The rapid growth of technology in recent years has changed the way we do everything, including planning and executing corporate events. You can use technology to make event planning easier, and to keep your attendees engaged with one another and with your leadership speakers. Whether you’re using social media to enhance your corporate events’ value, software to streamline the planning process or new imaging devices to put on impressive visual displays, today’s technologies can help you host an event that your guests won’t soon forget.
Streamline Event Planning With Software Tools
Planning a product launch, a conference, a team-building exercise or another type of corporate event is a complex endeavor. Finding a venue, booking speakers, creating a timeline and dealing with catering can quickly become overwhelming — and expensive. Luckily, new software tools are available to make the many tasks inherent to corporate event planning manageable, so you can get it all done quickly and under budget.
Gone are the days when using software meant buying a disk or download while keeping your fingers crossed that the program would meet your needs. Today, software as a service models allow you to subscribe to online tools that let you track expenditures, juggle timelines and manage bookings. With these subscription services, there’s no need to make an expensive commitment to one program. Low subscription rates give you the freedom to try out different services until you find the perfect fit.
Harness the Power of Social Media
There’s never been a better time to promote your event, extend its life and enhance its value using the Internet. The ubiquity of networked smart devices and the popularity of social media networks mean you can harness the power of websites like Facebook and Twitter to keep your event attendees engaged with one another and with your speakers, and to extend your event’s lifespan beyond its first and last days.
Use social media to host webinars and online group chats before, during and after your event. This boosts engagement and creates online buzz, and stretches your event’s lifespan over several more days. Encourage attendees to check in via networks like Foursquare to promote your event and your vendors. Use social media and connected devices to increase engagement through real-time polls of event attendees, social sharing, messaging and hashtagging.
Attract More Attendees With Online Registration
The more people you can attract to your corporate event, the better; the easier it is for interested parties to register for your event, the more likely they are to come. Offer easy online registration to make RSVPing a breeze. Online registration allows your attendees to buy tickets to your event any time of the day or night, and receive instant confirmation of their reservations. You can use the same services to keep everyone informed of important deadlines, schedules, venues, and other information.
Bolster Your Event’s Value With Online Publishing
The Internet has opened up new doors to consumer interaction for most businesses, and it’s made digital content of paramount importance for every service provider. Corporate events are rich with fodder for new content. Mine your event for videos, photos and written content to boost your corporation’s Web traffic and squeeze every last drop of promotional material from your event.
Your event will be full of experts, community members, customers, partners, executives and others who can provide insight, support, personal stories, helpful hints and commentary. Tap your audience for ideas that can be used to generate months’ worth of digital content in the form of newsletters, blog posts, podcasts, and interviews.
Wow Your Audience With Impressive Displays
New technologies are making it easier to create stunning visual displays that can transform even the most uninspiring venues into striking event spaces. Keep people talking about your event for months with state-of-the-art design options.
Set your event’s unique ambiance with digital art videos displayed in hanging picture frames. Captivate your audience with dry-fog screen projection, a new imaging technique that uses clouds of microscopic water droplets to project three-dimensional images that seem to float in midair. The droplets of water are so small that your attendees can walk right through the middle of the 3-D image without getting wet or disturbing the image quality. Use LCD panels, digital-light processing or rear-projected tile wall displays to create video domes or other large-scale visual displays.
Take advantage of some of today’s newest technological innovations when planning your next corporate event. Thanks to social media, software tools and new imaging technologies, it’s never been so simple to pull off a popular and worthwhile corporate event. Don’t forget to pick the brains assembled at your event for digital content that will keep the buzz going long after the last attendee has packed up and headed home!
About the Author: Contributing blogger Neal Harrison has worked as a corporate event planner for more than 15 years.
