An event day is the peak moment for event planners – the time when they have to take the lid off and shine. Pre-event planning is crucial, but the experiences that attendees have onsite adds great value to the event vibe and determines what direction your relationships with clients will take in future. Therefore, to make everything go off without a hitch, you need to take care of onsite event management.
Onsite event management tool definition
An onsite event management tool is any type of facility that is used for registration setup, attendees engagement and enhancing personalized experiences at events. In particular, the use of an onsite management tool helps automate check-in cycles, simplify badge collection, and maintain the high level of engagement at the event.
How to choose the best onsite event management tool
The abundance of online event management tools are available for the event industry members today. Still, the event planners often find it hard getting an all-in-one platform, which would help adjust different kinds of tools to excellent onsite expertise. Here are three “considers” that will help you choose the right tool for your master plan:
- Consider the crowd. You have to understand what the attendance at your event is going to be in order to build a strategy for time-efficient check-in. Determine which types of hardware you’ll need to guarantee queue-free experiences. Will you require personnel manning? If yes, how many team members should take charge of registration assistance? The answers to all these questions will depend on the event attendees number.
- Consider the experience. Based on what you’ve learned from your last event, try to make the next experience much better. Use analytics to track the behavior of attendees at events. This is the best instrument that can be used to evaluate your onsite event performance.
- Consider the backup. Even if your onsite setup is perfectly adjusted to handle the whole self-registration and badge printing, you should always have a backup team that can help out if some difficulties appear.
Why do you need an onsite event management tool?
Depending on what your event goals are and how large your event is, you’ll need event management tools for onsite use on several stages.
In terms of getting your event attendees through the door, you can use tech solutions for barcode or QR code scanning and on-demand printing facilities. These instruments can help you decrease personnel manning, receive real-time attendance information, speed up the check-in processes, and reduce waste.
As an event manager, you may also consider using onsite tools to make your event attendees feel more independent. Consider setting up self-registration counters and add value to the check-in flexibility. Aside from that, onsite tools can be helpful in lead attraction: you can employ hardware and software integration to implement QR-reuse solutions and use them at booths.
Last but not least, onsite event management solutions help elevate personalization experiences at events. Here are some suggestions on how you can keep people engaged with the help of onsite management tools:
- customize personalized messages to deliver information about attendee IDs, table numbers, and payment statuses;
- implement some gamification elements to create extra interaction opportunities;
- use automated check-in notifications;
- enable easy edits solutions.
Functions of onsite event management tool
Onsite event manager tools differ, according to functionality load, efficiency, and other relevant factors. In general, the core solutions that an event planner can gain by using onsite tools include:
- Checking-in attendees on multiple devices. There are several types of hardware sets that can be used for e-ticket scanning and self-registration.
- Flexibility in setup installing. Thanks to the smart functions of onsite tools, it’s possible to adjust your event setups to the specific number of attendees.
- Catering self-check-in capabilities. A no-queue experience is a new reality, even for large-scale events, due to the range of possibilities for self-registration.
- Extending the opportunities for networking. You can magnify interactions at your events if you use onsite tools that enable personalized name badge customization.
- Tracking engagement. Onsite tools enable the use of analytics, which can help explore the check-in preferences, see which event sessions are the most popular for attendees, and adjust the flow of events accordingly.
Pros & cons of using onsite event management tools
Yes, there are still some disadvantages. Although online event management complemented by onsite technology can automate many processes, some questions remain. Let’s go through the basic “yes’s” and “no’s” of onsite management.
- Simplicity in use
- High interaction capabilities
- Time optimization
- Data collection and analysis
- Lack of awareness about onsite registration
- Exclusion for those who don’t use networking apps at events
- The absence of human touch in self-registration
Although the mentioned disadvantages can cause some misunderstandings at events, there is a good way we can avoid them by raising awareness about onsite management capabilities.
TOP 5 onsite event management tools
Check out these top 5 event management platforms that offer advanced solutions for onsite optimization.
- Eventleaf. The free event management service that provides solutions for badge printing, onsite registration for attendees inflow, and e-ticket scanning. The essential benefit: Eventleaf supports a kiosk mode, which offers an on-screen keyboard and eliminates the need to use any hardware.
- idloom Events. The onsite event check-in system offered by this platform has only a QR scanning option. However, the service has an option to register the inflow visitors, without any pre-registration.
- EventsCase. A great platform in terms of data syncing. The Android-based app syncs the data with the contact database and is used by the onsite team for onsite check-in. Guess what, the system works offline, which means you don’t have to be afraid of Internet breaches.
- Eventbrite. An all-in-one platform that delivers a number of solutions for event planning and hosting. The core benefit in terms of onsite experiences: advanced real-time tracking and a well-integrated system for centralized reporting, which captures all kinds of data: from payment statuses to session ratings.
- GEVME Onsite. The platform belongs to the suite of GEVME apps, which provide advanced services for all event cycles. This is a helpful one-stop solution for those who are looking for a smart integration of hardware setup, name badge printing, and networking onsite.
If you have any questions or require assistance with the choice of event management solutions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.