Posts By: K.C. Hopson

kchopson

How Tracking Your Live and Virtual Conference Attendees Can Help Your Bottom Line

Posted by & filed under Event Marketing, Event Rebels Blog, Meetings Technology, Online Registration - Keys to Success, QR Codes, Trade Show, Virtual Events, What's New.

Conference Attendees

In the mad rush to get ready for a conference, it is easy to ignore one of the most important metrics of show – namely, who actually attended. Planners often overlook this metric because the registration revenue is already in the bank so, in their overworked mind, it is not particularly important knowing who actually showed up. This is a major mistake because knowing your attendees from your no-shows is very important for your planning, marketing and bottom line. There are two things you should take into account when getting ready to verify your attendees. Know the difference between Attendance... Read more »

kchopson

Engage Attendees with a Virtual Scavenger Hunt

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Trade Show, Virtual Events, What's New.

Engage your attendees with EventRebels’ new virtual scavenger hunt. Tied to our ERVirtual Trade Show virtual tote bag feature, participants can fill up their tote bag with scavenger list items and become eligible for prizes. The planner decides what the winning criteria for prizes are such as completely filled out scavenger hunt card, or just progress towards completion. FILLING THE TOTE BAG WITH EXHIBITOR RESOURCES For events using our virtual trade show platform, exhibitor and sponsor profiles include a “Resources” section where they can share all of the materials they would like to offer to their booth visitors. Visitors can... Read more »

kchopson

Questions to ask your Event Management Software Provider for your Hybrid Conference and Trade Show

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Meetings Technology, Mobile Event Apps, Virtual Events, What's New.

Trade Show Exhibitors

It is an understatement to say that event planners have been in quite a whirlwind since early 2020. Having mastered face-to-face events, planners had to quickly learn and properly implement 100% virtual conferences. Now as the pandemic is easing, there is now another transition to hybrid events. This change not only results in another steep learning curve, but it also requires a reworking of the particular technologies that should be deployed for a hybrid event. What is a Hybrid Event?What is a Hybrid event? It is not just streaming live feeds from F2F or posting recordings as was done in... Read more »

kchopson

Simple Model for Creating More Engaging and Profitable Virtual Conference Sessions

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Speakers, Virtual Events, What's New.

Retro microphone and notebook computer, live webcast on air concept

Many planners are still struggling with creating virtual conferences that are both engaging and profitable. The main issue is that planners frequently attempt to put a square peg into a round hole: they are simply lifting face-to-face scheduling into a virtual platform. Unfortunately, this thinking often leads to dismal results. The other problem is that planners will often lift the sponsorship/exhibitor model from the classic trade show and also slap it into a virtual product. This too has resulted in many dissatisfied vendors. The key to producing successful virtual events is to embrace the possibilities of virtual. A simple model for good... Read more »

kchopson

Webinar – Proven Strategies for Virtual Event Success

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Virtual Events, What's New.

Proven Strategies for Virtual Event Success   20 • 21 evolution webinar series Wednesday, December 2, 2:00pm ET   RESERVE MY SPACE   Return on investment, three of the most important words in our industry. Sponsors and exhibitors alike want to know what ROI they can expect from participating in your conference, meeting or trade show. With the growing dominance of virtual events, planners are discovering new challenges in predicting and articulating ROI. Strong virtual events are forged from best practices and proven success strategies. Our goal is to help our clients win and retain sponsors and exhibitors, attract more... Read more »

kchopson

How to Price Your Virtual Conference

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Online Registration - Keys to Success, Virtual Events, What's New.

virtualmoney

Make your virtual event profitable with the most cost-efficient virtual software solution available. See how our Virtual Conference software with Direct Zoom Integration can make your pivot easier! Transitioning from traditional face-to-face events to a virtual format can be a real challenge for planners.  One of the toughest problems is deciding how to price your virtual event. With the tough economy, it is especially tempting to simply not charge for your event. This article urges planners to take a close look at the economics of virtual events and really understand the value you are delivering to your attendees. Derrick Johnson,... Read more »

kchopson

Why Your Next Conference should be a Virtual Conference

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Virtual Events, What's New.

ERVirtual Conference Schedule

The Coronavirus pandemic has caused havoc to the meetings and conference industry around the world with countless events postponed or cancelled. It will take a long time for face-to-face meetings to return with the vigor that they had prior to 2020. Furthermore, many trends that were happening before the crisis have been profoundly moved into fast forward. The path forward for the meetings industry is to face the new realities. In particular, the “way things have always been done” is on the way out and new paradigms are moving in. Let’s look at the old and new ways of doing... Read more »

kchopson

How to Save Your Event and Time with Automated CEUs using Zoom and Virtual Conferences

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Meetings Technology, Online Registration - Keys to Success, Surveys, Virtual Events, What's New.

VirtualEventsZoomEventRebels

After working very hard to put on a great virtual conference, the nail in the coffin for the planners’ exhaustion is often the issuing and collation of meeting related surveys and CEUs. If the work is performed using paper and/or spreadsheets, the resulting toil is usually a mountain of tedious and error-prone management of forms. The work is labor and time-intensive and, consequently, unnecessarily expensive. The good news is that EventRebels Online Registration and ERCEU CEU management software has a direct integration with Zoom Meetings and Webinars that makes it easy to track who attended your Zoom meeting and issue... Read more »

kchopson

EventRebels goes Zoom for virtual events!

Posted by & filed under Event Apps, Event Rebels Blog, Green Meetings, Mobile Event Apps, Press Release Center, Virtual Events, What's New.

Zoom

EventRebels is rolling out new integrations with the exploding Zoom video conferencing platform. This great software has a full breadth of tools to incorporate streaming into all aspects of our product. EventRebels is now an approved vendor in the Zoom App Marketplace.  Here is a road map of the features we will be rolling out over the next few weeks and months as part of our virtual layer: Now available! Direct integration between EventRebels and Zoom, connecting a single EventRebels meeting with a corresponding Zoom stream. Allows attendees to register and pay for access to your Zoom Meeting/Webinar via a portal within EventRebels. Portal page can be... Read more »

kchopson

Zoom Best Practices Help Keep your Virtual Meetings Safe

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, GDPR and Privacy, Internet Security, Meetings Technology, Virtual Events, What's New.

Zoom

As the Coronavirus pandemic spread and face-to-face meetings became impossible, people flocked to video conferencing products. A massive surge in use was particularly notable in the already popular Zoom video conferencing platform. In just a few weeks Zoom went from 10 million to 200 million users.  People flocked to Zoom because of its free trial, low pricing, great functionality and ease of use. The widespread usage of Zoom has opened up many possibilities for the package, including its use in virtual conferences. However, Zoom’s rapid rise in popularity has made it a target for hackers.  A series of security and... Read more »

kchopson

What to Look for in the Best Event Management Software

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Meetings Technology, What's New.

What to Look for in the Best Event Management Software

  Planning a large-scale event? You need event management software. Designed to handle various aspects of event planning with easy-to-use digital tools, event management software allows event planners to plan better events with less headaches and hassles. However, not all event management software platforms are created equal. Some are geared toward specific aspects of event planning, while others focus on entirely different areas. Some are easy to use; some are not. Some are expensive; some are not. In this guide, we break down what to look for when choosing the best event management software for your needs. Choosing the Best... Read more »

kchopson

How to Deal with Abandoned Online Registration Forms

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Online Registration - Keys to Success, What's New.

Most people associate “abandoned carts” with e-commerce sites like Amazon or Walmart.com. But did you know that online conference registration sites often have their own “abandoned” cart issues? Since online registrations are usually not “carts” per se, it is best to think of the problem as an abandoned online registration form. But the results are the same – someone started the process of purchasing but stopped before the process was completed. For a conference, the abandonment problem can be described as when a person started a registration form but left before the process was complete. While it is well known... Read more »

kchopson

Event Management Software 2020 Trends

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Meetings, Meetings Technology, What's New.

Event Management Software 2020 Trends

It’s a new decade, and the event management software industry is booming. An increase in the number of large events and attendees — coupled with the rise of online, app-based technologies — has contributed to higher standards in the event planning market. This has resulted in an increase in the number of event software platforms, particularly those that can be used on mobile devices. Among the event industry trends 2020 is showing on the horizon, event management software market growth is perhaps the most marked. In this guide, we dive into event management software growth while touching on several other... Read more »

kchopson

Four Ways to Integrate Your Membership CRM with Your Online Registration Form

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Meetings Technology, Online Registration - Keys to Success, What's New.

Many professional trade organizations offer preferential conference registration pricing to their active members. This is an important technique to encourage membership growth by providing a clear, tangible value to being a member. In fact, your online registration form is a great way to grow your membership. The trick is finding the correct combination of software products that make it easy to validate active membership during the online registration process. Unfortunately, many online registration software products do not provide an easy way to validate membership. However, there does exist online registration software designed for membership organizations. Such products use a number... Read more »

kchopson

13 Ways to Get Attendees to use Your Mobile Event App – Infographic

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Mobile Event Apps, What's New.

13 Ways to Get Attendees to use Your Mobile Event App

So, you’ve created a great mobile event app packed with useful features—but the number of times the app has been downloaded is disappointingly low. What do you do to increase the rate of usage? Here are some useful tips to get more attendees to download and use your mobile event app. Pre-Promote. Event, app, product, media moment—none of these things reach peak engagement without promotion. To get as many people as possible interested in your mobile event app, it’s best to start promoting as early as possible. A year out is probably the earliest you’ll want to start building hype,... Read more »

kchopson

Beware of Fake Conferences!

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Event Scams, What's New.

Fraud Theft Stealing

You have heard of fake news, but have you heard of fake conferences? Fake conferences (or “predatory conferences”) grew out of the predatory publishing industry, which focused on academics and researchers who were eager to get their papers published.  Predatory publishing expert Jeffrey Beal first noticed a handful (11) of predatory conferences back in 2011.  However, this list has now grown to over 900 and continues to expand. Fake conferences are NOT non-existent conferences that simply take registration and publishing fees.  They are real conferences, but they are marked by poor quality and a high level of deception. As this... Read more »

kchopson

Outdoor Event Risks

Posted by & filed under Event Design, Event Rebels Blog, Meetings, Onsite, Travel, What's New.

Need to make your event virtual? See how our Virtual Conference software with Direct Zoom Integration can make your pivot easier! As summer approaches, we are all getting ready to spend a lot of time in the great outdoors. If you live on the East Coast (as EventRebels does!) or cooler regions of the country, you know that we need to take in all the fresh air we can! So we look forward to the time of parks, hiking trails, ball games and outdoor weddings and events. For the planner, staging an outdoor event is a thrilling experience, but can... Read more »

kchopson

How to Use an Event Check-In App Helps Simplify Onsite Registration

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Meetings Technology, Mobile Event Apps, Onsite, What's New.

Conference organizers have numerous occasions to make strong impressions on attendees. From an A-list keynote speaker, to a great online registration system, your guests take notice and draw conclusions about your event. Yet, there’s one process that often gets overlooked: Check-ins. Day-of registration and the check-in process offer organizers a chance to start a conference or tradeshow off on the right foot. Guests feel welcomed, their first impression isn’t a bad one, and they have more time for exploring and interacting. Want to create a faster, more efficient check-in process for your event? You might consider an event registration app.... Read more »

kchopson

Using Twitter to Promote Your Conference Year Round

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Uncategorized.

It goes without saying: You’re probably using Twitter to promote your conference. Conference and trade show organizers have long embraced the social media platform, which makes sense. Twitter is used by nearly 40% of Americans, and millions of young professionals – that attend lots of trade shows and conferences – use the platform every day. In other words, if you’re not promoting your conference on Twitter, you’re missing a massive opportunity to connect with and engage potential guests. Convinced you should be tweeting up a storm to promote your event? Well, to be successful on Twitter, you have to have... Read more »

kchopson

25 Reasons Why a Lead Retrieval App is Better for Your Show

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Mobile Event Apps, Resources Lead Retrieval, Trade Show, What's New.

Lead Retrieval App

You’ve probably heard the complaints from exhibitors about lead retrieval units. They’re expensive, difficult to operate and create a data bottleneck, as it can take days after a show to receive all those leads. By that time, a hot lead has turned cold! In other words, a clunky lead retrieval unit can kill exhibitors’ ROI at your show. And since that’s a key indicator of your show’s success in exhibitors’ eyes, that can affect the growth of your trade show or convention year-over-year. How can you help exhibitors improve ROI? Considering an estimated 80% of trade show leads are never... Read more »

kchopson

Seven Ways to Protect the Privacy of your Event Attendees

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, GDPR and Privacy, Internet Security, Meetings Technology, Online Registration - Keys to Success, Onsite, What's New.

GDPR phone

Privacy is a top of mind concern for many organizations these days. High profile data breaches, the new European GDPR law, and the upcoming California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) has made it imperative that all organizations protect the data of their customers. Securing and protecting the customers’ privacy is not just the job of the IT department – it requires the effort of all employees with access to the organization’s data. Meeting planning departments are no exception to making privacy a top priority. As we mentioned in Why Would Hackers Attack Your Conference? there are many reasons why planners can... Read more »

kchopson

EventRebels announces a round-trip iMIS Integration Solution

Posted by & filed under Event Rebels Blog, Meetings Technology, Online Registration - Keys to Success, Press Release Center, What's New.

The iMIS membership management software product is one of the most versatile CRM products available to associations. However, when an association wants to use third-party event management software for managing its conferences and trade shows, it can be very difficult to move data from iMIS to and from the event software package. EventRebels has had a long-time web-service integration to pull data from iMIS for the purposes of validating memberships and driving pricing. Now as part of our partnership with Association Technology Solutions (ATS), EventRebels announces a full-round trip solution of EventRebels to/from iMIS systems. The solution is part of... Read more »

kchopson

Why your Beautiful Email may not be attractive everywhere

Posted by & filed under Email - How to Use Effectively, Event Marketing, Event Rebels Blog, Mobile Event Apps, What's New.

EMail

You just spent hours creating a beautiful Email with an important message. When you test sent the message to your Email client program, like Gmail or Microsoft Outlook, everything looks fantastic. Yet shortly after you send out the Email blast, people contact you complaining that it was hard to read. What happened? The key to understanding this problem is noting that the HTML that is behind your Email is not rendered the same on different Email clients. The main reason for this is the viewing of Emails is a different experience than browsing a website. For example, Email clients need... Read more »