The B2B occasion expertise panorama has continued to rework apace over the previous two years. On this surroundings, standalone digital occasion platforms have struggled as main distributors have broadened their capabilities to assist a wider vary of occasion sorts. Regardless of these expanded capabilities, enterprises proceed to run a number of, overlapping occasion expertise platforms, with 22% of enormous enterprises deploying six or extra occasion tech options. With occasion budgets underneath large strain, leaders ought to discover the advantages of consolidating onto an all-in-one occasion administration platform.
When evaluating all-in-one occasion expertise, entrepreneurs ought to ask themselves three questions:
What mixture of occasions of occasions will we be working?
In-person occasions have seen a strong resurgence over the previous two years. Vendor information signifies that roughly three-quarters of all registrations are presently for in-person or hybrid occasions, with solely 1 / 4 for virtual-only occasions. Nevertheless, occasion codecs are evolving. The fastest-growing occasion kind is the small owned/hosted in-person occasion with fewer than 200 attendees, whereas digital occasions have gotten less complicated and shorter. Entrepreneurs have to assess the vary of occasions they’re working and select a associate that may present centralized, scalable assist.
Are we maximizing the worth of our occasion information?
With growing restrictions on entry to viewers information, occasion information has change into one of the beneficial sources of zero- and first-party information. Entrepreneurs are prioritizing the maximization of its worth. An all-in-one occasion administration platform is essential on this regard. Entrepreneurs ought to consider distributors based mostly on their capacity to seize and analyze attendee information to ship extra customized experiences. Main distributors can combination information throughout occasions and accounts, benchmark it in opposition to peer information, and use AI to reply information questions, run predictive analytics, and make personalized attendee suggestions.
Does this platform combine into our broader martech stack?
To totally leverage the worth of occasion information, it’s important for entrepreneurs to combine their all-in-one occasion platform into their broader advertising and marketing expertise stack. Nevertheless, many organizations fail to do that and should prioritize it. Most distributors provide a variety of native, API, and webhook integrations into main advertising and marketing automation platforms (MAPs) and CRM techniques, in addition to app marketplaces for added occasion options. High distributors go additional by providing deeper ranges of integration, devoted CRM objects, and unique partnerships.
Are you curious about studying extra?
Forrester shoppers can entry the Forrester Wave: All-In-One Occasion Administration Platforms, This fall 2024 report, schedule a steering session or inquiry with me, and in addition register for an upcoming ‘Ask the Analyst’ webinar the place I’ll be sharing highlights from the Wave analysis and taking questions!
