We are so excited to attend the Go West Conference in Edmonton this year and to celebrate Gabe’s third year as the official conversational chatbot for the event! What could possibly be better than a conference designed for event professionals by event professionals? We want to help you level-up your event-management skills before the big conference for the best networking opportunities. Read on to learn how to nail the 5 C’s for your event every year.
- Concept
- Coordination
- Control
- Culmination
- Closeout
Concept
The first step of event planning is to develop your ‘why?’ As Simon Sinek says, great leaders, and great events always start with the 'why'. Ask yourself, ‘why should your event exist?’ and you’ll have a strong foundation to start. Apple’s ‘Why’ is ‘we think differently. We want to challenge the status quo,’ and all their other messaging follows from that. With a ‘why,’ you’ll inspire others to organize around you.
Once you build out your defining message, you can build out your ‘who’: attracting other people with the same vision. Think about your target audience, how do you want to make them feel? We can all imagine the feelings still associated with the best sports-game you’ve ever been to, the most magical concert you’ve experienced, or the most stimulating corporate event. What is the feeling you want to impart on your audience?
By thinking about your ‘why’ and those who have the same vision as you, you’ll be ready to get into the nitty gritty of event planning, while keeping your concept front of mind.
Coordination
Here’s where things get logistically tricky. You have to develop your ‘where,’ ‘what,’ ‘when,’ and ‘how’? At this point, you should definitely consider the prospect of a conversational chatbot. You have to answer all these questions yourself, but what if someone else — or something else — answered them for all your event attendees. A 42Chat bot can easily answer any question in under 3 seconds, which is way faster than most employees.
An event bot can also drive event registration in a of couple different ways:
- As 42Chat bots rely on permission-based text methods, you can customize messages in advance that you’ll be sure your attendees will read. The buzz of a phone in our pocket has programmed users to associate phone communications with important information, meaning the texts sent by our bots have a 98% read rate.
- Build enthusiasm and create an engaged community as registration opens by sharing details about the upcoming event. Reach out to past attendees through text and send important reminders and targeted offers to drive ticket sales. And place your chatbot front and center to answer any questions attendees may have from “can I bring my dog” to “is there a mother’s nursing room?”
- Sell out your merch and promote your sponsors, driving your revenue before an event even starts!
Control
You also need to be on top of everything and plan for every potential outcome — you never know when you’re going to have a hiccup. But you can always bank on a bot as an insurance policy for when plans change or things go wrong to protect your event from bad publicity or a customer relations crisis.
Most web-based chatbots are limited as they’re only used when a customer decides to go to the website to access them. 42Chat’s bots are unique because they use text to create a true two-way, 1:1 communication channel that can be utilized anywhere at any time. When you need to reach your customers you send it from your bot to create and extend that relationship.
For example, 42Chat created the innovatively named AI chatbot “GutCheck” for Digestive Disease Week to support their more than 12,000 attendees. On opening day, they realized that some of the registration times on their event materials were an hour late. Rather than deal with the frustrations of a huge crowd trying to check-in at the same time, they sent a “Breaking News,” text to inform people about the correction — controlling the event and averting a mess.
Culmination
The big day has arrived. Make sure you have a virtual assistant on-hand to scale your staff and answer all the questions.
A chatbot can also solve problems as they arise and engage your attendees. If an audience member wants a question answered they can simply text it to the speaker and be delighted when they address their question in the presentation. Your event attendees will be impressed by the innovation of your brand, and engaged by your event.
Also, make sure you send out a pulse survey through your bot. This way, you can get feedback in live-time during the event and have an easy way of tracking your Net Promoter Score (NPS). Your NPS is calculated by having attendees answer “on a scale of 1-10 how likely would you be to recommend this event to a friend?” By calculating this score, and having a bot that your attendees are comfortable sharing their concerns with, you can address the gaps in your event that would otherwise have been missed.
Closeout
Your work isn’t done just because your event is over, make sure your community stays engaged year-round, and are excited to return next year.
Our EventBots include a year-long subscription option so you can foster and take advantage of the Engagement Journey. The positive impression left by your helpful EventBot before and during the event, combined with text’s association with close relationships and easily digestible hits of information, means your guests will actually look at text messages you send after the event.
Want to see a bot in action? We’ll see you at the Go West Conference 2023
Now that you’ve reviewed the 5 c’s of event management, we’re so excited to see you at the Go West conference in Edmonton!
Want to See What a Bot Can Do For You? Let's Chat.
