Many of our client’s event goals and objectives, include creating a high-touch, personalized attendee experience. This is especially true for incentive trips, retreats and client or partner recognition events.
A few examples of this is organized transportation, customized excursions, and room-drops. The cumulative experience can leave the attendee feeling like the event was designed with them in mind. Which it was!
We often see this degree of customization limited to the physical event. This leaves many opportunities to expand the personalized attendee experience. Using event technology, such as an event app, can create opportunities to make attendees feel appreciated and special. This can be used throughout the entire event lifecycle.
Here are five easy ways to achieve a personalized attendee experience using EventMobi’s event tech platform:
1. Use targeted alerts to communicate with specific attendees or groups
Alerts or announcements are a frequently used feature within event technology to communicate updates or important information with event attendees.
This communication may be tailored to specific groups of attendees. But, there is plenty of opportunities to use alerts to create a personalized attendee experience. Here are a couple of ideas:
- Create an attendee group for each attendee and send them a personal message welcoming them to the app. Instead of sending it as a push notification, you can send it in-app only so it pops up when they open the app for the first time.
- Send alerts before the beginning of particular sessions or events so attendees get the information that is most relevant to them.
2. Create custom schedules with all necessary information
This is also a frequently used tool to make your event technology feel more personal. By loading in the sessions and events of interest that attendees have selected, you can give them the information most important to them..
That being said, using custom schedules can extend beyond sessions to other things in the itinerary. For instance you can include logistics like flight or transfer information. This can add to the overall event experience
Having this information available in the app is one thing. But, making it easily accessible to attendees is most important when it comes to the experience. A great example of easy access is adding a widget to the homescreen that links to your attendee’s personal schedule.
3. Use personal profiles to provide important details
You have the ability to add custom fields within an attendee’s profile in the EventMobi app. Use them to collect relevant information that will help you create a personalized attendee experience for them.
It’s a two-way street. You can use the profile to provide attendees with information they will need to know. For example hotel confirmation numbers can be displayed. In turn, they can provide personal details to you, such as dietary restrictions.
You could also consider using a custom field to provide a custom welcome message. Consider other information that you think would be a nice surprise for them personally to have in the app.
4. Connect and engage through attendee engagement features
One of the best ways to encourage your attendees is to use your event app engagement features such as the Activity Feed and Group Discussions.
For example, if someone posts a photo of the event on the Activity Feed, have a dedicated member of your team ready to like their post and post back a response.
In Group Discussions, if someone posts something, you should ensure you are monitoring and responding. It goes beyond responding to questions. Your staff should be participating in sharing and commenting. This will help drive extra engagement and motivate attendees to contribute.
5. Highlight attendees and events through digital signage
For some events, such as client or partner recognition events or incentive trips for top performers, there may be awards or anniversaries that you’d like to recognize. You could consider using the Live Display feature to include graphics of these individuals, giving them recognition and a truly personalized attendee experience.
Watch this video where I explain more about EventMobi’s Live Display and how it can help you create a personalized attendee experience.
In Conclusion
When the goal of your event is to provide attendees with a personalized, designed-with-them-in-mind experience, utilizing your event technology to extend this into the digital space is a great way to increase attendee loyalty and ensure that they attend future events. And never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth promotion. If your attendees have an amazing experience, chances are they’ll be telling their friends and colleagues about it for years to come!