Posts Tagged: Online Registration Articles

kchopson

EventRebels announces a round-trip iMIS Integration Solution

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

Six ways to Improve Event Attendance without Busting Your Budget

ways to improve event attendance event rebels

When tasked with boosting event attendance, planners often worry that a large budget is needed to reach new goals. Fortunately, there are many ways to deliver a big boost to attendance without breaking the budget. Many of these methods use tools you may already have or require just some minor shifts in how you think about your event. 1. Use Past Registration Data The data collected from previous year’s events presents a treasure trove of valuable insights. Perhaps the most useful way to delve into this data is to look for common categories of attendees. Not only can you group... Read more »

kchopson

Why Your Online Conference Registration Form Should Look Like Your Web Site

Dollar Sign Skeleton Key

It happens all too often. An organization creates a beautiful web site for their conference or trade show, only to have their brand obscured by an online registration form that looks like a cheap invitation. Apparently someone thought that the idea of a consistent marketing message ends at the time of registration. This, of course, is a big mistake. Here is why: It breaks the fundamental rule of a consistent marketing message. The site builds up the notion that you are going to have a great conference, but the registration form has the appearance of a second-rate operation. Your brand... Read more »

kchopson

GDPR and EventRebels – What We are Doing to Help You Comply

GDPR Secure Laptop

In our background article we discussed the new European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that went into effect on May 25, 2018 and what it means to meeting and event planners. One of the key takeaways from this article is that if you have just one participant who is an EU data subject involved in your event, your organization is impacted by GDPR. EventRebels believes that GDPR is a step in the right direction to protect the privacy of all Internet users. Despite the regulation being created specifically for EU citizens, we are structuring our software to allow... Read more »

kchopson

18 ways you can make a GREAT Online Registration Form for your Conference

Register Button

Have you ever had an online registration form that was both inflexible and unattractive? An inflexible registration form is one that does not allow you to control what fees and questions a registrant receives based on how they answered other questions on the form. An unattractive form is, well, ugly – such as a cheap looking invitation. If your online registration form has either of these qualities, you are diminishing the brand of your event and your organization. While building an event brand takes a long time of hard work, that impression can be brought down quickly by giving a... Read more »

kchopson

Are Event Planners Ready for GDPR?

GDPR Secure Laptop

Are you ready for May 25, 2018? That is the date that the new European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) goes into effect. While GDPR consolidates and builds upon prior EU regulations on privacy and data security, it is noteworthy both in its scope within the EU and its impact abroad. Does GDPR apply to my organization? The goal of GDPR is to protect the personal data of EU citizens. For organizations that process this data, the regulation seeks to ensure that personal information is handled in a secure, private and transparent fashion.  At the heart of GDPR... Read more »

kchopson

Saving Time by Getting Your Event and Organization Software to Talk to Each Other

IPAAS Workflow

Are you a meeting planner that spends too much time moving data from one software system to another? When you make an update to your conference schedule software do you also have to copy the changes to your website and then again to your mobile app? Do also you need to duplicate your attendee information in the organization’s CRM? How about being concerned with moving financial data from your online registration system to accounting? If you have one stop shop conference software, you may be able to avoid some of this tedious, error prone work. However, in most cases, there... Read more »

kchopson

How to get started with Conference Management Software: Part Eight – Powerful Registration Reporting

In this series we have been reviewing how event technology can be employed at various points in the lifecycle of an association’s annual conference. One of the key advantages of using first rate online registration software is that you can collect critical data about your attendees. However, if you cannot manipulate the information in the manner you need, your online registration system may be creating a bunch of hidden costs by not giving you functionality that high end platforms provide. Here are some reporting features your online registration software should have. Most importantly, you need to be able to export... Read more »

kchopson

Bringing Your Event and Marketing Data Together

Until recent years, there has been a one-way relationship between marketers and event planners. Namely, the marketing department would do their work to promote an event, but little help traveled back from the event planners back to the marketing team. Much event data, especially the onsite experience, was considered a black hole of information with little to glean for future marketing efforts. Fortunately, the rise of great event technology and mobile event apps are now providing a rich set of data that can be used to better promote events as well as providing valuable information to the marketing department on... Read more »

kchopson

How to Use Registration Data to Boost Conference Attendance

Reports

Did you know that your registration database of past meetings can be a goldmine of information that can increase your marketing efficiency and boost attendance at your next conference? If you have been using great online registration software to record your attendee data, you may have the keys to catapulting your registration numbers to the next level. Here are some ways you can use your registration data to reach your goals.Week over Week reports. It is common practice to see how your show is trending compared to previous years. Week over Week reports comparing factors like total registrations and revenue... Read more »

kchopson

How to get started with Conference Management Software: Part Four – Opening Online Registration

Event technology can provide a bewildering range of choices for the meeting planner. A good place to start making sense of the range of options is to look at how software can be utilized at the various stages of the event lifecycle. In this series, we will look at the lifecycle from the point of view of an association’s annual conference. In past weeks, we have looked at software that often goes live immediately after the prior year’s conference. In this part of the series, we look at tools that can help you in your day-to-day work in the months... Read more »

kchopson

Ten Signs That You Are Using Sub-Standard Online Registration Software

Have you heard of someone who bought an online registration software package that promised to deliver an attractive form and save time, only to find these expectations were not met? Did they get a lot of complaints from registrants? Was the software so limited that the planner had to spend long, late hours creating spreadsheets to manage tasks the software could not handle? Fortunately, there are some tell-tale signs that an online registration package is sub-standard. If you look for these during the evaluation process, you can be spared the pain of the unfortunate planner.Online registration form looks like a... Read more »

kchopson

Is Your Online Registration Form ADA Compliant?

Section508Logo

Is your website ADA compliant? Section 508 is the key portion of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) that deals with websites. The provision was enacted in 1998 to make available new opportunities for people with disabilities and to encourage development of technologies that will help achieve these goals. For years, developers have often created websites that are Section 508 compliant only if the site is part of a government contract or have an audience that requires these standards. However, in recent years, there has been an increasing amount of cases where websites that are not compliant have opened themselves... Read more »

kchopson

Use FOMO to Promote Your Conference!

Have you ever experienced FOMO, aka the Fear of Missing Out? You may have gone through FOMO if your peers are about to have a great experience – and you may not be there. In fact, some studies have shown that millennials, in particular, are susceptible to FOMO. Largely as a result of social media, FOMO has become a widely discussed phenomenon. FOMO is not just about having fun. Fear of being left behind professionally by missing a great conference, for example, can have the same effect. The funny thing is that high quality face-to-face meetings, rather than being hurt... Read more »

kchopson

EventRebels Supports Stripe Payment Gateway

Online Credit Card

EventRebels is now supporting the Stripe payment gateway, one of the hottest processors around. Stripe has a simple setup and pricing model. The product also makes it easy for newcomers to online credit card processing to get on the air. EventRebels supports Stripe for both their EROnline Online Registration and ERShow Online Trade Show and Exhibitor Management products. With Stripe, EventRebels now supports over a dozen payment gateways. This wide variety of gateways allows support for all kinds of customers ranging from organizations that are new to meetings technology to sophisticated conferences with over 10,000 attendees. EventRebels payment processing support... Read more »

kchopson

How to Use Your Online Registration to Make Your Conference Program a Success

Crowded Room

Ever plan a conference where some rooms are overflowing while other rooms sit mostly empty? Did you ever have to face angry attendees that were turned away from a highly anticipated presentation because the session could not sit another person? Planners know that the latter case can seriously “ding” your overall conference survey scores because people do not forget the sessions they were forced to miss. Fortunately, you can use your online registration form to solve many of these problems. By letting attendees build their itinerary at the time of sign up, you can get an accurate picture of what... Read more »

kchopson

Conducting Surveys Using an Online Registration Form

Feedback Button

It is well known the getting a high response rate from surveys is difficult. One way to get around this is to place questions that are important to you on forms that people will need to fill out. One such place is your membership form. Another area is the online registration form. The registration form is a great place to get answers for critical data such as demographics. The registrant will already be entering personal information, so asking additional personal information in this area will already seem somewhat natural. Here are some tips to get the data you need on... Read more »

kchopson

Create a Superior Event Badge

Do you want to get your event off to a fast start with a great badge? When set up properly, badges can convey a lot of information in a relatively small amount of space. They can be crucial for networking and gaining access to sessions and events. Take care to create badges that work; review our list of tips and tricks for crafting the perfect conference badge below. Names should be printed in a large, sans-serif font, with first and last names on separate lines. Attendees should be able to glance at a badge and immediately locate the name. Make... Read more »

kchopson

A Better Way to Manage Conference Certifications

Event Rebels Tech Tuesday

Have you seen this way of tracking CEUs at a conference before? The first step is to print out sign in sheets, possibly pre-populated with attendee names. The next step is throughout the conference placing the sheets in the appropriate rooms before the workshop and then picking them up after each session. After the show the show organizers get to back to the office and collate the signatures with the registration, membership, and CEU systems. This should only take a few days if you are lucky. Finally, you have to pull this data together and somehow get the certificates to... Read more »

kchopson

How to Increase Membership with your Meeting’s Online Registration Form

Most organizations treat the process of increasing membership and meeting registration numbers as two totally different processes. This is unfortunate because, with the correct software, you can easily drive membership purchases as part of your normal online registration process for your meetings. If you are interested in a simple way to boost your membership, here are a few things your registration system should be able to handle. Are you able to upload your membership list to your online registration software? This list should include all pertinent contact information as well as any other data you need. Do you attempt to... Read more »

kchopson

How to Promote your Meeting with LinkedIn

LinkedIn is now the premier social media web site for business. If your conference is targeting professionals in business, education and government, LinkedIn is not to be ignored, although they have discontinued the app for creating events. There are still many great ways for your meeting to be promoted on LinkedIn. Post updates on your personal and organization page that link to your online registration form. Use headline terminology, such as registration for your conference “is now open!” Post status updates about meeting news such as speaker updates, the venue, and so forth. Have a LinkedIn icon on your online... Read more »

kchopson

Why Your Online Registration Form Should Look Like Your Web Site

Dollar Sign Skeleton Key

It happens all too often. An organization creates a beautiful web site for their conference or special event, only to have their brand obscured by an online registration form that looks like a cheap invitation. Apparently someone thought that the idea of a consistent marketing message ends at the time of registration. This, of course, is a big mistake. Here is why: It breaks the fundamental rule of a consistent marketing message. The site builds up the notion that you are going to have a great conference, but the registration form has the appearance of a second-rate operation. Your brand... Read more »

kchopson

Why Email Open Rates are Unreliable

Email marketers love to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. From unique Emails sent to bounce-backs to click-thrus, metrics form the backbone of evaluating the success of your marketing campaign. One metric, generally considered to be very important, but actually is extremely suspect, is the metric called “Open Rate.” The rate’s goal is to track how many people opened your Email. Why it is important is obvious. Opening your Email is like opening a letter. It indicates that some or part of the message will be read and points that the reader is at least somewhat interested in what you... Read more »