hottest promotional items and technology. The following information can be your one-stop-shop for all the important things that you need to know to maximize the success of your event.
Registration
Lets face it. Name tags and lanyards spread across the registration table in alphabetical order is slowly becoming a thing of the past. There is no need for people to stand in long lines to check in according to their last name. It is 2011. The technology is here and the tools to make it happen are easily accessible.
Thanks to the iPad, you can now offer a digital check-in that will allow you to speed up the check-in process and get your first point of face-to-face contact with your guests faster.
Specialized software and apps, designed for the iPad, can be used for an efficient registration before an event. This allows the registration staff to have quick and easy access to bookings, confirmations and other information that they might need real-time access to.
The iPad, which is light-weight, easily transportable and most importantly a wireless device that allows the staff to access a world of information from any location in the venue. The iPad is compatible with most wireless printers. When synchronized with the printer, the iPad can print out name badges, maps or anything you might need instantly.
This great feature allows you to keep your registration table clutter free and still have everything you or your guests might need right at your fingertips. Your guests will sure love the fast and effortless registration process and will be excited to see what other tech-savvy surprises are around the corner.
If you are not quit ready to go out and purchase the number of iPads needed to get through the registration process, you might want to look into creating an app to allow your guests to use his or her mobile phone to register themselves.
For example, you could e-mail the download of your app to the attendees ahead of time to pre-register. You could also have signs up around the registration table letting guests know that if they have a smart phone they could download your app at no cost to skip traditional or iPad registration. This would reduce the number of staff needed at the registration table and limit the number of iPads needed to register guests.
Social Media
Social media is everywhere. Even if you haven’t joined the bandwagon, you probably get tons of e-mail requests asking you to join a network or be someone’s friend. It seems like everyone and every organization is using at least one form of social media for marketing, branding, recruitment or customer relations. As a meeting and event planner, you need to connect with the people attending and social media just might be the most efficient way to do so.
Data from the 2010 Pew Internet and American Life Project survey found that 57 percent of adult users of the Internet either write, post or share content, information or media on one or more social networking sites. As you can see, social networking isn’t just for children and college students any more.
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are social networking sites that can be used from the planning stage, to promote interaction through onsite contributions, to post-event input. This will help provide real-time useful feedback so that appropriate changes can be made on the spot and in the future. Social media is an invaluable tool and is here to stay.
There’s An App For That
There are plenty, maybe even too many, applications available at the Apple App Store to choose from when it comes to helping better serve your guests. The following is a short list of apps that can help you do everything from getting guests registered to allowing guests to locate other guests in which they might have things in common.
Registration Apps
Event A Form: This app is designed for the iPad. It helps you to manage the process of registering your visitors on your meeting or event. It features a quick search engine and a customizable questionnaire. It can import and export CVS files as well as export e-mails.
Class Mate: This app is designed for the iPhone. It allows you to create a meeting or event list that will allow users to check in and out as they please. It can also track the attendance of a session. You can make group listings and take notes. It will even allow you to enter a summary of the day’s events so guests can look that over at a later time.
QR Bar Codes Apps
QR Code Generator: This app can be used with the iPhone or iPad. It will let you create your own QR bar code. This would allow you to put a set amount of information in a tiny bar code. This way when guests scan the QR bar code with their iPad or smart phone, they would have all of your information. This helps eliminate the need for carrying around excess papers that your guests would need to keep up with.
To be honest, it is time consuming to keep up with the hottest promotional items and technology. The following information can be your one-stop-shop for all the important things that you need to know to maximize the success of your event.
Registration
Lets face it. Name tags and lanyards spread across the registration table in alphabetical order is slowly becoming a thing of the past. There is no need for people to stand in long lines to check in according to their last name. It is 2011. The technology is here and the tools to make it happen are easily accessible.
Thanks to the iPad, you can now offer a digital check-in that will allow you to speed up the check-in process and get your first point of face-to-face contact with your guests faster.
Specialized software and apps, designed for the iPad, can be used for an efficient registration before an event. This allows the registration staff to have quick and easy access to bookings, confirmations and other information that they might need real-time access to.
The iPad, which is light-weight, easily transportable and most importantly a wireless device that allows the staff to access a world of information from any location in the venue. The iPad is compatible with most wireless printers. When synchronized with the printer, the iPad can print out name badges, maps or anything you might need instantly.
This great feature allows you to keep your registration table clutter free and still have everything you or your guests might need right at your fingertips. Your guests will sure love the fast and effortless registration process and will be excited to see what other tech-savvy surprises are around the corner.
If you are not quit ready to go out and purchase the number of iPads needed to get through the registration process, you might want to look into creating an app to allow your guests to use his or her mobile phone to register themselves.
For example, you could e-mail the download of your app to the attendees ahead of time to pre-register. You could also have signs up around the registration table letting guests know that if they have a smart phone they could download your app at no cost to skip traditional or iPad registration. This would reduce the number of staff needed at the registration table and limit the number of iPads needed to register guests.
Social Media
Social media is everywhere. Even if you haven’t joined the bandwagon, you probably get tons of e-mail requests asking you to join a network or be someone’s friend. It seems like everyone and every organization is using at least one form of social media for marketing, branding, recruitment or customer relations. As a meeting and event planner, you need to connect with the people attending and social media just might be the most efficient way to do so.
Data from the 2010 Pew Internet and American Life Project survey found that 57 percent of adult users of the Internet either write, post or share content, information or media on one or more social networking sites. As you can see, social networking isn’t just for children and college students any more.
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are social networking sites that can be used from the planning stage, to promote interaction through onsite contributions, to post-event input. This will help provide real-time useful feedback so that appropriate changes can be made on the spot and in the future. Social media is an invaluable tool and is here to stay.
There’s An App For That
There are plenty, maybe even too many, applications available at the Apple App Store to choose from when it comes to helping better serve your guests. The following is a short list of apps that can help you do everything from getting guests registered to allowing guests to locate other guests in which they might have things in common.
Registration Apps
Event A Form: This app is designed for the iPad. It helps you to manage the process of registering your visitors on your meeting or event. It features a quick search engine and a customizable questionnaire. It can import and export CVS files as well as export e-mails.
Class Mate: This app is designed for the iPhone. It allows you to create a meeting or event list that will allow users to check in and out as they please. It can also track the attendance of a session. You can make group listings and take notes. It will even allow you to enter a summary of the day’s events so guests can look that over at a later time.
QR Bar Codes Apps
QR Code Generator: This app can be used with the iPhone or iPad. It will let you create your own QR bar code. This would allow you to put a set amount of information in a tiny bar code. This way when guests scan the QR bar code with their iPad or smart phone, they would have all of your information. This helps eliminate the need for carrying around excess papers that your guests would need to keep up with.
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Send submissions to
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If accepted, your submission will be edited for length and clarity. There is no monetary payment if your item is used; instead, you can publicize yourself through a five-line biography with your contact information that will appear at the end of the article.
Send submissions to
editorial@MeetingPlannerResources.org. We will contact you if your submission is chosen.