The Cutting Edge

No two meeting planners have identical registration and attendee management needs. It’s just the nature of the “meetings beast.” This spectrum of needs has spawned an ever-growing variety of niche products to fit every imaginable situation. But this is actually good news. That’s right, good news for meeting planners.

About two-thirds of meeting planners are using basic online registration forms and 20 percent are using a fully automated online registration system.

The planners using a fully automated, Web-based online registration and attendee management system have the most opportunity to take advantage of integration or “plug-ins.” That’s because it’s a relatively simple process to connect specialty products such as floor plan management and travel booking systems as building blocks with an attendee management system.

Online registration has evolved from a basic form on a website to installed software, to today’s Web-based online registration services. Improving customer service, reducing registration work and boosting attendance are just three areas in which these services are improving the meeting planner’s working scenario. These systems can serve as the nerve center for much more than just online registration. An online registration system can be integrated with other event pieces of technology to crunch all kinds of event data, leaving event planners more time to (wistful sigh) actually enjoy the event planning process.

So how does this plug-in integration work? Without getting too technical, the basic process is demonstrated in chart 1.

Benefits of Integration

Choice
Plugging complementary software into an online registration system allows greater choice in selecting technology to best fit unique event needs. Many systems strive to encompass all possibilities, which usually results in less overall functionality. By selecting and connecting niche products, planners are able to “custom build” a system that exactly meets their needs. The end-user experience for both the meeting planner and the registrants and exhibitors is a seamless all-in-one experience.

Pay Only for What Is Needed
There’s nothing worse than overpaying for a system to get a particular benefit that comes with 300 additional components that just aren’t needed. If the event doesn’t offer exhibits, then there’s no need to integrate floor plan software. However, if fees need to be collected for events and need to be logged as a journal entry (or as a line item on a statement) the fees can be integrated right into the existing accounting system.

Kinder, Gentler on Budgets
Don’t misinterpret. There are usually costs involved for the initial integration between two systems, but the costs can be far less than over-investing in a large system like the one just mentioned. Really, there’s no need to pick up a pebble with a crane. Additionally, as budgets allow or needs change, systems can adapt, dropping the unnecessary features and adding on the needed programs.

The Best of All Worlds
Integrating specialty products into an online registration system allows use of the best available systems, that being the system that best fits a planner’s particular needs. Essentially, it’s cherry-picking the system or systems that result in the best overall solution. New technology doesn’t mean starting over from scratch – it simply increases the need to integrate.

Flexibility
Budget and knowledge constraints are very real. Some planners may be more comfortable learning and mastering one program at a time. Or, due to budget constraints, they may have to prove the value of one system before adding another. Building on experience can be a powerful influencer in helping implement additional needed or wanted technology. On the other hand, planners may be under pressure to get it all working right from the start. Integration can also accomplish out-of-the-gate starts, too.

How Integration Works – In Plain English

Integration or plug-ins are basically the technology needed to make two or more systems ‘talk’ and may be called a Web-service or an API (application programming interface). It’s essentially the same as a translator who is helping an English-speaking person communicate with a Spanish-speaking person. The translator is the communication go-between to make sure that both sides understand what the other side is saying. It can be one-way communication or two-way communication, and is used to pass information to and from systems for proper recording or verification.
It’s time now to talk about the programs and systems that can be integrated right into online registration and attendee management systems.

Floor Plan Software
Any good online registration system allows floor plan graphics to be uploaded into the registration process in order to give registrants a reference map. However, there are a handful of companies with specific floor plan technology that can streamline exhibitors’ registration experience. Instead of registering as an exhibitor and then as an attendee, the entire process can be rolled into one simple registration using integration to make the two systems communicate.

When an exhibitor selects a registration type, the technology collects all attendee data, and then allows the customer to view and select the specific exhibitor booth location.

Real-time inventory is displayed to show what’s available, reserved and on hold. Exhibitors can also check back at their convenience to see if any booth space has opened up and make changes themselves. The planner never has to be involved – the exhibitor registers for both the conference and the exhibit and all charges are paid in one transaction.

Hotel Booking Systems
Integrating the event hotel block right into the online registration process helps to keep registrants from booking their own rooms and sticking the planner with an unfilled room block and added expense. Some online group-booking systems offer an API specifically developed to create a seamless connection in the registration process for booking hotel reservations.

Basically, a registrant’s information is passed through to the online booking system and pre-populates the registrant’s information within the hotel’s booking forms. Registrants are unaware that they have left the event registration site to complete this phase of their registration. Easier travel and hotel booking arrangements mean that attendees are booking within reserved room blocks and minimize last-minute negotiation with hotel vendors.

Travel Booking Systems
It can be a real hassle for planners to manage the travel booking for attendees. Travel engines like Orbitz and Travelocity are convenient and have the benefit of reliability and accessibility built in. Group codes along with name and travel dates can be passed via integrated communication and pre-populate search forms to book travel. This makes the process even easier for registrants.

RFID Scanning Devices
Radio Frequency Identification is a godsend if it’s necessary to track attendees’ participation at an event or conference exhibit. Bar codes and swipe cards that exhibitors use to identify leads are common. With RFID, it can get real advanced – depending on the budget available.

Advanced RFID works like this: a chip is incorporated into each badge with the attendee’s event information. Then electronic “counters” are set up in the doorway of each session or at each exhibitor booth.

Data is passed from the RFID to the online registration system, making the planner a hero in the eyes of exhibitors. The two integrated systems “talk” to automatically track who attended each session and will collect any other needed data. Complete attendance lists can then easily be sent to speakers, vendors or other event stakeholders for post-event follow-up and marketing.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems
The data has been captured for vendors, which is great. Now that data needs to be incorporated with the existing data in the proprietary CRM system that is tracking campaigns, educational participation or other activities. Not a problem.

Remember the diagram from before with two-way communication between integrated systems? Well, this is a perfect example of how event information can flow into the online registration and attendee management system to market, promote and capture registrations for events as well as flow back to the CRM application to indicate who attended what, when, how often, etc.

Accounting Systems
The event is over. It’s time to determine if the event revenue or break-even goals were met and to ensure that all appropriate fees have been paid. Any online registration system that collects payments should be able to provide revenue and financial management reports. However, accounting departments frequently want or need to run those charges through the internal billing system as well.
The integration process via Web services or APIs can be made incredibly secure so that even the most sensitive information can confidently be transferred back and forth between systems.

Resources Needed for Integration
Integration is almost always possible. Some online registration providers will have existing partnerships with complementary systems and it will cost very little to make the systems “talk” to each other because the communication line is already established.

Others may be a bit more involved if the integration must begin from scratch. If this is the case, then be sure to discuss the integration with both internal technical staff and the vendor to estimate the time, process and costs involved.

It’s an exciting time for meeting planners as new tools are developed to make life easier through automating traditionally tedious manual processes. Integrating niche products into an existing online registration system further simplifies the process for both meeting planners and attendees. Registrants are able to access all event information from one central place and be assured that they are registering for, and being charged for, exactly what they want. Additionally, planners gain the flexibility and control to purchase and use only the tools that make sense and work best for their events.

A final thought: technology is not a four-letter word and the rise of specialty systems can work to a meeting planner’s benefit when used to enhance a core online registration and attendee management system.