Prevent mistakes with Halito!’s event planning software

A mistake is easily made when you are overloaded with information. Take control of your event registration with Halito!'s event planning software!

Organizing an event involves a lot of planning. Even if it is your first or thirtieth event, avoidable mistakes can always be made. It is important to learn from these mistakes and ensure that these mistakes do not happen again. To help you on your way, we have a number of tips and tricks that will make your event (planning) a success!

Common mistakes when planning your event

Losing the goal of the event

Of course, you don't just organize an event, your event has a goal. But what is the goal actually? You can organize an event for different reasons:

• Selling products or services: as an event organizer you can do this from your own company; selling your service or product. Or you organize a trade fair for a specific market or niche. The goal is the same for both; namely selling!
• Thanking or rewarding: are you organizing an event for the sponsors of a foundation or to put your employees in the spotlight? Then you are thanking or rewarding
• Motivating: You can motivate employees of your/a company through a team-building session
• Transferring knowledge: transferring knowledge is possible for the company for which you are organizing an event (internally) or for anyone who finds the subject interesting (seminar or conference)
• Increasing image or brand awareness: an event can also be organized to become better known or improve its image. For example, a company can choose to be linked to a specific goal or competition

Each type of event has different KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). For example, a KPI for a fair can be to sell as many products or services as possible and satisfaction can be a KPI for an event for employees.

It is important to know what the goals are so that you can focus on them. You can then measure these KPIs in your Halito! event planning software.

Too much information

As an event manager, you are the contact person between the visitors, employees, caterers, speakers, etc. As a result, you are overloaded with updates and changes. It is therefore important to have a good overview of what agreements have been made, what deadlines must be met and how many visitors will come.

In addition to these kinds of updates, you also receive updates from your visitors. Visitors' registration is often kept in an Excel file, but because of all these updates, you can lose the overview. We, therefore, recommend that you automate this. As a result, your guest list is always up-to-date and you can keep the caterer and speakers informed about the number of visitors they can expect.

What do visitors actually want?

You have now determined a goal for the event and you are already busy setting up your event. But what do your visitors actually want? Do they want to receive a lot of information or do they want to participate in the workshops? Should there be a lot of speakers or should there be time for networking? Do visitors find it important to be able to eat a small bite or do they expect an entire dinner? These are all kinds of questions that influence the success (or not) of your event. But how do you find out what your visitors want?

The answer is straightforward…. ask them! If you have already done a previous edition of your event, you can send your visitors a survey with questions about your event. They provide you with very valuable information about your event. About what went well, but also what they missed and what went less.

Is this the first edition of your event? Then ask your guests what they would like. As a result, you already have valuable information for your first event.

No interaction

Your goal in combination with the requirements/wishes of the visitors gives you a lot of guidance to organize an amazing event. This means that the event fits in well with your goal and that the visitors will enjoy it immensely. But the event is, unfortunately, a bit disappointing… it is missing something. The visitors do not really participate and are only “present”. In other words, you miss interaction!

Put yourself in the shoes of a participant/visitor of your event. If you only get a registration email and maybe a reminder on the day itself, then you are not really motivated to go. Once you are at the event, you then only listen to a number of speakers, after which you drift off again.

Of course, no one is waiting for this. Involve your visitor before, during and after the big day with your event! But how do you do this? There are several ways to do this:

• Let visitors get acquainted: with Halito!'s event software you have the option to have the networking take place before the event. This allows your visitors to see which interesting participants will also participate in your event.
• Quizzes, polls, live slides and Q and A's: during a workshop or lecture you can stimulate interaction by letting the visitors take part in a quiz, gauge their opinion through a poll, share live slides or let the visitors ask questions to the speaker(s). This way you really involve the visitors in your event.
• Aftermovie: after your event has become a success, you want to prepare the visitors for the next event. There is hardly a better way than an after-movie! You let the visitors relive the day and you thank them for their participation. This immediately makes them feel excited to register for the next edition, for which they happen to be able to buy a ticket 😉

Forget about marketing

We actually went a bit too fast since we were already busy with the event day itself. First, you will have to ensure that visitors come to your event! These visitors do not come automatically, you will have to be proactive. This way you can set up an event website and social media accounts yourself. But it doesn't stop here. Consider, for example, sending mailings to your customers/followers or advertising in a newspaper, on TV or on a website. This way you come into the picture with your target group and you ensure that visitors register for your event.

 

Biggest challenges for event planning software

As an event manager, you have a lot to deal with. In order not to succumb to all information, it is wise to automate certain processes with event planning software, so that you (almost) have nothing to worry about. For example, you can choose to use a lot of planning tools or you can choose to use one clear event management tool. Then Halito! is here to help you. On your event management platform, you have insight into everything that has to do with your visitors:

• Inform: you create an event website that is completely in your house style. As a result, the visitor immediately recognizes that it concerns your company/event. On this site, you put all the important information about your event.
• Invite: you can easily import a guest list to which you can send multiple mailings, you can prepare this mailing in advance and indicate when it should be sent.
• Register: you have created a registration page on your event website. In the registration form, you ask the questions that are important for your event. For example, whether the visitor comes to your event or follows the event online, which workshops or lectures the visitor wants to follow and, of course, what the visitor's details are. You will find all this information clearly and up-to-date in the software.
• Welcome: the visitors enter your event with a QR code, which gives you real-time insight into the number of visitors who have arrived. You can guide the VIPs directly and you control access.
• Thank: after the event, you can share photos, videos and presentations and you have the option to send a survey.

 

Event technology for event planning software

With this event technology, you no longer have to worry about the visitors. Everything is well organized and you give yourself much more time and peace of mind in the planning process. Could you use a little more peace and overview in your event management? Contact us!