Spring 2017


13


THE EXPLOSION OF ON-SITE DATA COLLECTION TOOLS The past few years have seen a significant increase in on-site data collection tools, including the following.


MOBILE EVENT APPS: Mobile event apps have become the norm at many events and provide participants with rich details about the event as well as a range of networking tools. Since every touch in the app is trackable, a wealth of data about user interests, likes, dislikes, and interactions can be gleaned. Mobile-app providers are now refining data analytics within their products to provide improved marketing insight.


FIXED BEACONS: When paired with mobile event apps, Bluetooth low energy, or BLE, devices (known as “iBeacons” or “beacons”) can measure event interactions based on location, allowing event planners to track every movement at their event. BLE devices can provide the following:


• Heat Maps: Crowd flow can be measured through an exhibit hall to see which spots are hot and which are not.


• Dwell Times: Beacons can measure the time an attendee spends inside of a booth. Spending 15 minutes in front of a booth indicates greater product interest than just walking by. The ability to generate a list of engaged booth visitors would obviously be very valuable to the exhibitor, and to the marketing team.


• Session Attendance: Tracking registered attendees as they enter and exit session rooms or when stopping for in-show presentations given by exhibitors at their booth space provides valuable information about attendee interests and commitments.


WEARABLE BEACONS: Wearable beacons can do everything that fixed beacons can do and more. About the size of a quarter, they are inserted or attached to badges and can work independently from mobile apps. The attendee doesn’t need to download a specialized app and have their mobile device charged with Bluetooth on for the beacon to work. The result is often a much higher use–utilization rate, but at a slightly higher cost. The advantages of wearable beacons include data analytics technology that provides real-time data on everything from show-floor traffic patterns and attendee booth activity to attendance of education sessions (including what types of attendees are sitting in a specific session). Marketers and event planners can use this data in conjunction with their CRM, marketing automation platforms, and attendee profile data to develop highly personalized and targeted post-event communications based on the attendees event experiences and activities.


MOBILE POLLING, SURVEYING, AND SOCIAL Q & A APPLICATIONS: Mobile event apps and stand-alone apps have made surveys and audience polling easier for an event planner to manage, and at a fraction of the cost of renting polling keypads. The results can give immediate feedback to


planners and speakers about attendee thoughts and sentiment. Social Q & A tools, where attendees text and up-vote questions, facilitate group interaction and point to what matters to the audience.


SECOND SCREEN TECHNOLOGY: Second screen technologies, such as Educational Measures (educationalmeasures.com), allow attendees to interact with on-screen visuals on individual tablets and other mobile devices. This technology can provide precise engagement details and information on individual attendee interests and responses to built-in polling and survey data.


GAMIFICATION: Gamification tools, increasingly found as part of a mobile event app, create better and more meaningful experiences. These data points are also very useful for adding to attendee profiles.


NFC BADGES AND USB STICKS: Although NFC (near field communication) technology has been around for some time, the ability to quickly exchange contact and other data between attendees and exhibitors with a tap of a badge or stand-alone NFC device (e.g., poken.com) is extremely helpful as well as valuable from a marketing perspective.


Event analytics are moving to a central position in the marketing mix and can help planners using these tools take a seat at the C-level table.


An Explosion of On-Site Data Collection Tools


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