IoT for Event Management: What’s in for Event Planners

IoT is not the future of digital technology any longer. This is an integral part of our life that is present in almost all fields and markets already. Event planning and management are not an exception. Thanks to the evolving IoT technologies, you can take better control of the organization of any event and engage with your audience. 

Everything has changed with the emergence of IoT technologies, mobile apps, as well as virtual and augmented reality. The use of IoT technologies goes far beyond remote lighting in smart houses controlled via a mobile application. The event planning industry depends on smart data use more than any other industry. Here everything starting from scheduling events to selling tickets to attendees needs valid data. This is only possible to be made through the use of the Internet of Things. Up-to-date data lets event planners make informed decisions, keep guests stress-free, and sends automatic alerts to the audience. 

In what ways can the event industry benefit from using IoT? Let’s have a look.

Attendee Management

One of the major concerns faced by event organizers is to keep every attendee happy and make certain that the registration process runs smoothly. Thanks to the use of IoT technologies in such event management apps as Eventix, it’s getting easier to organize events, sell and scan tickets easily and quickly. The company uses Keepgo’s IoT solution for event ticket scanners. As the company CEO Joost Aanen once said, “The high reliability, combined with the extensive amount of features in the SIM management platform, was key in our decision to work with Keepgo.”

Yet another example of IoT-based event management apps is Eventdex. By means of a mobile app and IoT in place, they let attendees speed up the events check-ins, use instant badge printing, payment collection and session tracking.

Through IoT applications using beacon technology, push notifications can be sent directly to the users’ mobile devices prompting them to move on to badge collection counters. Whenever a company uses Radio Frequency Identification wristbands, tickets or badges, they can tap into every single attendee.

Access Information

An event can be successful only if attendees know about it. In order to drive engagement, companies can place Smartposters of products or services at every booth so that users can tap with their smartphones and get more information on a product through Near Field Communication technology (NFC). NFC-enabled smartphones can read NFC tags embedded on smartposters and access readable data. NFC devices let people access schedule seamlessly, check in to events, and offer precise mapping.   

Apps like NFC Smart Poster let NFC-enabled Android device to find Smart Posters on go and stores them into recently tapped items(history). All one needs to do is get a mobile close to an NFC smart poster chip to read the data and store. It also helps smart-poster makers to create SP(smart-poster) type NFC tags and lock them permanently, so that no one else could change the tag content.

Thanks to the use of Beacons, event staff can view data about attendees from their wearable devices - wristbands and smart lanyards. This lets them better collaborate with the audience and send pitches in a more personalized way. Based on their lanyards and data in their profiles, attendees can visit certain session and receive personalized pitches based on their interests. 

For example, QFlow event check-in app supports NFC and RFID technologies. It lets one scan wristbands, lanyards or any NFC media as an alternative to barcodes. You can look up a guest on the check-in app and register their details onto NFC ticket media such as Wristbands or NFC Cards. Once a barcode is scanned and a guest checked-in, you can choose to further manage the guests details. By means of a single app, you can check-in your guests, manage their tags & sessions and update their details from either the app or web control panel.

Automatic Registration

Modern-day smartphones feature NFC, GPS, WiFi, and BLE technologies, which help event managers to automate the registration process to their events. By means of BLE connectivity, users can use their smartphones to access onsite registration software and check in when they are near any specific event. 

For example, OnArrival by Cvent eliminates stress lets you check in attendees as quickly as possible. All data from our check-in app securely syncs automatically across the Cvent event management platform. This onsite registration software is best suited for event planners searching for a comprehensive solution that syncs with their event management platform for the maximum accuracy. Additionally, you can offer guests a self-service “kiosk mode,” on-demand badge printing, and even payment processing.

Heat Maps

By means of BLE chips added to the event badges or letting attendees to connect to WiFI, event managers can generate heat maps. This lets them track attendees’ location to find out what parts of the event engages them the most. How can such data be useful? The respective knowledge lets event staff better organize their venues. While analyzing the most popular area, event planners can improve their next venues and devise new strategies to market their event in a better way. 

This is what MOCA Automation does. The app uses beacon technology to identify customers based on their routes and places they frequently visit. This will also come in handy for retargeting those customers who have already visited certain geo-locations. The application provides real-time location report on the number of visitors and visits per point-of-interest defined as outdoor geofences (i.e. virtual boundaries designed to track users as they enter, leave or dwell your event venues).

Smart Parking

Discovering a free parking lot can be an issue at large event venues. By means of real-time IoT applications and smart parking solutions, attendees can detect available parking spaces using their smartphones. 

For example, easy parking solutions like PARX allow cities to improve parking services, optimize operations, cut costs, increase compliance by better parking enforcement, and at the same time provide a better service to the drivers and city's residents. This is a single web-based solution that includes a comprehensive set of tools to let drivers find free parking lots and pay parking fees using an application on their smartphones.

Conclusion

Thanks to the deployment of new IoT technologies in the event management, you can gather more useful data efficiently, provide your visitors with faster check-ins, and send out fully personalized tips to your audience to achieve better customer engagement.  

IoT is rapidly adopted by all fields of our life. From our cities to our homes, everything is adopting a smart approach of a connected world. The event management field simply cannot be left behind. With the use of smart sensors, NFC, FRID, WiFi, Bluetooth, and other technologies, event managers can achieve a wider public exposure for their venues and better organize navigation within events. 

Oh! Just before you leave do let us know which of such event management solutions would you like to use in your own event management process? Drop us a line in the comments section below.