Conference, meeting planners turn to Internet to boost business

Kevin Ferguson

Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2001 | 10:58 a.m.

Conference organizers that don't provide online registration and don't use e-mail to build relationships with potential attendees are missing major elements of "Marketing 101," a meeting planning expert says.

"The Internet is a key way to get attendees strategically involved (in the conference)" Cvent Chief Executive Reggie Aggarwal said, noting that it allows visitors to check up-to-the-minute information on events, and for show organizers to track and automate visitor data.

Aggarwal spoke last month at the Meeting Professional International's 2001 World Education Congress in Las Vegas.

Companies like Arlington, Va.-based Cvent, Event411 of Marina Del Rey, Calif., Be-There.com (Westport, Conn.) and Regweb (Berkeley, Calif.) serve as third-party vendors for meeting planners. These companies design registration websites, manage them and provide the technical support for the conference organizer.

Many corporations, large and small, are turning to these outsourcing companies to manage this information so that corporations can focus on their core competencies.

"A company like Event411 would serve as the back-end technology, but the site would have the look of the company organizing the conference," said Patti Shock, chairwoman of the tourism and convention department at UNLV.

Just a few years ago, conference organizers had to rely on fax machines and air mail to get invitations to potential attendees. Faxes could get shuffled around an office before getting to the right person and air mail could have a lag time of 10 days.

But having convention attendees register online could cut those 10 days down to one or two, said Brian Peunic, vice president of Key3Media Inc., the organizer of Comdex/Fall, Las Vegas' largest trade show.

"In the grand scheme of things, (the Internet) has made the registration process more cost efficient, in terms of data entry and a tracking element," Peunic said.

Peunic said it's difficult to quantify the company's cost savings, because the company's call center staff hasn't been reduced. Instead, Key3Media center operators' time has been put to better use, he said.

Saving staff time and putting it to better use is one of the biggest benefits of online registration, Cvent's Aggarwal said.

"If you have 1,000 attendees, there's no reason why you shouldn't have everybody registered and name tags printed within 30 minutes," Aggarwal said.

Aside from providing a convenient channel for registering, the convention website often provides maps of the show floor, lists of keynote speakers and airline/hotel accommodation information.

"The good thing about the web is that it offers real-time reporting capabilities," UNLV's Shock said. "It used to be difficult to get information out of the convention authority or housing department, like the number of rooms that were booked. But now (with the web) it's all real-time."

Aggarwal said an e-marketing campaign is needed to register attendees.

"You send out e-mails about the event (to potential attendees), then reminders by e-mail, then you send out invitations," Aggarwal said.

E-mail is a more efficient and less time consuming way for conference organizers to build relationships with attendees and ensure their satisfaction, Aggarwal said.

"If you get a response from Doug (an attendee at Aggarwal's presentation) that he plans to come to the MPI event, you send him an e-mail saying, 'thanks for planning to come. Would you like to book an airline ticket through us?' It'll be much cheaper if you do it now," Aggarwal said.

Sending invitations via e-mail can prompt recipients to electronically spread word of the event to friends and colleagues.

"If you send someone information about a conference through the fax or (snail) mail, what are the chances he will send it to 10 other people? Not very likely," Aggarwal said. "Have you ever faxed a joke? How many e-mailed jokes do you get a day?'

The automation offered through an online registration system allows conference organizers to easily monitor the rate at which a block of rooms are being filled.

This information is valuable because if hotel rooms earmarked for conventioneers are not selling well, the organizers can quickly alert the hotel managers in time for the rooms to be sold to other groups or individual vacationers.