Get Ready to Build Your Lead-Capture Strategy!

by ClearEvent Support | Event Management

Are you gearing up for your next conference, expo, or tradeshow? If so, it’s crucial to have a solid event lead capture strategy in place. Effective lead capture can transform your event by generating valuable contacts, expanding your network, and fostering meaningful attendee engagement. Let’s explore how you can make lead capture work for you, your exhibitors, and your attendees.

Why Event Lead Capture Matters

Capturing leads at events isn’t just about collecting business cards. It’s a game-changer for exhibitors and organizers alike. Here’s why:

• Generate Quality Leads: Build a list of potential customers to follow up with after the event.
• Expand Professional Networks: Connect with individuals interested in your products or services.
• Understand Your Audience: Gather data like job titles and company names to tailor your marketing efforts.
• Enhance Engagement: Personalize interactions based on attendees’ interests.
• Boost Conversions: Nurture leads with relevant information, increasing the likelihood of turning prospects into customers.

Designing a Lead-Capture Strategy That Benefits Everyone

Creating a successful event lead generation strategy requires collaboration. Here’s how each role contributes:

Event Organizer Responsibilities

• Implement the Right Technology: Utilize tools like QR code scanning apps for efficient lead retrieval.
• Communicate Clearly: Inform exhibitors and attendees about the lead capture process.
• Ensure Data Privacy Compliance: Adhere to data protection regulations to maintain trust.

Exhibitor Strategies

• Identify Target Audience: Know who you want to reach for more effective efforts.
• Plan Lead Qualification: Determine criteria for valuable leads.
• Prepare a Follow-Up Plan: Have a strategy for engaging leads after the event.

Attendee Considerations

• Provide Relevant Information: Share contact details that reflect your interests.
• Understand Data Usage: Be aware of how your information will be used and protected.
• Engage Positively: Participate in the lead capture process to benefit from personalized interactions.

Effective Methods for Collecting Leads at Trade Shows

Implementing efficient methods for collecting leads at trade shows is essential. Here are two popular strategies:

1. Embed Attendee Details in a QR Code

Place a QR code containing attendee contact information on badges. Exhibitors and attendees can scan these codes using their mobile devices, simplifying lead retrieval.

2. Use ClearEvent’s Registration System

With ClearEvent’s platform, you can export registrant details to create badges featuring QR codes in the vCard format. This method streamlines exhibition lead capture and enhances data accuracy.

Learn more about ClearEvent’s Registration features

Tips to Maximize Your Lead-Capture Strategy

• Train Your Team: Ensure staff know how to use lead retrieval tools effectively.
• Engage Attendees: Create interactive experiences that encourage attendees to share information.
• Follow Up Promptly: Reach out to leads soon after the event while the interaction is fresh.
• Measure Success: Use analytics to assess the effectiveness of your lead capture efforts.

Developing a robust event lead capture strategy is vital for maximizing the success of your events. By implementing effective methods and leveraging the right technology, you can generate high-quality leads, expand your network, and engage attendees meaningfully.

Ready to elevate your event management game? Discover how ClearEvent can be the cornerstone of your event planning success with a personal demo

Happy planning!

Unlocking Sponsor Potential: A Tactical Guide for Event Managers

by ClearEvent Support | Event Management

Emergency Preparedness – Essential Tips for Event Planners

by ClearEvent Support | Event Management

Emergency preparedness is like flossing—it’s something all event planners know they need to do, but it often ends up being an afterthought. Unfortunately, overlooking this crucial step can have serious consequences if something goes wrong. The last thing you want is for your event to be remembered as a disaster.

This guide will provide practical tips and considerations for event planners to prepare for emergencies effectively. While you can’t plan for every scenario, having a response plan for common situations ensures a safer event for attendees and peace of mind for organizers.

Why Emergency Preparedness Matters

Emergencies don’t always involve catastrophic incidents like loss of life. As Dave Leonard, CEO of Mosaic Medical, highlights, preparedness can include planning for scenarios like lost children, overcrowding, or simply deterring potential issues with visible security measures.

Emergency planning doesn’t need to feel overwhelming—it just needs to be intentional. By breaking down potential risks, creating a plan, and involving the right people, you can mitigate potential chaos and create a safe, memorable event.

What Is Your Goal?

Questions to Define Your Goals

The first step in emergency preparedness is identifying your goals during an emergency. Consider the following questions:

• Is discretion a top priority?
• Should the event continue in the face of disruption?
• How will overcrowding or unexpected incidents be managed?
• How do you want your event to be perceived in the community? Is it a positive contributor or a drain on local resources?
• Do you have a plan for communicating with attendees and the media if something goes wrong?

Managing Public Perception

Having clear objectives will shape your emergency response plan and communication strategy. For instance, social media can quickly amplify bad news. Preparing clear, concise messages that show the situation is under control is vital to managing public perception.

“The most important first step in emergency preparedness is to determine what your goals are in the event of an emergency.”

When to Start Emergency Preparedness Planning

Early Planning Is Crucial

The best time to start planning for emergencies is at the very beginning of your event preparation. Early discussions with emergency professionals can influence critical decisions, such as:

• Event layout: Designing entrances and exits for efficient crowd control and quick evacuation.
• On-site medical staff: Reducing response times for medical emergencies.
• Security presence: Deter potential issues before they arise.

Avoid Last-Minute Panic

Many planners wait until the final week to consult emergency services, which is often too late to implement key changes. Therefore, starting early ensures you can address these concerns effectively and avoid last-minute panic.

“The very beginning of planning an event is the best time to initiate discussion with emergency professionals.”

Engage Experts to Develop a Response Plan

Benefits of Professional Expertise

Emergency preparedness professionals can help you identify risks and create response plans tailored to your event. They group potential emergencies by severity and develop clear, actionable strategies for handling each scenario.

Focus on What You Do Best

Even seasoned event planners can benefit from expert advice. After all, letting professionals handle the heavy lifting allows you to focus on the other 99% of event details.

“Enlisting an outside service can help identify your goals and prepare for common scenarios.”

Training and Communication: Empower Your Team

Equip Your Team for Success

Your team is your first line of defense in an emergency. Equip them with the knowledge they need to act quickly and effectively:

1. Host Pre-Event Training: Teach staff and volunteers how to assess risks, who to inform, and how to communicate clearly in a crisis.
2. Assign Clear Roles: Define responsibilities for specific scenarios to avoid confusion during an emergency.
3. Use Technology Tools: Platforms like ClearEvent’s messaging feature ensure all team members stay informed and aligned.

Why Training Matters

Well-trained staff will feel empowered to respond confidently, which reduces the likelihood of chaos and ensures attendee safety.

Practical Emergency Preparedness Tips

Actionable Steps to Enhance Safety

Here are actionable tips to improve your event’s emergency preparedness:

• Create an Emergency Kit: Include essentials like first aid supplies, flashlights, batteries, and portable phone chargers.
• Develop an Evacuation Plan: Map out exits, identify safe zones, and rehearse evacuation procedures with your team.
• Set Up Communication Channels: Use SMS alerts or PA systems to quickly inform attendees and staff.
• Collaborate with Local Authorities: Build relationships with police, fire, and medical services to streamline coordination during emergencies.
• Plan for Common Scenarios: Include strategies for medical emergencies, lost children, severe weather, and security threats.

Additional Resources for Emergency Preparedness

Helpful Links

To learn more, explore these helpful resources:

• Ontario Association of Emergency Managers
• Health and Safety Executive: Event Safety
• Yale University: Special Event Emergency Planning

Final Thoughts

Emergency preparedness doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By starting early, setting clear goals, and leveraging expert advice, you can create a safer, more enjoyable event for everyone involved. Preparedness isn’t just a responsibility—it’s the key to protecting your attendees and your event’s reputation.

Avoid Check Payments for Your Event – Save Time, Money

by ClearEvent Support | Event Management

When planning online registration and ticket sales, you may be tempted to include an option for payment by check. Payment by check is a bad idea for several reasons. A key drawback of check payments is the delay and additional manual work they create, but there are other downsides too. If you can’t eliminate check payments, the next best option is to avoid check payments in your event as much as possible.

It’s important to get proceeds from registrations fast. Here’s three easy methods to help protect your time and revenue from the drawbacks of check payments by avoiding check payments.

Minimize the number of checks you deal with

1)     Incentivize online payments

One of the simplest ways to save yourself a lot of wasteful busy-work dealing with checks is to charge more for check payments.

Charging more for for payment by check both discourages customers from paying by check and encourages them to take advantage of paying by credit card.

Charging 20-25% more is a reasonable starting point. (There may be other factors in your event that lead you to set your “check payment” price higher or lower.) For example, suppose you have an exhibitor fee of $100 to be paid online by credit card. The same exhibitor fee when paying by check can be set to $120 or $125.

Charging more for check payments provides you a little compensation for the additional work you’ll be doing to manually process checks. For a $100 registration fee you’ll collect $20-$25 to cover your time and risk for manually handling check payments. As you can see, this barely covers the cost of your time! This is a good reason to avoid check payments altogether.

2)      Help your check customers in pay by credit card

Some of your customers prefer to pay by check because they don’t have a credit card. Many event systems, such as ClearEvent, accept pre-paid credit cards which is a great option if the buyer does not have a bank-issued credit card.

Publish suggestions on your website and on your registration form where your customers can purchase pre-paid credit cards to help avoid check payments.

This approach also helps to minimize the number of bad checks you’ll have to clean up. Resolving bad checks is often a drain on time and resources as well as damaging your relationship with your bank.

3)      Make check payment options less prominent

It’s best if most registrations use credit card payments, so structure your registration fees by putting credit card payment methods in the top positions. ClearEvent provides a lot of flexibility in setting up your registration forms. Fees can be grouped and ordered so you can organize your registration options as needed.

Keep check payment options separate and less prominent.

On your fees page, put your registration fees with credit card payment at the top and list your check options lower in your list of fees.

Alternatively, you could create a group of fees labelled “Pay by Check” and include only check payments in this section. This minimizes confusion between credit card payments and check payments and makes it more likely your registrants will register using online credit card payment.

Smart Planners Avoid Check Payments

If your event accepts check payments, take steps to minimize the number of check payments as much as possible. This minimizes wasted time and effort processing manual payments. It also ensures the majority of your revenue is available within days rather than weeks.

Charging more when accepting check payments provides an incentive to pay by credit card instead. Providing helpful suggestions and recommendations to your registrants about using pre-paid credit cards can further lower the work and risk of dealing with checks. Lastly, make the check options less prominent on your form to encourage more attendees to register using credit card.

These steps go a long way toward minimizing the impact of check payments, freeing you to focus on the bigger more important aspects of your event.

Happy Planning!

ClearEvent provides a great deal of flexibility to manage payments for your event, even check payments. Learn more here.

Interested In Other Topics?

As a conference planner, knowledge is key. Let us know the topics you’d like to hear about to help increase your event planning success, at support@clearevent.com.

In the meantime, Happy Planning!

Customer Review: Port Hope community is hopping with events throughout the year

by ClearEvent Support | Event Management

We had the opportunity to sit down with Jeannie Maidens, Coordinator at the Municipality of Port Hope this week to learn about how she plans her community events.  Jeannie runs monthly events throughout the year and has modernized her event planning process using the ClearEvent platform.  Join us in understanding what some of her challenges were and how she is handling event planning today.

Tell us a bit about yourself and the events that you plan.

As the Events Coordinator for the Municipality of Port Hope there are three areas of focus within my portfolio.  The first area is planning for the Municipality of Port Hope corporate events like our Volunteer Firefighter Appreciation Banquet and the Civic Awards Ceremony.  The second planning area is for municipal community events like our Canada Day Celebration or Port Hope Arts Festival.  And lastly, I also facilitate 3rd party events on municipal property like Cultivate, a Festival of Food & Drink.  For 2 years we’ve been using ClearEvent software for planning some of these events and we plan to expand its use to more events as we go forward.

What were you using before you started using the ClearEvent platform?

Prior to ClearEvent we were using a collection of tools – email, excel spreadsheets, word, and scribbled notes predominantly.  We were introduced to the ClearEvent solution through the Festivals & Events Ontario Conference in 2015.  I definitely saw the value for its use within our program. The software looked as if it would help us stay more organized.

What has ClearEvent allowed you to do that you couldn’t do with your previous event planning methods?

The biggest improvement for me was the ability to process online registration and payments.  Handling this online has allowed me to connect with new participants and engage them in a way that I wasn’t able to before.  ClearEvent’s registration software really up’d our game.  The process that we were using before was a big barrier.  We used to send folks a pdf and ask them to fill it out then mail it back.  Very time consuming and challenging to keep track.

Have your customers been able to adapt to the technology easily?

Before we had the online payment and registration option through ClearEvent, we had two camps of customers.  One group wanted the registration/payment online option and wondered why we didn’t already have it.  At the same time, some vendors were used to the way things were and less comfortable with technology, especially around our Farmers’ Market event.  As part of our customer service approach, we have set up things to help them navigate it.  We also accept offline payments via check in addition to online for those who were less comfortable with the technology.  The ClearEvent system allows for both.  And the ClearEvent team has been very helpful providing materials that I can provide my customers to help them along.  Overall though, switching to the ClearEvent platform has broadened our reach and we’ve gained more registrants as a result.

What has been ClearEvent’s key benefit to you?

Other than being able to process online registrations and payments, it does offer a new level of organization.  It houses everything together and offers a new communication platform through the included Event Portal.  I know the information is in the platform and others can access it through a self-serve mode removing me from the pressure of being a single point of communication.  I also like that we are evolving and modernizing our events.  The support from the ClearEvent team has been so helpful and a big benefit of going with ClearEvent.  With our Canada Day Event on the horizon, the countdown clock on the Dashboard is another favorite part of the software.

Time-saving element.

Like any new system, you have to invest some upfront time to get started.  You become more efficient as you get used to the system.  And unique features like Rollover also are a huge time-saver if you have repeating events because it reduces much of the initial event set up.  And the ClearEvent support team did a lot to help me get up to speed- great support.

What advice would you give someone else considering an Event Management Software System?

Think big about how you organize your event plans.  Pay attention to all the features that ClearEvent offers and it can be the Mothership for your events.  Have a good idea of what the main event planning problem is that you would like to solve.  Focus on that to begin with and sort that out on the system first knowing that there’s lots of other ways to use the system that you’ll get to.  You don’t have to utilize all the included tools right away.  There are lots of features that can be adopted as you go because there is a lot in the platform.

Port Hope Canada Day Parade, 2017

Port Hope Arts Festival, 2017