That Magic Number

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Your next event is rolling around, and it’s time to think about registration. You want to maximize attendance and dollars, so naturally, you start to consider doing some kind of early-bird registration special. But…exactly what kind? More precisely, what’s the most advantageous time for it to begin? And how long should it last?

Fortunately for planners everywhere, the answers to these questions need no longer rely on anecdotal evidence. We’ve evaluated over 6,000 events offering early-bird registration, and our analysis shows that the length and timing of the early-bird special is dependant on the size of the event being promoted.

Size Matters

It turns out that events of under 100 people see the highest impact with a short (60 days or fewer), urgent early-bird promotion. Conversely, we found that events of over 500 attendees saw a larger impact if the early-bird special was not quite as urgent, running as long as 120 to 150 days.

To confirm these findings, we compared the registration data for two RegOnline client events of over 500 attendees, one produced by Affiliate Summit Inc. and the other by LoanToolbox.
Affiliate Summit ran a shorter, up-front early-bird promotion for its 1,100-plus person summit and saw a marked increase in registrations prior to the early-bird deadline that ran for the first 60 days. However, the majority of registrations still came in within 60 days of the regular event registration deadline (total registration time was 180 days).

Conversely, LoanToolbox ran a longer initial early-bird period for its 2,000-person event and promoted an initial early-bird discount of $300, followed by a secondary early-bird discount of $100 before going to full price.

Interestingly, the organization was able to sustain a high number of registrations from the first through the second early-bird promotion (total registration time was 210 days). LoanToolbox was actually able to increase its registrations by an additional 25 percent by offering a secondary early-bird discount.

So while Affiliate Summit certainly benefited from its early-bird promotion, it is possible that it could have seen even greater impact by extending its early-bird promotional period.

Event planner Kat Blackburn of Executive Events in Boulder, Colo., found the results to be similar to her experience with events using an early-bird promotion. Early-bird pricing is an excellent way to create a sense of urgency to register, which in turn helps her better qualify her final counts for hotel and vendors for the upcoming event, she said. In fact, she uses her vendor deadlines frequently to help determine when to cut off her early-bird promotion.

Stuck in the Middle?

So where does that leave meeting planners with events of over 100 people but under 500? The data are still helpful, though not as concrete.

Here’s how it distributes: Events sized between 100 and 300 people trend toward the earlier, shorter, more urgent early-bird promotion to reap the best results. Events between 400 and 500 registrants trend toward the longer, less urgent early-bird promotion, with the end of the promotion running until 30 to 60 days prior to the event.

The Cost Factor

We also took another look at the data to see if the cost of the event had any impact on the timing of the early-bird registrations. This analysis found that the average registration costs for events in both groups — events under 100 and events over 500 — are within $20 of each other and further indicated that event cost is not a factor in when or how long to run an early-bird promotion.

That still leaves a sort of no-man’s-land for events with between 300 and 400 participants. The data show that these events are more reliant on the nature of the event for the impact of early-bird pricing and do not fit either trend identified for smaller or larger events.

So to maximize registrations for your events, follow these rules of thumb: If you have a small event (fewer than 300 attendees), promote early and urgently for 60 days or fewer. Larger events of 500-plus attendees require less urgency and more registration opportunity time — up to 120 days. It is also recommended that you let the early-bird offer go until 30 to 60 days prior to the event for these larger events.

Now that you know how to structure your registration, it’s time to implement it without delay. After all, the early bird gets the…well, you know.

About the author: Bill Flagg

Bill Flagg is president of online event registration software company RegOnline.

Contact: bflagg@regonline.com