Event Data: The Bedrock of Exhibition Revenue & Engagement

Data is the bridge between where you are and where you'd like to be. It can help you manage stakeholder demands, ensure seamless logistics, and navigate unexpected challenges. 

When we talked to organizers like you about what's holding them back, here's what we learned.

Core Challenges Organizers Face with Data

Let’s look at the common challenges organizers face when it comes to data:

1. There’s too much data - it's unclear what data matters: With the overwhelming amount of data available, it becomes difficult to identify which data points are most relevant to event success.
2. Lacking the expertise to analyze data and turn it into actionable insights: Without the necessary skills to interpret data, valuable information remains unused, hindering potential improvements.
3. Concerns about complying with data privacy laws: Navigating the complexities of data privacy regulations, such as GDPR, can be daunting and worrisome.
4. Collected data collection isn't always accurate or complete: Incomplete or inaccurate data leads to unreliable insights, making it challenging to make informed decisions.

Let's break down these data hurdles and explore smart solutions that will help you make the most of your event data.

Deciding What Data Matters

What data matters depends on your core objectives. This means identifying the specific goals you have for your event and focusing on the data that will help you achieve those goals. 

During a recent panel discussion with event tech experts, Godefroy des Francs, Swapcard’s CPO & Cofounder, emphasized, "The key is to focus on what is most important for your event and use the right tools to transform data into revenue-driving actions."

While goals differ for each event, we can identify three core objectives consistent across most exhibitions:

1. Increased Attendee Engagement
2. Boosting Exhibitor ROI & Satisfaction
3. Optimizing Future Events

Increased Attendee Engagement

To drive higher traffic (both onsite and online) and foster interaction with exhibitors and networking activities, personalization should be your key focus. Start by utilizing data on attendee preferences, gathered during registration, to create tailored event journeys. By recommending sessions, booths, and networking opportunities that align with each attendee's interests, you can significantly enhance their overall event experience.

Another effective strategy is to leverage location data for booth and session suggestions. By using real-time location data, you can guide attendees to nearby booths and sessions that match their interests, thereby enhancing their overall event experience.

To further boost user engagement, encourage attendees to download and explore the event app before the event begins. Swapcard’s analysis of past events has shown a strong correlation between event app activation and user engagement. Event organizers that increased their app activation rate by 10% saw a corresponding 7% increase in user engagement.

There are several ways to increase app activation. One approach is to make the event app mandatory for check-in. Another effective method is to highlight exclusive functionalities such as the venue map or exhibitor marketplace that are only accessible through the app.

Harness these strategies to not only drive attendee interaction and satisfaction but also to optimize overall event experience, ensuring every participant finds value and engagement tailored to their interests and preferences.

Boosting Exhibitor ROI & Satisfaction

To enhance exhibitor ROI and satisfaction, you need to know how leads flow during the event lifecycle and the event actions that turn attendees into leads. 

With this information, you can get more precise in your communication with your exhibitors, and transparently share data-backed information that will get them (and you) the results that matter.

A soon-to-be-released Swapcard study of over 300 trade shows and conferences found that 39% of total actions are generated pre-event. Interestingly, 14% are generated post-event, a crucial period often neglected by organizers and consequently, exhibitors.

We also found three attendee actions that deserve a special mention: 

• Only 27% of the leads generated came from on-site badge scans
• Whereas a whopping 57% from online booth visits or exhibitor/product bookmarks
• The remaining attendee actions—connection/meeting requests, ad clicks, visits to an exhibitor or product booth, and registering or watching a sponsored session—generated only 16% of the leads. 

You can leverage this data to emphasize the importance of pre-event and post-event engagement in the community and marketplace, and provide training and resources to exhibitors. You cannot go wrong with know-before-you-go sessions or educational webinars for your exhibitors. 

Furthermore, you can promote onsite badge scans as a primary method of lead collection and encourage online booth visits and bookmarks through targeted attendee interactions. 

By concentrating on these high-impact actions and educating exhibitors on their significance, you can significantly increase the number of leads generated for exhibitors at your event. 

Optimizing Future Events

Optimizing events through data ensures each edition is better than the last, keeping your organization at the forefront of the industry and consistently meeting attendee and exhibitor expectations. Leveraging data plays a crucial role in this process. 

For example, if you want to know what the booth layout should be at your next event, you can use data from geolocation tools, interactive maps, booth scans, and heat mapping technology to identify high-traffic areas and potential bottlenecks. This information allows you to optimize booth layout and flow in future events. 

For future trade show events, data on session attendance, feedback scores, and engagement levels can be used to refine session topics. Networking data, such as connection requests and meeting success rates, can enhance networking opportunities. Additionally, analyzing marketing metrics like email open rates and social media engagement can help tailor future marketing efforts, ensuring continuous improvement and greater attendee and exhibitor satisfaction.

Ensuring Reliable and Complete Data

Now that you are clear on what data matters for your goals, the next step is capturing this data accurately and completely. Reliable and comprehensive data are essential for making informed decisions and driving event success.

Choosing the right event management platform and service providers is crucial. While it might be tempting to stick with familiar options or budget-friendly solutions, especially during budget cuts, the costs of dealing with inaccurate data far outweigh the savings.

To ensure reliable and complete data, look for an event platform that facilitates seamless data collection, integrates smoothly with your preferred tools, offers real-time data analysis, and provides easy-to-read dashboards and shareable reports.

Extracting Actionable Insights from Data

Deciphering raw event data and transforming it into actionable insights can be a daunting task. Transform complex raw data into actionable insights with these three :

1. Choose a Unified and Intuitive Data Dashboard: Ensure seamless integration of your preferred tools with your event platform for streamlined data access. Opt for a user-friendly interface (easy-to-read dashboard, downloadable reports, etc) for simplified analysis.
2. Opt for an Event Partner: More than an event platform, choose an event partner that will support you at every stage of the event process, including onsite support for real-time data analysis and adjustments for your event team and exhibitors.
3. Aim for a Holistic Data Approach: Supplement quantitive input with qualitative notes by implementing post-event surveys. Gather feedback from attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors and analyze responses to understand satisfaction levels, identify pain points, and uncover opportunities for improvement.

Complying with Data Privacy Regulations

In our quest to drive revenue and engagement with data, it’s crucial to address data privacy head-on. Ensuring compliance with data protection laws like GDPR is non-negotiable when attendees register for events and download your event apps. To achieve this, prioritize transparency and clarity. This means clearly communicating to your attendees:

1. What personal data will be collected
2. How it will be stored and used
3. What they will get in exchange

While much discussion surrounds the first two points, with ample documentation available from the tools you use to ensure compliance with local regulations, it’s the third point that often gets overlooked.

Focusing on what attendees will receive in exchange for their data is key. By highlighting the tangible benefits they’ll gain—such as personalized event experiences, relevant session recommendations, and enhanced networking opportunities—you can foster trust and encourage data sharing. 

Final Thoughts

Choosing the right event management platform and adopting a data-driven approach are critical steps toward achieving higher attendee engagement, increasing exhibitor ROI, and optimizing future events.

Discover how to run data-driven events and accelerate your business growth with Swapcard.