Whether you’re throwing an industry convention or a holiday bash, many businesses and associations plan at least a few events each year. And for each event, you need your invite list to register their attendance, pay for their tickets, and be able to make concrete travel plans to attend your events. While it is possible to do all of this on the phone, it is far superior to have a website that can serve as an online event planning platform instead. Keep reading to find out how to improve online event registration through web-design methods.
In today’s modern professional world, an online platform is considered standard. People expect to be able to register for events and manage their travel plans online; a basic app often isn’t enough to meet their needs. If you’ve been thinking about updating your brand website and event management for attendees, it will help to know exactly what modern professionals expect from online services.
Today, we’re here to talk about not just what your attendees need to make it to the conference, but what they really want from an online brand website in terms of registering, planning, and attending events. Starting from their very first log-in to handling issues that might occur during the convention, let’s explore the ideal event planning features that will improve online event registration.
Easy Sign-In Creation and Account Management
The first step for any online platform use is making and managing accounts. Your users need to be able to quickly and easily create a sign-in using their email and password of choice. Aim for integration, like using Google Chrome, Facebook, or even LinkedIn accounts to quickly create a log-in. Others will prefer to use a specific email-password combination and a ‘remember me’ feature is very useful in this case.
Choose your security measures wisely. While security and identity confirmation is important, you also don’t want to annoy your attendees by constantly checking their email or phones for activation codes. Security questions or quick visual passwords are a better approach.
And once the account exists, attendees expect to be able to easily manage those accounts. Filling in their professional information, changing their login credentials, and managing methods of payment should all take no more than a few clicks or taps on the keyboard. You may also consider creating appealing profiles for the social side of your website. These simple steps will make account management easy for customers, which will then help improve online event registration.
Information Pages for Each Event – Details & Itinerary
Before committing to the event, most of us are in the habit of researching everything from the venue to the speaker schedule before committing to even reserve a ticket.
To make your attendees happy, simply make researching each event easy. Create one or several pages of well-organised information on each event, lay it out on a calendar, and make it easy for those who receive an invitation to find and search these details.
Be particularly clear about the food, accessibility, and the event schedule. We suggest creating downloadable resources that can be viewed on the website or saved as offline resources including the menu, a map of the event venue, and a clearly laid out schedule.
Event Registration and Reliable Payment Processing
Once invitees know everything they want to about an event, they’ll be ready to register. This is a very important online feature because too much hassle can cause people on the fence about attendance to change their minds. A smooth registration will make people more relaxed and eager to attend.
In order to improve online event registration, the process should require no more than a few button clicks. Make it simple to confirm specific dates, ticket types, and any relevant details you usually collected during the registration process. If there are additional things to sign up for during registration, consider check-boxes during the main registration process instead of (or in addition to) separate sign-up pages. And payment should be as easy as humanly possible with remembered cards and Paypal integration.
Easy Registration for Non-Standard Attendees
Even with a great registration process, not every registration is the same. Your invited speakers, for instance, may have sponsored tickets that come with a decrease in price or complimentary services. Booth holders have different registration from regular attendees, and companies that send employees may need another separate registration process.
You may also have scholarship attendees who are allowed to register for free, at a reduced price, or with sponsored travel to make it possible for them to attend. Others may have special travel needs like handicap accommodation or even severe food allergies. All these people will need their alternative registration to be just as easy even if it does not conform to the usual one-registree, one-standard-ticket profile. Make sure you are aware of these different forms in order to substantially improve online event registration.
Event Calendar Management
If attendees sign up for more than one scheduled event, they’re going to want the ability to view and manage their personal event calendar. This is true both of scheduling a seat at conference talks and scheduling to attend multiple events throughout the year.
A good way to approach event calendar management is to create a dynamic online calendar. On this calendar, they should be able to see all the events (or sub-events) available along with a bold indication of what exactly they have already registered for. Naturally, the calendar should also include exact times that events start and will end along with details on each event location.
You may want to make it possible for attendees to interact with their calendars to change their plans as well. This could be anything from signing up for a new event to cancelling a reserved seat due to a change in their personal circumstances.
Check Registration and Event Details
As events approach, attendees will want to double and triple-check the event details and the specifics of their registration. This will be necessary to make plans, ease worries, and then to find the exact location and time of events after attendees start arriving.
Whether or not you implement an active calendar, attendees should have both a clear itinerary and access to further details for each event and sub-event online. Make sure that times, dates, locations, and any relevant details are available and easily found.
Share Who Else Will Be There
Attendees will naturally want to know who else will be at the conventions, talks, and parties you choose to host. They are coming to both network and to meet up with friends they have connected with through your brand.
If it is appropriate and approved, you might consider making an attendee registry available for all online account-holders whether or not they have registered for an event themselves. This can, in fact, raise your number of attendees as people decide to register based on their desire to meet or reconnect with names they recognise.
Automated and Human Customer Service
Finally, never forget the importance of online customer service, especially as the event approaches and during attendance. All sorts of things can go wrong and many of them may have to do with errors or mistakes made when dealing with the online registration process.
Automated customer service allows your attendees to handle problems for themselves. And most importantly, the solutions are instant. From resetting passwords to rescheduling attendance days, try to provide as many automated customer service solutions and FAQ answers as possible.
And when all else fails, be sure to have at least a few chat techs and phone support people ready to help attendees with the truly bizarre, confusing, or technical problems- this helps improve online registration. Chat techs are particularly important as they create a smooth transition from failing to find an automated solution to being a happy registered attendee.
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If you want conferences and other events to go smoothly and earn their own increased attendance every year, be sure that your online registration and account management is ready for the task. For more on how to perfect your event planning in every way from marketing and registration to laying out the nametags, we’ve got you covered. We can help you learn more about event branding, brand managers, and anything that is related to event planning. We are located in Dubai, but we help companies and businesses worldwide. Contact us today to consult on your next big brand event or conference.
