Big data in Event Management is unstructured information created by the activities of attendees, speakers, event staff, and partners. It includes details such as spending habits while on the event floor, the general attitude towards vendors, engagement with guest speakers, and so on and so forth.
What makes it so valuable is that when properly analyzed, big data allows you to overhaul virtually every aspect of your event. It can help make your staff more efficient, the event floor can be modified to enable smooth flow and easy access, topics can be reworked based on attendee opinion, and costs can be minimized.
A host of different analytics platforms are being used across the event management space. These tools are designed to look for patterns in unstructured information, at which point a trained expert can examine these patterns to see if they hold anything of value. The analysis of big data is a fairly complex task, one requiring an analytical mind and a great sense of discipline. Those dealing with data are required to have a fair amount of training and expertise in the field.
What’s so big about big data?
Anyone in this business should not underestimate the value of big data to the process of event planning. It is an extremely valuable tool that every event manager should possess and be adept to use. With billions of devices connected online and each device gathering unique user and usage data, large amounts of data is available. The challenge lies in making sense of this vast data and using it effectively and efficiently for the success of the business.
Big data in event management delivers better analytics for analyzing and planning events. Before the advent of big data, gathering accurate event data was a challenging task. Today incredibly useful information about attendees, their opinions, and feedback can be gathered without event organizers needing to spend too much time on information gathering and analytics. In-depth analysis allows event planners to identify finer details about their audience, especially their preferences and behaviors. This makes post-event analysis more accurate and timely thus facilitating more precise planning and budgeting of future events.
Whether the event is an in-person or virtual one, big data analytics can help target potential audiences with finer precision. While going through previously collected data on past audiences, certain patterns about demographics and psychographics of attendees will be drawn. This information will come handy when marketing the next event. Event planners can connect with the right people and find potential attendees who will be interested in the event. Data management also makes it possible to separate prospects and create lists of people who are most likely to attend. This enables the planners to focus on contacting these potential guests instead of inviting everyone. The event will be filled with people who will truly benefit from attending it and thus save time and money that would have otherwise gone into searching for ideal guests.
An event can go through multiple changes from the time of conception to execution. This is part-and-parcel of every event and sometimes can be very expensive to keep up with. Big Data in Event Management gives event planners a 360degree view of the event planning process including the changes made. This equips event planners to identify issues they are likely to face when organizing similar events in the future. This does not make the roller coaster ride involved in taking an event to its completion much easier but can make the changes more predictable and lot less costly. Also, the collected data can be used to accurately budget time and costs for each event thus greatly improving the event ROI.
Accessing and gathering data is easy, but the real challenge lies in identifying, measuring, and analyzing it effectively in accordance with the company’s business model. What information you select and analyze is the key for any company or event planner.
