Personalization is more than just a nice to have — it’s a necessity. This is especially true at events where there are multiple messages competing for an attendee’s attention. Taking a traditional one-size-fits-all approach just doesn’t cut it anymore as your customers are becoming more and more adept at filtering out generic advertising.
However, with technology, event organizers have the power to create personalized event experiences that are unique, hard to ignore, and welcomed by attendees.
Offering effective personalized experiences at events is less daunting than it seems. With the right approach — and the right technology — personalization can play a central role in the attendee journey and lead to greater satisfaction at every event touchpoint.
AI-powered recommendation engines and event chatbots are areas of growth in event personalization, and they come to life most effectively through an event app. These apps have evolved from simple, digital guidebooks to personalized engagement tools that can guide attendees and keep them engaged throughout the entire event experience.
The potential for personalization is huge, not just for different audiences such as customers, sponsors and partners but also for different interest groups and demographics. Follow these steps and event technology will allow you to personalize at scale, create experiences that surprise and delight, and make your event an even greater success.
- Put the attendee experience first
The key to any successful personalization is to keep the experiences of your attendees’ front and center. There are all sorts of exciting ways to create personalized experiences through technology but choosing which to prioritize should be guided by what your attendees actually need, as well as what will exceed their expectations. Ask yourself:
- Why are they using the event technology in the first place?
- What features will elevate their overall experience at the event?
Practical information will rank highly in answer to the first question, as event tech — especially the event app — is a powerful tool for keeping attendees informed with relevant updates. Using personalization, you can notify individuals of any changes to the event schedule as well as solutions to common event problems like traffic flow or finding the wifi password that could otherwise dampen their experience.
Beyond that, attendees may also be interested in personalized session recommendations, trip planning ideas, networking suggestions, and even to book meetings in advance. Whatever features you choose, begin by deciding what will have the most positive impact on the attendee experience and design based on those principles.
- Make the experience both rewarding and useful
When planning your event app experience, stay mindful of how you can craft an experience that is rewarding as well as useful to attendees. The best event apps will go the extra mile, incorporating new technologies such as AI to power features like chatbots and session recommendations.
Technology in this space is advancing rapidly, with new and better ways of offering personalization being launched regularly. One of the leading technologies is Hubb’s recommendation engine which can make session recommendations for individual attendees and surface these directly in an Eventbase event app. These types of features deliver above and beyond what a traditional event app can do and make the overall experience more rewarding for users.
Last but most certainly not least, make sure your app sets the event foundation in good user experience and design. You want to delight your attendees and spread positive sentiment throughout the event, and both of these things can be achieved through an app that brings your event branding to life and is a pleasure to use.
- Integrate your event tech stack for ultimate personalization
A good event app is never going to exist in isolation. In order to understand who your attendees are, as well as what personalization is right for them, you need a holistic view of your data.
Your app needs to be fueled by the information already available in your tech stack, such as job function, self-selected interests, event history and personal preferences. So when considering your next tech investment, it’s vital to ensure that everything works together. You need an event app that integrates with your existing event technology stack for that complete view of the attendee.
The lasting benefit of taking such an integrated approach is that your app will only become more effective with time. Once someone has been to an event and used the app, you can continue to iterate and develop personalization features based on the growing data set. Only then can you ensure that each attendee experience is even better than the last.
For more tips about creating personalized event experiences with technology, read our other post Better Events Through Personalization.
