Posts Categorized: Event Rebels Blog

kchopson

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

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

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

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

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

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 »

lbradford

Virtual Totebags Are Here

Virtual tote bags are here! Our newest addition to the virtual trade show platform allows attendees to collect and store exhibitor resources. What are 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 view those resources directly from the company profile or add them to their personal tote bag to view later. This digital content replaces the materials that exhibitors would have displayed in a physical booth location. However, in a virtual... Read more »

lbradford

How to Conduct Virtual Roundtables with Zoom Breakout Rooms

VirtualEventsZoomEventRebels

Do many of your sessions include roundtables? Often, roundtable sessions follow this format: One or more speakers lead the session At various points, speakers break the attendees into small groups to discuss a problem or question After a short time (five to ten minutes), the speakers bring the small group discussions to a close and reassemble the entire group This collaboration makes roundtable sessions a popular and powerful way of providing instruction and helping your attendees think through difficult challenges. In a face-to-face environment, you would see roundtable attendees seated at tables of 8, 10, or 12. These tables become... Read more »

lbradford

Virtual Event Resources

Our first “Virtual Events 101” bootcamp was a great success. Below are some of the resources we shared during the webinars. You can also view the recordings by signing up here. EventRebels blog articles on virtual events How to Staff a Virtual Event How to Price Your Virtual Conference Why Your Next Conference Should Be a Virtual Conference How to Prepare Speakers For Your Virtual Event How to Save Your Event (And Time!) With Automated CEUs Using Zoom and Virtual Conferences Zoom Best Practices Help Keep Your Virtual Meetings Safe Virtual Event Support Pure Chat (live chat software) Virtual Event Hardware... Read more »

lbradford

How to Staff a Virtual Event

staffleader

Like their face-to-face counterparts, the foundation of a successful virtual event is its staff. While virtual environments may require far less staff than an in-person event, there is still a need for careful planning to make sure that everything runs smoothly. Identifying Staff Roles The first step in staffing your virtual event is determining which roles need to be filled. We’ll break the staff roles down into two categories—general support staff and session support staff.  General Support Staff Technical Support Have technical support staff available through multiple channels, if possible. We recommend monitoring phone, email, and social media while also... Read more »

kchopson

How to Price Your Virtual Conference

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

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 »

lbradford

How to Prepare Speakers for Your Virtual Event

Retro microphone and notebook computer, live webcast on air concept

Lights, camera, action–if only it were that easy to present a virtual event! We’ve put together a list of 8 tips to help prepare your speakers for their virtual debut. 1. Create a speaker tool kit. Put together a packet of information for your speakers so that they know exactly what to expect: Include a calendar with any deadlines and practice sessions clearly noted. Provide access to any branded conference materials such as PowerPoint/Google Slide templates or virtual conference backgrounds. Send download and installation instructions for any conferencing software they will need to use. 2. Give equipment and setup suggestions.... Read more »

kchopson

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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 »