Live streaming offers event organizers unique opportunities to increase their reach, market event content and harness additional monetization potential. We reviewed 5 providers for you which can provide easy and quick LIVE stream solutions (for your events).

Livestreaming – Why is it so Relevant?

Today, events are expected to create a live experience that feels genuine and to offer participants not only added value in terms of content, but also in terms of lasting impact and brand recognition. That’s why event organizers are looking for an all-inclusive, carefree package to meet all of their guests’ requirements. Unfortunately, events capacities tend to be limited by budget constraints, seat numbers and/or space (such as seminar rooms). There are also external (environmental) circumstances — e.g. participants cannot travel to the event. These are the main reasons why virtual events are becoming increasingly important. 

What’s the deal with video content? First, you can monetize video content. Thanks to live broadcasting or video content streaming/sharing, you can address a “secondary” audience and thus expand your reach beyond your traditional list of participants. This creates not just an opportunity for people to virtually join your event from anywhere in the world but also for your event to showcase your brand to potential leads beyond your current market. 

Secondly, you can use these videos for marketing purpose. If you decide to offer them for free, then you can maximize their visual impact and reach to bring further attention to your events. You could post an entire talk or lecture or short clips via social media to attract potential new participants with interesting and relevant content. This way you create incentives for people to get a ticket for your events at the next opportunity. You can also publish these videos as a learning tool on your website or blog or provide them to your participants instead of presentations.

B2B or B2C?

An important challenge is to find the right streaming provider for your event. One of the most important questions you have to answer is: which target group should your streaming be directed to? Consumers or businesses?

One can understand why some companies initially choose free B2C streaming services. However, most popular B2C streaming solutions, such as YouTube Live, automatically get the rights to your video content and can monetize it themselves. This approach can be beneficial for some broadcasters. However, many companies that operate in the B2B sector want to avoid this, as well as third-party advertising and comments. 

Therefore, we are going to show you different providers from across the B2B and B2C sectors.   

YouTube Live

The world’s most famous video platform has long been offering not only beauty blogs, tech reviews, and vlogs, but also extensive live-streaming of music, news, sport events etc.

ADVANTAGES:
360° videos
huge user base
embedding on your own website
various monetization options
promotion by Google

DISADVANTAGES:
account verification and video encoding software required
use of Google services forbidden/blocked by some companies’ policies

PRICES:
free of charge

Facebook Live

In recent years, Facebook Live has made live streaming of events possible for everyone.

ADVANTAGES:
huge user base
direct integration into Facebook
defined range and visibility
video is available after the event with the timeline
live marketing for every budget
video length up to 8 hours

DISADVANTAGES:
frequent technical problems and streaming crashes
Facebook is often forbidden/blocked by some companies’ policies
occasionally low quality of the stream

PRICES:
free of charge; upgrades from 1 EUR per day

FURTHER B2C PROVIDERS: Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Periscope, StreamShark

Vimeo Livestream

The strength of Vimeo is primarily in its excellent video quality. In addition, the platform offers the Mevo Plus, a purpose-made camera as well as various interesting monetization options. For a rental fee or a purchase, interested viewers can either watch the video for a certain period or if bought, have it available permanently. This platform focuses on professional (business) customers and offers many additional marketing tools.

ADVANTAGES:
HD (1080p live) +4k streaming
streaming of 3 parallel events
embedding on the own website
Live Q&A, graphics and surveys
public chat

DISADVANTAGES:
not suited for streaming via Smartphone

PRICES:
70 EUR per month

IBM Watson Media Video Streaming

In 2016, the company Ustream was acquired by IBM and merged with other companies specializing in various streaming processes. Ustream was originally developed for communication between soldiers and their families.

ADVANTAGES:
cloud-based solution, available on multiple devices
possibility of monetization (paywall)
lead generation
high safety standards
Live polls
chat room

DISADVANTAGES:
HD 720p streaming only
maximum 5,000 spectator hours

PRICES:
from 99 to 999 USD per month for different packages (Silver, Gold, Platinum)

dacast

In contrast to consumer-oriented platforms like YouTube or Facebook Live, dacast works with B2B customers.

ADVANTAGES:
integration on websites and social media
white label
video hosting
analytics
flexible prices (suitable for one-time-use)

DISADVANTAGES:
paywall possible with a package starting at 125 USD
storage up to 500 GB, expansion possible against an additional upgrade

PRICES:
from 19 to 289 USD per month for different packages (Starter, Premium, Enterprise) also one-time use per event possible

FURTHER B2B PROVIDERS: Wowza, brightcove, vplayed, boxcast, StreamingVideoProvider

Summary

Live-streaming of events offers organizers great opportunities to monetize their event content or to strengthen marketing activities. In this article, we have introduced 5 providers of live streaming in detail and pointed out the difference between B2C and B2B platforms.

The post Event-Livestreaming – The 5 Top Providers 2020 first appeared on LineUpr Blog.

Are all push notifications really read? Are they better than in-app notifications? Our experience shows that in-app notifications are better than their reputation says and are more successful in the long term than the push alternative.

Today, the focus is on the direct comparison of in-app and push notifications. If you ask organizers, most of them prefer push notifications for their event apps. However, this desire springs from false or outdated assumptions. We will subsequently clear up and show you what the various types of messages technically mean, what advantages and disadvantages arise for the organizers and participants, and what we think about it.

Push Notifications

When organizers hear the terms “send notifications” and “event apps” together, most instinctively assume push notifications. It’s the classic form of notifications, as we all know from our installed apps. In simple terms, the app can send a signal to the smartphone. Depending on the settings of the smartphone, it rings, vibrates or activates a notification on the display. The app itself does not have to be opened by the user before. This message type is thus able to trigger an activity for the user without having to be active in advance.

In-App Notifications

Unlike push notifications, in-app notifications cannot actively “address” the smartphone, but are only active in the app itself. So if the organizer sends an in-app notification, then the user’s device will not respond to it automatically, so it neither rings nor vibrates, nor shows a notification on the home screen. Here, the initial activity must come from the user. Only when he opens the app in question the message will be displayed.

What do Organizers Think?

Organizers actually always want push notifications for their apps. This has two main reasons. First, they are simply accustomed to seeing messages directly on their smartphone from apps installed from the app store. The second reason is the fear that their visitors do not receive the messages that they sent. Organizers of course only send relevant messages to their guests, who absolutely must read them. The push notification ensures that guests receive this message without opening the app. Many organizers believe that their push notifications are more likely to be read than in-app notifications.

Both of these arguments are outdated and can also be solved with in-app notifications, but more on that in the section “Our point of view”.

What do Participants Think?

For participants, the prevailing opinion is not as clear as with the organizers. Although a relevant mass can handle push notifications very well, the vast majority reject them, at least as far as event apps are concerned. Many people find the constant vibration of their smartphones at events very annoying and simply turn off the push function of the app. Although there is no valid data, if you look around a bit, it quickly becomes clear that most people switch off the push function after at least three useless messages. In contrast to the organizer, the participants’ fear of missing notifications at events is rather low. There are certainly apps where push notifications are very useful, but for the most part, it gets annoying over time. This is also shown by the trend to generally disable the push function on the smartphone.

Push Notifications vs. In-App Notifications

With both push and in-app notifications, it’s about providing your visitors with the latest news. Only the way to the destination is different. Here the pros and cons are summarized:

Benefits of Push
User receives a notification without being active.

Disadvantages of Push
User is interrupted during his activity -> unwanted messages or inappropriate situations lead to rejection and negative emotions.

Benefits of In-App
Users can independently determine when they want to deal with the event and relevant information and then they receive the notifications.

Disadvantages of In-App
Users must become active to receive notifications.

Our Point of View

At LineUpr we currently rely exclusively on in-app notifications. The reasons are both technical in nature and because of our vision. After more than 2 years of experience and more than 700 accompanied events, however, our opinion has changed a bit.

Vision

We admit it. That LineUpr apps do not allow push notification is originally due to the fact that it was not technically possible at that time (more about that). However, having attended more events week after week and immersing ourselves deeply in the industry, this original limitation has become more and more our vision. At the heart of LineUpr should always be a simple, intuitive product that meets the needs of the organizers, but primarily focuses on the participant. Many of them are annoyed by the many unnecessary push messages from the event apps. Organizers tend to spread every little change as widely as possible. The guests tend to care less about this and feel increasingly bothered by the masses of notifications.

An event app should never interrupt or destroy the real programme flow. It should support the participants, always provide them with the latest information and strengthen the positive feeling at the event. This is much better guaranteed with in-app notifications than with push notifications.

Technical limitation

All event apps from LineUpr are web apps. When we launched LineUpr, it was not technically possible to send push messages using a web app. Meanwhile, the Web technology has evolved and it is possible, but unfortunately so far only for Android systems. Apple or iOS does not yet allow this feature for web apps. Until both major operating systems allow push notifications, we cannot release this feature yet because users find it difficult to communicate when the feature works for one but not for another.

Our opinion

Our opinion already came out in the section “Vision”. We clearly prefer in-app notifications, but we will not refuse push notifications. As soon as Apple allows this function, we will implement it. Our goal, however, is to convince every organizer of the in-app variation. Everyone can certainly understand how annoying it is when you’re in a stimulating conversation and this is interrupted because your smartphone rings, only to tell you that the buffet has just opened. However, if the user actively opens the app, he is ready for event information. As an organizer, you want to communicate with your guests exactly in this state, because they not only see and read the message here but also really take it in and do not mentally push it away. Our event data clearly shows that the in-app notifications are on average the third most open pages. And that is all the more remarkable since the first active action clearly has to come from the user. Here his attention is therefore significantly greater than with push interruptions at approximately the same reader rate.

Summary

Organizers always talk about push messages when communicating with an event app. The in-app version is seen as rather critical because they are afraid that their messages will not be read. Event participants see exactly the opposite and could very well do without the constant vibration of their smartphones. We understand why organizers always call for push notifications but at the same time, we can prove with data that in-app notifications are significantly better than their reputation says. They are very well received and are read by the participants, so you do not have to worry about information being lost. Push notifications, on the other hand, often hit the participants in awkward moments and they tend to click the notification away. So although they have seen it, they have not really recorded it.

Feedback

What is your opinion on push notifications vs. in-app notifications? Do you also switch off your push notifications? Do you still have questions which we could not answer? We look forward to your answers.

The post Push Notifications or In-App Notifications – With Which one can You Reach Your Guests More Successfully first appeared on LineUpr Blog.

The use of an event app is crucial to its success. But the participants must first know about the app. Using this concept for the marketing of event apps, you can create the ideal conditions to ensure the success of your event app.

The success of an event app is always dependent on two factors. Firstly, the app needs to be filled with the relevant content and, secondly, the subscribers must be informed about the existence of the app. If an app is not successfully accepted at an event, then, in 90% of the cases, it is because of the second point. A successful distribution concept of the app can be quickly created and implemented. In order to focus on more important tasks, this article introduces you to a simple concept that has been very successful in recent years. The focus is on the added value of the app for the visitor. Most importantly, this concept refers to an event app that is used only for communication at the event and for gaining feedback afterwards. Another concept of using event apps for the marketing of events and the sale of tickets follows this article on our blog.

Short briefing

The distribution strategy is divided into four promotion phases. The focus of communication is always the added value of the app for your participants.

Added Value of the App: Always up-to-date information about the event; individual agenda and favorites; feedback and survey opportunity; contact details and information about speakers, artists, and sponsors; site and site plans.

Early Phases of Promotion: Up to one month before the event. First information about the event app and integration into printed advertising materials. Highlight the basic use of the app.

Red Zone Promotion: 14 days before the event. Your visitors are more concerned with your event. Use social media channels and distribute the app URL through them. Focus is on the individual functions of the app such as surveys, individual agenda, favorites and live questions to speakers.

Last-Days Promotion: 7 days left. Switch to direct communication tools such as email and linking the app in it. This means that all participants have the app directly in their e-mail inbox. Focus is on up-to-date information and announcing changes via the app.

Event Days: focus is on persons on-site. Moderators and speakers should be briefed on the app. Advantages and use. Added value: up-to-date information, give feedback, live questions to speakers and individual agenda/favorites.

Added Value of the App for the Participants

People do not do anything without a reason. Therefore, you should always communicate clearly to your participants why they should use the app at your event or what benefits they get from it. The typical added value of an event app is always up-to-date information on the agenda, the participants, speakers, sponsors, and location. Participants receive direct messages from the organizer and can provide feedback on individual program items or the event as a whole. Through the app, they can ask questions to the speakers, create their own individual agenda and save speakers as favorites for later. They get location plans and maps and can be navigated to and around the event.

How you integrate this information into the communication with your guests is up to you and how you use the app.

Early Phase Promotion – One Month Before the Event

This phase starts about one month before the event. At this time, your guests will be busy with your event for the first time looking for event content. At this point, your app should be, at least partially, completed. It will now serve as a mobile information point.

If you also resort to printed materials for marketing, then it is necessary to integrate a QR code or the URL of the app here. You should always keep in mind with which instrument a person will search for the event when he gets such a flyer in his hand or sees a poster. That’s right, with his smartphone. Then offer him an information source which is optimized for such devices. In addition, you increase the substantive depth of your advertising materials and bring potential participants into your information channel.

In this phase, you should inform your visitors about the basic structure and content of the app.

Red Zone Promotion – Two Weeks Before the Event

Your event is slowly moving closer and it wanders more and more into the thoughts of your participants. Now you should at least start actively distributing the app across all your social networks. You should also link it to your homepage.

Now your guests are particularly interested in how they can actively use the app. So, tell them that they can find all the information about the agenda and the participants here. They can also create their own individual agenda and give feedback on program items or ask questions to the speakers.

Last Days Promotion – Seven Days Before the Event

The last 7 days of the event have begun and all your participants will actively prepare for it. For the distribution of the app, direct channels such as email or WhatsApp groups are most relevant. Most organizers send an info mail with all relevant information a few days before the event anyway. Here the app URL should definitely be integrated.

So close to the event, your participants are primarily looking for sources of information that will make their time at the event easier. In addition to the advantages already mentioned, you can focus on the timeliness of the data here. Explain that they always find the most up-to-date information about the agenda and the rooms in the app. You can also point out that spontaneous changes are only communicated via the app. This will avoid chaos and your guests will find their way around quickly.

Event Days

The big day has arrived and your event begins. Now the physical activities on site and your moderators and speakers are important. Digital instruments are less relevant but still a good foundation stone. The least amount of work is done by flyers or posters pointing out the app at the event location. Other creative possibilities are, for example, a reference to the app on the tickets or event badges. You could also use table displays with an image and the URL or QR code. The best way is a Wi-Fi network with the app as the home page.

However, announcements from the organizers and moderators are very promising. For the opening session, it is important to take a brief look at the app and its successful use. If you use the feedback feature for each session, speakers should always point out this feature. Your audience can also send questions to the speaker via the app. Or you can promote the app with a free give-away. So your guests could, for example, get a free drink at the bar when they use a code from the app at the bar or show the app.

What you should have learned

The success of an event app is significantly dependent on your guests even knowing about the app. The awareness of the app is neither coincidental nor easy to achieve. Having your own concept makes everyday life easier for you and should definitely be integrated into your overall event marketing. If you want to use the app primarily as a communication and information medium at the event, then it is sufficient to start one month before the start of the event with the distribution of the event app. Here you should bring your participants in touch with your app piece by piece and skillfully communicate the advantages of using it.

What do you think of this article? How do you market your event apps? Do you have any questions and alternative ideas?

“Megaphone” Icon created by Gregor Cresnar from “the Noun Project“.

The post The 4 Stages for Successful Event App Marketing first appeared on LineUpr Blog.

LinkedIn is the platform when it comes to networking. With more than 500 million registered users and more than 100 million regular users (at least one login per month), no one in the business world can get past today’s top dog. LinkedIn is not called the Business Facebook for nothing. Initially launched as a digital business card network, LinkedIn has become one of the most important content distributors. This is another reason why it is a great way to market your events.

We’ll show you why LinkedIn is likely to be the perfect fit for your event, which possibilities it offers you for marketing, and how to use it effectively with matching content.

Why LinkedIn Fits Perfectly to Your Events

Why do we use LinkedIn? Exactly, to network with new contacts. Because we’re on the business side of LinkedIn, these contacts are mostly related to our current or future job. And where do you usually meet these contacts? Bingo, at events! That alone should convince you to present your events via LinkedIn. As soon as your event has a certain amount of networking, it perfectly addresses the central LinkedIn target audience.

The next unbeatable advantage of LinkedIn is its members. They are better educated, older, mostly from urban areas and earn significantly more than average. This represents the perfect target group for your events. The willingness to pay for something when it comes to events and self-motivated development is significantly larger for this group of people.

The Perfect Content for LinkedIn

LinkedIn users typically look for jobs, new contacts, expertise, and advice for job applications and professional development. These desires should be kept in mind when choosing your content.

Depending on the nature of your event, you as the organizer have to have an enormous selection of possible contents. Here are five typical ideas that work well on LinkedIn:

Focusing on Networking at Your Event: Which groups of people do you expect? What can be learned from these persons? How is networking done at your event? Are you using matchmaking options?

Job Offers: Are you still looking for employees or volunteers for your event or? Then search directly through LinkedIn and create a job posting here (https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions).

Speakers, Partners, and Sponsors: Present interesting contributors and participants of your event. Introduce, present special features or display which added values they contribute to your event.

A Look Behind the Scenes: People are curious. That’s why there are also reality formats. Participants are interested in how you plan your event, how the preparation is done and what happens in the background during the implementation of everything. Here, videos and pictures are particularly suitable.

Your Location: You have certainly thought a lot about the choice of your venue, right? Then share the reasons for your choice of location with your attendees. Why does it fit perfectly to your concept, what can your participants expect, what history does the place have?

LinkedIn Formats

LinkedIn gives you a variety of ways to publish and share your content. You can work with texts, graphics, pictures, and videos. The most successful way is with a good combination of two of these options.

But which formats does LinkedIn concretely offer you to do this? We have put together the top 8:

Business Page: Create your own LinkedIn page for your event (for the company behind the event). Here you can present your event comprehensively and link it to external content such as websites. Pictures can also be integrated here. This is also the perfect place to point out your event website/app or registration page.

Individual LinkedIn Profile: Talk about the event on your profile. You can integrate information into your profile description, create your event as a project in your CV or use an event graphic as your background image. The latter is virtually your advertising space. Besides, you are allowed to have several website links on your profile. Use one of them for your event website.

SlideShare: With SlideShare you can publish a presentation about your event. The general sales pitch for your event works best. You can link this presentation directly to the business page or to your individual LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn Publishing: Blogging is still a great way to draw attention to yourself and your event. LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to create your articles directly on the platform.

Status Updates: You can post status updates on your business page as well as on your individual profile. When updating statuses you can, for example, post a link or text that will be displayed in the feed of your followers and contacts or in the feed of the people who interact with your updates (more about that in a moment).

LinkedIn InMails: You can send an InMail to most LinkedIn members. In addition to a text, you can of course also send links (we’ll come to the topic of InMail in a moment).

Focus pages: Similar to your business page, LinkedIn offers special focus pages for individual products, brands or even events.

LinkedIn Advertising: There are several ways to advertise on LinkedIn. Here you can work with texts, pictures, and videos (More about ads in the next section).

How to Share Your Content via LinkedIn

Now that we know the most important content formats, all we have to do is find out how we can share these formats as far as possible across our target audience. Here are some successful strategies:

LinkedIn Groups: LinkedIn gives its members the possibility to create groups. Many of these groups are public. As a member, you can quickly and easily join such a group. Most groups follow a clear theme, e. g. Social Media Marketing Experts. Unless otherwise stated in the description of the group, all members are explicitly encouraged to post their own content or other interesting external content. So, look for suitable groups (which deal with the important topics of your target group) and present your event and matching content.

Engagement- Aka Likes, Comments and Shares: As described earlier, your status updates are automatically presented in your followers’ and contacts’ feed. If a person is now interacting with your post, for example, if they leave a like, comment on it, or share it directly, the post is also displayed in the feed of that person’s contacts. Your goal should be to create contributions that lead to engagement. So you can significantly increase your range. Maybe you will create a viral hit.

Ask Actively for Engagement: You probably personally know most of your sponsors, partners, and speakers. Use this access and ask these people to share your posts, like them and leave a few comments. Unfortunately, very few organizers ask for it, although it is a win-win situation for all sides. Finally, everyone is looking forward to more visibility and coverage of their person and content.

Your Content on External Profiles/Business Pages: Similar to the section before, you could also ask your sponsors, partners, and speakers to personally share your posts.

Direct Messages: You can directly interact with your contacts, potential participants or interesting influencers via the message function in LinkedIn. For unfamiliar profiles, you have to send message by message manually. Although this takes a lot of time and work, it can be worthwhile. Unfortunately, you have to keep in mind that LinkedIn allows its members to ban such a “cold” contact. This is also done often. You need to network with these people before you send them messages. With your direct contacts, you can even send a message to up to 50 people at the same time.

Furthermore, LinkedIn, through LinkedIn Advertising, also gives you the power to purchase your reach. The basis for this is information about your target group. Similar to Facebook, you can also specify exactly which groups of people you want to address on LinkedIn. What professional experience do your participants have on average? Which industry do they work in? What are the typical job descriptions? Which language do they prefer? Which country/region do they come from? With this information, you can create your perfect audience and make sure your ad is shown only to those people. LinkedIn offers you several options:

Message Ad: Instead of handpicking interesting members and writing them, you can have LinkedIn do the work for you. Create one or more templates for direct messages and let them automatically be sent to your target group. With A/B Testing, LinkedIn can find out for you which message is opened and clicked on the most. Yes, you can also use direct links in the message, e. g. to integrate your event. The price per message varies with your target audience. Of course, emails to CEOs are more expensive than to interns. We recommend a good mix of interesting groups of people. In companies, there are always few decision makers, but many people who work on information and ideas. Often it is more efficient to address these people.

Text Ad: If you’re on LinkedIn, you’ll regularly see unobtrusive advertisements on your newsfeed or on the right side. Only a very limited space is available here for your message. This form of advertising is therefore relatively cheap. Here you should come straight to the point. This area is also well suited for an unobtrusive reminder.

Image Ad: We have selected the “Single Image Ad” as an example. You can also work here with a carousel function and several alternating pictures and videos. It is crucial that these types of ads appear directly in your target group’s newsfeed. Here, you can generate enough attention for your event. This is the most potent marketing caliber that you can find on LinkedIn. Therefore, these ads are also a bit more expensive.

What You Should Have Learned

LinkedIn is great for marketing your event and to draw the attention of potential visitors. You should at least create a business page for your event and mention and link your event to your personal profile. Status updates and direct messages to potential participants are another great way to talk about your event. In addition, there are many successful tools on LinkedIn to promote your content for free or to share it through paid packages. All in all, LinkedIn should be mandatory for every organizer.

The post How to Use LinkedIn to Promote Your Events and Attract New Visitors first appeared on LineUpr Blog.

Surveys and live polls are a very important topic on our blog. They are used hundreds of times each day in our apps. After exploring why events should use surveys 4 weeks ago, today’s topic is best practices. We’ll tell you what you should be aware of when dealing with surveys, which types of questions we provide, and a step-by-step guide to the most popular surveys at events.

What You Should Pay Attention To

Please only ask relevant questions. Surveys are not an end in themselves, and participants can be annoyed pretty quickly if the questions seem nonsensical. Such an impression is often dull and participants will use your surveys less.

If you want to integrate your speakers into the surveys or to relate them to program points, then inform the speakers in advance about it. Nothing is more unpleasant than being approached about something that you are integrated in, but have no idea about.

If you integrate surveys, for example, live surveys, into individual sessions then everyone on the stage should know in advance about how the process will go. This includes being able to explain to participants why and how the survey can be answered with the app. Also, where the results will be published and what will happen to them.

Create surveys in the language of your target audience. This is especially important when using foreign words. Participants should never have trouble understanding the questions.

Frequently Used Question Types

LineUpr offers you 5 different types of questions. In this article, you will learn exactly how to you use these in your app.

Ranking Questions

If you want your participants to rate something, use the star rating. You ask the questions and the participants can answer based on a star scale.

Examples:

• How did you like the keynote?
• How do you rate our use of event technology? (1 not good, 5 very good)
• On a scale of 1 – 5, how did you like our location?

Single Choice Questions

If you want to give the participants several answer options to choose from, then single choice questions are well suited for this. Here, the participants can select only one of the possible answers.

Examples:

• Should we use an event app again next year? (Yes; No; Doesn’t matter)
• Which theme tracks were the most interesting for you? (IoT; Automotive; Healthcare)
• How many new contacts did you make at the event? (0; 1-5; 6-15; 15-30; more than 30)

Multiple Choice Questions

In contrast to the single choice questions, participants can choose from several possible answer options. This is very suitable for questions in which a participant cannot commit 100% to an answer.

Examples:

• Which features of the event app did you use? (Directions, list of participants, program plan, individual program, favorites, surveys)
• Which theme tracks did you attend? (IoT; Automotive; Healthcare)

Open Free Text Questions

This type is great for questions to which you do not know the answers to, or for which you want to use to know more about the participants. Here the participants have access to a text field where they can enter their answers.

Examples:

• Which speakers do you want to see at our next event?
• What is the biggest challenge for you with the digitalization of events?
• What will you remember most about our event?

Step-By-Step Guide to the Most Popular Surveys

Questions to the Speakers (Live Q&As)

You should define in advance who will take over the moderation of the live Q&As and how they will run. Should the questions be published live or does the moderator select individual questions and read them out?

Test the session before to check if the technology works as planned and shortly go through the process with two questions. Everyone involved should be trained in using the app and the presentation medium. If the moderator, for example, reads the questions, then a tablet is best suited for this.

The moderator must be informed about the complete process. He should also know and explain how attendees can enter questions through the app.

At the beginning of the session, show a slide explaining how participants can ask questions through the app. A QR code is a great way to directly lead to the survey.

For safety reasons, prepare a few starting questions and a little intro until the first questions arrive. No matter how fast the technology is today, the participants will still need a few seconds to type the first questions.

Live Polls During a Session

Inform the participants at the beginning of the session how and when the live polls will be used. Remember, for people to do something, they need to be convinced by it first. So give them a reason to participate.

It is a good idea to give participants a brief explanation of how to use the app to participate in surveys.

The speakers must also be informed about the entire process. Preferably, the questions come directly from them and the results are integrated into the presentation.

When starting the live polls, the questions should appear on a slide. It is certainly not a hindrance if the speaker additionally reads the questions aloud. Another mention of how voting can be done is also great.

Since it may take a few seconds for the results to arrive, the moderator should come up with a small bridge for it. Of course, he can also wait for the results. A few seconds can be a treat for some participants.

The incoming answers for the poll should definitely be presented live. First, the moving bars provide a wow-effect in the audience and secondly, even the skeptical participants are still encouraged to join in (keyword: peer pressure).

Finally, the speaker should definitely integrate the results into the presentation or at least briefly discuss them. Otherwise, the impression that the poll does not really matter to the speaker is conveyed.

Feedback on Presentations and Individual Sessions

At the end of the session, the speaker should definitely point out the evaluation of the program point with the event app.

He should explain how the participants can concretely rate him with the app. Here he can also work with a standardized slide that shows all steps and maybe also contains a QR code or link to the program point.

It also makes sense to give participants 2 minutes to answer the feedback survey at the end of the session. When people are immediately out of the door and on the way to the next session, then the feedback is quickly forgotten.

Feedback Surveys About the Event

When your event is coming to an end and the last session starts, then it’s time to point out the feedback survey for the whole event.

Here you should work with a slide that explains how to answer this survey using the event app. Be sure to explain what you intend to do with the feedback and that you want to continually improve your event for the benefit of the participants.

At the same time, you can send your participants an e-mail with a link to the survey. This can also be combined with the final mail after the event.

This quite generally applies to all feedback surveys: Only implementation leads to success! Please use the feedback to improve your events. If attendees visit your events over a period of several years and complain about the same problem every year and nothing happens, they will eventually stop participating in your feedback surveys. It doesn’t change anything anyway.

What You Should Have Learned

In this article, we explained how to integrate surveys into your event. First, it was about what you should generally consider when using surveys. In the middle, we then dealt with the most frequently used question types and presented you with suitable examples. Finally, we gave you a step-by-step guide on how to best implement the most popular surveys and what to pay attention to.

“Poll” Icon created by Gregor Cresnar from “the Noun Project“.

The post Live Surveys and Q&As at Events – Best Practices by LineUpr first appeared on LineUpr Blog.

The digitalization of our everyday life is unstoppable. Even for events, this development does not stop. And that’s good so. Technology helps you to save costs, to integrate your participants more in your events, to create more interactivity, to connect participants and to protect your wallet. For event organizers, the event planning, the marketing, the registration/sale of tickets and the communication of the event both on-site and online are of particular interest in digitalization. There are a ton of products for this. As an organizer, you can almost feel like you are in paradise.

We have 6 examples to show you why you too should digitalize your events.

1.   More Time for the Important Tasks

Document the entire event concept on paper and adapt it to changes. Complete all team meetings in one place. Send marketing emails by hand. Receive and reply to registrations and questions by phone. How was it even possible to organize big events in the past? It needed a horde of employees, right?

Thanks to technical possibilities, now anyone can organize an event for 1,000 or more participants with a five-person team. Planning is done online and everyone always has access to the latest information. Thanks to bots and online chats, customer communication can be significantly optimized. Registrations and ticket sales are made online through standardized systems, as well as billing and shipping.

Thanks to a thousand little helpers, you can focus on the essentials and save a lot of time and stress.

2. More Networking at Your Event

It is omnipresent in the B2B sector. Why do people visit B2B events? Exactly, they want to expand their professional network. Whether potential customers, partners or service providers, most participants want to meet new contacts.

Sure, networking was possible even before the invention of the computer. Many successful networking professionals still swear by the direct approach with a friendly hello, but why make life difficult, when it can be easy. The trickiest part of networking is approaching an unknown person. There are now countless digital tools that make it easy for your participants to take that first step. The keyword is matchmaking. These tools will give your attendees suggestions on which other people at the event will suit them, based on interests, requirements, and contact requests. So the first step, the announcement, is made via such a tool. Usually one can then also arrange for a meeting on the spot. So no more cold dialogues and there is always a perfect topic for both sides as a conversation starter.

3. Fewer Costs

To be honest, whether digitalization will result in less cost to your event is entirely up to you. Basically, digital products and services offer you a lot of possibilities to save on time and, therefore, also on staff. At the same time, you can set specific goals, such as for example, promoting your event within a defined target group, with significantly more effective reach through online marketing, for example on Facebook or LinkedIn, instead of hanging up your event posters around the world.

Both ultimately lead to a massive cost reduction. At the same time, digitalization offers you a massive selection of new possibilities and instruments. Many organizers tend to invest in freed-up budgets directly into new strategies and products. If this leads to more success and higher sales, then nothing is against it. But you should make sure that you do not get caught up in the whole clutter and lose sight of your primary goal.

4. More Participant Interactivity

In terms of interactivity and personalization, many events have taken a giant leap forward thanks to digital tools. I still remember it from my grandfather’s stories. The good old days, when study results and new ideas were thrown on the wall with a slide projector, the participants had to endure hours of frontal presentations without being able to somehow influence the content. Times when one had to go to the information desk to get answers about the schedule or consult a thick paper booklet for the schedule. Or everyone could bravely come forward and then scream across the room to ask a question to the speaker.

Under these conditions, it is clear why the interactivity of the events was the way it was. Thank God that’s over. Today, organizers can ask their target group for their interests long before the event and tailor the event individually. Thanks to apps and websites, participants can easily ask anonymous or non-anonymous individual questions to the speakers. Lecturers can integrate the opinions and interests of their audience directly into the presentation thanks to living polls, and respond to each participant. And, and, and. A paradise of possibilities.

5. Better Customer Service

As we have already mentioned. In the past, large events almost required a small call center to answer all the questions about the event and to be able to carry out the ticketing or registration of participants. Thanks to new digital channels such as websites and email support, a small team is enough for today.

In addition to the cost savings, the efficiency and quality of your customer service also increase. Firstly, your participants can answer many questions on your mobile platforms, such as your website, themselves. Secondly, you can document frequent questions and develop optimal answers, so your service staff is prepared and can provide better answers. Thirdly, your participants do not always have to call if they have a little question. There are several contact channels available, and the younger generation prefers to chat over Facebook or Whatsapp rather than to call or send e-mail.

6. Viral Marketing – Word of Mouth Propaganda

It has never been easier to make your event famous overnight. Organizers used to have to print flyers and distribute posters throughout cities. Whoever has a bit bigger budget also used TV and radio advertising. What do these formats have in common? Participants cannot interact with it and increase the distribution through their own actions.

The situation with digital advertising looks completely different. When organizers publish interesting concepts, graphics, and videos online on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram, anyone can interact with that content. You can like, comment, share, retweet and so much more. Firstly, as an event organizer, you get feedback on your campaigns much faster, and secondly, you can dramatically expand the reach of your content so quickly and cost-effectively. In traditional marketing, word of mouth meant that an enthusiastic participant may tell a few people in their immediate surroundings about you and your event. Today, they can reach hundreds of contacts via Facebook and Twitter with much less effort.

What You Should Have Learned

The digitalization of events has some challenges for event organizers, but at the same time, it offers you huge possibilities to optimize the planning and execution of events. With a clear focus and the knowledge of how to use the new products and services efficiently, the added value very clearly outweighs the effort. So get on the internet and start step by step to find digital helpers to provide participants with better service and content at your events.

“digitalized” Icon created by priyanka from “the Noun Project“.

The post Why Organizers Should Digitalize Their Events – 6 Arguments first appeared on LineUpr Blog.

Sponsors are an essential part of the financing for many events. Therefore, organizers invest a large portion of their working time to convince sponsors to invest in their event. But this is easier said than done because sponsors want to recognize the added value of the investment. Therefore, a smart person invented the idea of sponsorship packages.

In these packages, you define how and where sponsors can present themselves and what contribution they can make. As a central communication tool, the areas in the event app should be an elementary part of your sponsorship offers.

We will show you which typical sponsorship models exist and how these principles apply to your event and develop the sponsorship packages that are right for you.

A – Multilevel Sponsorship Concept

Most organizers work with a multi-level model. Depending on the level chosen, the sponsor receives a previously defined selection of presentation options and contact points for the event participant. Typical examples are gold, silver and bronze sponsors. You can create your variant of this concept in three steps:

1.   Define Different Levels

Typical examples of such stages are gold, silver, and bronze. Many organizers also work with individual event modules such as the technology sponsor, catering sponsor or program sponsor. You and your imagination have no limits. It is crucial that the terms are understandable and related to your event.

2.   How Many Sponsors Are Allowed?

Now that the terms are clear, it’s about the number of sponsors for each level. Your desired sponsoring budget should be decisive. What amount do you want to earn? You should divide this amount over the different packages. For more exclusive packages, you can ask for higher prices. If you’re going to work with a lot of sponsors, then you should correct the prices accordingly.

It should be noted that exclusivity also means that sponsors will contact you sooner. This allows for better budget planning.

3.   Give the Steps Life

Now you can set the range of presentation options for each type of package. Please remember, the more expensive a package, the more exclusively the sponsor should be presented. Since we are in regular contact with our customers, we were often allowed to use such a multi-level model on our event app. Here is a typical example:

B – A La Carte Sponsor Concept

As the title suggests, the sponsor can put together his individual package here. This model is primarily for sponsors, who know precisely how and where they want to present themselves at your event.

Although this model saves you the tedious task of creating packages, you will need a list of all options. It’s best to put these options in different areas such as before the event, during the event, etc. As far as prices are concerned, you could either define a price for each option or you can negotiate the price individually. Here’s an example:

1.   Before the Event

• Link the sponsor’s logo to your event registration page
• Use your social media accounts to promote and link the sponsor before the event (link to the profile in the app)
• Promote the program points and speakers of your sponsor by connecting them in the e-mails before the event (link to the program point in the app)

2.   During the Event

• Create a sponsorship profile for your sponsor
• Use the sponsor’s logo for the app icon
• Use the logo of the sponsor in the cover picture of the app
• Use the sponsor’s logo for the footer image of the app
• Link further information and documents of the sponsor on his profile
• Create personal profiles for the sponsor and mix them under the participants’ profiles
• Create surveys and rooms with the name of the sponsor
• Send In-App messages on behalf of the sponsor

3.   After the Event

• Mention your sponsor in the first email after the event
• Use the sponsor’s logo for event presentation materials after the event
• Use the name of the sponsor in the feedback survey after the event

What You Should Have Learned

In this article, we explained how to develop the right sponsorship model for your event. It was also about the presentation options in your event app. By the way, there are many more tricks for the presentation of sponsors in our article: “Let your Sponsors Pay for the App.”

“Sponsor Investment” Icon created by ProSymbols from “the Noun Project“.

The post How to Create the Perfect Sponsorship Model for Your Event (and Integrate your Event App) first appeared on LineUpr Blog.

Live surveys and opinion polls are a wonderfully flexible tool to make your event a great event. It’s a fabulous way to connect with your participants and increase interaction. That’s another reason why surveys are among the most used features of LineUpr apps.

After many conversations with our awesome customers and the regular evaluation of all apps, 5 reasons which show why every organizer should use live surveys and opinion polls have emerged.

1. Intensify the Presentations

Frontal presentations have never been cool. Unfortunately, we did not have a choice at school and in university so we gathered in front of the teacher’s desk or beamer but things are different at your events. None of your guests have to pay attention and there is no exam at the end. So it’s up to you to design the presentations in such a way that the guests have fun and listen with interest because they are motivated to.

And how do you do that? With surveys and live polls, of course. Your speakers should lighten your presentations with small surveys and opinion polls. Thus, the audience can be interviewed directly on some topics. Firstly, your participants always stay on top and feel that their own experience and attitude becomes part of the presentation, and secondly, everyone can get a sense of what most people think in the room.

2. Collect Participant Feedback

Sure, this is a no-brainer. Surveys provide participants the opportunity to give you feedback. This has two decisive advantages. First, you can show the guests that their opinion is important to you. They can always contact you if they have any problems. Of course, you should also implement this feedback so that your participants get the feeling that their opinions count.

Secondly, it will give you quick and easy suggestions on how to further optimize your event. You can grow on negative feedback and integrate positive feedback directly into your marketing for the next event. Nothing beat user-generated content. Another treat: If you regularly implement the feedback and your participants visit your events throughout several years, then everyone can see and feel the change. And each participant feels like his opinion was part of the change. With this, you can bind the participants lastingly and intensively to your events.

3. User-generated content for your marketing

We do not know if you already know this, but most people like colorful graphs and statistics.

We have already poked at it. Surveys and opinion polls allow you to gather a lot of information about your participants. How do they relate to a specific topic? How would they react to the following problem? Which person is better suited for Job X? No matter how you turn it, you can ask your attendees various things. Of course, the results are great at the event, but you can continue to use it for your marketing even after the event. Prepare the information in pretty graphics and distribute it through social channels.

4. Live Polls as Icebreakers

Not only should your speakers use live surveys in presentations, but you should too! Opinion polls are great for kick-off events.

Your guests have all taken their seats and are now waiting for the event to begin. Do not bore your participants with 30 minutes of frontal presentation, but ask some interesting questions and then collect the input of the users. You can also heat up people by setting topics for the following networking session. You are free to ask what you want.

Another positive effect is that you bind the participants to a certain extent to the app. If the day starts with an interaction – meaning an added value for the participants – we will make the app an integral part of the event and save you a lot of work as your guests can now find the answers to most questions on their own.

5. Personalize Your Events

Live opinion polls are a great way for your participants to give the event their personal stamp. During their presentation, speakers could ask the audience which topics are most relevant. He can then only talk about the areas that interest those attending. Some speakers already set up the lectures according to an interactive path. The presentation is then a little different each time and always individually tailored to the participants.

You could also use live Q&As for this, so that the participants can ask questions to the speakers in real time or make suggestions for topics.

What You Should Have Learned

Live surveys and opinion polls are a simple yet great tool. They can make the difference between a normal and a great event. Through them, your speakers can interact quickly and easily with the participants and loosen up the presentation. Incidentally, with LineUpr such surveys are created and implemented in just a few seconds.

“Poll” Icon created by Gregor Cresnar from “the Noun Project“.

The post How to Increase the Interaction at Your Event with Live Polls first appeared on LineUpr Blog.

Participant communication is probably the most significant factor behind a successful event, in addition to the content of the event. Many organizers fight with it daily and not without reason. We are also regularly contacted by our customers about this. After all, our app is also the perfect tool for participant communication at an event. So that your communication with the event participants is successful both before and after the event, we got some tips and tricks from an expert. Diana Falke is the marketing manager at mailingwork and she knows exactly how to use e-mails successfully and how to set up the event communication.

Why E-mail?

traditional e-mail is still one of the most successful communication channels. Direct, fast, affordable, mobile and customizable – all the features you can use to make your events successful. If you know the contact details of your participants, then we do not see any alternative that is better than the Grande Dame e-mail.

Before the Event – Data, data, data

The starting point is always the contact details of your participants. You should have this well prepared and easily available at your disposal. Apart from the e-mail and the name, further information such as place of residence or interests can be very interesting for later e-mails. Many e-mail marketing software solutions give you the opportunity to use this data directly. With mailingwork, you can import such data easily and create different target groups with it.

After the data is ready, then everything really starts. The simplest thing that every organizer should use is a newsletter. Here you can regularly provide all your participants with new information, such as the use of the LineUpr app or event highlights. Surely you also want to make new contacts, who you want to welcome in the future as guests. Then make sure you include the registration for the newsletter on your event website and collect new addresses through it. You can then address them specifically with newsletters and announce, for example, exciting appointments. It is crucial that you use a call-to-action in each email and link it to where tickets can be purchased.

For Smart People: Event Marketing via Autopilot

For many processes of the event cycle, it makes sense to send e-mails via an autopilot. Here as the organizer you do not need to oversee each e-mail personally but can have the delivery done automatically at the right time. It is even possible to synchronize a whole series of e-mails and to let them run automatically. Here’s an example: somebody logs in to your event, automatically receives a confirmation and an appointment reminder shortly before the event. All this happens without your intervention.

You can even go one step further. Especially when you know more about the interests of your subscribers, you can customize the emails very personally for each visitor and you can respond individually to the openings or clicks in emails. By the way: Connect your digital communication with physical ideas and even send a postcard between lots of e-mails for a change. With that, you will definitely stand out from the crowd.

To do it all, you need a professional solution. At mailingwork this is the CampaignManager.

After the Event – Surveys and Documents

Of course, for the organizer: “After the event is before the event.” For this reason, most of the organizers stay in contact with their participants after an event. This makes sense because the event experience is still fresh and participants are more likely to respond to offers from you.

Now is a good time to learn more about the interests of your participants. What did they like about the event, what did they miss, what is important for them to say? This data can then be used for your next events and for individual emails to these persons. You could, for example, use a classic survey from LineUpr. At the same time, however, e-mail marketing solutions also provide an interface to carry out these surveys directly by e-mail.

Another reason to get in contact with your participants is the presentations of your speakers. Many participants are happy when they get access to the presentation slides of the speakers. From Diana, we know that e-mail marketing tools also allow you to create a landing page where you can, for example, offer documents for download. You could then send the link to this page to your participants by e-mail and in this context immediately ask for feedback.

What You Should Have Learned

Subscriber communication is one of the most important success factors for your event. You should invest time and work accordingly to make a good image here. Although there are now many exciting communication tools, emails are still the most effective channel. For many organizers, it can, therefore, be beneficial to use e-mail marketing software.

“Mail” Icon created by Kylie Mhai from “the Noun Project“.

The post How E-mail Marketing Helps with the Preparation and Follow-up of Events first appeared on LineUpr Blog.

Today it’s all about unique venues for special events. The trend to book unique places for your event is nothing new, but since 2017 it has drastically picked up pace for B2B events. In the past, it was more of a coincidence but now organizers are specifically looking for individual venues. This was also confirmed through the daily discussions with our customers. Many want to offer their participants more than just the convention center in the next city.

But what makes a special location attractive, what are typical examples of such places and where can I find them if I want to book them for my next event? We will clarify these questions and more in this article.

The Attraction of Special Event Locations

Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of experiencing a classic event in a special environment knows what’s coming. For organizers, these venues bring two great added values to the table.

Firstly, the mental and physical break from standardized processes and thought patterns. With an exclusive venue, you can give every event and every topic a whole new and special drive. The dissimilarity of the place encourages participants to try new ways of thinking and implementing. So it’s almost like starting with a white piece of paper. One is not limited and all directions of thought are allowed. To initiate such a process with your participants, you must first bring them out of their comfort zone. An exceptional location, which differs significantly from your work environment and previous events, is one of the ways to achieve this.

Secondly, the memory effect. What do we remember best? Special moments. And what makes these moments special? Either they are very emotional for us or the moment is significantly different from moments before and after. We can all agree on this point. If something stands out from the crowd, for whatever reason, then we can remember it much easier and longer. This is the same for events. An event which stands out from the mass of classic events will be remembered. Why and how to make your event into an extraordinary event is up to you, of course. A special place is just one possibility.

Types of Special Venues

There is no general definition of a unique location. Each location has its characteristics and can, therefore, stand out from similar locations. There are venues with an extraordinary view. Others are in a particular place and therefore mysterious or hard to find. Some places impress with their long and unusual history. Sometimes the location is relatively normal but has an exceptional feature like a waterfall in the room or individual figures or statues.

In addition to individual features, there are also typical categories for unique venues:

• Art galleries and museums
• Airport hangars and old factory buildings
• Wineries and farms
• Historic buildings like old banking houses or castles
• Exceptional roof terraces

Here You Can Find Such Venues

Now we’ve talked a lot about how great unique venues are, but where do you find such places? And here we already have the first problem. Special venues are special because they are not booked so often and they are hard to find. You often come across these places on regional insider reports or you get a tip. Even if you do some research, you quickly realize that there is still no location collection page dedicated to such types of locations around the world. But you will surely find one or the other regional gem on many of these collection sites. Also, some platforms concentrate on smaller areas. Here we can recommend, e.g. Unique Venues which focuses specifically on the US. Besides, Peerspace also offers many exciting locations in the US and now some in major cities in Europe. And if it’s all about meeting rooms and small venues, then we’d like to recommend Spacebase.

The Disadvantages of Special Event Locations

In addition to the problematic search for suitable venues, there are still other disadvantages that you should consider in such locations.

Often, such places are special or unique, because they rarely host classic events. Unfortunately, that means that they are rarely prepared for the needs of organizers. Often there is a lack of suitable technology. No trained staff knows the location or the way to the location is difficult to handle both for participants and suppliers. Compliance with typical event regulations, such as safety and hygiene laws are often more difficult. Finally, you should also pay attention to the event insurance, which of course adapts according to the venue.

These are just a few of the typical disadvantages of such locations. In general, organizers have to put a lot of effort and money into the preparation. Even if a location convinces you with its particular characteristics, your participants still expect the same comfort as with other events.

What You Should Have Learned

At the center of this article is the trend to select individual event locations for B2B events. We have shown you what makes such venues so attractive, what the typical examples and features of such places are and how you can find them. In addition to the extraordinary atmosphere, when choosing your venue you should also keep in mind that these alternatives are usually associated with disadvantages and problems and your participants certainly do not want to give up their usual comforts. No matter how nice the location is.

“Venue” created by Vicons Design from “the Noun Project“.

The post Exceptional Locations for Your B2B Event – What You Should Keep in Mind first appeared on LineUpr Blog.