How a Comprehensive Delegate Self Service Portal Can Ensure Your Events are a Success

Improving your levels of efficiency as well as escalating the value of your events are two basic drivers that help set apart a flourishing events organisation from one who might be struggling in our current economic climate. Whether or not you’re an association specialising in events only, or whether your business happens to host frequent internal and external events, you will need to make certain you’re operating at the highest efficiency and providing your delegates a top quality experience.

One of the methods in which you are able to add value to your events, is by sending some of the control back to delegates. Empowering delegates to handle some of their own event experience provides them a feeling of influence, ownership and involvement. A vital method of accomplishing this is to make use of a self service event portal.

A self service portal can be used in a mixture of ways, but within the events industry, it is generally used to take event registrations and to offer delegates a profile or account so that they are able to manage their information and event experience themselves.

Self service portals allow delegates to sign up on-line, then gives them the facility to login and control their own profile. This can involve their contact details, nutritional requirements, event record, purchasing of relevant event goods plus much more. Delegates are able to access approaching events and decide on whether this is something they are interested in attending. They could also manage their communication preferences to ensure that they receive updates on events that are relevant to them, through a method that they would most prefer.

Being an web-based service ensures that delegates are in a position to register for events or log into their existing event portal 24/7. Online enrolment is a medium that people are happy to work with. The convenience of being able to access it on line from any place at any time, ensures that people are more likely to register and will have a less taxing joining experience because they are in total control. Registering over your official event web site provides them with a recognisable, trusted view, yet giving them access to their private (branded to your own corporate style) portal gives them the control to deal with their own account.

Giving delegates access to their own event portal means that a lot of the jobs that the event manager would have handled, is now in the hands of the delegate. Updating contact information, altering nutritional requirements, choosing what presentations the delegate would like to attend and so on, can now be handled by the delegate themselves. Which means many of the communications between the event manger and delegate often is removed, saving the event manager time and enabling them to work on more strategic tasks.

A lot of the bottlenecks associated with event management can also be avoided via the use of a self service event portal. Many delegates may find out about an event during the weekend and will have to wait until Monday morning to call the event company to enlist. This often leads to a sharp peak in demand on Monday mornings, which can be challenging to manage and control. This is often how mistakes are made, because the event manager is under extreme strain and trying to cope with an unrealistic workload. However, letting people register via the Internet means that this bottleneck is generally avoided, since registrations can be made 24/7. Any updates they may wish to make to their event booking can also be made at any time via the self service portal.

An important benefit of the self service portal for event managers is that it allows them to view all their delegate details from one principal platform. This makes it simpler and easier to generate reports, download statistics and produce delegate badges and customised event packs.

The self service portal is also able to be integrated to a organisation's CRM system. This means that all amendments the delegates make themselves to their contact details are automatically populated into the CRM. As a result at all times, their official record on the CRM is up to date and correct. This helps enormously in terms of maintaining pure, accurate data.

Self service portals are sometimes supplied as part of an event software platform. These solutions include a host of event tools including email marketing, invitation management, online registration/microsite management, built-in survey’s and reporting tools plus much more.

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For more information on online self service portals, talk to evocos. In the past year alone evocos event software has created over 7000 events, workshops and training courses and managed approximately 75,000 delegates over 50,000 online bookings.

Incorporating integrated reporting and analysis tools as well as social media, email marketing, website integration, registration, online payment, badge production, resource management and event surveys, evocos is one of the most comprehensive online event management software solutions on the market today.

The evocos event software team ensures you are able to seamlessly manage your events; gaining huge cost and efficiency benefits. Visit http://www.evocos.co.uk for more information or call 0800 369 8677.