Trying to keep up with the latest data trends? The more event tech packages evolve, the more data we’re able to capture and store. But how do you get to grips with it all and make the most of the measurements you’re taking?
Our own Founder and Head of Pencils Clemi Hardie co-hosted a Mastermind breakfast session with the brilliant Beckie Hyson of The Events Raccoon. Joined by a group of leading #EventProfs from across the capital they led a discussion on the challenges of measuring data, the importance of finding the right event technology to help you reach your goals and methods for engaging event attendees.
As a client of Noodle Live, Beckie had some key questions about making the most of data.
Beckie: “When you look solely at the cost, it feels expensive. How do I justify the ROI?”
Clemi: “Everything we do with our event tech packages comes back to ROI. The data you capture at your events can help to demonstrate the return on investment. In the past, events have largely relied on fairly unscientific feedback from delegates to measure their success. Event tech can help you to understand the way your delegates behaved and what they most enjoyed. The data can be used to get a concrete understanding of the impact you are having. You can gather incredibly useful feedback for your clients. So many other industries are doing this really well already. The event industry is only just starting to understand the value of this data.”
Beckie: “How can I create attractive data capture opportunities? Will my delegates find it invasive?”
Clemi: “We never want delegates to feel like they’re being asked for their data all the time. They’ll stop engaging. Uptake of the tech is key for effective data capture, so you have to make it attractive to delegates. We like to offer them something in return. They should feel like the tech is there to help them rather than simply to track them. Our event tech is always a two-way street. For example, when someone checks-in for a session they automatically get the session notes emailed to them, and the event organiser gets real time data on the most popular sessions. When someone arrives and registers they get a personal welcome message with personal notes on sessions they are attending and the organiser gets up to date information about who has arrived and who hasn’t.”
Beckie: “What are the key data points in a standard delegate journey?”
Clemi: “Anything can become a data point if it is relevant and interesting to the organiser. Our most common data points are event registration, session check-in, cloakroom, interacting with a sponsor or exhibitor and leaving the event.”
Beckie: “Will it take a lot of work from me pre-event?”
Clemi: “We try to make the preparation as easy as possible. A lot of our tech is automated and we also offer some of our sparkly Team Noodle reps to help with the set up if needed. We need a sit-down chat with the organiser to find out what their goals are and then we pretty much take it from there. During and after the event we try to make sure that all of the data we gather is in a useful format that the organiser can understand. We never leave people drowning in pools of useless data. Our dashboard and reports are designed to make sure that they are easy to understand and everything is given context. That’s when data stops being confusing and starts being incredibly useful. We also understand that different people will need different data measurements, so we can change the format to make sure that each organiser gets the information that is relevant to them and their role.
“Agencies and clients might need to gather different data than the venues or the suppliers. The key is being really clear about your goals and objectives and then gathering data to help you reach them. The data should always be useful. If you gather relevant data it can really help to improve your performance. You can use data from your event to analyse how the delegates behaved and what they did. This can help you to streamline your next event and make the delegate experience much smoother.”
After the session Beckie concluded that The Events Raccoon “need to get better at working with venues to find out what data they need post event and what data they can help us to gather using their in-house Wi-Fi logins etc.”
Got more questions about using your event tech package to measure data? Get in touch! We love talking about data and data capture at events almost as much as we love retro video games from the 80s. And that’s a lot.