One of the main sources of revenue for nonprofit organizations and associations is events. With so much riding on each event, it is important that your organization’s event registration system is robust enough to handle not only the volume of events you host but makes the attendee experience as easy as possible – from finding the event on your website to registering to attend to providing you with valuable feedback afterwards.
Flexible Data Collection
Ultimately, you want to be thinking about what information you need to collect to run an effective event. Where is the value in an event registration system that doesn't allow you to collect the data you need? You need a registration system that is flexible enough to customize registration forms in order to capture the appropriate data. That could mean basic demographics, like age and address, longer content (user answers to open-ended questions), or even uploaded documents or files. It’s all about what you need to know now and will want to analyze later.
Multiple Payment Options
Consumers have become accustom to having multiple payment options online, and will expect it from your organization as well. Being able to offer flexible payment options is important. You want to look for a registration system that allows registrants to pay online or offline, all at once or in partial payments.
Integrated Calendar
The more events and classes your organization runs, the more important it is to have a calendar view available online that integrates with your event registration system. This provides visitors to your website with important details about the event, and a direct link to register. For conferences or large events where session details may change over time, integrating your calendar with the event registration system increases staff efficiency as the system automatically updates the calendar when changes are made to the event.
Automated Communications
Communication is key to running a successful program, event or conference. Communication about the event starts with your organization’s website and may continue long after attendees have gone home.
Communications can include confirmation emails for registrants, emails reminding individuals to complete an unfinished registration, email reminders leading up to the event, and emails after the event to solicit feedback from attendees. An event registration system with the ability to send these types of communications automatically, instead of staff managing them individually, increases efficiency as well as ensures each point of communication is accurate and timely.
If communication is a high-priority item for your organization (hopefully it should be), you should also consider utilizing text communications. If an event registration system has this functionality, organizations can send attendees texts when a session at a conference is about to begin or if there are any changes that may occur in the middle of an event – such as a room or field change. It can also be used as a broadcast system in the event of an emergency.
Reporting
Being able to provide up-to-the-minute registration reports as well as analytics after events, are increasingly important as organizations weigh the costs of events versus their profit. An event management system that has robust reporting capabilities will not only allow staff to create rosters for events but also provide raw data to develop event collateral and reports to help evaluate an event’s success.
Across All Devices
With more people accessing content on their smartphones it is imperative that your event registration system be responsive. This not only benefits individuals registering for your events but the staff working the events who can access the back-end functions they need on any device during the event.
As with any system, an event registration system needs to meet the needs of your organization today and in the future. Choosing a system with these six functionalities will put your organization on the path for success.