5 Ways to Turn Your Event Green

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Plan a more sustainable and responsible event in 5 simple ways.

1)   Online Invites.

Try executing your entire invite process online instead of wasting paper on invitations that guest will throw away right after the event. Not only will you save paper and energy, but it will also be easier for attendees to sync the time, date, and location directly from their email to their iCalendar.

2)   Central Location.

Choose a location that is easily accessible by public transportation. Encourage attendees to walk, bike, take the bus, or carpool. Provide incentives like a bike valet or free parking for those who ride together.

3)   Donate + Compost Food.

Instead of throwing out full meals, try linking up with a local food bank and donating the food. You can also include a compost bin next to the trashcan where guests can toss their leftover scraps.

4)   Paperless Planning + Presenting. 

Share slides, PDFs and images via email instead of providing handouts during meetings. Encourage speakers to make PowerPoints and not waste paper on brochures.

5)   Paperless Networking.

Networking is key at many enterprise events, but that doesn’t mean you have to carry 50 business cards around in your pocket. Scan leads through event management software and encourage guests to exchange information electronically.

Events Boost Your Bottom Line

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In a digital economy, where there are more tweets, swipes and hashtags than one can keep straight, meeting someone in person can be the game-changer. That’s why events are so important – to truly build rapport, have conversations and create connections that really matter.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, 68% of B2B marketers use event marketing and 36% say it will be the most critical tactic for their content marketing success in 2017.

This infographic from NCC Home Learning shows that event marketing gives businesses a way to showcase and demonstrate their products, humanize their brands and create memorable experiences with their ideal customer audiences. Events also help gather customer contact information, browsing and buying patterns and other demographic data.

To see how High Attendance can support you in having successful events, schedule your personal demo today here.

Turn Your Event Green

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It can be easy to blame the event industry’s throwaway culture for the millions of plastic bottles tossed in landfills over the years. Tons of uneaten food has been thrown into garbage bins and countless paper business cards lost inside pockets and purses. Since events are generally one-time affairs, the idea of reusing and recycling has been difficult and expensive to implement. Luckily, eco-friendly incentives have been the rage lately and event managers around the world are reconsidering their plans’ impact on the earth.

If you’re ready to go green, here are a few simple tips to put you on the right path.

Choose a venue that is accessible via public transportation.

 1.  Choose a venue that is accessible via public transportation.  You can also encourage your guests to carpool or use services like Zimride.  If you’re wondering about the carbon footprint your event will leave behind, you can use this tool to calculate an estimate.

Choose finger foods instead of foods that require utensils.

2.  For events with a menu, incorporate hors d’oeuvres that do not require utensils to eat. If you can eat with your fingers, you won’t even need plastic utensils. However, if your guests aren’t the finger-food type, don’t worry. There are many sustainable options for biodegradable plates, utensils and dishes, like those made by German catering company fairgourmet.

Choose a "green" caterer.

3.  Speaking of food, make sure you pick your caterer carefully. Hire someone who uses sustainable food practices. Look for a caterer who uses: locally-sourced food, wild-caught seafood, reusable flatware and organic ingredients. Also, work with your caterer to create a donation plan for excess unserved food. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has an excellent guide for food donation if you need suggestions.

Cut paper out of your process- use technology instead!

4.  Cut paper out of your process. Utilize technology to avoid paper as much as possible. Scan leads instead of collecting business cards. Check attendees in online instead of checking them off a list. Have your speakers project their presentations instead of passing out pamphlets or printed notes. Your company will look more tech-savvy and you’ll save a tree or two in the process.

 5.  Provide recycling bins. Although it may seem obvious, this step is very important and often forgotten. The simple presence of a recycling bin increases attendees’ mindfulness of where they toss their trash. Recycling bins also double as a visible proclamation that your company is earth-conscious.

Resources:

How to Plan a Sustainable Event

Photographs-

https://www.flickr.com/photos/10037058@N08/3696670712

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sorbamedia/15650633341/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/geezaweezer/7102406409/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kopitehtarik/4386540258/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/31246066@N04/8711043595/

5 Productivity Hacks for Event Managers

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You can work hard, or you can work smart. The old adage doesn’t ring true for event managers. As busy professionals who need to use every hour of every day to get their jobs done, a successful event manager works hard and smart. Here are five productivity hacks we hope will make life a little easier for you as an event manager.

1. Brand the venue.

Make the event venue work for you by creating engaging, branded spaces.  For example, if your event is supporting ocean conservation, create a beach-y backdrop for photographs and stick your company logo on the umbrellas. Guests will line up to take pictures in your tropical photo booth, and they’ll be promoting your brand at the same time.

2. Cut it in half.

Feeding the crowd is important, but you don’t want to break the bank. Keep serving size in mind, and ask the catering company to cut sizeable items like sandwiches or brownies in half.

3. Use an event app.

Tired of running out of paper schedules? Your attendees are tired of carrying them around, too. Instead of passing out paper, ask your attendees to download the app for your event. Many event applications offer a menu of engaging features, including gamification, surveys and social integration.

4. Make budgeting a breeze.

You already have a ceiling to your spending but now you must decide how you will spend this budget. Try making a simple wish list in Excel of everything you’d like to incorporate in your event, regardless of budget. Then, price out each item. Now you can play around with the document, hiding different rows until you find a group that fits nicely in your budget. Remember to leave yourself some wiggle room for emergency spending!

5. Use Self-Service Check-In.

Nothing is worse than arriving to an event on time, and then standing in line for forty minutes while a Check-In team scrambles to find name tags and manually check everyone in. Make your attendees happy by skipping this step at your event. If you use Self-Service Check-In kiosks, your attendees do this step themselves which saves you manpower and time. They’ll also be impressed with your technology prowess.

How to Generate Leads with Email Marketing

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1) Research Your Target Audience.

There is no point in pitching your product to everyone in town. As amazing as it may be, there are some people who just won’t need it.

Target a specific audience. For example, at High Attendance we offer event management software so our target audience includes enterprise event managers, as well as sales people who may be interested in our platform to capture event leads quicker or on their own.

2) Personalize The Message.

In terms of marketing, there isn’t anything worse than sending out the same generic email pitch to all potential clients. It’s like receiving a group text — are you more likely to respond to a personalized text inviting you to dinner or a group text with 10 other people in the same thread?

Personalize the email right away with an observation or compliment:

“I noticed that you may be looking for…” or “I enjoyed reading your blog post on…”

3) Make Your Pitch Brief And Concise.

We live in a fast paced world where you only have a few seconds to grab someone’s attention.

You should relate your pitch to the previous personalized observation and then offer a solution to a problem they may be experiencing.

“I noticed that [company name] is now hosting monthly events. Are you looking to improve your lead generation at those events?  I’ve found that our mobile lead capture has been a successful solution for many clients.”

4) Include A Call To Action.

Without a Call To Action, your email is essentially worthless. You need a clear goal in mind when writing your email. Are you offering a free demo? Do you want to schedule a meeting? Whatever it is, be sure to include a CTA after your pitch.

Speaking of adding a Call To Action, you can learn more about our marketing automation for event lead generation here. 

4 Applications Every Event Manager Needs

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 Whether you need an application to help you get more quality sleep, or one that will increase your productivity, you’ve come to the right place. Check out our picks for the best applications for event managers to download today.

Sleepyti.me – Sleepyti.me calculates when you should go to sleep based on your desired wakeup time. Since it counts backwards in sleep cycles, following its advice will leave you well-rested and ready to start your day! Alternatively, you can enter what time you’re going to bed and the application will suggest optimal wake up times. Sleepyti.me’s strategy is simple but it can improve your nights in a big way. Plus, it’s free!

Rescue Time – This application runs securely in the background of your computer during the workday. It tracks the time you spend on applications and websites to give you an accurate picture of your day. The free version gives you weekly insights and the paid version gives you daily data. The paid version also allows you to log time you spend away from the computer, in meetings, etc. Have an addiction to those cute kitten videos? You can even block distracting websites from yourself temporarily.

Skyscanner – If you’re an event manager, there’s a good chance you log a lot of miles in the sky. Need to book a last minute flight? Look no further than SkyScanner. It scans thousands of airlines to find you the cheapest flight possible and they never charge a fee.

Wunderlist – This app is a dream for any list lover. Whether you want to share a project checklist with a co-worker or write a to-do list for an upcoming vacation, this application will keep you productive, and you’ll get the old-school satisfaction of checking things off when you finish them! Best of all, Wunderlist syncs in real time so that your lists stay up to date, no matter where you are in the world.

Image source: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23307937@N04/3929264721

What apps do you use to power your projects? Tell us in the comments below!

Near Field Technology (NFC) on the horizon. Blog post by Captix.

Near Field Technology

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Picture yourself at an upcoming trade show.

You look around your booth expecting the awkward dance of attendees adjusting their badges to the light and the back and forth of scanners focusing on those awkward barcodes.  The clumsy lead-capture-shuffle is gone.  Your sales teams are collecting leads in a graceful manner, like a Broadway play of Swan Lake.  Attendee data is collected perfectly, tagged and routed to your sales team in seconds.  It’s flawless and beautiful – and available today. Read more

These tech events are on our list.

These Tech Events Are On Our List for 2017

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Playing favorites with events is risky, especially because there are so many great ones out there. Nevertheless, this week we’re throwing caution to the wind and presenting a few 2015 events that have piqued our interest. We’re focusing our list on technology events because we are a SaaS company ourselves, and we’re limiting ourselves to four picks. Some of these events are industry leaders that been around for years, and some are very unique events you won’t find on the beaten path.

SXSW Interactive takes place in our neck of the woods, here in Austin, TX. SXSW Interactive is a self-proclaimed “incubator of cutting-edge technologies and digital creativity”. SXSW Interactive takes place from March 14-March 18th, and includes cutting-edge panels and discussions from industry leaders. It offers many networking opportunities, and has become known as “the place to preview the technology of tomorrow today”.  We can also tell you from experience, it doesn’t hurt that this event is really fun.

Failcon. This event’s premise is in its name. Failcon’s motto is “Embrace Your Mistakes. Build Your Success.” During these international events, technology founders, investors, developers, and more share their failures so others can learn from their mistakes. Failcon events take place all over the world at varied times of year; choose to attend in many locations from Grenoble or Porto Alegre to Tokyo or Tehran.

Techweek.  If you attend a Techweek event, you’ll hear from speakers who are authorities in their respective technology ecosystems. This conference is distinctive because speakers are nominated by the Techweek audience, and each group of speakers is unique in each city.  Past speakers include celebrated technology business minds such as the founder of Reddit, and Buzzfeed’s CEO.

Small Business Web Summit.  This conference started in 2011 with the idea to create an event that would bring leaders from cloud software companies into one room. If you’re part of a SaaS company and you cater to small businesses, this will be a great opportunity for you to mingle with peers and potential partners.  Past participants include innovative companies like MailChimp and HubSpot.

Have you heard about an amazing event that didn’t make our shortlist? Let us know- we want to hear about it!

 

how to handle a lead retrieval crisis with captix

How To Handle A Lead Retrieval Crisis

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Some of these might sound basic but they can be game-changers in the heat of the (panic) moment.

1. Check that your tablet is turned on.

a. It is surprising how many people have lead retrieval devices that are dark and won’t work  – until they are turned on. Simply hold the on switch to power it up.

2. Check if your tablet lead scanner is in the proper mode.

a. If you’re in an offline mode, put your tablet in airplane mode (with Wifi OFF) to save battery and not interfere with Wifi.

b. If you’re in an online mode, make sure your Wifi is turned on, your network is configured, your password is stored or you have logged into the secure network through the browser. Stay near a router at amplified levels.

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Say Hello To High Attendance / Captix For Events

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Welcome to High Attendance / Captix – your new platform created especially as a resource for event managers.

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