As event technology continues to evolve, the way attendees register for, access and engage with events is changing with it.
In the second instalment of EIN Future Focus – Exploring the Innovations Shaping Tomorrow’s Events, we turn our attention to The Future of Registration, looking at how new technologies, changing attendee expectations and smarter use of data are reshaping one of the most important touchpoints in the event journey.
Registration is no longer simply about collecting attendee details and issuing a ticket or badge. Increasingly, it forms the starting point of the attendee experience – influencing everything from personalisation and communications to networking, access control and the data organisers can use before, during and after an event.
So, what does the next generation of event registration look like? How are technology providers making the process faster, more intuitive and more connected? And how can organisers remove friction while still capturing the information they need to deliver better event experiences?
For the second feature in our EIN Future Focus series, we hear from event technology specialists about the innovations already changing registration – and what could come next.
2. vFairs – The Future of Registration: Creating Smarter Attendee Experiences
Every few months, the event industry restarts the same fight over short versus long registration forms. To cut the fields or not to?
After 10+ years building event technology, I know that debate misses the point. Form length isn’t the real issue, and shorter isn’t automatically better. A bloated form nobody fills out is a problem, sure. But the fix isn’t cutting fields because someone said short forms win.
The issue is you’re building the form before you’ve done the planning.
And planning matters because different people attend for different reasons. A sponsor, a first-timer, and a speaker aren’t on the same journey, so they shouldn’t experience the same registration.
The future of registration requires planning for all of them upfront.
1. B2match – Your registrants’ data has a job after the confirmation email. Most organisers let it retire.
Registration gets judged on one number: how many people finish the form. Fair enough — every drop-off is money left on the table. But follow the data after the confirmation email goes out. At most events, it travels to a badge printer and a spreadsheet, and that’s the end of its working life.
That’s an expensive place for it to retire. Registration is the one moment when every single attendee tells you, in writing, who they are and why they came.
Every field needs a job.
Our rule of thumb at b2match: each field on a registration form should do one of two things — get the attendee through faster, or set up a meeting later. Fields that do neither cost you completions and give nothing back.
This sounds obvious and gets violated constantly. Forms ask for fax numbers and three lines of company history, then skip the only question that predicts a productive event: what are you here to find?
Author: Sam Hyland
Sam is the assistant content manager for Event Industry News (EIN). Sam is involved in publishing news stories, videos and podcasts. Sam also collates the latest stories for the EIN e-newsletter. If you have a press release or story you think we might be interested to know about please email features@eventindustrynews.com
