When to Consider Adding Attendee Tracking to Your Event

September 7, 2022

John D’Adamo

John D’Adamo is head of U.S. sales at VenuIQBased in Florida, he boasts more than 10 years of experience within the events industry and has built long-standing relationships with some of the world’s most respected brands. His appointment and goal of establishing VenuIQ’s American entity mark a pivotal moment in the company’s development.

Through two years of the pandemic, when virtual events were the norm, decision makers and sponsors started receiving more metrics going through attendee participation. Now, with in-person events returning, buyers are expecting more and more data and metrics to help better calculate in-person ROI. I believe if you are not adding more ways to provide ROI, you are going to be left out of the in-person events equation in 2023 and beyond.

Whether or not you already have an app and registration solution, you may want to look at adding attendee tracking using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon technology. Here are a few of the benefits it provides for event organizers:

1.     Track Session Attendance

Guests with access to a session can use auto check-in and check-out without the hassle of swiping badges. As an organizer, you’ll know exactly how many people attended each individual session. This way organizers can see which sessions are popular and keeping people’s interest, which helps for future event planning.

2.     Capture Interactions

With every interaction monitored, attendees can record who they met, the sessions they attended and what exhibitors they visited. Traditionally, an exhibitor model would have a code scanner, but this relies on physical scanning. What happens if someone stops by a booth and the scanner isn’t working? With tracking, you can still capture the relevant data no matter what.

3.     Added Value for Your Event

Your event attendees’ data can be used to measure the success of individual sessions, prevent overcrowding and provide added value to decision-makers, exhibitors and sponsors for future event planning needs. For example, by tracking how many attendees were in catering areas at different times, many clients save 50% in catering costs by optimizing timing and volume of ordering commitments.

4.     Enhanced Networking

Event participants can exchange contact information quickly and easily. When combined with a sophisticated in-app AI matchmaking feature that suggests useful contacts based on who has attended the same content sessions, attendees can ensure they make the most of networking opportunities in the event. 

For example, Founders Forum, a global gathering of more than 500 tech leaders held in London, New York City, Singapore and other destinations, uses our beacon technology to not only track and generate heatmaps, but to enable networking meetups and offer recommended connections through a matchmaking component. The same functionality is also available to those on the web platform, so they could still take part in the experience.

Oliver Rowe, co-founder of VenuIQ, also contributed to this article.


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