New features available

We’re excited to share our latest updates with you. As you will sell below, we’ve been working hard to add new features to our ticketing, account Dashboard, and cashless payments system. Read on to see the updates and how to use use them to create better experiences for your attendees and visitors.

Calendar option – sell tickets for specific days and dates

Looking to sell electronic tickets for specific dates or days of the week? Using our Calendar option, you can easily create ticket categories that offer this. When creating your event, you’re now able to select tickets that are active just for specific days of the week, certain dates, or any date range that you need.

you can now create event ticket categories serving just the selected dates, days of the week, or a specific range

Thus, when buying their tickets, attendees will be able to select the key ticket(s) for the date (or dates) they want to visit your event or venue. Pretty cool, right?

How calendar tickets help you and your community

Especially if you are managing a location (venue, theme park, museum), you need to have accurate, real-time information about the number of visitors you should expect. With this option, you can select the total number of tickets allocated to each day – without having to actually set up limits for each individual day. We’ll take care of everything on your behalf.

With Oveit’s ticketing software, you’re not just seamlessly selling electronic tickets. You are also getting a better understanding of when your attendees plan to visit your location. Using this information, you get all the logistics in place and better prepare to welcome your attendees.

It’s also extremely useful if you manage a location that uses different pricing for different days of the week. So let’s say you’re managing a location. Let’s say you have different prices for weekdays vs weekends. You can now set up two different ticket categories, each with its own pricing, total number of available tickets, and so on. In a matter of minutes, you’ll have everything up and running for the next few months.

For this particular example, the two ticket categories are set up to run for the next 5 months, with different prices and total available tickets for weekdays vs weekends.

At the entrance, you can scan the tickets using our mobile apps, see what day they have purchased, and check in attendees based on what they have bought from your side

For your visitors, it becomes much easier to plan their visit. They can buy tickets for the exact day they’re planning to visit your location, save them to their digital wallet, and make their trip even more enjoyable.

Dashboard – we’ve made things simpler

Oveit comes with all the features you need to deliver extraordinary live experiences. And we’re constantly updating our solution to continue to serve our users while incorporating the latest technologies. But at the same time, we know that you need a user-friendly solution. So we’ve also updated our Dashboard so that you can work more easily.

We want to thank our users for their constant feedback – it always helps us get better and better.

So, here is what you will find in our latest version of the dashboard:

In the main section of the page, we’ve kept the options needed to start your event: Events,   Seating maps, and Vouchers. They will help you set up your first event.

And once you begin selling tickets, you’ll have access to two new options: Community (the CRM with data about your customers) and Reports.

We’ve also grouped all the extra options under one dropdown list, to make it easier to navigate through all the features we offer. We truly believe this will streamline your work.

But we strongly encourage you to share your feedback. This is the only way we can make your experience absolutely unforgettable.

Updates on the cashless payments system

For Oveit Pay, our cashless payment system, we’ve recently released two major updates in terms of usability. Both have the role to make the in-event economy run smoother and take some of the load off your team.

First, we’ve added a balance viewer option to the vendor account. While previously attendees were able to check their balance at top-up points or designated credit checkpoints, attendees can now ask a vendor to update them on the remaining balance. 

When it comes to making a purchase, the technicalities that run in the background remain the same: the system automatically checks the balance and compares it to the total amount of the order, providing an “Insufficient funds” message when needed. 

But we wanted to find a way to save your attendees from an extra walk. We’re sure they’re gonna appreciate it.

We’ve saved the best for last. So truly hope you made it through here – otherwise, this will prove to be a not-so-good idea.

Oveit Wallet is up and running

We’ve released Oveit Wallet, and we think it’s going to completely revolutionize cashless payments. Our wallet is dedicated to event-goers, and it helps them manage their finance throughout the entire festival. It helps them top up credit using a debit or credit card, pay using the app’s dynamic QR codes, view their purchasing history, and withdraw credit when the experience is over.

Although this update deserves a much more extensive section, we will list here briefly the benefits that Oveit Wallet brings to your community, to you, and to the environment:

For your community, Oveit Wallet means no more queuing for top-ups and withdrawals. They will be able to operate these transactions straight on the mobile app by simply connecting their card(s) to their profiles. From there on, they’ll have the option to top up and pay with just a few clicks.

For you and your team, this means lower costs and less work. As Oveit Wallet replaces the need for NFC chips (wristbands or cards), you’ll save time and money when setting up the logistics needed for running the event’s economy. This option will take much of the pressure from your top-up points as they will only serve those that are looking to add credit using cash. 

For the environment, Oveit Wallet means less plastic used at your festival. It helps you go green(er), supporting your environmental-focus efforts, and keeping (almost) everything digital. As a company that operates in the event industry, we acknowledge and support your efforts to reduce the impact our experiences have on the environment.

How to start event registration for virtual or in-person events in 2022

Let’s say you want to start event registrations for your virtual or in-person event. You’ve decided to use an awesome event registration software, Oveit . But now the big question – how to start event registration?

First of all, thank you for choosing us. This is going to be as easy as it can get. At the end you will start registering visitors free of charge and receive payments in your account instantly.

If you need a video tutorial, we made one you can see below. Otherwise – keep on reading this post.

Let’s get started.

A checklist on how to start event registration

The first thing you will see when you start your account with Oveit is a short checklist with the things you need to do before starting registering visitors to your event.

It looks like this:

How to start event registration checklist
A checklist on how to start event registration with Oveit

There’s basically 3 things you need to do to start your event registration. They are the things you see above:

  1. Set up billing information: this is your company or individual details. Oveit is a special software that allows you to sell tickets directly to your customers. This means they will need to know who they’re buying things from. This is the section where you’ll be setting this information in. Don’t worry – you only set it once.
  2. Set up a payment processor: A payment processor is a company, like PayPal and Stripe that helps you receive payments instantly, directly into your account. If you have a PayPal, Stripe or Crypto account, this is where you set it up. This is a very important part of how to start event registration, if you’re planning to receive payments for your event.
  3. Create an event: This part is self-explanatory. You will have to enter some details about your event, like name and the date it takes place in, set up tickets and share the registration link with your potential visitors.

As you notice above, there’s a fourth step as well. This is the “select pricing plan”. By default, Oveit automatically registers you with the free event registration plan, which allows you to register up to 300 visitors per event, on an unlimited number of events, free of any Oveit charge. If you receive payments, you will be charged a commission by PayPal or Stripe.

If you checked all details above, you’re basically set and you know how to start event registration for all your next events.

However, Oveit is a powerful tool, with extensive options that allow you to create the perfect event. Let’s have a look at some of the most important ones:

Your dashboard

Once you’ve started your first event you will get access to your Dashboard. Here you will see an aggregate of all your ticket sales and registrations, once they start happening.

If you don’t have any events the first thing you should do is click on “Create event”

dashboard

How to start event registration: Your new event

Now, let’s move on to creating an actual event. You can either click on the button My events and you will be taken to the Event Management chart or you can click on Create an Event button and this will take you to the core part of Oveit.

myevents

You’ll see that creating an event is extremely easy. You have 4 main steps and two other ones in case you want to use two additional functions: Registration forms and Badge design (these are more advanced topics on how to start event registration).

How to start event registration steps

The first step is entitled General Settings. Here you set up general details on your event, things such as the event’s name, start and end date and where it takes place. By the way – if you host a virtual event – just add “Virtual” or “Online” in the Location/address input.

There’s several other things you can fill in. An example would be “No seating”. This means you will not have a seating map. If you need a seating map just choose “With seating” and find out here how to set up a seating chart.

You will need to add a start and end date for your event. If you’re selling tickets for a venue, such as a theme park that sells tickets all year round, just tick “Perpetual”. This will allow visitors to buy tickets whenever they feel like visiting you.

There’s several other more advanced features, such as registration forms or badges. If you need these, be sure to book a guided tour of these features.

Adding tickets to my event registration

Next steps on how to start event registration guide: tickets.

You can split the types of event registrations you will accept with different types of tickets. Oveit allows all sorts of discounts and addons with your ticket but you only need to know one thing. At its basics you will just need to add one ticket, free or paid and click “Save”. This takes you to a list where you can add more tickets by clicking “New ticket category”

How to start event registration by setting up free events
How to start event registration – adding tickets

Sometimes you may need a more advanced ticketing setup when you start event registration. If so – check out our post on advanced ticket types or contact us for a guided tour or more advanced features and benefits.

How to start event registration: checkout settings

checkout-page
Checkout settings – default options are usually left unchanged

There’s a lot of options on this page. Please don’t get confused. We’ve set up the page in such a way that our default check marks do the work for you. You can contact us if you need a more in-depth explanation or more advanced configuration.

Usually, what you want to customise is the follow up email subject and content. Basically your message to your future visitors:

Confirmation email on event registration

This is where you customise what your visitors will receive in their email after they registered.

Above you can see a chart with variables and their description. The computer-code looking things are tags you can use to personalise the email content. For example: if you’re holding a virtual event you can add [tickets_codes] in the email body to display the registration code your guests will use to access your virtual event.

Finally, you have the order confirmation page. Here you can opt to send a Thank you message that will be displayed after the customer has purchased the ticket or you can send him to a custom created URL on your website. To do that, just add the link and all is done.

How to preview your event registration

The final event registration setup step is the Preview section below:

How to start event registration and customise layout

Step no. 4 allows you to preview your registration widget prior to publishing it. You can play around with colors and fonts and brand the event registration according to your wishes.

Hit publish when you are ready to start registration and you will be taken to…

Payment processor integration

If you haven’t done so already, this is where you connect your payment processor. This is usually PayPal or Stripe. This way we can help you receive payments instantly. It’s very, very simple:

  • If you use PayPal: press Activate PayPal integration: In the next step you will add your PayPal email address and name. This helps Oveit to know where to send funds paid by your customers.
  • If you use Stripe: press “Activate Stripe integration”. This takes you to your Stripe account where you can check whether you want to safely accept payments with Oveit.

All of our transactions are handled by our partners (e.g. PayPal and Stripe). Your money or your customers payment data is never stored with us.

If you haven’t done so already, you will need to fill in your billing information. As you sell directly to your visitors, they will need to know who they’re buying from. Oveit issues invoices for all purchases on your behalf. Here’s what you need to fill in, only once, as you start selling:

If this is a bit too complicated when you start your event, just reach out to us and let’s set up a call where we can guide you through the setup process, step by step. One of our customer success staff will help you get everything set up.

Final step: Copy, paste and embed your event in your website

The last step: start your event registration. All you have to do now is get the event on your website and make it available to customers or point them to your event registration on Oveit. To do that, click on ‘My events’ in the bar, right near the Oveit logo. You will see a list of your events. You can start your registration in two ways:

  1. Point visitors to your event registration page on Oveit. Click the “Preview” link and share the URL with your visitors on social media or your website.
  2. Embed the registration on your website: you will notice that every event has an “</> Embed” button below it. Click on that button and you’ll find two embed codes (one available for light theme and one for dark theme – the theme refers to your website visual theme). Just copy the code you need and paste it on your website. The embed is responsive and works with most website management software so you won’t have any problems putting it on your website in just a couple of seconds.
embed

And that’s it! You managed to start your event registration and start receiving event registrations. Now visitors can register, purchase tickets and attend your in-person or virtual event.

Everything you need to know about hosting a Virtual Wine Tasting

There is no doubt that we all miss our normal lives and activities. A year into the pandemic and most of us still live under imposed restrictions. Well, the good news is that part of our in-person activities which are put on pause as we speak can be replicated in a virtual environment, even when we talk about a virtual wine tasting.

In this post, we’re going to place the focus on virtual wine tastings. The end result replicates really well in-person wine tastings but setting up such an experience is slightly different. For those that would rather experience new wines from the comfort of their own homes, a virtual wine tasting can be a great alternative.

If you are thinking to host a virtual wine tasting, here are some tips that will help you create a memorable experience. 

What is a Virtual Wine Tasting?

Before diving into what it takes to host a virtual wine tasting, let’s begin by briefly describing this relatively new concept. Well, you can think of it as a regular wine tasting (in-person), where participants taste and learn about different wine selections from a winery. While the purpose of both in-person and virtual wine tastings is the same, the main difference lies in how this action is performed. Instead of visiting a winery, the winery comes to your door. In both cases, wineries take care of the whole experience. Their duty is to coordinate the wine shipment, making sure that it arrives at your location in time. Then, organizers will share further details on how to access the virtual wine tasting, including platform capabilities for a better experience. 

Date & Time for your Virtual Wine Tasting

Well, instead of deciding a date & time yourself, provide your audience with the option to do it themselves. To avoid the back and forth texting to find out when everyone’s free, consider using a tool such as Pick. This app integrates with Gmail and Office 365. It simply shows those times when everyone is available. Based on that, you can choose a date & time that hopefully works for everybody that’s interested to attend.

Provide clear tasting instructions ahead of time

To make sure that your wines are enjoyed properly by your audience, provide clear instructions on how the virtual tasting should be approached. When is the right time for your guests to open their wine bottles? Should they preserve the wines at a certain temperature? What about using a clean glass for each wine? Should they taste the wines in a specific order? 

This might seem like a basic piece of information, but communicating it ahead of time can only make you look more organized and professional. If you ship wine kits before the actual virtual wine tasting, it might be a good idea to include those instructions in there. 

Choose a tasting theme

It’s always recommended to decide upon a theme beforehand. In the case of virtual wine testings, a theme translates into deciding on particular wines to taste. These are some common themes when it comes to wine-tasting:

  • Regional

A regional wine tasting theme brings together wines from a particular region. For instance, no other wines are allowed besides those coming from the Veneto region of Italy or any other region.

  • Vertical

A vertical tasting requires a bit more effort since it includes the wine of a producer across a range of years. The key element for a proper vertical tasting is to assure that the wine bottles were stored properly. However, if you manage to put together this type of tasting, the outcome can be great, since your audience can learn about a winemaker’s style, getting familiar with the various vintage styles and how those changed during the years. 

  • Horizontal

This is a common theme for both virtual and in-person wine tastings. It involves wines that are produced in the same year, from different producers. It gives more flexibility since all new releases can be included. 

  • Blind Tasting

This one works best when comparing different types of grapes, like Pinot Grigio, Shiraz, Chardonnay, or Pinot Noir. It can be used as an ice breaker for virtual wine tastings with many participants. The wine labels are covered and participants need to guess the country, grape, and even the price range based on the taste of wine. 

Photo by David Bartus from Pexels

Think of your setting in advance

As the virtual wine tasting host, make sure to choose a setting without distractions. If you go live from your home, tidy up in advance. Run some tests in advance and check your internet connection, camera, and microphone. If you have the option to host the virtual wine tasting inside an actual winery, good for you. That will only make things more fun for your audience. You can surprise them with a virtual tour of the winery before the actual tasting begins, sharing with them your favorite parts of it. 

Custom shipments for your audience

Why not create special packages for your audience? An in-person wine tasting takes care of all the necessary supplies. To make it easier, enable your audience to order their wine supplies in advance. Inside each package, you can include different wines to be tested, food pairings, and maybe some wine glasses as well. 

To present the available packages more engaging instead of simply posting them on your website, why not create a live shopping session? For instance, with Streams.live, our live stream shopping and virtual event software, creating a live shopping session is as easy as possible. It allows your viewers to purchase different promoted packages, straight from the video. The tool comes with a chat & questions feature, creating engagement and allowing you as the presenter to answer incoming questions in real-time when it matters the most. 

Photo by Liza Summer from Pexels

Decide upon a platform

Well, you’ve taken care of all the small details. Now it’s time to choose your technology. This might be the most important step of the process when hosting a virtual wine tasting. In the end, this is where your audience will interact, exchange thoughts, and experience all the hard work that you’ve put in. 

A large number of virtual wine tastings take place on Zoom. It is indeed a reliable and user-friendly video conferencing tool. However, if you want to go that extra mile and create a more personalized experience, closer to your brand and believes, you might consider as well Oveit and Streams.live. Our solutions are interconnected. Oveit is our event registration software, that allows you to register attendees, customize confirmation emails, send out electronic tickets with unique access codes, collect valuable information through fully customizable registration forms and receive direct payments into your account once an order is placed. 

In summary

Who said that in-person wine tastings can’t be replicated in a virtual environment? Social distancing doesn’t exist in the online world and opportunities are limitless. As physical locations, including wineries, remain closed due to the pandemic, events such as virtual wine tastings are a great way to keep a business alive. It is a new way of interacting for all of us, so don’t be afraid to try it out. It won’t be perfect from your first try, which is absolutely normal. One last piece of advice is to always ask for feedback. Your audience is in the right position to provide you with constructive feedback after each virtual wine tasting. 

Stay safe. And cheers!

Technology changed the event management game

The world has changed.  Maybe Galadriel smells it in the air (and tastes it in the water...), but event professionals face the changes in their unceasing efforts to deliver the perfect experience. Day by day. And even though technology has a nasty habit of getting you distracted (you get like 12 emails, 8 phone calls and 37 FB/Twitter notifications per hour), it also offers a lot of help when organizing an event. So let’s see how technology changed the event management game:

audience-1677028_1920

Access to real-time data

“Un homme averti en vaut deux” (an informed man is worth two), claims a French saying. And maybe the math is not quite right but we all know the importance of information when planning an event. Luckily today’s apps let you know every minute how many tickets you’ve sold and to whom (through the right tools, such as Oveit’s event registration software ).

For example most of the seats are empty 10 minutes before the posted start time? Verify the app and see how many people checked in. If 80% of the ticket holders already checked in (maybe they are in the lobby)  you’ll only have to deal with a small delay, not a fiasco. Using an event management software keeps you well informed.

Yes, we mind waiting

Time is money (for everyone). Professor Richard Larson, from MIT, has estimated that Americans spend about 2 years of their lives waiting in lines. Even sadder is that often the psychology of queuing is more important than the statistics of the wait itself” and people tend to overestimate the waiting time by about 36%. Today you can use an event management app that allows you to use any smartphone for ticket scanning and registration, making the queues go a lot faster (you can extend the scanning points with as many as you want; all you need is a smartphone).

Social media helps you meet billions

There was a time when word of mouth was the only way to communicate your event. Today, 3 of the most important social media platforms gather more than 2 billion unique monthly visitors; modern technology gives you the opportunity to market the exact demographics that you want. Although this is not the answer to all of your prayers it clearly makes it a lot easier when you want to make yourself heard.

Keep everyone engaged

People spend around 2 hours a day touching their smartphone’s screen and  85% of that time is, in fact, spent using applications. So we can understand why more and more #eventprofs are using applications when it comes to engaging participants. See for example TONOMAT, an app that allows everyone to be the DJ at your party, helping even the shyest to make himself/herself heard (via his/her favorite band).

You should always follow up your leads

62% of the leads are not followed up after an event. I really hope this is not the case for you. You invest a lot of time and money in planning your event and you should interact with everyone who registered. If someone spent the time to register for your event it means that they are interested in what you have to offer (not to mention those that actually attend it). So keep in touch with them!

Modern-day apps let you know who arrived and who didn’t, so you can follow up by segmenting your audience with different messages. Here are some examples:

“Thank you for attending …”

“Sorry you didn’t made it, here is what…”

Let the world see you shine. Live

40% of world population has access to the internet. Maybe the venue has a capacity of only 500 people, but today you can sell an unlimited no. of tickets for an online experience (live streaming is way cheaper than it was a few years ago). So, just like a big football match, your event can also be watched by millions for a few bucks (ok, maybe not millions, but you get the picture). You can sell live online access for a small price and/or you can even ensure a VR experience for those who cannot attend in person. (this is not something new but today the technological leaps make it possible for anyone to broadcast an event)

Replace cash payments to grow the order value

Carrying a lot of cash is not really fun (especially in crowded places where they sell alcohol). Use NFC technology to replace cash payments and you will have:

    • No more pickpocketing
    • Less queueing
    • 0 cash loss
    • 30% increased order value
  • Happier attendees

Oh, and by the way…

It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” Charles Darwin

Further reading:

    • http://www.preoday.com/blog/the-changing-scene-of-consumer-experience-in-festivals/
    • http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/opinion/sunday/why-waiting-in-line-is-torture.html
    • http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-networking-websites
    • http://blog.mobilosoft.com/blog/e-tickets-vs-m-tickets-difference-and-benefits-for-consumers
  • http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/exhibitions-and-events/exhibiting/planning-your-follow-up-after-an-event

Hello, future marketing and customer engagement intern.

Hello, future marketing and customer engagement intern.

Do you think that real life experiences such as a concert, a movie, a play or having the time of your life at the next festival are worth building? Have you planned a party, a conference or a get together that helped people meet and experience something together? Oveit is a technology company that helps individuals and companies build experiences. Our mission is to build the best experience technology for those that bring humanity together.

Please apply by sending your resume at contact at oveit.com

Oveit has a fast paced growth rate and we seek talented new team members that can help us respond to this growth. We are seeking those with sharp focus, stamina and the belief that the world is indeed small. As a marketing and customer engagement intern you will be onboarding and helping customers from all over the world to use our technology.

The ideal candidate is fluent in at least one international language (preferably English, French or German). He or she is great with people. Not just face to face but also on the phone, via Skype or any other communication channel. Our future intern is great (or willing to become great) at tech marketing and customer support, thoughtful and creative and most important – self driven and a great team player.

What You Will Learn:

  • How to create digital marketing tactics and build on company strategy
  • How to build community relationships by maintaining Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media accounts.
  • How to track marketing performance using digital tools
  • How to create compelling content that will be shared by influencers.
  • How to engage new and exciting customers using our CRM tools
  • Many other things in related opportunities and projects.

What We Require:

  • Background in Marketing, Communication or other related discipline.
  • Strong communication skills.
  • Great foreign language and inter-cultural understanding.
  • Organized, with an ability to prioritize time-sensitive assignments.
  • Creative and Flexible.
  • Familiarity with social networking sites desired, but we will also train.
  • Familiarity with the world of technology (you will not be writing code but a general overview of how an app works would be great).
  • Willingness to evolve and innovate.

We value your commitment and we will help you start and/or upgrade your carrier. Among the things you will be learning is how to respond to customer requests, following up, create great marketing content and distribute this content across social media and more. You will be learning about how to engage and connect with customers from many cultures. We want you to become a building block of an upcoming globally recognized tech company.

Further reading about Oveit: