This is a sponsored post. 

Event planning technology is a broad subject. It is a technology that assists you to Organize an event, plan, and manage your data. In this case, for event organization. There are different purposes and models of events. These event organizing apps can be quite beneficial for modern-day event organizers. 

As technology advances, you should evolve you should not be left behind. You can identify which of them best suits your niche. Additionally, you should compare what different apps have to offer. This helps you get the best software for your intent. When looking for a viable app to organize an event, here are some features that the best ones should have:

Attendee Registration Forms

The first impression your event attendees get is from the registration form. For this reason, the app should have an appealing registration form. It should also be easy to use, reflect your branding, and professional.

The registration form should ask only for relevant information. It should not have too many fields that the process becomes tedious to the attendee. It should also be mobile-friendly making it convenient for both you and the attendees. Also, it should allow you to customize your form in line with your organization’s branding.

Effective Data Management and Reporting

Due to the amount and sensitivity of the information, data management should be efficient. In case of changes in the event, you should be able to keep your attendees up to date. Additionally, you should be able to keep your data (such as T-shirt sales) organized, integrate with your CRM system, generate and share reports with your team, among other functions. You should also be able to process receipts and refunds in an error-free way. This keeps registrants happy and contented. This is one aspect of an event organizing app you should not compromise.

Convenient Ticketing System and Event Apps

As mobile technology continues to evolve, you should embrace advancements such as event organizing apps and e-Tickets. Apps with these features offer convenience to both you and your attendees. An app with this system generates and sends e-Tickets to your attendees via email. These e-Tickets can be displayed on mobile devices and scanned for authenticity. This is very convenient for all parties involved.

Event apps allow you to interact with your attendees directly to provide event details, updates, and even get feedback. 

Security and Anonymity

The information you are capturing from your attendees is usually confidential. As such, the best app for the job is the one that will keep this data securest. The app should have a secure payment processing system that PCI-compliant. This is a security standard you should meet if your company deals with credit cards. The app should update the records, generate receipts, and send them to the attendee.

Additionally, it should use SSL encryption. This ensures all communication including online transactions is secure. Credit card information and other correspondences should remain private. This protects both parties from fraud while maintaining a relationship of trust.

Support

As with most apps, sometimes training and support are required. A good app should have reliable and effective support for its product. This should help you and your staff better utilize the full features of the app with minimal assistance in the future. Furthermore, this will let you be more efficient in your event organizing process, increasing productivity.

Since apps are constantly evolving, there are many technological features you can take advantage of. If you are looking for an app with the above-named features and more, Magnet Event Pro is one of the best apps to organize an event. 

Very few things in the world are as romantic as the perfect outdoor wedding, but these events can be extremely challenging. Even if the wedding is being held in a temperate climate, the weather can turn around in the blink of an eye. Here is a look at four insights that will help you plan an unforgettable outdoor wedding that your guests talk about for years to come.

Create a Backup Plan

Nature has a mind of its own, and that is why you need to have a backup plan in place. Many brides and grooms decide to carry out part of the ceremony inside so that their guests have a place to go if it rains or the wind picks up. If there isn’t a large enough building at the venue, then you should have drivers ready to take your guests to a nearby facility that you’ve already arranged to have the backup wedding at. Such facilities could be local churches, hotel lobbies, or even a clubhouse of a really nice apartment complex.

Contact an Equipment Rental Company

Renting equipment for a wedding is generally much more affordable if you contact the company a few months in advance. The rental company might let you reserve the equipment at a reduced cost or refund the money if it isn’t used. Quite a bit of equipment might be needed at your outdoor wedding including lights, generators, mobile toilets, and ice makers. If it gets cold towards the evening where your wedding will be located at, you might want to rent patio heaters to put around the areas where people will socialize during the reception. This way, guests will be warm and not be tempted to leave too early due to feeling cold.

Set up Covered Areas

Your guests need to be able to get out of the elements if they aren’t feeling well or the weather is particularly bad. Covering three or four areas with rented canopies is an affordable way to deal with minor weather issues such as light rain. Many brides, grooms, and wedding planners are now renting enclosed tents as well. Those tents allow guests to enjoy the ambiance of the venue without being stuck out in the heat or rain.

Keep Your Guests Hydrated

Keeping your guests well-fed and hydrated is going to make your outdoor wedding much more enjoyable. As a general rule, you should assume that each guest will have at least one drink per hour. If it is warm outside or the guests are sitting in direct sunlight, then they might drink up to three beverages per hour. In addition to your favorite alcoholic beverages, you should also have refreshing juices, ice cold water, and other drinks that won’t dehydrate them.

Organizing an outdoor wedding can be challenging, and you must spend some extra time getting your team ready for any number of roadblocks you might experience along the way. There is no guarantee that the weather will be ideal, but you can limit your risks with a little bit of foresight and some extra work during the planning stages.

eric ward 250010

The fascinating thing about a live event experience is that everyone can appreciate beautiful visuals. From LED stage lighting to artistically developed stages, there’s something to capture everyone’s attention. And while a good deal could be spent on the transformative nature of lighting and the illusionary effects of a physically filled out stage, the real beauty is in the details – the sonic landscapes fully immersing you into the experience.

Good visuals may be one thing, but there’s a limit as to how much connection our motor neurons can create. Our bodies and minds are hardwired to respond viscerally to different sounds. From the bleak, unremitting sadness of a Leonard Cohen concert and his use of empty space, stirring the soul in the silences between his lyrics, to the challenges of any festival season – elevating itself through the crisp and deep sounds of the music, reverberating through the humdrum and white noise threatening to diminish the sonic experience with mighty grandeur.

Sound speaks more to our emotions than our intellect, because sounds don’t communicate concepts and symbols, but rather communicate feelings and moods. A great soundscape is half the artistry of a moving, memorable live event experience.

Why Sound Design Is Important

To deliver such a moving sensory experience, a live event requires one thing – the complete understanding of space, environment, room acoustics, and size of the audience. After all, the venue itself could be a fine musical instrument, an indissoluble element of the hearing experience. Venues are acoustic architectures that interact and enhance the sonic experience, and like any masterpiece that requires the finest artistic brushstrokes, live events need state-of-the-art sound systems and a master composer to imbue the experience with holistic sound that will linger long after the last encore is sung and the final note dissipates.

Music is an instinctive experience. Our bodies are sounding boards – our ears and mind acoustically interact better with the live event experience in a way that is diminished with earbuds or headphones. Live events provide an undiluted connection to the entrancing soundscapes that can’t be found digitally. Good sound design adds sensory reinforcement to the live event, shaping the experience in ways you may not consciously realize at the time.

As technology rapidly advances, new experimental platforms open themselves up to opportunities to engage with audiophiles and create experiences. Creativity and technology merge with good sound design, harmonically balancing the importance of atmospheric energy and a three-dimensional audio landscape.

Sound Transcends Limitations

So how do live events create this sensory bridge? By creating simple and integrated solutions that seamlessly encapsulate an audio visual encounter with clean, open, and dynamic sound. Exceptional sound design has minimal distortion, low noise floor and high headroom, providing the highest quality of audio to communicate with the audience. Such an immersive assembly of soundscapes brought on by noteworthy sound design, livens dull events, inspires specific moods, and bring unadulterated energy to any venue.

Much like Glastonbury or Coachella today, Woodstock, of festivals past, was a cultural and narrative live event experience. The constant undertow of Woodstock may have been peace and love, but two things will forever reverberate from the general presence of Woodstock – its performances which have withstood the test of time, and the undeniable electricity of such a cultural event.

That’s what exceptional sound design does. Professional audio visual systems delivering unparalleled sound artistry demand your attention even when you disassociate the rest of your senses. A good sound design setup resonates through your subconscious, imploring you to explore the colorful sonic soundscape presented before you. The chords, the rhythm, the pattern of music, all of it moves your psyche, reaching into your emotions with thunderous movement, while you stand or sit transfixed. It anchors memories, forever living in your subconscious, waiting to peek out again, releasing waves of nostalgia on the first struck chord or bass drop that demands and elicits a response.

Sound Is Three-Dimensional

The relationship between the stage and audio is more paramount than ever. In the realms of theatre, sound design was previously viewed as a mere technical skill, rather than an art form, much like how a painter or sculptor would infuse their canvas with artistic spirit. In fact, it wasn’t until 2004 that sound design finally received its accolades, becoming a recognized category in the Laurence Olivier Awards.

Great sound design in theatre conjures sonic storms, engulfing theatre practitioners with audio narratives that enrich the stage presence. And much like theatre, concert halls and clubs are experimental approaches to unique sounds, utilizing interesting designer audio video tools to allow individuals to interact with the acoustic architecture within confinements of the venue.

There is signature warmth in the audio as it rebounds and resonates through the archived annals of a venue’s walls, echoing the former glory of expired performances and recordings. In such venues, great sound design supercharges the live event, allowing us to fully immerse ourselves into the experience. Because good sound is heard, but great sound is felt. After all, we hear with our entire body, and to restrict such a symphonic masterpiece (with its low-hum sub-bass frequencies, hi-fi idiosyncratic sounds effects, or even the stripped-down sets of keyboards, drums, and assorted plucked strings) to be distilled and reproduced into a singular interaction through earbuds, we lose the magic and beautiful of a sensory-charged experience.

Sonically animated live events aren’t simply restricted to music festivals, theatres, concert halls, and even clubs. Venues like Native American Pow Wows, coffee shop acoustic sessions, and even tiny desk concerts pulse with a certain energy, imploring to take you on an auditory journey that transcends time and space. It’s an intimate invitation to tune yourself and listen with the naked ear.

And unlike many other mediums of artistic expression, live events are truly unique forms of entertainment – they cannot be duplicated. Live events aren’t just a medium on the visual; they are a unique interplay between sound, light and picture. Sound touches the subconscious, bypassing the logical and intellectual surfaces.

Contrary to the other sensory experiences, sound communicates with us on a visceral and emotional level. And to deliver an experience that hums evocative memories and elicits emotional responses long after the event expires, sound engineers, AV system integrators, and state-of-the-art sound designs manipulate the sonic dynamics to convey a truly borderless experience.

test

The impact of millennials and digital technology has revolutionized the events industry in the last five years. The new focus of events now is to evolve beyond its preoccupation to integrate digital trends into the events space.

The approach to integrate new technologies will engage attendees in a multidisciplinary way, conjuring unique event experiences that have only existed in imaginations until now.

The emergence of digital technology within the events space has changed the way the event industry designs elements of the live event experience. It has transformed every aspect of the experience, from planning and production to execution. For industry experts, this means adapting to the new state of evolution while pioneering strategies and concepts.

This is no easy task, but the proliferation of new tech tools such as social media and additional realities; virtual and augmented has canvassed the event industry. This means new opportunities and challenges within the events space.

To fully understand how these technological changes are impacting the events space, here are three digital trends disrupting the events industry.

1.  The Internet of Things

The Internet of Things, or IoT, is the idea of connecting everyday tools to the Internet. This improves network connectivity (crucial for event management), while also creating a more efficient and data-driven network. The IoT landscape assists in all important aspects of the events industry, from presentation performance all the way down to potential attendees.

Using IoT for events bridges communication gaps to improve attendee engagement. iBeacon and RFID are two examples of IoT event technologies that assists attendee management. Both technologies allow leading event companies the ability to streamline attendee data, enabling them to keep a numerical track of guests, assisting them with location information, check-in assistance, and event schedule updates.

Such IoT event technologies minimizes the manual processes required to fill out physical sign-in sheets and information flyers, saving time and money for event organizers and sponsors alike.

2.  Shared Event Experiences

Audiovisual technology still remains a trendsetter within the events industry. The new trends in AV technology lie in the utilization of mixed reality (AR and VR) and live streaming. These two shared event experiences eliminate the barriers to entry for once-exclusive events, allowing non-physical attendees to engage with the event experience.

The adoption of live streaming through social networks such as Facebook Live and Instagram Stories affords guests the ability to tune into a live event despite geographical limitations.

Less than five years ago, runway shows were tailored to the invited guests. They were exclusive affairs for those who worked within the industry. Access was granted according to names on a guest list.

The advent of live streaming eliminated such barriers. Now, Fashion Week is an instantaneous and accessible experience, reaching audiences across the world. In 2015, while roughly 125,000 people attended the September shows, over 2.5 million live-streamed the event.

Advancements in virtual and augmented reality capabilities have established new concepts in how events are experienced. Sporting events such as the Rio Olympics has employed VR and AR to enable remote spectators to experience a deeper level of immersion than previously possible. Global conferences such as CES and MWC have also utilized VR and AR to enhance the live event experience.

Such technologies make the event experience incredibly democratic. This allows event organizers the ability to create a more personalized live event experience, enabling them to brand themselves to a broader audience in real-time.

3.  Event Interactivity

Another digital trend that events are tapping into is the sharing economy. On-demand services like Uber and Airbnb are empowering event organizers to use crowd-powered services to bolster event participation and engagement. Digital tools such as RFID cards and touch-screen displays increases engagement by providing hands-on experiences to specific, exclusive content.

The rise of artificial intelligence, as seen by Siri, Cortana, and Alexa, adds a boost to events, creating opportunities for personalization.

Event managers and organizers are employing a legion of AI assistants to serve as personal concierge, brand ambassadors, and even virtual event assistants. They are employed to help in all aspects of event management, from registration to budgeting. This enables event organizers to target different demographics according to their needs.

Delivering on more personalized interactions means better engagement from event participants, improving the attendee experience.

Digital technology is at the forefront of industry changes. The digitization of the events industry means changes, but more importantly, it means more opportunities. A deeper immersion experience leads to a deeper level of engagement. This leads to plenty of opportunities for brands to differentiate themselves from the competition, increasing their branding and improving the overall live event experience.

people 2603112 1920

Events provide a feast for all the senses to enjoy. Companies are continually trying to find ways to improve the attendee’s overall experience. One way is by integrating digital signage.

Signage is not just there to provide advertising space; it can also be used to provide vital information for event participants and help them become more engaged. A professional audio visual company lists some of the possible uses for digital signage:

1. Advertise the event

You can cut down on printing marketing material by designing signage that feature vital information about the event such as schedules of games, lineups of speakers, lists of movies playing, current promotions and a list of upcoming events.

The above display signage can be distributed around the venue. By integrating touchscreen technology, attendees can have access to all the information they need. No need to go look for staff to get answers.

2. Increase attendance

Massive LED screens can allow attendees to see and enjoy the action from even the farthest seats. People who attend the live event will also get to view exclusive content that is not shown on television or even live cable. When it comes to sporting games, this includes high resolution videos of player statistics, interviews, replays and closeups of the various teams and players.

3. Provide directions

Digital signage can be used to direct people to where they need to go. For instance, stadium parking lots can utilize signage to inform drivers which floor has available slots and where these are specifically located.

They can also be used to indicate the quickest way towards the seats, bathrooms, concession stands and other integral parts of the event venue.

4. Keep attendees updated during the event

There will be moments when you will need to leave your seat to go to the bathroom or the concession stand. Imagine seeing a long line of people, each one patiently waiting for their turn to get inside the bathroom or buy food. Each minute you wait, you are missing an important part of the concert or live performance. By placing digital signage in certain areas inside the venue, patrons won’t miss another minute of the action.

Another application is to use the signage to post any changes in the event. LED screens and electronic displays can be used to display changes in the schedule, lineup of speakers, rooms and more. The information can be updated at any time throughout the day, which makes it easier to disseminate the new details to the audience.

5. Get fans excited before and after the main event

Micro events and activities can be organized before and after the main event. Digital signage can be used to keep people hyped for the game, concert or alternative event. For instance, you can allocate an area outside the main stadium where you can place massive LED displays, a stage, lights and a sound system.

Hire a host or play music or games with the crowd. This festive atmosphere can add to the immersive experience and make people want to stay around longer.

6. Interact with audiences

Use your digital signage to connect with event attendees. You can have an app developed specifically for the event where attendees can post their comments. An alternative is to encourage people to post updates on your brand’s social media accounts such as Facebook or Twitter. They could also use these online channels to post photos or videos or even answer polls. During the event, the content can be posted on the LED screen or digital signage. This can make participants feel more engaged and part of the action. Plus, making good use of this user content can help increase the buzz for the event.

The use of digital display technology can be applied to almost any type of event; these are only a few examples. If you are planning to organize an event, try some of these tips to see what works. The end goal is to create a live event experience more memorable for attendees.