Oveit receives Innovation Prize at Forbes Green Awards

forbes-green-awards

Oveit received the innovation prize for its green ticketing and registration technology at the Forbes Green Awards.

We are very happy to be a part of a global movement for green technology and will continue our efforts towards a better, more eco-friendly future.

Our technology enables event planners to handle registration, ticketing and access to events in an eco-conscious manner. Our zero-paper approach to ticketing can decrease the indirect impact events have on deforestation, thus improving the overall carbon footprint.

All tickets are sent and can be stored digitally, without the need for physical printing or transport. Scanning is done without the need for additional specific devices, even for large events. We use one of the most ubiquotus technologies available: smartphones and tablets.

With our reusable NFC digital wallets, event planners can pack multiple access perks (entrance, beverages, specific access options and more), across different events. This way we add another eco-friendly option for events attendees and planners.

We believe that wonderful experiences can and should be created, managed and enjoyed in an eco-friendly manner.

November 22, 2016 Event management, Event professionals, Events No comments yet

Top five theater festivals in the World

If you are already planning your 2017 vacation, you should take into consideration a city that has multiple opportunities: sightseeing, beautiful sceneries, great food and lots of entertainment options. If you enjoy theater plays, you can book your holiday so you can attend a festival – it will be both fun and educational. Here are five of the most interesting theater festivals around the world, from Russia to India to Ireland!

Chekhov International Theater Festival, May – July, Moscow, Russia

The Chekhov International Theater Festival was established in 1992, and in the 25 years of its history, the festival became a joyful and longed for event for all those who love theater. Their main goal is to widen the audience, making theater be longed for by the people of different backgrounds. You can already buy online tickets for some plays of the 2017 festival, including “The Twelfth Night” and “The Tempest”, by W. Shakespeare. The performances are held by professionals from all over the world, and take place at all of the Moscow theaters.

More info at: http://www.chekhovfest.ru/en

Edinburgh Festival Fringe, August, Edinburgh, Scotland

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the largest arts festival in the world and takes place every August for three weeks in Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital city. From big names in the world of entertainment to unknown artists looking to build their careers, the festival caters for everyone and includes theater, comedy, dance, physical theater, circus, cabaret, children’s shows, musicals, opera, music, spoken word, exhibitions and events. In 2016, there were 50,266 performances of 3,269 shows in 294 venues, making it the largest ever arts festival in the world.

More info at: www.edfringe.com

Bharat Rang Mahotsav, January, New Delhi, India

Bharat Rang Mahotsav was established a decade ago by the National School of Drama to stimulate the growth and development of theater across the country. Originally a national festival showcasing the work of the most creative theater workers in India, it has evolved to international scope, hosting theater companies from around the world, and is now the largest theater festival of Asia.

More info at: http://theatrefest.nsd.gov.in/

Dublin Theater Festival, September – October, Dublin, Ireland

Dublin Theater Festival is an annual event that brings together artists, theater-makers and audiences from Ireland and around the world. At the heart of the festival is the city of Dublin and a commitment to contributing to the vibrant social and cultural life of Ireland’s capital. In 2017, the festival will feature 18 days of world-class theater and entertainment from Ireland and abroad, from 27 September to 14 October.

More info at: www.dublintheatrefestival.com

United Solo Theater Festival, September – November, New York, USA

United Solo is the world’s largest solo theater festival, currently at its 7th season. Through a variety of one-person shows, the Festival explores and celebrates the uniqueness of the individual. The audiences can experience one-person performances from all over the world and better understand foreign cultures and traditions, see the perspective of people in various walks of life, coming from different backgrounds, speaking different languages.

More info at: http://unitedsolo.org/us/ufest/

November 4, 2016 Events, Festivals, Theater No comments yet

Top 7 ways to increase event registrations to your conference

Everything is planned for your event – speakers, schedule, catering, and location. All you have left to do is start registering attendees to your event and this is not an easy task. You have to make your event stand out in the crowd and convince people to spend money on registrations. Therefore, here are some proven tactics to increase your sales, especially when you’re using the right event registration software.

1. Set up your pricing strategy

Before setting a price for your event registration, take time to research what other prices are on the market. Don’t go way over the average price, even if you’re planning for an wonderful event and you have great speakers and a diverse schedule. Also, don’t go too low, because that will position your event as a low quality one. A good idea is to have a high, but affordable price, and offer some discounts, every now and then.

2. Early bird or last minute event registrations

Set a date until attendees can register at a lower cost. This way, you encourage potential attendees to register to your events sooner, so they can receive a better pricing. One other tip is selling last minute registration, at a great cost, but make sure you do this very close to the event. Don’t start the last minute campaign too early, because you will discourage people registering in advance, in the future. A good idea is to sell last minute registrations two or maximum three days prior to your event.

3. Reach out to former attendees

If your event is recurrent a good way to build a strong attendee base is to announce the event to your former attendees. If they attended once in the past and they’ve enjoyed the experience, they are more likely to register again. To increase your chances, you can offer them a discount or a special gift – for example, you can give them free access to a special conference during your event or maybe access to a welcome-drink with the speakers. It’s up to you how you choose to reward them for their loyalty.

4. Ask for help from partners

Ask your partners to promote your event. They don’t have to do anything complicated: Facebook posts are a great way to engage their audience. Imagine that: if you have 10 partners for your events and they all share it on social media, 10 different communities will find out about your event, so your chances of people buying tickets increase greatly.

5. Fuel sales with employee contests

So you plan an event and have a team of, let’s say, 15 people working on this project. Challenge them. You can make a fun contest for the team: each of them can become an event ambassador and help with sales and registrations. The one with the most registrants brought on board will win a prize of your choice: a gym membership, a day at the spa or anything that you know your employees may want – of course, at a reasonable price. Or you can even hand out prizes with low costs: a free day or an work-at-home day, a better desk for the winner, a new chair or a new set of headphones. The point is to make it fun for the team and build up event awareness with the help of the people closest to the planning.

6. Go full digital with the perfect online tool

A good idea for handling registrations is going full digital. Use an online event registration software, such as Oveit. Oveit is a cloud tool that allows event organizers to manage events, registration data, customer relationship and cash flow. Oveit runs embedded on your website and implementation is as easy as copy and paste! You get multiple marketing options and an easy way of handling sales, managing your team and finances.

7. Distribute your message on Social Media

Your social media pages need to be constantly updated. You can post news about your event, live videos showing the preparations and short interviews with the speakers. You can also offer  some small (or larger) contests, where you an offer discount for the registrations, or advertise on social media, a good way to target your potential attendees.

November 4, 2016 Business events, Event management, Event professionals, Events No comments yet

Tips for planning the perfect press conference

Source: Share Press

Source: Share Press

If you have an important message to send to your target audience and the market, a press conference is a good idea, since it can be organized on an accessible budget and the results can be pretty amazing, if you follow some easy rules that you can find below.

Choose the right topic

Plan press conferences for important subjects. A successful brain surgery is something worth announcing, while a weekly concert happening in bar is not. Good press conference topics include new product launches, store grand openings, significant achievements or note worthy events in any area. Don’t waste your guests’ time or your own by planning an event with a poor topic: not only will your reputation have to suffer, but you may get a low media coverage, since journalists that might show up won’t find a noteworthy subject.

Choose the right people to invite

Some event planners’ aim is getting lots of journalists at the press conference, but this is not necessarily the best idea. Instead, try to invite relevant journalists and bloggers to your conference. For example, if you plan a press conference about a famous band releasing a new album, don’t invite journalists that are focused on politics. It’s just not their focus. Therefore – plan your invitations taking into account the journalist’s topics of interest.

Food and drinks

If the conference takes longer than 3 hours, cater to your guests needs with snacks and drinks. Try sandwiches, finger food and other options that are not too messy and that can be eaten standing or even writing, during the conference. Try avoiding potato chips, apples or other treats that might be overheard. On the other hand, if the conference takes less than 3 hours, plan for light catering: water, coffee or tea and some biscuits and cakes selection.

Find the right venue

Besides the fact that the venue has to match the event (no fancy hall for a rather usual event), you have to make sure that the place you choose is easy to find and get to. Imagine that, on the day of your event, it rains or snows really bad. No one will want to wander on the streets, all wet and freezing, looking for the location of your conference. Try venues that are close to metro or public transportation stations and that also have enough parking options, for those who come by car.

Plan to start on time

This tip is actually very important. Journalists have very tight schedules. Make sure you stick to the planning. Start at the announced time. Failing to do that looks rather unprofessional. Maybe it won’t be a huge hit to your credibility but you may lose media coverage, since your guests might actually leave if you are way behind the schedule.

Plan to be ready before the start

Before you set the date to your event, make sure that it does not conflict with other significant or newsworthy events that might draw attention away from your press conference. On the day of the event, make sure you have everything ready at least an hour before anyone is expected to arrive. This way, you will stay in control and not forget essential details. Take your time to check everything – schedule, catering, merchandise or other promotion materials, guests’ order – in order to have a great event.

Free take-aways that carry your message

Everybody loves a fun take away bag and it’s a good idea to use them at your event. But remember, you try to send a message to your target audience, so just make sure the gifts are useful and related to the subject of the conference. You should include a copy of the press release – better an electronic copy, but the hard copy works as well, some extra information – a book, a yearly report, some statistics – and personalized gifts. For example, if your topic is the collection launch of a famous designer, you can include a sample from that collection.

Thank your guests

After the event, send some personal thank you notes to thank the journalists covering your conference. This will strengthen your media relations and it is also a way to make sure they have all the information they need in order to write a comprehensive coverage of your event. To have all the relevant information in one place, consider using an event registration software to deliver a professional conference.

November 4, 2016 Business events, Event professionals, Events No comments yet

Best board games events and conventions in the world

If you love playing board games, you have to know that there are some special gaming events in the world, where you can try new games, meet people that have the same hobby as you and buy the newest items on the market. Here are some events that take place in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America, that you might find interesting. All you have to do is pack your bags, buy your ticket and … roll the dice! 

Taipei Game Show – January, Taipei, Taiwan

taipei-game-show

Taipei Game Show is not only an international exhibit for gamers to experience innovative products, but also a great platform for business, networking and exchanging experiences in the game industry. Since the announcement for registration in late July, more than 130 companies and indie game developers from France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Russia, Singapore, the United States and more have registered for the B2B zone at Taipei Game Show 2016. Taipei Game Show 2017 is expected to reach more than 500,000 public visits and 3,000 trade visitors.

More info at: http://taipeigameshow.biz/

MeepleCon – March, Melbourne, Australia

Source - Meeplecon 2014

Source – Meeplecon 2014

MeepleCon is an annual board gaming event held in Melbourne, on the first weekend of December. It features new releases from the International Spieletage (held in Essen, Germany) as well as older games including those from Melbourne Meeples library.

MeepleCon is primarily an open library event where you can grab a game from the library, put it on the table and play. It also includes scheduled tournaments and special events.

More info at: http://con.meeples.org.au/

SaltCon – March, Utah, USA

Image source: SaltCON

Image source: SaltCON

The mission of SaltCON is “to bring people together with games.” The convention brings together exhibitors, prizes, game teachers, tournaments and a huge game library to try new games. At SaltCON, you can try board games, card games, party games, role playing games, dexterity games, miniatures games and more.

A Full Convention Adult Ticket is 50 US dollars and a 1 Day Adult Ticket costs 30 US dollars.

More info at: http://saltcon.com/

Fastaval – April, Hobro, Denmark

Fastaval is an annual gaming convention in Hobro, Denmark, with focus on role-playing games, live action role-playing games, board games, miniature war gaming and collectible card games. The first many years was held in or around Aarhus but the 2011 Fastaval was held in Silkeborg, while the conventions from 2012 to 2016 were held at Mariagerfjord Gymnasiet in Hobro.

The convention has been held on the long weekend of Easter since 1986, with the exception of 1988.

More info at: http://www.fastaval.dk/

Board games decathlon – October, Bucharest, Romania

This October, gamers in Bucharest can participate at a decathlon of board games that will last 10 hours! Participants will play ten of the most popular board games, such as Catan, Dixit, Activity, Saboteur, Jenga or Game of Thrones – Card Game.

All the funds raised will be used to develop the HOSPICE socio-medical center from Adunatii Copaceni, where children suffering from diseases with limited life prognosis are taken care of. The event addresses both board games enthusiasts, who can participate in the Decathlon competition for the grand prize trophy, as well as beginners, who have never tried board games.

Tickets can be purchased online on www.ove.ro, at the price of 9 euros for the official competition and 6 euros for the casual gaming area.

More info at: http://www.haveacigar.pub/decatlon/

Internationale Spieltage – October, Essen, Germany

Spieltage is the largest annual board game exhibit in the world. This year, the event will host more than 1,000 exhibitors from 50 nations.

The cool thing about this gaming convention is that they offer a shipping and packaging service. This means that if you attend the event and like 5 or 6 games, you don’t have to take them back home with you via plane and pay a lot of money for extra luggage. You have the option to ship your purchased games directly from the fairground to their homes.

A One-Day Ticket costs 13 euros and a Four-Day Ticket is 31 euros.

More info at: www.merz-verlag-en.com/

Lucca Comics and Games – October – November, Lucca, Italy

Lucca Comics & Games is the leading European festival dedicated to comics, games, movies and video games. With nearly 500,000 visitors in total, more than 40,000 square meters of exhibition space, 20 exhibitions, more than 500 events including meetings with authors and publishers, shows and concerts, the event is a must for gaming fans all over the world.

Lucca Comics & Games is held in the historic center of the ancient city of Lucca, a charming city rich in art and history in the heart of Tuscany. It takes place every year, at the end of October.

More info at: www.luccacomicsandgames.com/it/lcg/home/

Spielwies’n – November, Munich, Germany

Spielwies’n is a large board games fair and a showcase for new games and toys. Most of the producing companies have stands at the location, where you can get tutorials on how to play the new items and try playing it. At the end, you can buy the game, if you liked it.

Moreover, you can also take part in competitions. Don’t worry if you go alone – you will definitely find a game partner – thousands of fans from Germany and around the world attend this event.

The ticket is 27 euros for a three-day full access and there are also daily or family packages available.

More info at: www.freizeitspass-muenchen.de/messen/spielwiesn

October 12, 2016 Event management, Events, Festivals No comments yet