Including the local community into your event economy

Summer is around the corner and all the festival heads are getting excited for the amazing line-up which is coming up. You, as an event organizer are caught up with planning and making sure that your event will leave a great impression for those attending. It is an ongoing process that can be exhausting at times, but the final reward is something that makes it truly worthy. Finding the right sponsors, booking your line-up, promoting the event, taking care of logistics and the location itself are just a few examples of what festival and event organizers need to take care of. Besides that, contributing to the local community and being supported by the local community is very important to deliver a successful event.

Behavior at events located in cities

Popular events attract many participants from all over the world. During the course of an event, local vendors, artisans, craftspeople, hoteliers and other similar businesses make a large proportion of their annual income. As an event organizer, it is important to keep that in mind and contribute to their success.

Festival fans get extremely excited and impatient when the long-awaited moment of attending a music festival finally comes. Some of them will live the full experience and decide to camp within the event’s premises rather than booking a room in the city. However, those that were late in booking their camp spot or simply preferred to be accommodated somewhere else will have a slightly different experience.

This difference mainly lies in the actual experience with the local community and environment. Those camping are less likely to leave the festival surroundings, while those accommodated in the city might choose to experience the local culture and traditions besides attending the festival.

Impact on the local community

Expanding the event economy into the local community results in a mutual benefit for both parties. Therefore, attendees can purchase goods and services from local vendors with the events NFC wristband.

  • Benefits for the event organizer

You can see this as an opportunity and as an additional source of revenue. Enabling local vendors to use your event economy increases their sales and exposure. Therefore, you can agree with local vendors to receive a percentage coming from their sales. In exchange, you are promoting their business and bringing in new clientele.

At the end of a festival, participants will have unspent credit on their virtual accounts (NFC wristbands). They decide not to withdraw that credit for various reasons. However, allowing them to spend that remaining credit outside your festival will have a positive impact on their overall experience.

  • Benefits for the local vendors

For a local vendor, this can be a great opportunity. First, you can agree with the organizer to get your business exposed on the event App, if there is one, or on any promotional materials. This way, attendees become aware that your business accepts the event’s NFC wristband as a payment alternative, increasing your sales and exposure with minimal effort.

On top of that, you will gain access to sales reports following transactions. It enables you to market your product based on demographics and it also gives insights related to purchasing behavior. In other words, you will know exactly how to stock up for the next event.

Impact on smaller businesses

For a smaller shop that deals with handcrafted souvenirs, this solution can be ideal. During a large event, foreigners will certainly want to buy souvenirs for their beloved ones. What if cash is the only payment method accepted by that small shop? Integrating the event economy and allowing these shops to use it solves the problem. In addition, you can support these type of businesses without asking for a percentage in return. It will surely count towards a good reputation.

Enabling your attendees to buy goods and services using the event economy can bring many benefits. Therefore, event organizers and local vendors can add an additional source of revenue and contribute to a safe and fun payment alternative.

To expand your event economy with Oveit is straight-forward. There is no need for sophisticated and expensive hardware. A simple Android device with NFC capabilities integrated does the job. From your account, you can simply create multiple sub-economies with predefined credentials and allow local vendors to sell products in a matter of seconds.

February 13, 2020 Event management, Event professionals, Event tech, Oveit Features No comments yet

How much do you value the Attendee Experience?

We’ve all heard of User Experience and Customer Experience, two terms that helped industries focus on what really counts. Today I want to talk about Attendee Experience, the term that shares a truth we can not ignore: all efforts of the event industry professionals should be focused on the attendees’ experience.

There are multiple interpretations of the “Attendee Experience” term, all equally important and explanatory. But to better understand it I would like for you to see it as the overall experience attendees walk out with. And this overall experience is influenced by every interaction they have. With organizers, sponsors, exhibitors, and other attendees. It’s also the sum of interactions they have with your event “as a thing”. The way you communicate, the apps that you use the venue your event takes place at, the chair they sit in, the food they taste.

In other words, it’s what they feel when they think of your event.

If we agree that Attendee Experience represents the sum of the interactions attendees have with your event (direct or indirect), then we can also agree that the experience starts before the event takes place. And it doesn’t end once your event is over. In order to make it easier for us to follow attendees through their whole journey, I will divide AX into two categories:

on-site: it refers strictly to the on-site experience and how you can improve the experience during your event 

off-site: the way you influence the attendee experience before and after your event takes place

As you will see, these two categories are well related.

Off-site attendee experience. Before and after the event 

before

The first interaction takes place the first time your future attendees hear about your event. It’s late 2019, so no matter how they hear about your event they will definitely search online for more information. This is why it is important that your website makes a good first impression. Otherwise, we may talk about the last impression. 

Registration is a crucial step. This should be a flawless process that encourages attendees to register, so use a smart tool that allows you to sell tickets directly on your website. Collect attendee data, but let them know why and how you are planning to use that information. And I would strongly recommend you to use this information in order to create a better experience. 

Don’t spam your future guest (even if they allow you to), but keep them informed. Notify them as soon as possible over any changes that may occur. Event apps are a great way to keep your attendees engaged. Integrate it with the registration software in order to make it easier for them to access the app and gain access to your pre-event content. 

after

Your relation with your visitors should not end once they walk out of the door. After all, your event should be just one piece of the bigger puzzle. “What puzzle” do you ask? Maybe you’re not but hey… I’m writing this. You know: multiple events, event community, happy people that change the world we live in, the things that made you become an event professional.

Post-event communication is a crucial key when building a community around your work. Personalized follow-up emails(and by this I don’t mean the classical “Hello, name of attendee” newsletter), access to registered sessions from the event, top of the notch recommendations for other study materials, things that will make people feel your interest towards them. Those are the fine touches that will boost the overall experience.

During the event

Why a job in the event management industry makes you feel like you ride a roller coaster on a daily basis? It’s because time has a different value in this line of business and thousands of hours of hard word resume to just a few days of implementation. The show must go on should be the motto, during the event you need to be able to fix things on the go. Fix them first, you will have time to check why you needed to fix them afterward.

What makes an event memorable? If it would be to choose just one thing I would definitely choose “Content” as my answer.

I was part of a few events during the last 2 or 3 years* and had the chance to see things for myself; good content is crucial, there’s no doubt here, so regardless of your event’s theme you will need to find someone that can curate it. But guess what: good content is nothing without a good presentation (packaging matters!) and you don’t need to take my word for it.

* I wasn’t kidding, last few years gave me the chance to attend quite a few events and better understand what AX is all about

But let’s focus on things that are 100 % up to you and your team. And on how Oveit can help you, of course. I won’t talk about all of our features, you can read more about them in some of our previous articles. The one feature that will totally change the attendee experience is the one that will allow attendees to stay focused on what really matters to them. Networking, useful content, discovering interesting exhibitors. That’s why we keep on talking about our NFC feature. It allows us to pair the ticket to an NFC wristband and attendees can use it for access, payment, engagement, gamification, and more.

It works like this:

Our e-tickets are more than just tickets, they are as powerful as digital accounts. They store all the access credentials. And one ticket can store an unlimited number of different access credentials. The extra benefits you want to include. They work as digital wallets if you choose to use a cashless payment solution. And also allow attendees to share their information if they choose to interact with exhibitors or to participate in treasure hunts or other forms of gamification.

When attendees first arrive the e-ticket is paired with an NFC wristband and all their interactions become simple taps. Tap and pay, tap and play, tap for access, tap and interact. No need to store tokens, multiple QR codes, no need for them to manually input their information in order to be contacted by exhibitors or sponsors. Just pair the ticket with our smart wristband and let technology do it’s magic! Won’t go into the tech details, but let us know if you want to know more about it.

foto presenting an NFC chip wristband branded with Oveit

Engage the Five Senses

Content is the King, technology is the Queen, but don’t forget that our 5 basic senses help us better understand our surroundings. They also play a key role in setting up our mood. Here is what you should remember:

Sight – we are attracted by the beauty, so an outstanding venue will set a good start for the day

Touch – texture, and temperature. Maybe there is nothing you could to do regarding the texture, although you could consider this when choosing the badges or the wristbands. But for an indoor event, you could make sure that the temperature is just perfect.

Smell – there is a reason why when a real estate agent shows you a new house it somehow smells like freshly baked cookies and roasted coffee. You could use the same technique to make guests feel comfortable.

Taste – food and beverages; should offer various choices and consider that some of your guests have dietary restrictions. Registration forms are a good way to collect this information.

Sound – the sound needs to be perfect during the presentations. Not to mention if you are organizing a concert. But you can also use sound to energize attendees and give them the vibe that you want.

There are many ingredients for creating a better attendee experience and although things will never be perfect we can genuinely do our best in order to create an unforgettable event. And any small thing that can be done better will assist us in reaching our ultimate goal: the sparkle in people’s eyes when they come and congratulate us for our outstanding work.

December 3, 2019 Event management, Event professionals No comments yet

Making ticketing and registration better with our new features

In 2019 we’ve worked hard to bring you the best of what we think event management can be. It’s more than ticketing and registration – we thought of new concepts to make your event and venue really stand out.

We focused on three specific areas:

  1. cashless payments for events and venues
  2. prepacked perks and benefits
  3. making ticketing, registration and access control more accessible

I’ll start with number three and in the following days continue with prepacked perks and benefits and ending with cashless payments for events and venues.

Making ticketing and registration accessible to anyone

We noticed that a lot of what we offer is great for mid-sized to large events but to smaller ones it might be a bit too expensive, especially if they’re designing boutique, designer events. In these cases our current business model, where we charge a certain percentage of ticket sales is not really working, as that percentage, however small, might be to much.

At Oveit, we’re working towards a more open model where anyone can set up their own event economy. To make this possible we need to get you started, even when you can’t pay our ticketing software fees. So we made it free for small(er) events.

Small is beautiful: the free software plan for small events

After careful consideration we decided that we could offer our basic plan (ticketing and registration) for events under 300 visitors, for free. Yes, you can now get free event software for all your events under 300 attendees. This includes both paid and free events. This is our way of supporting you and our passionate community of event planners for their startup events. Just like you, we’re builders and entrepreneurs and we’re here to help you.

So what do you get with the free plan for event management?

Let’s have a look at the main features you’re getting with the free plan:

  • ticketing and registration: create multiple types of tickets, set different pricing points and start selling them instantly;
  • direct payments in your account: connect your PayPal or Stripe account and get payments directly into your account, no waiting time required;
  • registration forms: create registration forms for your attendees and buyers, extending the data you collect from your visitors;
  • seated / non-seated: easily create seating maps or just allow for general access for your events
  • customize follow up messages: add a personal touch to the follow up emails, after your visitors buy the tickets;
  • discount vouchers: an easy way to create special promotions for your visitors;
  • embed registration on your website: we think your registration, for your event, should be happening on your website, without competing events distracting your customers. It’s really easy to set up too: just copy and paste a short embed code;
  • get your team on board: easily create sub-accounts for your colleagues, whether they are checkin staff, event marketers or any other type of staff;
  • scanning apps for Android and iOS: the tickets are sent to your visitors by email and they can bring them with them either in printed form or digitally. Use our free apps to scan your visitors in fast and securely.

If this sounds interesting to you – check out an extended list of features for the free event app and signup now. If you registered sometimes in the past and your plan is not yet free – login to your account and go to the Pricing plan section. There you can choose the Starter account, free for up to 300 visitors.

Now I have to be open: there’s some great features that are not included in the free plan, like cashless payments or prepacked perks. Larger events (those with more than 300 visitors) also start paying after they’ve crossed the threshold. But we think this is a great start in helping you get your event off the ground.

Invite only tickets

We noticed there is a need for invite-only tickets, for all sorts of events, ranging from corporate, to conferences, to festivals.

The invitation only ticket can be easily set up in the ticket categories section by choosing “Private invitation” and entering an invite code:

Choose private invitation, enter the invite code and publish.

When your visitors will see the embedded registration widget, they can enter the invitation code in the checkout process, as seen below:

Invite only tickets claiming

Timezone settings

As Oveit has grown to be a tool used by event planners all over the world we felt the need to make it a bit more local.

At first we’ve integrated several languages (we started with English and added German, French, Spanish, Nederlands ).

But that didn’t seem to be enough. One thing that was really necessary was a time zone setting. By default, when you register now your timezone is set automatically, together with date/time display settings. You can change them in your account settings later on.

However, we know you might organize events all over the world and now there is a setting for each event to have its own date-time option, according to where it’s happening.

One more thing – what happens when you need to register visitors at the entrance?

Box office ticket sales and registration

We have been receiving requests from our users about how they could reliably register visitors at the entrance. For a long time this feature posed challenges on how can it be used reliably.

Good news – we think we cracked it. You can now use Oveit for registrations at the entrance or issuing tickets on the fly in in the box office.

We are still testing it with some of our most loyal customers so if you don’t have it – shoot us a message or contact us via live chat and we’ll make sure you can use it too.

So here’s how you start selling tickets at the entrance:

  • Press the + button right next to the ticket counter
  • Choose the type of ticket you want to generate
  • [ Optional ] enter the visitor details
  • [ Optional ] enter registration form details, if any
  • Generate & print ticket

That’s pretty much it in terms of ticketing and registration. We hope it makes your life easier and your events better. We’ll soon show you more details on the features we’ve been working on, especially in the prepacked perks and benefits area, as well as cashless payments.

November 27, 2019 Business events, Event management, Event tech 1 comment

IBTM 2019: What did we showcase in Barcelona ?

Last week Oveit attended IBTM 2019 in Barcelona as one of the leading Tech Watch Award shortlisted startups. IBTM is the largest business and travel meetings event in the world, where professionals meet to discuss the future trends of the event industry.

We’ve had a blast. It was an overwhelming event and the good people at Reed Exhibitions do a great job at running it and making it the global center of business and travel meetings.

Cashless payments for event professionals and the travel industry at IBTM 2019

In the past two years Oveit has been steadily evolving from events registration and access control to cashless payments, audience engagement and prepacked benefits. We’ve basically moved from an event registration tool to one which event planners can use to create an event economy. This is what we presented at IBTM 2019.

Cashless payments on mobile - Oveit

What we noticed was that a lot of the revenue and the experience around an event is outside of the planers’ traditionally accessible channels. For festivals, as an example, most of the revenue is generated not in ticket sales but in the economy developed around the festivals. Local vendors, bars, merchandising and more.

Our technology relies at heart on NFC contactless payment tokens (such as wristbands or cards) which visitors can top up and use to pay within the event venue. In the background, the event organizer manages the cashflow and distributes funds to vendors, usually retaining a certain management fee.

A new way to see the business of events and venues

With what is usually called “closed loop payments“, events and venues generate an extra stream of revenue but most important – they get access to relevant data.

With our technology event planners are able to plan their future events based on actual behavior data. They get an insight on what is popular and what is not, what is a key consumer driver and what are the most loyal visitors for their experiences.

This creates a virtuous cycle of better experiences, which generate more revenue and data and better options for the planner to improve on previous experiences.

Prepacked perks and benefits launched at IBTM 2019

At one point we’ve asked ourselves – what makes a ticket valuable? What do people care about when they’re buying a ticket. We asked the event visitors and the event planners. The answer is a bit of common sense: they are actually buying the experience that ticket entitles them to.

Cashless payments end user apps on mobile - Oveit

With this in mind we went on and developed our prepacked perks technology where one ticket can hold more than just the access to an event. It can hold access to specific sub-events, goods such as a t-shirt or a hamburger, services such as a cruise line or accommodations to the hotel.

With the prepacked perks, which can be stored on mobile devices, on RFID wristbands or even on biometric signatures, the experience can be vastly extended. Perks make the conventional limitations fade away for event planners and venues.

Facial biometrics access and payments

We’ve worked with some of the best experts in machine learning in computer vision to provide event planners a way to use biometrics in their event.

Facial biometrics for events and venues - Oveit
FacePay can hold digital balances and prepacked perks

By pairing facial features with access control rights, visitors can just
walk in, without a need to take out their ticket or unlock their smartphone. The scanning apps are loaded on smartphones, without a need to buy or rent hard to install equipment such as HD cameras or powerful computers.

At the same time they can use their face to pay for goods within the venue, just as they would when buying with a contactless card.

Edge Payments

Probably the most interesting technology we have presented at IBTM 2019 in Barcelona was edge payments .

Edge payments equipment. Edge computing for large events and venues.
Oveit’s Edge Payments box and interfaces.

So what are edge payments? For one – they are a hybrid between closed and open loop payments. A way for visitors to top up a digital balance in a closed loop economy and use it to pay for goods.

The second attribute and the most important one is that this technology allows operating payments even when the internet is down. This is usually due to massive numbers of visitors in one place, overloading the network or just plain old technology crashes. It’s great for large venues or conferences and especially festivals.

Oveit’s tech operates at the edge of the cloud, making sure that everything is operational even when all other systems have fallen.

It was a pleasure meeting all the people that stopped by our booth and the ones we visited at theirs, especially in the hospitality industry, where we see great opportunities for our technology to improve experiences.

Barcelona is an amazing city and IBTM fits right in, especially for event and
hospitality professionals. See y’all soon!


November 25, 2019 Event management, Event professionals, Event tech, Future No comments yet

Cashless payments and loyalty programs in hospitality & tourism

In today’s world, cash is not a preferred method of paying for goods and services. More and more businesses around the world have decided to eliminate the need of dealing with cash. There are other innovative payment alternatives, replacing the old-fashioned way of paying with cash. The hospitality and tourism industry is no different from the vast majority of businesses that adopt cashless payment alternatives. Travelers don’t feel comfortable when carrying cash during their holidays. Businesses that are part of this industry and not only, will transform usual customers into loyal ones, will increase sales, and improve the overall user experience considerably, if they switch to a cashless payment alternative.

Cashless payments and loyalty programs in resorts and hotels

Businesses that are part of the hospitality and tourism environment need to differentiate themselves from their competitors. It is an extremely competitive market, where customers have a variety of options to choose from. For a hotel, it is not enough to only provide bed & breakfast. Guests expect tailored and unique experiences. What if I told you that a simple key card can take on many roles, transforming your regular guests into loyal ones? Let’s take the example of a hotel chain, with several locations around the world. The majority of hotels and resorts, provide their guests with key cards for room access only. However, those cards can be used as: payment, entrance to specific areas, bonus, and loyalty cards in any participating location, therefore creating an ecosystem. Besides these great features, you will have access to qualified data that can be used strategically.

Among companies using incentives, 79% of them report a success rate and achieve the established goals . In the case of hotels and resorts, rewarding guests accordingly is very important. The reward is based on different aspects, such as number of bookings, amount spent within the hotel, referrals and not only. An easy way to make all this information available is by creating an ecosystem, therefore enabling to differentiate between gold and silver members for example. 

Supporting local businesses by partnering up with hotels and resorts

Hotels and resorts might choose to partner up with different businesses and contribute to the local economy. Depending on the purpose of your trip, the likelihood of willing to explore the surroundings are very high. For this reason, partnerships with local restaurants, cafes, shops, museums have a positive impact on the customer purchase experience. One creative way to achieve this, is to integrate the internal payment system of a hotel or resort with its partners. Guests will have the option to pay with their key card at partner locations, therefore expanding the ecosystem. Since all transactions are recorded, external vendors have access to relevant reports. They will be able to reward their loyal customers on their behalf.

The cashless payments solution that Oveit has put into place can easily achieve the above mentioned for any hospitality and tourism business. There might be times when internet is not available in every location that uses our system. We thought about this scenario and came up with a solution for it. Our technology has the capacity of working both online and offline, meaning that whenever internet goes down, the customer experience and the recorded data won’t be affected at all. We bet that you are asking yourself how we achieved that, but we invite you to find out for yourself!

October 8, 2019 Access management, Bussiness, Oveit Features No comments yet