Tech Adoption for Event Organizers Is Spotty

Last week we launched the latest report in our Skift Research service, The State of Conferences and Events 2017.

Below is an excerpt from our Skift Research Report. Get the full report here to stay ahead of this trend.
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A recent survey of event marketers by event management company etouches suggested that event tech is often a key pain point for organizers, with many choosing to skip the use of such tech tools altogether or minimize its role. Among the pain points identified by etouches for the pre-event phase, nearly 60 percent of respondents across all geographic locations cited targeting the right people with the right event content as a common struggle.

Attendee registration was another challenge for more than half of respondents, and managing logistics, such as orders, room setup, AV needs, and the like was another obstacle for 43 percent. On-site challenges are varied and impact event planners across the board. A big challenge for 44 percent of respondents was communication with event attendees. Additionally, 42 percent of event planners cited the registration and check-in process as well as technology overall as pain points.

Interestingly, etouches’ survey revealed that while event planners are using technology in some aspects of the event lifecycle, they haven’t embraced these tools across the board. For example, only 20 percent of respondents said they used a venue sourcing tool and just seven percent use a Strategic Meeting Management (SMM) program. And despite declaring on-site communication as a major pain point, just 47 percent of respondents used a mobile app to communicate with attendees during events.

Source: etouches, The Event Checkup.
The biggest post-event pain point cited by respondents of the etouches survey is event measurement. The good news is the majority of respondents (65 percent) indicated they are already measuring event ROI.

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Meanwhile for conference and event suppliers like hotels, event technology is helping to more easily sort through the growing volume of Requests for Proposals (RFPs) received from event organizers. For example, Cvent’s new Group Business Intelligence tool is designed to provide real-time data and analytics of hotels’ group business leads (and those of their competitors) in a single platform, helping hotel sales staff prioritize incoming queries and score leads. The tool also makes it easier for hoteliers to examine leads by specific time periods, customer segments, competitor rates, response times, and peak night volume, helping calculate the potential value of each piece of group business with much more context and business insight than before.

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