Blog

After your association wraps up an event, don’t let your valuable event content go to waste! This content can have a second life on your organization’s blog, allowing you to engage members and share valuable insights from your event with individuals who may not have been able to attend. 
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Let’s review four steps to create blog content after your association’s events. 

1. Review your event and brainstorm content ideas.

First, review each day or session from your event. What are the stand-out moments that would make for the most intriguing blog content? Use these strategies to brainstorm initial content ideas: 

• Pinpoint the best moments. We define this as “identifying the gold.” What were your event’s most special interactions, valuable information, engaging sessions, and unique presentations? Focus on the elements that made this event distinct from similar events you’ve hosted. 
• Consider your blog audience’s interests. Your blog audience might have slightly different interests than the audience of individuals who attended your event. Consider their needs when choosing content to highlight. 
• Review attendee feedback to see which moments stood out the most. Send surveys to event attendees to gather their input on the event. Ask participants to share their favorite moments, such as the best session they attended, the most memorable speaker they heard from, or their best networking experience. 

This exercise should give you a better sense of direction for the experiences and sessions from your event that you want to highlight on your blog. Remember: if your attendees loved a particular element at your event, they’ll probably be interested in seeing a recap after the fact. 

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2. Gather multimedia elements. 

Now that you know which aspects of your event you want to highlight in blog content, it’s time to gather media elements to bring the experience to life. Research supports the idea that blog readers love to see multimedia embedded throughout content:

• Articles with images receive 94% more views than those without images.
• 89% of customers want to see more videos from brands in 2024. 
• Infographics are 30x more likely to be read than written posts. 

To tap into these trends, create a media library from your event to pull from when creating blog content. Upload the following types of content to a shared drive or platform: 

• Videos
• Photos
• Infographics
• Audio clips
• Direct quotes from attendees
• Social media posts published during the event
• Slideshows
• User-generated social media content

Incorporate these media elements throughout your blog content to engage readers on multiple levels and appeal to different learning styles. For example, you could create an event recap blog post with photos and videos of attendees interspersed throughout the written content. Or you could create an infographic highlighting your event’s logistics, such as how many attendees and speakers participated. 

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3. Create a blogging calendar. 

The next step in the event blogging process is to get down to brass tacks by defining content creation roles and creating a content calendar. It’s worth it to nail down a productive blogging schedule because you can stay organized and replicate your strategy for future events.

Take these steps to get your content live: 

1. Assign roles. Who will write, edit, and upload the content to your website? Who will promote the content across marketing platforms? Determine whether one or multiple individuals will take on these roles. 
2. Determine your content frequency. You’ll likely want to post event content more regularly in the days and weeks after the event when the experience is fresh in members’ minds. This allows you to ensure all audience members have access to the need-to-know content and insights shared at the event. 
3. Plan out your content schedule. Get out your calendar and create a detailed content schedule for your event blog posts. Whether you post every other day for two weeks or once a week for a month, write down your plans using a shared calendar platform. Ensure every entry includes the individual(s) responsible for getting the content live and marketing it to your audience. If content has to be moved to a different day for any reason, ensure all team members are notified of the change. 
4. Evaluate metrics. How will you track the success of your event blog content? Plan to track engagement metrics like time on page, bounce rate, total pageviews, traffic sources, and conversion rates for content that includes calls to action. Schedule recurring meetings with your content team to assess your progress as a group, address any negative metrics, and create a game plan for maximizing your successes. 

Here’s an example of a content calendar you might use to keep the content creation and metrics review processes organized:

Celebrate key milestones with your content team, too, such as reaching a specific page views goal or number of email click-throughs to your blog posts. Consider offering incentives for reaching certain goals, such as prizes or a small one-time bonus. 

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4. Prioritize accessibility and inclusivity.

Making events more inclusive and accessible has been a major focus in the association space, and your blog posts should be no different. Make accessibility a top priority as you create event blog content by taking these steps: 

• Include captions for video or audio clips.
• Incorporate alternative text for images that accurately describes the content of each image.
• Make your site’s navigation keyboard accessible so users can easily navigate using assistive technology. 
• Ensure infographics and typography have sufficient color contrast—you can check your site’s color palette using WebAIM’s free Contrast Checker. 
• Make blog content available in multiple languages depending on your audience’s needs.
• Facilitate fast load speeds by compressing images and optimizing code.
• Prioritize mobile accessibility by ensuring all forms can be easily accessed and completed on mobile devices.

Test your blog content for accessibility using tools such as Lighthouse or WAVE. In addition, you should manually test your site using your keyboard or by enlisting the help of real users with a variety of disabilities (User Interviews has a great resource for advice on connecting with these individuals). Fairly compensate those who help you for their assistance, as they’re offering their skills and time to support your efforts.  

Assistive technologies and accessibility best practices are constantly evolving, so keep an eye out to ensure your website offers the highest-quality experience possible for all visitors. 

Additionally, make your blog content more inclusive to everyone in your association’s audience. For example, let’s say you’re creating a healthcare content strategy after a recent conference for your medical association. Perhaps your conference was tailored to new grads in your field, while your online audience contains everyone in your target market, including long-time professionals. Highlight aspects of your conference that interest all audience members, such as new research developments in your sector.

Your blog can serve as an effective audience stewardship tool after your association’s events. Event-related blog content can help keep members informed and updated on need-to-know information coming out of your events. It can also bring your membership community together by recapping a valuable shared experience. These steps will help bring your event content to life on your blog so that it can continue benefiting attendees and non-attendees alike.

The most innovative and valuable conferences amplify new voices from across fields that your attendees might not expect. Inviting and featuring speakers from outside of your usual target sector welcomes a diversity of perspectives, giving your attendees a more well-rounded and unique experience. Cross-sector partnerships also help your conference gain widespread recognition, encouraging sign-ups and strengthening your brand identity.

In this guide, we’ll explore how to create a successful conference experience powered by participants from across for-profit and nonprofit sectors in multiple phases. As we explore these ideas, consider the assets your conferences already have and how you can leverage them to build cross-sector partnerships. 

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How to Identify and Facilitate Ideal Partnerships

Bringing organizations together for your conference is most effective when they already align on values, interests, industry, or offerings. You can identify and engage potential partners by following these easy steps: 

1. Use standard matching criteria. It can be challenging to find the exact right fit for each organization given the variety of traits and motivations that can shape the partnership. However, by using standard matching criteria, you can objectively score and find the right matches without making it a guessing game. Gauge elements such as:some text
   • Topic interests 
   • Values
   • Competitors
   • Desired outcomes of the partnership
   • Resource contribution
   • Schedule
   • Audience overlap
   • Commitment to the collaboration
2. Score the potential partners. Once you’ve determined the matching criteria, create a survey and send it to potential partners. For some questions, include a scale of one to five so you can easily calculate which responses were closer to each other. For more detailed information, ask them to write short answer responses — you can read and match these manually.
3. Set up touchpoints between the organizations and businesses. Match partners according to your survey results and release the results to your participants. Act as the mediator for setting up touchpoints between new partners, especially if they don’t know each other already. For instance, you could organize a coffee chat for the partners to get to know each other and discuss their ideas for the conference.

Keep in mind that using a standard scoring system can provide a good foundation for your partnership strategy, but you might need to collect more information before making a firm decision. You can thoroughly match partners by conducting interviews, allowing them to expand upon their survey results, or discuss topics that weren’t covered in the survey. 

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How to Engage Partners in Conference Planning

Once you’ve forged logical partnerships, it’s time to start planning your cross-sector events. It’s important to make the planning process as easy and engaging as possible for partners — otherwise, you run the risk of mismanaged events or losing your conference contributors before the big day. 

These tactics can help you shape the planning process with cross-sector partners in mind:

• Create collaborative event briefs. This format simplifies event planning, laying out exactly what you hope to achieve and how you’ll achieve it. Create a standard event brief for your partners based on the type of event they’d like to run together, whether that be a webinar or a keynote speech. Then, facilitate collaboration by setting deadlines for points of contact from each team to complete it together so everyone’s on the same page. 
• Allow partners to decide on roles and responsibilities. Remember, your speakers and panelists are busy with their own organizations and personal lives, meaning they have varying commitment levels for external events. Allow them to take the lead in assigning roles and responsibilities for the collaboration and offer your help wherever needed. This ensures that everyone has enough on their plate to feel motivated without getting overwhelmed. 
• Set regular check-ins. Even if you don’t take the lead creatively, you’re still the event organizer, so you should be looped into the planning process. Establish a regular check-in cadence leading up to the conference so you can answer any questions, approve any changes, and keep the creative process on track. In the months leading up to the conference, you might meet once a month, but in the weeks leading up to it, you might ramp it up to weekly check-ins.

As you help partners shape their contributions to your conference, remember to highlight the cross-sector dynamic. After all, it’s a marketable element of your event that can help you draw more attendees for their unique perspectives. 

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Example of a Cross-Sector Partnership

Let’s put all of this information together to create a hypothetical cross-sector partnership so you can see these tactics in action. For example, let’s say you’re hosting a conference about making corporations more environmentally sustainable. 

A natural way to facilitate a cross-sector partnership for this event’s focus is by creating discourse about corporate social responsibility (CSR). Sustainability efforts are a popular and important CSR focus, making it a great potential topic for your events. 

After you’ve scored and matched participants from across sectors, you might ask corporate leaders who are committed to reducing their companies’ carbon footprints to speak on a panel with environmental nonprofits. This event provides a unique blend of perspectives from environmental experts and those who want to improve their sustainability efforts, drawing a diverse audience.

Even after your event is finished, your work isn’t over! Reach back out to the participating organizations and businesses and ask them what they thought of the entire experience, from filling out the matching survey to planning the event to executing it on the big day. 

Ask questions gauging how well your organization supported both parties and request advice on how to improve going forward. Also, inquire about how accurate and effective your matching criteria were so you can add, keep, or remove items for future use. These insights can help you continually level up your conferences and provide truly memorable and meaningful experiences for your attendees and cross-sector partners.

You’ve planned a killer conference, lined up speakers, and created a balanced event schedule filled with amazing opportunities. Now, it’s time to spread the word!

Marketing can mean the difference between a successful conference and a forgotten one. If you’ve hosted a conference before, you probably already have a standard event marketing strategy. However, there might be opportunities to drive even more registrations than you already are. 

If you’re ready to transform your next conference into the must-attend event of the year, let’s dive into some innovative marketing strategies.

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Review your past events

You don’t have to start from scratch with your marketing plan. In fact, looking at past events’ successes and shortcomings will provide a valuable foundation for your marketing plan. Here’s what we recommend:

• Analyze attendee data. To understand what worked and what didn’t look at who attended your past events, what sessions were popular, and feedback from post-event surveys. Doing so can help you determine and reach your target audience.
• Gather reusable content. For example, share recap videos or photos from past conferences to get attendees excited about attending your next one. Quotes from previous attendees, speakers, and sponsors can also be powerful marketing tools.
• Analyze channel engagement metrics. Examine which marketing channels (such as email, social media, and paid ads) were most effective in driving registrations. Look at metrics like conversion rates, click-through rates, and cost per acquisition for each channel.

Remember, the goal is to learn how to recreate successes and avoid past mistakes. Armed with this knowledge, you can plan and execute valuable conferences and marketing plans that exceed the expectations of attendees and sponsors. 

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Design a standout conference website

Think of your event website as the virtual hub for all conference-related details. It’s where people will go to learn more and register to attend. Plus, it enhances your event’s visibility and professional image.

Make sure your conference site is as effective as possible by including these elements:

• Clear details: Present any must-know details, such as your conference’s date, location, agenda, speaker bios, and ticket prices. Accurate and clear details ensure potential attendees know exactly what to expect.
• An easy registration process: Feature a streamlined signup form that only requires essential information. This will reduce barriers to entry.
• Appealing design: A compelling website design not only attracts attention but also presents your conference as a professional and high-quality event. Use an eye-catching color scheme, consistent branding, intuitive layout, and typography to enhance readability and aesthetic appeal.
• Mobile optimization: Many people browse the web on their smartphones. Make sure your website is mobile-optimized, so it’ll function on all devices and won’t turn potential attendees away.
• Engaging multimedia: Multimedia content conveys your conference’s atmosphere, showcases highlights like key speakers in a dynamic way, and increases the time visitors spend on your website. This is a great opportunity to reuse past event content, like videos and photos, you’ve gathered.

After you launch your website, share links to it in all event communications, including your emails, social media posts, and texts. Broad sharing maximizes exposure, drives traffic, and turns interest into registrations.

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Create event invitations

Personal invitations issue a direct call to action, set the tone for your event, and create a first impression that can influence attendees to register. At the very least, they provide enough information to intrigue recipients to either reach out or visit your event site to learn more.

Using an online event invitation platform, here’s how you can create effective invitations that capture attention and drive registrations:

• Design with your brand in mind. Your invitation’s design should reflect your event’s branding and theme. Use your event’s color scheme, logo, and relevant illustrations or photos. The sentiment in your design should be short. Let’s say you’re hosting an event focused on emerging technologies and innovation in software development. Like the example above, your sentiment might say, "Join Us at NextTech Con!”
• Include essential details. Craft a clear message to send in your invitations. Include details like the event’s purpose, date, time, and venue. Highlight unique selling points, such as speakers, special sessions, and exclusive opportunities for attendees to make your conference seem like a can’t-miss event.
• Add a clear call to action (CTA). Your invitation should feature a prominent CTA, such as "Register Now" or "Reserve Your Spot." Make sure this CTA directs recipients to where they need to go to take the next step, such as your event website or registration page.

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Send invitations well ahead of your event to give attendees enough time to clear their schedules. You can even allow attendees to send invitations to others, so they can invite their colleagues. The easiest way to do this is to embed your invitations into your conference website and provide sharing capabilities.

Host a giveaway

Generate pre-event buzz with a giveaway. The chance to win a valuable prize can motivate potential attendees to register and spread the word about your conference. This is especially effective if the giveaway is exclusive to registrants.

Here’s how to host a successful giveaway that drives event registrations:

• Select the right type of giveaway. Host a referral contest in which attendees gain an additional entry in a random drawing for each person they convince to register for your conference. Or, try a social media contest in which contestants engage with or share a specific post promoting your conference with their followers in exchange for entries into your giveaway. Both of these approaches will expand your conference’s organic reach.
• Choose prizes your target audience will enjoy. This could be conference swag like mugs, water bottles, tote bags, or tech accessories. If you run a business, you might offer your products as a prize.
• Set clear rules. Establish who can enter your giveaway, geographic or age limitations, and how long you’ll accept entries. Setting rules ensures fairness, transparency, and legal compliance. 

Remember, the key to a successful giveaway is how you integrate it into your overall event promotion strategy. Not only will you motivate potential attendees to act quickly, but you’ll also spread word-of-mouth enthusiasm that is invaluable for growth.

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Overall, your conference’s success hinges on how well you promote your event and connect with your audience. Leverage your event platform, and pay attention to which strategies drive results. Finally, be sure to thank everyone who attended your conference to close out your marketing efforts on a positive note. In the end, you’ll leave a lasting impression on your attendees, making them eager to attend your next big event.

Just in time to kick off the summer event season, we’re adding more to the platform to increase ease of use and speed to go live. Enhancements include speaker and sponsor workflows for event content, updates to the attendee mobile app, and new event invite communication options.

Take a look at what’s new in Zuddl:

Task Resubmission for Speaker and Sponsor Portal

Don’t you hate the back-and-forth when it comes to tweaking documents, images, slides, etc.? It’s so easy for the latest version of “all the things” to get lost in a spreadsheet, Slack, or email. That’s where this update comes in.

Managing tasks between your team and speakers or sponsors is easy with our enhanced resubmission feature. Now, when items need review, you can easily add comments and request sponsors or speakers resubmit their work. This ensures that all deliverables meet your standards before the event goes live.

Real world example: Your event requires all presentation files to follow a specific format for consistency with the master deck. With this enhancement, you can leave comments for speakers to reformat their session files and resubmit them so you can maintain your event's formatting across all event materials. Goodbye, spreadsheets and lost content in your inbox!

Easy File Publishing to Attendees

Let’s face it: everyone wants a swipe file when they go to a conference or event - slides, ROI calculators, examples, templates, session decks - the list is endless.

So, we’ve made sharing even more straightforward. We’ve simplified the process of sharing files with attendees – the swipe file has been activated. Once you approve files from sponsors or speakers, you can tag them to sessions to share. These files go live on the event mobile app, giving attendees instant access to documents and resources.

Here's a practical example: Let's say you have a keynote session with takeaway slides and handouts. With our new feature, it's as simple as approving these materials, tagging them to the keynote session, and sharing them directly with attendees via the mobile app.

Speaker Directory for the Mobile App

Building an event that inspires connections and community just got easier—introducing the Speaker Directory – a customizable page for your event attendee mobile app.

Attendees can view a comprehensive list of all the event speakers. When they click on a speaker’s name, they’ll see detailed profiles, giving them all the information they need to connect and network. 

Use Case: Attendees at your user conference want to learn more about the speakers – especially a few panelists. With the Speaker Directory, they can easily browse through speaker profiles, find the experts relevant to their interests, and plan to attend their sessions or reach out for one-on-one meetings.

Real-Time Stage Management

Our stage management just got a major “stress reliever” upgrade.

In the Studio, you can now see what’s live on stage at a glance - no extra clicks. The “What’s on Stage” panel shows everything from slides to videos, banners, and speakers, all in real-time. You can easily add or remove elements, making stage management more intuitive (and less stressful) than ever.

Real-world example: If you’re hosting a live event with speakers, visuals, or multimedia elements, this feature gives you control to seamlessly switch between content, ensuring everything runs smoothly—no freezing, wrong screens, or panic attacks. For example, you can instantly pull up a speaker’s slides, play a video, or display a sponsor’s banner without missing a beat.

Rich Text Editor for Session Descriptions

Small update with a big impact. 

Take control to fully format text, add links, and create a visually appealing session overview that captures your audience’s attention. This tool gives you the flexibility to create event content that stands out and is on-brand for webinars, field marketing events, and user conferences. 

Use Case: Suppose you are organizing a multi-track conference with various workshops and presentations. You can use the rich text editor to create detailed and attractive session descriptions, including speaker bios, session highlights, and links to additional resources. This will make it easier for attendees to decide which sessions to attend.

Resume Previous Session in the Registration Flow

It’s 2024: don’t lose potential attendees due to incomplete registrations. 

Our new enhancement allows users who drop off in the middle of the event registration process to pick up where they left off. If someone exits after two steps of a five-step registration, they’ll receive a prompt to resume their session, ensuring they complete their registration with ease.

Use Case: An attendee starts registering but gets interrupted and doesn’t finish the process. Now, when they return, they’ll be able to continue from where they left off, seriously reducing the chances of incomplete registrations and helping more people finish each step of registration without the frustration of starting over. 

Invitation Improvements

Never miss a beat when it comes to managing your event invite list. Enhancements to our invitation process include:

• Profile Information Autofill: Attendees’ information now auto-fills from their profile to the registration form, reducing friction and speeding up the registration process.
• New Email Template for Declines: When an invitee declines, they’ll receive a customized “We’ll miss you at the event” message, maintaining a positive touchpoint even for those who can’t attend.

Use Case: If you’re sending out hundreds of invitations, keeping track of responses can be daunting. With these improvements, you can easily manage responses, streamline the registration process with autofill, and maintain positive communication even with those who can’t make it. Try these new enhancements for your next event – happy event planning!

In early 2024, we gathered insights from seasoned event marketers on making B2B events more inclusive and accessible. Here are their top strategies, packed with actionable steps that you can apply directly to enhance your next event.

Ensure comprehensive accessible communications

1. Create materials in multiple formats: Prioritize the production of digital content that is screen-reader friendly and physical materials in braille or large print.
2. Implement real-time translation and captioning: Utilize services that offer real-time captioning and language translation to cater to attendees with hearing impairments and non-native speakers.

Select fully accessible venues

1. Venue checklist: Always use a venue checklist that includes automatic doors, ramps, accessible toilets, and clear signage. Confirm these features during your site visits to ensure they meet or exceed ADA standards.

Utilize interactive technologies for engagement

1. Incorporate engagement tools: Leverage technologies like live Q&A tools, polling, and chatbots that are accessible to ensure all attendees can participate actively regardless of physical or sensory limitations.

Post-event accessibility

1. Distribute accessible post-event resources: Offer event recordings with captions and audio descriptions. Ensure all post-event communications are accessible and provide summaries in various formats.
2. Collect inclusive feedback: Use accessible surveys and feedback tools to gather insights on how to improve inclusivity and accessibility at future events.

Promote and communicate accessibility features

1. Clear information on accessibility features: Well before the event, inform potential attendees about the accessibility measures in place through your event’s website, emails, and social media. This transparency helps those with specific needs plan their participation.

Championing inclusivity and accessibility

By implementing these strategies, you show a genuine commitment to inclusivity, enhancing the overall experience and ensuring everyone feels valued and welcome. Start adopting these practices now to enrich your events, foster meaningful connections, and set a new standard of excellence within the industry.

Let’s face it - following up after a virtual event isn’t exactly anyone’s idea of fun, but it’s undeniably crucial for capitalizing on your virtual event or webinar efforts. 

But with this no-nonsense guide, you can discover a straightforward approach to turning what often feels like a chore into a strategic advantage. 

We’ll walk you through effective techniques for integrating data, personalizing communications, and executing swiftly, ensuring your post-event engagement is as impactful as possible. 

1. First things first; data integration and dashboard creation

Start with a comprehensive dashboard that combines primary campaign data and individual session data. This dashboard will serve as the cornerstone for analyzing event effectiveness and guiding follow-up actions.

Key components:

• Registration data validation: Ensure that registration types are correctly synced with your CRM (like Salesforce), to prevent discrepancies that could lead to inefficiencies.
• Bidirectional sync: Although challenging to implement, a bidirectional sync between your event platform and CRM can significantly streamline data updates, enhancing the accuracy of your follow-up efforts.

2. The special touch; personalized follow-up

The key to effective follow-up is personalization. Use the data collected to segment attendees based on their engagement and interest shown during the event.

Steps to implement:

• Dynamic rep dashboards: Create dynamic dashboards for sales reps that automatically update with assigned follow-ups, showing all details needed for personalized outreach.
• Session-level lnsights: Capture detailed insights at the session level, including attendance and engagement metrics. This helps in crafting messages that resonate with each attendee's experience.

3. 'Tech' it away - automated logic and recommendations

Develop an automated system that categorizes attendees by persona and tracks their session attendance to generate personalized follow-up actions.

Implementation tips:

• Decision trees: Use decision trees based on customer type (prospect vs. customer) and persona (e.g., IT, procurement) to tailor the follow-up.
• Content recommendations: Based on the sessions attended, automatically suggest relevant content or sessions that were missed but might be of interest.

4. Integrate like you mean it; CRM and marketing automation tools

Leverage integration with tools like Salesforce and Salesloft to automate and facilitate quick follow-ups.

Best practices:

• Templates and snippets: Use predefined email templates and snippets that can be easily customized based on the session data captured. This allows for quick, yet personalized communications.
• Session tags: Tag sessions in your CRM to enable easy access and use of session-specific insights during follow-ups.

5. Keep up the momentum - swift execution

The speed of follow-up is crucial. Aim to complete all follow-ups within 24 hours post-event to keep the momentum and maximize the impact.

Execution strategy:

• Pre-event preparation: Assign follow-up tasks to specific reps in advance and ensure they have all necessary information ready as soon as the event concludes.
• Post-event workflow: Automate as much of the follow-up process as possible to enable reps to focus on personalizing their outreach rather than managing logistics.

Wrapping it up with a bow

Mastering the art of follow-up after a virtual event or webinar is all about nailing the perfect blend of data integration, personalized communication, and quick action. Get these right, and you'll keep your attendees hooked while turning those leads into gold.

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At Zuddl, we are dedicated to transforming your event experience into something truly unforgettable. Our focus is on ensuring smooth operations, fostering engaging interactions, and creating an environment to drive results for both event marketers and sponsors.

The partnership between these two teams is unmatched. When an event hits its mark, the results are unstoppable - more leads, more raving fans, more awareness, more fun, and more event ROI. 

That’s why we've been hard at work, rolling out a series of updates and features to simplify and enhance your event experience from new integrations to advanced workflows - we make the complex simple to ensure your events shine. 

See it in action

Sponsor portal enhancements

Long queues and confusion at event booths can dampen the attendee experience. That's why we've reimagined the sponsor portal to streamline interactions and elevate engagement.

Zuddl’s updated sponsor and speaker portal features ensure a hassle-free experience, providing high-quality, on-brand assets and tools. Our system guarantees a smooth interaction, allowing sponsors to upload and manage their booth assets efficiently and effectively.

New for the sponsor portal:

• Custom task additions: Tailor the portal with specific tasks to suit your event’s unique needs.

• Immediate asset uploads: Sponsors can upload physical booth assets on the spot, enhancing the sophistication of their displays.
• Lead capture enhancements: The portal now includes advanced sections for lead capture—questions, data management, and app access control, all designed to maximize lead generation and management efficiency.

See it in action

Marketo integration and data mapping

The key to successful event marketing lies in efficient data handling and integration. The Zuddl solution now includes a seamless connection with Marketo through the Base Program feature, facilitating easier and more effective event management.

This integration allows for efficient data mapping and management, ensuring that all information flows smoothly from one system to another, enhancing the overall efficiency of your event.

Highlights of Marketo integration:

• Base program utilization: Use a single program ID as a template on the Zuddl dashboard to replicate event setups effortlessly.
• Advanced data mapping: Our integration updates ensure vital data like ticket type, name, add-on details, and more are seamlessly sent to Salesforce, Marketo, HubSpot, and Zapier.

See it in action

Advanced ticket and session conditions

You asked, we listened. This is one of the most dynamic updates in our suite of onsite tools: the new ticket and session conditions.

The Zuddl attendee experience is now more personalized than ever, thanks to our ability to apply conditions to tickets and session groups based on registration inputs. This ensures that every attendee receives a tailored experience that aligns with their interests and preferences.

Included in this update:

• Flexible ticket conditions: Apply specific rules based on registration inputs to cater to a diverse attendee base.
• Session group customization: Set conditions within session groups for add-ons, allowing attendees to choose sessions within a fixed range or between minimum and maximum limits.

Stay engaged and share your feedback

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from Zuddl as we continue to refine and expand our platform to make event management smoother and events more memorable.

Your insights are invaluable to us. Please share your thoughts with your CSM or drop me a line at vedha@zuddl.com – I read and value every piece of feedback.

See it in action

Here's the scenario - Your team is running a large event in a new location, and 400 people have registered to attend. An hour into the event, you realize that 150 more guests than expected have arrived, and you simply don’t have room for everyone who showed up. What do you do?

The answer (both to prevent this problem and solve it if it occurs) is capacity management. Capacity management involves monitoring and managing the number of people inside your event space to maintain safety, accessibility, and logistical requirements. It’s a crucial task not only for compliance, but also to provide guests with a positive event experience.

However, capacity management can be challenging, especially for large conferences and in-person events that have historically been virtual or hybrid. To help you prepare to manage crowds and stay up to code at your next major event, we’ve compiled some of the best insider tips for effective capacity management. Let’s dive in!

1. Evaluate your venue space early

As soon as you choose a venue for your in-person event (or even before you decide, if possible), take time to evaluate the space’s capacity and any potential safety hazards. To do so, take the following steps:

1. Contact the owner of the venue to ask about the building’s safety regulations and fire codes, as well as the maximum capacity of the spaces you’ll be using. If your company or organization owns the building, brush up on its regulations.
2. Conduct a personal walkthrough, noting any areas or rooms that are especially small or difficult to navigate. Consider the equipment and furnishings you’ll need for the event and how that will impact the venue’s capacity.
3. Determine the maximum number of people who can safely attend your event at one point in time.

Then, go beyond regulations and think more deeply about the guest experience. How many people can this space comfortably contain? Will it be crowded? Will it be easy for guests to navigate, including those with disabilities? Based on these answers, adjust your event’s maximum number of attendees for the ideal guest experience. 

Even if you’ve used this venue for events in the past, don’t skip this step. Refresh your memory on the space’s regulations and complete a new walkthrough to check if anything about the venue has changed since your last event. Additionally, speak with past event staff and attendees about any capacity challenges the venue posed in the past and how they addressed them.

2. Invest in event management software

Event apps and platforms aren’t just for virtual events—the right tools can also boost efficiency, improve capacity management, and customize the guest experience for in-person events. For instance, certain software solutions enable you to:

• Streamline registration. With custom online registration forms, you can easily limit the number of maximum attendees and get accurate guest headcounts prior to the event. Plus, control capacity by setting maximum sizes for group registrations.
• Easily manage guest check-in. Allow guests to check in online or by scanning a mobile ticket to reduce crowded check-in lines and get accurate numbers of guests as they arrive. Then, use check-in data from your app to update headcounts in case group registrations weren’t accurate or some people couldn’t attend.
• Communicate with guests and team members instantly. Make capacity-related announcements and alert guests of changes immediately via text message or push notifications.

To choose the best software for your event, take time to evaluate your event’s needs first. Then, research several platforms that meet those needs before choosing a few providers to schedule demos with. Come to these meetings prepared with questions about pricing, features, and customization options to help you make your decision.

Ultimately, the right event management tools will help you manage event capacity and engage attendees by providing them with a streamlined, one-of-a-kind event experience.

3. Use timed-entry tickets

Event organizers can learn a lot from admissions-based organizations that deal with capacity management as part of their day-to-day operations. For instance, many museums use museum management software with timed-entry ticketing systems to help them space out visitors and confidently manage numbers throughout the day. 

Here is how timed-entry tickets work to streamline capacity management and make events safer for guests:

• Instead of purchasing a generic admissions ticket, guests choose a time or time frame to arrive for the event when they register.
• Organizers limit the number of guests who can arrive during each time frame to stagger attendance and manage guest capacity.
• Using the designated timeframes, organizers can easily check who is inside the building at any given time to monitor capacity levels.

Timed-entry tickets can also make your event more inclusive by cutting down the size of crowds, making it easier for those with physical disabilities or sensory needs to participate in and enjoy your event. While this method may not work for all events, it can help you reduce crowding for large, multi-day events like conferences.

4. Train your event staff to monitor and manage crowds

Whether your event team is made up of experienced staff or first-time volunteers, it’s important to train them on capacity management best practices and remind them why it’s essential for a successful event. 

Provide basic training for all team members about how to monitor crowds and deal with them should they get too large. Create contingency plans and protocols for what event staff should do if you exceed venue capacity or guests react negatively to capacity restrictions. For example, you might ask staff members to immediately alert a certain person about the problem and temporarily stop admitting guests until the issue is resolved.

Additionally, consider designating a few team members to lead your capacity management efforts and keep a close eye on capacity levels throughout the event space. Ideally, these staff members should be well-versed in event management and your venue’s capacity requirements.

Proactive capacity management isn’t just about ensuring the safety of your guests and event staff. It’s also about creating an environment where attendees can comfortably enjoy and get the most out of your events, prompting them to spread the word and attend your events again and again. By following these tips, you’ll be able to keep your in-person guests safe, comfortable, and engaged.

The day of your user conference has finally arrived. Months of meticulous planning, strategy meetings, and preparation are about to be put to the test. The venue is set, the technology is up and running, and there’s a palpable buzz in the air. As attendees start arriving, it’s time to see your well-laid plans spring into action. This is your moment to shine, and the success of the event hinges on the performance of your behind-the-scenes heroes—your event team.

Just like the Avengers assemble to save the day, your event team comes together to create an unforgettable experience for every attendee.

For starters, of course, there's nothing that works better than a laid-out plan.

Here's a sample of how you could assign roles for the big day:

Dynamic role allocation: Flexibility in action

Your internal team will play various roles during the event, including staffing the registration table, guiding attendees through the venue, managing sponsor areas, and providing on-the-fly design support.

Depending on your needs, you can quickly take a call on shifts and other intricacies. It's also essential to keep roles flexible and agile to situations such as:

Handling unregistered attendees

There may be instances where people show up without prior registration. While it may not be a major issue, it's important to address it promptly. Take them aside, guide them through the registration process using iPads or other devices, and have a conversation about the registration fee if necessary. 

Gatekeeping with grace: Assessing attendee legitimacy

In cases where the attendee is completely unknown or unrelated to your sales force or target audience, it may be appropriate to require payment for entry. However, if the individual is a recognized customer or partner, it's advisable to handle the situation differently. 

Issues with badge printing

When it comes to badge printing and preparation, thorough testing is crucial to avoid any last-minute surprises. For worst-case scenarios where your printer fails you, have a backup plan like stick-on name badges.

The badge is the first tangible part of the event experience for your attendees. So the best way to prevent this glitch is to opt for reliable, high-speed printing solutions and have backups ready just in case. This attention to detail shows your commitment to a professional, friction-free experience.

The right tools for the job: Selecting a stellar conference platform

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Invest in a conference platform that enhances your team’s capabilities and enriches the attendee experience. Features to look for include:

• Efficient and cost-effective check-in: Modern solutions that streamline the process and keep things moving smoothly.
• Personalization: Customizable badges and check-in processes that reflect your brand and delight your guests.
• Seamless integration: Real-time updates to CRM systems like Salesforce or HubSpot keep your sales team in the loop and ready to engage.

‍TL;DR - Your event team, your Avengers

The success of your event heavily relies on a well-prepared, agile team—your very own Avengers. By equipping them with the right technology, a clear understanding of their roles, and the autonomy to handle challenges as they arise, you set the stage for an exceptional event.

Pro tip: Use this checklist to streamline and track your event execution.

These days, it’s not enough to just send an email to everyone in your constituent relationship management system (CRM) inviting them to your next event or informing them of your latest business initiatives. People want personalized marketing messages that pique their interest, address their pain points, and satisfy their needs.

It’s important to think about who your target audience is, what their needs are, and how you can best reach them. That way, you’ll run more targeted marketing campaigns that individuals are likely to respond to. We’ll review five tips for analyzing your target audience so you can ensure you reach the right people with your communications.

1. Define your intended target audience

Start by sitting down with your team to define your target audience. Each campaign you run likely has a different group you’re trying to reach, so you need to make sure everyone’s on the same page.

Your intended target audience will depend on your overarching campaign and business goals. For example, your target audience will look different if your goal is to grow your client base, increase revenue, or expand into a new market.

Once you’ve nailed down the intent behind your campaign, you can begin to loosely define who your target audience is. Let’s say you’re an association leader running a networking event to increase membership among young professionals. To provide specificity and direction to your campaign, ask your team questions such as:

• How old is “young?” Be specific about the age range of your ideal event attendee. Some associations may classify young professionals as aged 22-40 while others may narrow that range and aim for ages 22-29. The age range you choose will determine the marketing messages and platforms you use to promote your event.
• Where do these young professionals live? If you’re hosting an in-person event, define the geographic radius of your audience. For instance, you may choose to target young professionals within a five-mile radius of your association headquarters with a direct mail campaign that encourages them to attend your event.
• What industries do they work in? Are you looking to reach young professionals in general or increase membership for certain industries? Narrowing in on these details ensures you know exactly who to reach out to and can highlight industry-specific opportunities at your event.

These questions can help you specify who you’re trying to reach and allow you to start brainstorming ways you can personalize your marketing campaigns to your intended audience.

2. Segment your audience

Chances are, your CRM or database is loaded with a variety of customer or constituent records. While this information is useful for getting to know who your customers or members are, not all of these records will align with your target audience for each campaign.

To ensure you can easily find the information you need to launch your campaign, segment your broader audience within your database. Group records for people in your target audience together for easy access.

You may create several segments at once depending on how many campaigns you’re running or notice trends in your customer data as you go that inspire new segments. For instance, you may find that you have a significant number of customers in the Philadelphia area. Consider creating a segment of these customers and targeting them with content about local events and opportunities from your organization, such as a sale on your product at a regional store.

3. Conduct a data append

Once you’ve determined who your target audience is and created a segment for them in your database, you may notice you’re missing some key information that would help you better reach them.

For example, you may want to run an email marketing campaign, but upon surveying your database, you notice that you only have email addresses for 60% of your target audience segment.

In this case, conduct a data append. Work with a data provider to supplement your database with information from third-party sources so you can access email addresses for as many of your target audience members as possible.

Other types of contact information you can append include:

• Names
• Phone numbers
• Home addresses

You may even append lifestyle information that allows you to dive deeper into your target audience’s interests and needs so you can better personalize your content to them. For instance, some data providers can tell you which charitable causes your customers donate to, allowing you to secure event sponsors that align with your customers’ values.

4. Activate a custom marketing audience

In all of the above cases and examples, we’ve discussed your target audience as a sliver of your broader audience. You already have existing data and relationships with them.

However, what if your target audience isn’t represented within your CRM? What if they aren’t yet your customers?

In this situation, your organization should build and activate a custom marketing audience. A data provider can give you access to highly relevant datasets so you can reach your target audience.

For example, let’s say you run an event management software company. You typically sell your product to corporations and associations, but you’d like to start marketing to healthcare organizations.

The right data provider can help you build an audience that includes likely-to-convert prospects in the healthcare industry. Then, you can activate this audience across channels and break into an entirely new market for your product.

5. Solicit feedback

The process of effectively reaching your target audience doesn’t end when your campaign does. Involve audience members by soliciting their feedback about your marketing communications through surveys, polls, and in-person interactions. Ask them questions such as:

• What were your initial impressions of our communications for this campaign?
• How well did our marketing messages address your pain points?
• Did you feel our outreach spoke to you as an individual? Why or why not?
• Is there anything we could improve on to make our communications more useful or effective?

For quantitative measures of how your target audience responds to your campaigns, analyze metrics such as click-through rate, email open rate, and engagement with your social media posts. Combining these metrics with your audience’s feedback will allow you to determine what worked and what didn’t, enabling you to incorporate these insights into future campaigns.

Focusing your marketing efforts on your target audience allows you to personalize your outreach and focus your resources on the people most likely to respond to your campaigns. When you effectively define, analyze, and activate your target audience, you can build a loyal customer base that feels seen by your individualized content.

You've most definitely heard the AI hype—a lot. It's been in the backdrop of every tech conversation for years. But here’s the real scoop: how is AI specifically shaking up your role in event marketing? It's time to move past the buzz and look at practical, powerful ways AI can make your work not just easier, but more impactful and innovative.

Let’s zoom in on 5 standout AI tools that every event marketer should consider integrating into their arsenal:

ChatGPT

What it is: An advanced AI-driven language model developed by OpenAI, capable of understanding and generating human-like text based on the input it receives.

Key features: Generates creative content, automates customer service through chatbots, assists in drafting emails, and provides real-time language translation.

Benefits for event marketers: ChatGPT can help personalize communication at scale, develop content strategies, and handle routine inquiries, allowing marketers to focus on more strategic tasks.

DALL-E

What it is: A cutting-edge AI program also from OpenAI, designed to create images from textual descriptions, offering a new way to generate creative and contextually relevant visuals.‍

Key features: Transforms text prompts into unique images, supports various art styles, and can edit parts of existing images or combine multiple images into one.

Benefits for event marketers: Ideal for creating customized event branding, promotional materials, and unique visuals for social media campaigns, enhancing the visual appeal of any event.

Beautiful.ai

What it is: An AI-powered presentation tool that automates the design process, making it easier to create professional-quality slide decks.

Key features: Provides a dynamic, design-driven interface where slides adapt as you add content; offers a range of templates tailored to different presentation needs.

Benefits for event marketers: Saves time on designing event presentations, pitch decks, and sponsorship proposals, ensuring that each slide looks clean and engaging with minimal effort

‍Lumen5

What it is: This tool leverages AI to help users transform text content into video format quickly and efficiently.

Key features: Automated storyboard creation, access to millions of stock photos and videos, and the ability to customize the branding of videos to align with your event’s theme.

Benefits for event marketers: Enables the quick creation of promotional videos, event recaps, and social media ads that are visually appealing and likely to engage audiences.

Canva Pro

What it is: A graphic design tool that simplifies the creation of complex visuals, allowing users to design almost anything from invitations to detailed infographics.

Key features: Thousands of customizable templates, a vast library of images and icons, and advanced features like background removal, animation, and team collaboration.

Benefits for event marketers: Streamlines the creation of event-specific branding materials, social media content, and promotional items. Canva Pro’s collaborative features also make it easy for teams to work together on designs, regardless of their graphic design expertise.

(Bonus tool) Parmonic

What it is: Parmonic is an AI-powered tool designed to repurpose video content into a variety of other media formats.

Key features: This tool automatically converts videos into editable scripts, generates blog posts, creates audiograms and quote cards, and more, all from your existing video content.

Benefits for event marketers: Parmonic's integration with Zuddl is ideal for marketers looking to extend the lifespan and reach of their event recordings. By breaking down videos into different content formats, event marketers can maximize their content’s visibility and engagement across various platforms without the need for additional recording or extensive editing.

With this being our new reality, it’s safe to say that AI can significantly enhance how we plan, promote, and execute events!

The event brief is your roadmap, guiding every aspect of your user conference from inception to execution. Here's how to construct an event brief that ensures all teams are aligned and moving towards the same goals. (and yes, we promise to keep it 'brief'!)

Define clear objectives

Start with defining what you want to achieve. Whether it’s increasing product adoption, strengthening customer relationships, or launching a new product, your objectives will dictate the format and content of your conference.

Align with key stakeholders

Gather input from across your organization to ensure the event supports broader business goals. This includes discussions with leadership, sales, marketing, and customer success teams to align on the expected outcomes of the event.

Detail logistical elements

Include key details such as potential dates, location ideas, audience segments, and estimated budget. This section should evolve as more decisions are finalized, serving as a living document that updates throughout the planning process.

Set communication guidelines

Outline how updates and changes to the brief will be communicated to the involved parties. This ensures everyone stays on the same page and can adapt to changes efficiently.

Incorporate feedback mechanisms

Plan for feedback from previous events to refine the brief. Continuous improvement will help in fine-tuning both the planning process and the event itself over time.

Here's a free event brief template you can follow

Pro tip: As time progresses, you can keep updating this sacred document with more details about the event and share it with the greater internal team. Closer to the event, when you’re fielding dozens of daily questions from various teams, this can double as a FAQ master doc too!

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Asking event volunteers for feedback is a win-win situation. Your organization benefits from crucial insights that help improve the volunteer experience the next time around, while participants get to make their voices heard and feel like valued members of your team. 

However, gaining valuable input depends on your ability to ask the right event volunteer survey questions that get to the heart of what makes for a positive volunteer experience. Let’s review the most useful survey questions to ask volunteers, broken down into three categories: volunteer satisfaction, volunteer communication, and general event feedback. 

Volunteer satisfaction questions

These questions will help you understand whether volunteers enjoyed the event experience. Depending on their answers, you can adjust your volunteer strategy before your next event to exceed supporters’ expectations. 

• How would you rate the overall volunteer experience?
• How would you rate the volunteer training process? 
• What was the most enjoyable part of volunteering at the event?
• What was the least enjoyable part of volunteering at the event?
• How valued did you feel by our organization as a member of the event team? 
• How helpful was our staff throughout the event? 
• How likely are you to volunteer at one of our events again? 
• How likely are you to recommend our volunteer opportunities to a friend? 

Feel free to add questions relevant to your unique event. For example, if you hosted a fundraising 5K event, you could ask additional questions such as “How convenient was parking at our event?” or “Did you feel there were adequate supplies for volunteers, such as water and snacks?” Ultimately, your volunteer satisfaction questions should be phrased in a way that encourages volunteers to share their unique experiences with your event. 

Volunteer communication questions

Staying in touch with volunteers throughout the entire event process is critical to preparing them for the event and making them feel as comfortable as possible in their roles. Use these questions to tailor your event communications strategy to fit volunteers’ preferences.

• How did you hear about this volunteer opportunity? 
• Did you have a smooth volunteer registration process? 
• What could we do to improve the registration process?
• Were the expectations of the volunteer role clearly communicated? 
• Did you receive adequate communication before, during, and after the event? 
• What could we do differently next time to improve communication? Examples: more frequent communication, less frequent communication, different communication platforms, etc. 
• What platform did you use to check event updates? Examples: email, social media, website, etc. 

If you use a volunteer app to stay in touch with supporters, ask for feedback on the app experience. Did volunteers feel like it was easy to check in using your app? Could they communicate with your organization’s staff or volunteer shift leaders to ask questions or raise concerns? Answers to these questions will be invaluable in ensuring that your organization is making the most of its software solutions. 

General event feedback questions

As support staff, your volunteers have unique insight into your organization’s event experience. Consider asking these questions about their opinions on your event to help enhance your future opportunities.

• Do you feel like the event was well-organized? Why or why not?
• Did you feel safe at the event? How could we improve our security measures next time around? 
• How would you rate the event’s entertainment? 
• How would you rate the event’s venue?
• How convenient was getting to the event? 

Supporting your events shouldn’t feel like work—your volunteers are dedicating their free time to your cause, so the experience should be fun and engaging. By asking for their feedback on your event in general, you can strategize ways to improve the quality of your organization’s experiences. 

Bonus: Tips to perfect your event volunteer survey

Use these best practices to narrow down your questions and get the most value out of your survey: 

• Limit the number of questions in your survey. Choose only a handful of questions from the lists above based on the information you are most interested in learning. This will encourage volunteers to complete your survey. 
• Mix up your question types. Use a combination of open-ended, multiple-choice, ratings, and other question types. This helps streamline the survey experience and allows volunteers to expand on their answers if they want to. 
• Make your survey inclusive and accessible. Make sure your survey is accessible to all volunteers. Use large, readable fonts, strongly contrasted colors, and a mobile-friendly design. 
• Send the survey promptly after the event concludes. Send the survey within 24 hours of your event’s conclusion so the experience is fresh in volunteers’ minds. 
• Track survey responses with your volunteer software. Track volunteers who filled out the survey so you can send timely thank-you emails. You can also save volunteers’ specific preferences to their profiles. For example, perhaps a volunteer noted a preference for frequent email communications. Keep this in mind when reaching out to them in the future to create a better experience for them. 

After volunteers complete the survey, send a confirmation email to thank them for their responses. Share the impact of their feedback—for example, “Your response will help us plan an even greater event next year to better serve our community.” Consider offering a perk to show your gratitude, such as a free sticker or fridge magnet branded to your organization. 

Volunteers are willing to provide insight into their experience—you just have to figure out the best way to ask! Show them that their thoughts and opinions matter with these survey questions and strategies that foster greater volunteer engagement and retention.

In navigating the complex world of event production, I've unearthed some truths about what elevates an event from merely functional to genuinely unforgettable. 

It's less about the depth of your pockets or the flashiness of your technology and more about forging meaningful connections, nurturing your creative edge, and maintaining a laser focus on your vision. 

Here’s a glimpse into my playbook for transforming standard gatherings into standout experiences, with a special nod to one of my favorite anecdotes.

‍Get innovative with your promotional items

Consider stretching the brand (I’ll explain!)

Our decision to choose a stuffed cheetah as our giveaway at a trade show was all about embodying Firework's essence: quick, agile, and ahead of the curve. Of course, initially, our sales team did find it baffling that we wanted to do this, but as the day unfolded, things got interesting - a line of attendees showed up around our booth, all there for a stuffed cheetah. 

Now, these queues weren't just for the novelty of a giveaway; they were conversation-starters that made us busy - which created interest. The show floor became filled with our logo which created incremental brand awareness. When people returned home, they posted about it. This created ancillary value from a brand perspective. It was a growth hack - but it worked. 

The power of aligning a simple, creative choice with your brand's identity—it turns heads, sparks dialogue, and, most importantly, forges connections that last far beyond the event itself.

‍Purpose drives performance

Identifying the core purpose of your event is foundational. Is it to foster networking, generate leads, build community, or something else entirely? This clarity has been a cornerstone of my planning process, guiding every decision from venue selection to vendor partnerships. A well-defined purpose acts as your event's compass, ensuring every element contributes towards a cohesive and compelling experience. 

Without this direction, events can easily veer off course, becoming forgettable rather than formative.

‍Strategic execution is key

The leap from planning to execution mirrors the transition from a dress rehearsal to opening night in theater. Both worlds demand meticulous attention to detail, creativity, and a profound understanding of the audience's experience. Even when resources are tight, prioritizing strategic investments in your event can dramatically enhance its impact. 

Every decision, every dollar, should directly enrich the attendee experience, sticking closely to your event's goals and your budget.

Build relationships, not transactions

I've learned the immeasurable value of treating vendors and partners as collaborators in the creative process. Prompt payments, clear communication, and respect for their expertise are more than just professional courtesies; they're the building blocks of lasting partnerships. These relationships are crucial, providing the support structure that every memorable event relies on. Look for vendors you have a synergy with.

‍Embrace risk (responsibly, of course)

Pushing the envelope is part of creating memorable events, but it's essential to balance innovation with caution. Weighing the potential benefits of a new idea against its risks is crucial. It's about being bold in your creative decisions while also being mindful of your event's overarching goals and the expectations of your stakeholders. 

It might sound cliché, but today's challenges really are tomorrow's lessons. Pushing the envelope, armed with past insights, is what keeps our events exciting!

Key moves to secure buy-in from internal stakeholders 

Yep, yep, getting everyone on board is hard; I totally agree!

But here's an approach that works for me:

• Vision sharing: Make sure the goal is clear and compelling.
• Real-talk: Skip the jargon. Have honest conversations about mutual benefits.
• Win-win highlighting: Show how the event aligns with individual and collective goals.
• Open feedback: Encourage input. It builds ownership and enthusiasm.
• Role assigning: Give stakeholders a part to play that taps into their strengths or interests.

I hope you find these tips useful. You can find more such insights on my episode of Event Heroes.

Here at Zuddl, we want to make sure you feel like someone has your back when it comes to smoothing out the event management experience. It doesn’t have to be multiple tools,  legacy systems, or bad UX. It can be a streamlined and stress free experience setting up conferences, field events, and webinars with us!

Check out these tools in Zuddl that will help you organize, plan, and execute your events. These features are designed to give you more control, flexibility, and customization options, ensuring that your events run smoothly and efficiently every time.

Let's dive in:

See it in action 

Organizer session pre-registration

We know event marketers sometimes need all the control when it comes to getting attendees into the right sessions. We’ve got you covered. With the tool, event organizers can seamlessly add participants to sessions without requiring attendee intervention (win-win for everyone).

This feature is incredibly useful for streamlining the attendee journey and ensuring that everyone is where they need to be, when they need to be. For example, organizers can pre-register all customers for a specific training day or kickoff session, simplifying the registration process and ensuring maximum participation.

See it in action 

Multiple registration flows

From talking with event marketers (including our founder) we understand that not all events follow the same registration flow.

That's why we've got a multiple registration flow tool, allowing you to create and publish multiple registration processes tailored to different event scenarios. You can start with a default flow and build from there - tailoring the registration experience for segments like employees, customers, speakers, VIPs, and more.  Then it’s a few clicks to share flow-specific URLs for easy registration and tracking on the backend. 

Take a deeper dive and learn more here. 

See it in action 

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Speaker portal custom tasks

Event marketers know and love the Zuddl speaker portal, but did you know the Speaker Portal includes the ability to create custom tasks and select from a set of standard tasks? 

Whether it's adding session materials, updating profiles, or preloading polls, speakers now have more options to manage their tasks efficiently. The latest update also allows for the attachment of fields, enabling the collection of various types of information, from text responses to file uploads, streamlining the task management process.

See it in action 

Sponsor portal with lead capture support

In the B2B space, sponsor engagement is crucial, which is why we’ve doubled down on lead capture support in the Sponsor Portal. Sponsors can now configure their customer questions and scan data directly within the portal, enhancing their ability to connect with potential leads.

 Integrations with platforms like Salesforce are also on the horizon, offering even more opportunities for sponsor engagement and data management. Check out our integrations here. 

See it in action 

Paid sessions

For events that include paid sessions, our platform  offers seamless integration for training and certification programs. Attendees can easily purchase tickets and add-on training sessions, with customizable workflows to streamline the process. 

From ticket types to conditional setups, our platform provides the flexibility you need to monetize your events effectively.

See it in action 

Offline sessions and payments

Finally, for events that require offline payments, our Flex Events now support offline payment processing. Organizers can enable this feature from the event setup, allowing registrants to enter their payment information offline. Whether it's for large orders, invoice payments via bank transfer, or B2B transactions, our platform ensures a secure and efficient payment experience for both organizers and attendees.

These new features represent our ongoing commitment to providing you with the tools and capabilities you need to plan and execute successful events. We're excited to see how you'll leverage these enhancements to create memorable and impactful experiences for your attendees. Stay tuned for more updates and integrations as we continue to innovate and improve our event management platform. Happy planning!

See it in action 

Stay tuned and send your thoughts

Stay tuned for more Zuddl updates as we work to make event management easier and events more memorable.

Your feedback is crucial for improvement. Share your ideas with your CSM or email me at vedha@zuddl.com – I read and value every message.

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In today’s technology-run world, it's hard to imagine a day without our mobile devices. From checking emails to managing daily tasks, we rely on our phones and tablets for almost everything. But did you know that they can also transform the way we experience events? 

With this growing dependence on technology, event marketers are now embracing the use of mobile devices to enhance engagement and create a more interactive experience for attendees. Not only do they provide attendees with convenience and accessibility, but they also have the power to encourage audience participation. Let’s explore the various ways in which mobile devices can revamp your events and ultimately lead to greater success.

Engage guests from the palm of their hand

Most individuals have their smartphones on them at all times, and this is no different in the event space. It’s not uncommon to see event guests paying more attention to their phones than the announcements being made. Think about it - how many times have you attended an event and found yourself scrolling through your phone? 

This is where incorporating mobile apps into an event can be highly valuable. With a mobile app, all the necessary information is easily accessible in one place, eliminating the need for constant device-switching or flipping through physical materials. Instead of having to rely on laptops, attendees can simply pull out their phones and stay plugged into the event. 

Plus, text or push notifications allow organizers to share updates and reminders directly to attendees' phones. This not only keeps them informed but can also re-engage them if they get distracted. 

Many mobile apps made for events have a plethora of features, including:

• In-app ticket purchasing 
• Interactive event schedule
• Personalized itinerary with reminders
• Virtual event map
• Personalized recommendations
• Real-time push notifications for updates
• Gamification (challenges, polls, trivia, leaderboards)
• Networking feature 
• Social media integration 
• Virtual swag bag with exclusive deals from event sponsors
• Shared photo gallery
• Feedback system

This list is not exhaustive at all. There are endless ways that you can enhance your guests’ experience with mobile apps. However, it’s best to choose one application and stick with it. You don’t want to be managing multiple apps and neither do your guests! 

Simplify participation

Mobile devices have revolutionized the way guests participate in events. Let’s dive into some of the most useful features that help streamline the event planning process and make things a whole lot more pleasant for your guests.

Checking in with mobile apps

With the use of mobile apps and technology, checking in to an event can be a hassle-free process. Guests can simply download the app, register, and receive their digital ticket for entry. Make sure that your pre-event communication provides effective instructions and reminders for guests so they can check in with ease.

There will always be folks who don’t make use of the early check-in process, and that’s okay! Have some staff trained and available to help those who aren’t as proactive or tech-savvy. Giving mobile check-in as an option will still eliminate long lines and paper tickets, making the check-in process much quicker and more efficient. 

Accessing schedules and event maps with mobile apps

By having their schedules readily available on their phones, guests can easily plan out their day and navigate through the event without any confusion. Some apps can even save certain events to a favorites list, which is helpful for larger events with multiple activities and sessions taking place simultaneously. It can also be an easy conversation starter between attendees: “What do you have on your favorites?” 

Additionally, most event attendees will be unfamiliar with your venue. Google Maps is usually unhelpful in this realm, as you’ll be dealing with conference rooms or halls. With event maps on their phones, guests won’t be fumbling around. 

Participation through mobile apps

Mobile events allow guests to actively participate in various activities through their phones. Whether it's a live poll or an interactive game, guests can engage with the content of the event in real time using their mobile devices. This enhances their overall experience and encourages active participation.

For those events that incorporate fundraising activities like silent auctions, there are apps that facilitate the bidding process, too. Grant access to people who are not physically present so they can bid on items, and let in-person guests bid with a single tap! 

Connecting and networking through mobile apps

Chat and networking features allow guests to foster a sense of community and meaningful connections beyond just attending the event. You can even encourage folks to connect before the event. Some applications ask attendees about interests to connect like-minded individuals. 

Events that leverage mobile applications have made it incredibly convenient for event marketers and attendees alike. They take a huge mental load off of guests’ plates, which not only enhances the overall experience for attendees but also adds value to the event itself. 

Appeal to both in-person and virtual attendees

Let’s face it – events haven’t been the same since COVID. Hybrid and virtual events are here to stay, and that’s not a bad thing! We now have the technology to allow for more attendees. In the old days, if people couldn’t be present for it, they just completely missed out. Now, they can still be a part of the event virtually! 

One of the biggest advantages of using mobile devices for events is the ability to turn any event into a hybrid one. Mobile devices make it possible for virtual attendees to feel like they are actually present at the event, making events more accessible and inclusive for all participants.

Make reporting easier

One of the key features that sets mobile apps apart from traditional methods of event management is their built-in reporting capabilities. Organizers can access valuable insights from their events, making the post-event analysis process much more efficient. These reporting features provide event hosts with a gold mine of information that no manual process can do, including identifying successes and areas of improvement. This allows them to make informed decisions when planning future events and tailor the experience to better meet the needs of their attendees.

Some examples of data points that event hosts may want to track include:

• Attendance numbers
• Participation rates for certain activities or workshops
• Fundraising dollars raised from mobile devices
• Feedback ratings provided by attendees

This data also enables organizers to connect with attendees more personally after the event. Event hosts can follow up with personalized emails or targeted advertisements that cater to the interests of each attendee. This not only helps to foster a stronger relationship with attendees but also increases the likelihood of them attending future events.

It’s safe to say that mobile devices have become an essential tool for both event organizers and guests. With the convenience of having everything at our fingertips, we can enhance our event experience in ways we never could before and help guests get the most out of the event. Next time you host an event, remember that things don’t have to be complicated, disconnected, or so manual – we have the technology!

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Hey, I'm Kevin Davidson, and I’m here to share a few cool lessons and tricks from my experience running webinars in the B2B space.

Now, you don’t have to call me the Webinar Whisperer, but I will admit it sounds really cool!

Anyway, let’s dive right in - here are 5 of my personal learnings that helped me find success with webinars.

1. Cut the noise: ensuring a distraction-free experience

Remember, the smallest distractions can derail your webinar's impact. I've been in webinars where background typing sounded like a hailstorm on a tin roof. It's not just annoying; it's a surefire way to lose your audience's attention. Invest in quality microphones and encourage your speakers to find quiet, controlled environments. This might seem like a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised how often it's overlooked. A clear, distraction-free audio experience keeps your audience focused on your message, not guessing the background noise.

2. Branding is your best friend

In the sea of webinars out there, your brand's identity is your lighthouse. Early in my career, I underestimated the power of consistent branding. Now, I ensure our logo and brand theme are not just visible but also integrated seamlessly into the presentation. It's not just about recognition; it's about creating a professional and trustworthy atmosphere that resonates with your B2B audience. 

It also helps to identify interesting branding opportunities. For instance, let’s say your speaker doesn't have a camera or their microphone is poor quality. Consider sending him/her a Blue Jeti microphone or a pair of AirPods - they will not only appreciate your gift, but be extra motivated in helping achieve your event goals. It will also create a solid long-term relationship!

3. Privacy concerns and registration rates

The digital age has made privacy a hot topic, and rightly so. I've noticed a direct correlation between simplified registration processes and higher attendance rates. The lesson? Respect your audience's privacy concerns. Minimize the data you request upon registration and be transparent about how you'll use it. This approach not only boosts registrations but also builds trust with your audience from the get-go.

PS: You can use other "creepy" technology to find out more about the registrant instead of asking them to share everything ;) 

4. Engage like never before

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that engagement is everything. The moment you treat your webinar like a one-way street is the moment you lose. Use polls, Q&A sessions, and interactive tools to create a two-way dialogue. And here's a pro tip: leverage these interactive elements to gather real-time feedback and insights, which can be gold for tailoring your content and offerings. Remember, engagement doesn't end when the webinar does. Follow up with attendees, share additional resources, and continue the conversation.

5. Promotion: Beyond the basics

Promoting your webinar can feel like shouting into the void, especially in the crowded B2B space. Early on, I relied too heavily on traditional channels like email blasts. While they're essential, diversifying your promotional strategy is key. Social media, especially LinkedIn for B2B, can be a goldmine for reaching your target audience. Don't overlook the power of employee advocacy; your team's networks can amplify your reach exponentially. And always, always measure the effectiveness of your channels to refine your strategy over time.

And there you have it…

Remember, the goal is not just to host a webinar but to create an engaging, memorable experience that drives real business results. 

Here's to your success in the webinar world!

So you're looking forward to hosting your field marketing event, and you have all your pieces in place.

What next?

There’s just one more important activity to do before the live date: a plan-of-action meeting with your sales colleagues who’ll be at the event. This is the time to align on expectations, roles, and responsibilities and put together a coordinated effort to maximize impact at the event.

How early should you schedule preparation and sync meetings?

Sync meetings should be scheduled more frequently as the field marketing event approaches and should align with the need for up-to-date information and coordination.

Early planning phase‍

Monthly sync meetings can be adequate for initial planning, brainstorming, and laying out the groundwork.

Mid-planning phase

‍Fortnightly sync meetings are beneficial during the mid-planning phase, as tasks and details start to take shape, and it's important to maintain a steady pace.

Final preparations‍

Days to weeks before the event, daily or even more frequent sync meetings may be necessary during the final preparations, as there's an urgency to ensure that everything is on track and make any last-minute adjustments.

You need to hold a final meeting at least 3 business days before the event

Fore more such field marketing event tactics, head to our awesome (if we may say so, ourselves!) Field Marketing Guide!