Matt Coyne Launches Twigged to Ease Registration Pains

May 19, 2021
Matt Coyne Launches Twigged to Ease Registration Pains

Not long ago, Matt Coyne found himself registering for an event. There’s nothing remarkable about that for the U.K.-based industry veteran. It was a show Coyne has attended for 15 consecutive years, and yet here he was basically starting from scratch signing up for a show. Again, this is a relatively common, if aggravating, occurrence among all event attendees.

Yet the timing was right that starting over for the 15th time at one event struck a nerve. “I just wanted to register and be done,” he said.

With the pandemic regrettably providing Coyne — well-regarded for his time at GES and ASP Events — more free time than he is accustomed to, he decided to take on the nuisance that is often associated with registration.

That seed in the ground has developed into Twigged. An outgrowth of AMMP Digital, which Coyne co-founded, the software is designed to make event attendees’ lives easier.

In order to do so, Coyne first ensured the platform, launched this spring, wouldn’t complicate matters for planners or existing technologies. Therefore, it is platform agnostic so that it can enhance any of the hundreds of systems utilized at events.

Easy Does It

The root of Twigged stems off one question: “How can we save people time?” Coyne explained.

On average, it takes five to 10 minutes to fill out registration forms. For a 2,000-person event, that turns into more than 250 hours spent on paperwork. And for all that time spent, the work usually just gets an attendee in the door — and not directing them toward a better experience.

Rather than look at the old way of doing things, Coyne studied MailChimp and HubSpot, two programs far simpler to anything a conference planner would employ but technologies able to do more with less.

Twigged asks three broad-based questions to help identify a registrant’s needs and interests, and stores the results with other information so it takes less than a minute to sign up for an event.

“It just makes the process a lot easier,” Coyne said.

Coyne said that what sets the product apart is it’s compatible with all available interfaces, which he calls a first for the industry. “We want anybody to be able to use it,” he explained. 

Flexibility, and the time that requires, is a crucial point for the future. Coyne said the accessibility advantages alone will keep digital events a part of the picture going forward. Even parents whose children get sick the day prior to a conference suddenly don’t have to cancel with virtual, noted Coyne, who has three kids.

Also looking ahead, Coyne sees Twigged adding rewards to users who provide the most accurate data or are more engaged. But the biggest prize, he said, will be the time attendees get back.

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