5 Tips for the Perfect Event Badges

Badges. We all want these small items, because they are our gateway to the event. Backstage passes, VIP badges, press badges or regular entrance badges, we’ve all come across them, regardless of the event. Small and sometimes unnoticeable, badges are one of the most important elements that can make an event good or bad. And while a nice badge will make your attendees wear it with pride and keep it as a souvenir, a bad one can also help. It won’t stand out from the crowd but it will do the trick of getting you inside the venue for your event.

youth-badges-event

So, badges are important for events, but can also be a big burden for the organizer. Ever wondered how it feels to manually create 100 badges for your event? Well, if you think it’s a pain… try to think about big events such as ICEEfest (3500+ badges) or even WebSummit (40.000+ badges), all of them personalized and separated in different categories. If you’re an event organizer, you know what we are talking about, but if you are just planning your first event, you are about to embark on a journey that could be easily called “the nightmare of badges”. Of course, there are some tips and tricks on how to overcome it.

So you have your event planned, tickets are sold or you have several attendees registered. Now comes the badge part. Once someone comes to the event venue, he will be welcomed at the access point, where he will have his ticket checked and badge given. How do you make the badge attractive, so that people will wear it and use it during the event?

1. Create one badge to rule them all

When it comes to badges, size does matter J. There are different regular badge sizes but generally, the standard sizes are: 8×10 cm and 10.5 x 14.85cm (A6). Basically you can do it any size you prefer, but it’s easier to follow the standards as usually the badge goes into a plastic pocket and unless you want to create a personalized pocket, you might want to go the traditional way.

2. Information is the key

The badge has a limited space and you might want to select what information goes there. It is essential that it contains the First Name and Last Name of the attendee, preferably in that order. Then you might want to add important information, such as the name of the company that the attendee works for or his position in the company. You can add other information as well, but make sure that the text isn’t cluttered. A badge full of text will become unreadable and that is definitely not its purpose.

3. Designing your event badge

badges-2A white badge is not a good badge – it will probably end up in the garbage bin at the end of the event. Badge design is vital for your event, as it reflects the whole image of the event. Besides the graphic elements that vary from one event to the other, you might want to take into consideration the badges for different categories at the event. The regular attendee badge should be different from the VIP badge or Press badge. Also, a complex event can have different venues and different ticket options, so badges can help your organizing staff determine the identity of any attendee. To do this differentiation you can use various colors or designs. Your call.

4. Adding sponsors to the event badge

Yes, badges are the most attractive elements for the sponsors. Why? Because everyone gets a badge at the event and if your main sponsor is well positioned on the badge, everyone’s eyes will see the company’s logo. The badge “spot” is a precious one so you might want to consider a single sponsor to be positioned on the badge. That way you might get a good sponsorship just because you are playing the badge game correctly.

badge-design-1

With Oveit, badge design is easy and fun

5. Additional badge usage

Depending on your event, the badge might also prove useful for other things as well, not only access. For example, by unfolding the badge you might get the map of the event venue, the event schedule, or both. Thus, the badge can turn into your personal event assistant with just a couple of flips.

As you’ve seen, badges can be a lot of things and can be a useful tool for your event. The most important thing, however, is that the badge can be a mirror of your event. If it’s done in a professional way, then there’s a good chance that your event will be professional. Spend time on your badge design and your event will benefit from it. Guaranteed!

We also have a little secret regarding the time spent to defeat the “badge nightmare”. Time to unravel it: Go to Oveit.com, create an account and you’ll find our Badge design tool. Activate it and you can do thousands of personalized badges with just a couple of clicks. You don’t believe us? Give it a try and you’ll never want to use another badge design tool ever again.

July 19, 2016 Business events, Event management, Events, Oveit Features 1 comment

How to plan an indie concert

OK, so the band is doing well, you did some gigs in front of your family and friends and now you want to go to the next level. The best feedback you can get for your band is playing in front of a live audience, but that can prove to be more difficult to achieve without a label or a manager. However, in our times, when internet and social media are the best things that could ever happen to an aspiring music band, planning an indie concert can be a task easier than you might think. But remember… it might be easier, you might have all the right tools, but you’re still going to be putting a lot of effort into it. No pain, no gain.

young-people

So, here are some nice tricks that can help you organize a small concert:

1. Google is your friend.

You can find anything you want on Google. The real key to using your new best friend is to know what you are looking for. According to Music Think Tank, there are a couple of interesting websites for indie artists that can help any aspiring musician learn a lot about industry, managers and booking shows, like Sonicbids Blog, Rap Rehab, Hypebot and, of course, Music Think Tank.

this-businessYou might also want to check out some interesting books about concerts and tours. One of them is “This Business of Concert Promotion and Touring: “A Practical Guide to Creating, Selling, Organizing, and Staging Concerts” by Ray Waddell.

A must-have for indie artists is: “All You Need to Know About the Music Business” by Donald S. Passman. This book is the definitive, essential guide to the music industry and is now in its eighth edition, revised and updated with crucial information on the industry’s major changes in response to rapid technological advances and economic uncertainty.

2. Mastering the Social Networks

Obviously, when you and your band don’t have big budgets to spend on marketing and promotion, social networks are the safest way to success. It might take some time but if you do it right, the results are guaranteed. Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are names that you should be familiarized with, as they are key to a successful event and a growing popularity of your music.

Singer Josh Levi claimed that “social media definitely plays a huge role in success today” and he is right. Either you are trying to promote your song or your concert, synchronize your accounts on every social network and start posting. You might bump into haters so keep calm and carry on posting… You might find out that a hater will only promote your music and some of his friends might actually enjoy it and come to see you play live.

3. “It’s not the singer, it’s the song”

These are wise words from the music industry so you better take them seriously. You can’t have a concert if you don’t have songs. While singing covers will help you fill up the playlist, people will come to see your concert so if you want to be successful, you must have some personal creations. It takes just one good song to hit the charts and be successful but just like in any business, getting to number 1 is hard work and staying there is even harder. So it’s best you prepare a good and entertaining playlist for the people who come to see you.

4. Choose the right venue

Now this is crucial. The selection of the venue can help you have a successful concert. Obviously you must select the venue that fits your target. If you want to organize a jazz concert, organizing the event at a Rock Club is definitely a bad idea. So, depending on what you sing, choose your venue wisely, as the venue itself can generate some audience. After all, it is in their interest also to get people to come inside and spend some money there. And since we’re talking about venues, make sure that the venue has the technical capacity for a proper concert. You might want to avoid places where the sound is bad or where people are cramming in and have no air to breathe.

5. Sell the tickets

You managed to set everything in place. You have all social network accounts working and your website is up and running. You found the perfect venue for the concert and set the date now comes the crucial part: how to sell the tickets and generate some revenue? So what is there to do? Well, take matters into your own hands and sell your own tickets. It’s your show, your money, your time so why not sell your own tickets directly from your website?

Once you advertise the concert on the social networks the people who are interested will come on your website and find more details about you, your band, your music and your events. Your website is the primary source of information for people who want to get to know you so why not sell tickets from your website. A few years ago, creating your own ticketing software was very expensive but now you have Oveit. With just a few clicks, you can set up your event in a couple of minutes and then use an Embed code to paste it on your website, and that’s it. You can now start selling tickets directly from your website. No more telephones to the ticketing platforms, everything you need is in your hands. So now you can focus on things that matter: the concert!

6. Keep your attendees close

It’s the evening of the concert. You sold your tickets and everything went as planned. People came to the venue, enjoyed your music and had a great time. What next? Transform your attendees into your fans. If you used Oveit’s event registration software to sell tickets, you might want to know that you have now gathered a lot of information about the participants. So now you have a data base to use and improve and you can send e-mails, make a newsletter and keep in contact with everyone. The key detail to being successful is communication. Music comes first but it doesn’t matter how good your music is if you lack interaction with your fans. Keeping them happy and satisfied will get you a long way. And now you can do that with your own data base.

Back in the days, getting in contact with your audience was quite difficult. Now, this is not the case. Labels have discovered that organizing events themselves will improve their revenues. Why hire someone to do your concert when you can do it yourself? So if the labels do this, why couldn’t the indie artists do it?

July 15, 2016 Concerts, Event management, Events No comments yet

Escape rooms and Conferences – 5 ideas to combine the two

A phenomenon that is growing throughout the world is the fascinating world of Escape Rooms. Whether played by teenagers, adults or people in team-building programmes, the Escape Room is a perfect way to test your wits in a race against time. The concept is simple and we’ll describe it for anyone that hasn’t experienced an Escape Room so far: a group of people is locked into a room and has 60 minutes to find the way out. Simple… but not too simple. Now – the question is – how can we mix this great idea with the world of conferences and events?

Integrating an escape room experience into a business conference can bring excitement, team-building opportunities, and unique engagement. Here are five ideas on how to achieve this integration:

1. Conference kickoff escape challenge: Begin the conference with an escape room challenge that sets the tone for the event. Participants can be divided into teams during registration, and the challenge can be centered around a business-related theme or problem relevant to the conference. This activity not only introduces attendees to each other but also sparks enthusiasm for the event while encouraging teamwork and problem-solving right from the start.

2. Workshop-style escape room sessions: Incorporate escape room sessions as workshops within the conference schedule. These workshops can be led by professional escape room designers or team-building facilitators. Participants will work together to solve puzzles and complete challenges, with a debriefing at the end to discuss how the experience relates to real-world business scenarios. This approach allows attendees to learn valuable lessons in a hands-on, enjoyable environment.

3. Networking escape rooms: Create escape room spaces that facilitate networking opportunities. Set up escape room stations or booths in designated areas where participants can join impromptu escape room sessions during breaks or networking hours. This interactive setup encourages conference-goers to mingle, collaborate, and exchange ideas while having fun solving puzzles together.

4. Gamified learning sessions: Integrate escape room elements into specific conference sessions to gamify learning. For instance, during training sessions or workshops, incorporate escape room-style puzzles and activities to reinforce key concepts. This approach enhances engagement, retention of information, and active participation among attendees.

5. Closing keynote escape room challenge: End the conference with a memorable escape room challenge presented as the closing keynote. Invite a dynamic speaker or escape room expert to lead the activity and tie it to the conference’s central themes and takeaways. The challenge can involve solving a final puzzle or unlocking a “treasure” that represents the knowledge gained during the event. This unique finale ensures that participants leave the conference on a high note and with a sense of accomplishment.

Remember to ensure that the difficulty level of the escape room experience aligns with the audience’s preferences and abilities. Additionally, consider providing clear instructions, ensuring safety measures, and having facilitators on hand to guide participants as needed. Integrating an escape room experience into a business conference adds an element of excitement and interactivity that can significantly enhance the overall event and create a lasting impact on attendees. After all – this is what Oveit is all about – providing great experiences for conferences and their visitors.

July 12, 2016 Access management, Event management 3 comments

How to increase traffic to your museum or gallery?

museum

The Vatican Museum. Source.

Today, the world is changing faster than ever. Information is now instantly available to everyone online, so modern museums need to sell a reason for people to pay to view the real thing. Therefore, in order to respond to the social changes and adapt to your visitors’ expectations, you must innovate, and technology might just be the right choice.

Create your own museum app

More and more museums in the world are making the experience interactive, educational, and engaging for their visitors. Your own museum app can provide cellphone tours, audio guides, interactive movies or games and even augmented reality.

Optical recognition and enhanced reality (using QR codes and such) is a great way to improve the experience of your visitors, as you will be able to enhance what they are seeing through their mobile device. People can scan an object of interest with their camera, and that gesture triggers delivery of relevant content, in order to better understand the exhibits. With the help of your e-ticket and NFC technology, visitors can simply touch their phones on the museum devices and benefit from the latest trends in augmented reality. All the devices from the museum and gallery can connect to Oveit, hence the only thing that visitors must do is purchase an online ticket and come with it on the smartphone. From there, they can relax and enjoy the sights.

Sell online tickets and subscriptions

Purchasing e-tickets will give your customers a lot of benefits: they decrease cost and are instantly delivered (no transportation needed), they are a great time saver, more accessible, safer (these won’t get stolen or lost), and last but not least, they are a ‘green’ alternative.

Apart from these facts, there are also great advantages for you when it comes to selling tickets or subscriptions online. For example, you are able to collect essential customer data that can be used to better plan marketing campaigns for future exhibits or events. With Oveit’s embed system, you can issue and check electronic tickets directly on your website so that you can make sure that customers will never be forced to a third party website that sells tickets. Moreover – there is no setup fee and implementation is instant, by just copy-ing and pasting an embed code.

Provide multiple access

If you have various galleries, collections or exhibits going on in your museum, you can sell multiple access tickets. Oveit’s event registration software can help you create as many different types of tickets as you need. You can also set prices, ticket quantity limits, and much more. Therefore, visitors will be able to benefit from simpler access, using only their smartphone. With the multiple access option, visitors will be able to configure their access ticket any way they want, choosing whatever exhibition they want. Just imagine that you can buy a ticket in less than 2 minutes and with that same ticket you can do everything you want in the museum. So, pay once, visit more.

Host events

Events enable you to promote your activities to a very select group of people and can be a fun and interactive way to engage with potential and existing visitors. Make visitors feel like a part of the museum family, by inviting them to special ‘member’ events. Let them share their experience with the museum and their future expectations. Also, events can be a great way to thank existing customers for their support and interest.

In order to host a successful event, you need to have an easy registration system in place. In a couple of minutes, Oveit can help you design and create personalized badges for all your attendees, create complex seating designs (in case your museum hosts a conference) and sell access to your planned event.

June 1, 2016 Event management, Events, Museums No comments yet

Top Largest Gaming Conventions and Events in the World

Gaming has taken the world by storm and it seems it won’t be stopping soon. eSports, mobile gaming, huge investments in developing increasingly impressive games have all been factors in creating a global gaming phenomenon.

Gamers and gaming industry representatives gather and interact each year in some fantastic events. We decided to take a loom at the top largest gaming conventions and events. So here they are:

Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in US and Australia – 70 000 ++ attendees

pax-prime-logo

PAX, the event formerly known as Penny Arcade Expo, is a series of gaming events held in Seattle, Boston, Melbourne, and San Antonio. Though the exact number of attendees has not been published since 2012, we know that it has been on the rise and you should consider a figure way above 70 000.

The event was created by Jerry Hulkins and Mike Krahulik in 2004 as a gaming – only event. Jerry and Mike are also the authors of Penny Arcade, an webcomic focused on gaming culture. Following the success of Penny Arcade, they’ve decided they need a place where gamers can get together and experience their favorite hobbies together. So PAX was born.

The first edition was attended by 3 300 people in Bellevue, Washington, at the Meydenbauer Center. As the word spread out PAX moved to other cities and then other countries. In 2013, PAX arrived in Australia. That same year, passes for PAX Prime, the original Washington Festival, were sold out within 6 hours.

To make room for the incoming stream of game developers interacting with the gaming community, a new event was born within the PAX ecosystem: PAX Dev. As the event’s website states “PAX Dev is about elevating the art and creating a place to share, debate and learn.”

Igro Mir in Russia – 157 000 attendees

igromir-logo

Igro Mir (meaning “Gaming World” in Russian) is the largest games event in Russia. It is organized by the committee of Russian Game Developers Conference in Moscow every year since 2006.

While many things can be said about the conference, like the fact that it grew steadily since its launch, that the event took Moscow by storm and more, a certain pattern comes up when it’s being reviewed. Can you notice this beautiful pattern?

igromir-photos

Results for “IgroMir 2015 Russia”

ChinaJoy in China – 270 000 attendees

chinaJoy-2016-Logo-1

The largest gaming and digital entertainment event in Asia is ChinaJoy or China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference .

The event features more than 120 000 sq. m. in exhibition space, over 3500 games showcased and visitors from more than 30 countries.

ChinaJoy is growing rapidly and expects over 270 000 attendees this year.

Tokio Game Show in Japan – 270 000 attendees

tgs

The TGS 2016 theme illustration. Source.

The Tokio Game Show or TGS started in 1996. It is held once every year, in September, in the Makuhari Messe, in Chiba, Japan. The show is focused on Japanese games but often international game producers attend the event to showcase upcoming titles.

The event grew steadily since start and has reached a record of 270 197 attendees in 2013.

This year the number of expected attendees is 230 000 and the theme is “Press start to play the future”, a take on how the gaming industry is redefining the future of entertainment.

This year’s theme has been illustrated by Ippei Gyobu who mentioned his view on the impact of games:

“The game world is moving from monitors to headsets, and at some point gamers will probably even remove the headset. Is that world real or unreal? Games are creating the whole different concept of the world! The Tokyo Game Show has continually delivered to us the history of those revolutions, and is turning 20 this year. I can’t wait to go see a new revolution. “

Brasil Game Show in Brasil – 300 000 attendees

In 2015 Brasil Game Show attracted more than 300 000 attendees which makes it the largest event of its type in Latin America.

BGS is a mix between gaming, cosplay, entertainment and business opportunities for gaming industry professionals. Its main expo area is focused on B2C but there is also a special B2B space where entrepreneurs and professionals can meet and interact.

The show was created in 2009 by Marcel Tavares, an entrepreneur and journalist. One thing about Tavares is that he really likes video games. He likes them so much that throughout the years he has acquired 350 consoles, 3500 games and hundreds of accessories.

BGS grew at a rapid pace and the reason for that is the high potential of the LatAm gaming market.

A report by Superdata puts the gaming market in the region at $4.5 billion, with Brasil accounting for 35% of this figure:

LatAm-Report

Gamescom in Germany – 345 000 attendees

originalPreviewJW

Gamescom gathered 345 000 attendees and 806 exhibitors in 2015. The European gaming convention brought in people from 96 countries to attend 4 days of gaming extravaganza.

The convention, held in Koelnmesse in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, is organized by the Federal Association of Interactive Entertainment Software. For four days is home to game developers showcasing their creations and avid gamers interacting with them.

The fair includes cosplay village, music and on-stage entertainment, interactive panels and a very, very large exhibition area.

Gamers can test games before their market release, purchase merchandise, have fun and even buy games before they are available publicly.

May 25, 2016 Event management, Event professionals, Events, Festivals 1 comment