WHY and HOW the events industry must embrace personalisation

Personalisation of a service or customisation of a product are truly alluring factors for any consumer. And if something is wanted by a customer, mind you wanted not needed, brands will and must do all they can to personalise content for customers. For example, Amazon does it all the time – where it recommends new products to customers basis their prior purchases or does marketing through emails that is classified based on the preferences customers feed in response to a survey.

Over time, the experience brands offer is becoming increasingly tailored, and the interaction a customer has with a certain brand is quite unique. Personalised online experiences are omnipresent and are no longer a nice-to-have but a must-have. Well, this approach of personalisation needs to be carried forward into the live space where extremely customised experiences are created in events for clients and their respective audiences. The events industry is gradually and rapidly embracing this trend, which is not only helping grab and retain customers’ attention but also helping organisers capture effective attendee data.
Here are a few pointers on how event personalisation works wonders for the organisers and offers a stellar experience to the attendees.

1. Importance of pre-event engagement:

The success quotient of an event is contingent upon several factors, one of them majorly being the pre-event approach. This phase is crucial as it presents the perfect opportunity to understand the nerve of your audiences, connect with potential attendees as well as invite an ex-attendee from a much former edition. Another important thing is to ask the right questions; when organisers do that they get to know the invitees’ interests, preferences, likes and dislikes and accordingly they can tailor the pre-event communication.

Once an attendee has registered, it is pivotal that organisers keep communicating with them through the days/weeks running up to the event with interesting messages and marketing channels. Also, the first touch point on event day should be to provide the attendees with a goody bag or other take-away, just before they enter the universe of a tailored event that you have created for them.

2. Leverage technology in all the right ways

Is there any space devoid of technology today? Well, yes, that was a rhetorical question. There is practically no space that doesn’t make the use of technology. Technology is booming and the options are so many, especially for the events industry that when it comes to creating valuable and niche experiences, technology can be extremely pivotal.

Immersive technologies, such as VR, AR and mixed reality, can be personalised for a much-vied-for “different’ experience prior to the event. The attendee information that has been collected and collated prior to the event, basis surveys and other marketing channels, can be used to create experiences that will give attendees an event that they have actually imagined to enjoy as well as help keep unwanted bugs at bay. What’s more? The beauty of certain technological options is such that it allows organisers to have real-time feedback from attendees as soon as they have been out of a session/segment. Thinking ahead is important too, and event insights into what delegates want can be effectively used to plan and structure the next edition.

Having laid those points, we hope the importance of event personalisation is crystal clear. Personalisation of a visitor’s entire experience at an event or exhibition stand may not always be possible, but is quite critical that organisers conduct the relevant research to understand the audience and their needs and, most importantly, wants to a tee and incorporate suitable elements accordingly.