Data drives success in the new era of business events

Today’s business event is a digitally enhanced experience providing a lot of data. Its ecosystem can be complex and overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be, said Matthew Grant, vice president of live + digital production and technology at experiential agency Impact XM, during his session on gleaning meaningful intelligence from event programs in the recent Experiential Marketing Said. Summit in Las Vegas.

Data should be a critical component in designing and executing actions that drive results, especially now that there are so many opportunities to capture attendees’ information and mine it for actionable insights.

measurement success

Grant introduced five basic measurement steps:

1. setting goals and objectives
2. Defining Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
3. Develop a data capture plan
4. collecting and integrating data
5. Analysis of data

He urged the attendees to think big. “Asking the same question at different events will give you a bigger picture,” Grant said.

From registration to badge scanning, surveys and digital networking platforms, a business event can include anywhere between six and 12 technologies to help deliver the experience and collect data. Impact XM recently launched xBI™, a business intelligence tool that integrates data from a variety of sources.

“There is immediate value in seeing how things go and also being more strategic in delivering desired results in the future,” Grant said.

Some examples of where data strategy made a difference include increasing post-event conversions, designing a consistent data-capturing program across the entire event portfolio, targeting messaging based on engagement index scores, and engaging with sponsors. involves proving the value of an event.

beyond scan

In her session on data-driven experiences, Heather Munnell, director of client services for VDA, said that while many organizers already track event app engagements, social media tags, and session check-ins, real-world use is emerging. The number of methods is increasing. -Time data to finally take business event programming to a whole new level.

• QR code It is a relatively easy and popular tool to bridge digital and physical experiences and is a step towards AI integration.
• geofencing Allows creating a virtual perimeter around the event to deliver personalized content based on pre-event data collected from attendees.
• heatmapping A real-time visual representation of traffic flow and dwell time around the footprint of the entire event or specific parts of it, including booths and theaters. This helps in evaluating the success of the layout, identifying audience interest and push notifications based on their location.
• rfid bracelet Has been successfully adopted at fairs and festivals for access and cashless payments, and can be used at commercial events.
• ethical ai There is an emerging frontier in business events. Artificial Intelligence brings immense possibilities to measure attendee sentiment through aggregated and anonymized data that can be translated into actionable insights for various stakeholders and future event planning.

While the latest bells and whistles may sound like an enticing idea, it all comes back to laying the foundation and defining a well thought out strategy that meets the KPIs of the event stakeholders.

Next Step? As event headliner Brian Solis put it, the best experiential marketing KPIs today are simple: Kdraw PPeople Iinterested.