The document discusses 5 strategies for venues to support event planners and stand out from competition. It outlines key requirements of event planners, including innovative meeting formats, catering options, marketing support, quick RFP response times, and demonstrating ROI. The strategies discussed are providing a variety of meeting spaces, flexible furniture, technology options, healthy food and well-being services, digital marketing support, streamlined RFP processes, and tools for quantifying and qualifying event ROI. Collaboration between venues and planners is emphasized throughout.

1. HOW VENUES STAND OUT OF THE COMPETITION:
5 STRATEGIES TO SUPPORT EVENT PLANNERS
SILKE HOERSCH
DIRECTOROF MARKETING, EMEA
UNGERBOECKSOFTWAREINTERNATIONAL

2. TWEET WITH US!
#IBTM16 #IBTMVIBE #USIEMEA
@UNGERBOECKEMEA

3. A „TRADITIONAL“ EVENT PLANNER‘S CHECKLIST
 Available space
 Equipment
 Food & beverage
 Contract & pricing
 Destination & infrastructure

4. PUT YOURSELF IN THE PLANNER‘S SHOES

5. 5 KEY REQUIREMENTS OF EVENT PLANNERS
 Innovative meeting and event formats
 Catering and well-being offerings
 Marketing support
 RFP answer times
 ROI for venues & events

6. COLLABORATION IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS

7. [INNOVATIVE MEETING FORMATS][INNOVATIVE MEETING FORMATS]

8. A NEW GENERATION OF EVENTS
Millennials
Participatory culture
Unconference
Hybrid events
Flipped experience
Barcamp
Interaction

9. THE ATTENDEE OF THE FUTURE
• Has short attention span
• Has access to all the content
• Has an online brand
• Has a personality and influence in the online world
• Has lot of options
• Want to be where others are

10. EXPECTATIONS
• Know me!
• Engage with me where I am!
• Give it to me in the byte size I want!
• Give it to me at my level!
• Let me drive it!
• Talk about what matters to me today!

11. FUTURE MEETING FORMATS
6 requirements of future meeting formats
• Interaction
• Time
• Flexibility
• Security
• Short-term
• Experience

12. FUTURE MEETING FORMATS
What does that mean?
• Need to allow for interactivity
• Not tied to a single location
• Knowledge transfer is key
• Small groups
• Flexibile spaces & equipment
• Spontaneous, informal meeting opportunities

13. WHAT CAN THE VENUE DO?
• Offering different meeting spaces off the main areas
– Corners & Open Space opportunities
– Chairs and tables outside breakout session rooms
• Flexible furniture
– Easy to rearrange & not firmly installed
– Comfortable
• Conference and meeting technology
– Video technology & holograms
– WIFI needs to be a standard (How about branded WIFI?)

14. [CATERING & WELL-BEING][CATERING & WELL-BEING]

15. NEW FOOD CHALLENGES
Vegan
Vegetarian
Gluten-free
Lactose-free
Paleo
Allergies
Halal

16. WORK-LIFE-BALANCE: A GEN Y THING?
“According to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index,
nearly six in 10 millennials say that work-life balance and well-
being in a job are ‘very important’ to them”
 This is also impacting the meetings and events industry
 With travel, education, networking, social events, there’s a lot of
stress involved.
 How can you create a destination of well-being?

17. HEALTHY FOOD & WELL-BEING
• Pure, natural foods
• Eco-friendly & sustainable ingredients
• Fitness & healthy body
• Healthy mind: Mindfulness, yoga, meditation
• Different cultures and religions come together: Food habits need
to be respected and taken into account

18. WHAT CAN THE VENUE DO?
• Cooperate with in-house caterer and define standards for F&B
• Provide drinks & healthy food stations nearby
• Create comfortable corners and relaxation zones within the
main area with reduced noise
• Integrate elements of mindfulness: Offer space for meditation
and yoga sessions with mats, chairs and pillows
• Offer quiet blogger areas with a creative environment for writers,
journalists and professional bloggers

19. [MARKETING SUPPORT][MARKETING SUPPORT]

20. HOW TO MARKET THE EVENT AND THE DESTINATION
Venue website
Event calendar
Social Media
Event content
Ad space & sponsorships

21. SOCIAL MEDIA & CONTENT
• Content curation on Social Media
• Post about the event, date, venue, topic…
• Retweet/share posts from the organizer
• Conference content = high quality content
• Sharing is caring!

22. SPONSORSHIP REVENUE OPPORTUNITIES
• Digital displays
• Video walls
• WiFi login page
• Mobile App
• Exhibitor Portal

23. [RFP ANSWER TIMES][RFP ANSWER TIMES]

24. THE RFP REVOLUTION
Fast & easy
Cost-efficient
Flexible
Transparent
Comparable

25. WHAT DO PLANNERS EXPECT?
• Transparent, quick, easy proposals that they can easily compare
• Cost-efficiency
• Flexibility
• Consulting and recommendations from venue sales rep
• Collaboration tool

26. CHALLENGES FOR VENUES
• Strong competition with hotels and instant booking portals
• Consulting role during sales
• Keep RFP answer time as short as possible

27. WHAT CAN THE VENUE DO?
• Implement Service Level Agreements
• Analyze the time it takes you to put together a first proposal.
The quicker, the better!
• Offer transparent pricing
• Present the venue in the best & most beautiful way on your
website
• Offer collaboration portal for the planner on the website

28. [ROI FOR EVENTS][ROI FOR EVENTS]

29. EVENT ROI
• Define criteria and goals for the event together with the
planner
• Quantitative
• Qualitative

30. EVENT ROI: QUANTITATIVE EXAMPLES
• Sold tickets
• Amount of new attendees vs. amount of returning attendees
• Attendance and visitor streams
• Define touchpoints and data sources within the venue
• ibeacons or other location-based data
• Bar codes (badges) /function check-ins: By scanning attendees' badges you
can analyze how well certain areas were received or how popular sessions
were
• Popularity of event on Social Media (both venue and organizer side!)
– Social Shares
– Usage of event hashtag…

31. EVENT ROI: QUALITATIVE EXAMPLES
• Cooperation with venue staff to conduct surveys
• Visitor/delegate surveys during the event
– As easy as possible: Tablets at the entrance or event staff surveying
attendees with a few relevant questions
• Visitor/delegate surveys after the event
– Email blast

32. The future is digital & connected.The future is digital & connected.

33. • Second screens making the experience
personal and interactive
• Sensors and bands everywhere gathering data
and personalizing
• Entire walls and rooms and sounds creating the
experience
• Virtual and augmented reality enhancing the
experience
• Mobile apps and social media extending
TECHNOLOGY PLAYING A HUGE ROLE
IN CREATING THE EXPERIENCE FOR THE ATTENDEE

34. Ungerboeck Solutions.
Redefining the customer experience
• Venue and event management software
• CRM, booking & sales management tools
• Exhibition Portal & Service Center
• Innovative floor plan
• Integrated financials
• Venue website and collaboration

35. • Founded in 1985
• 6 offices around the globe
• 300 employees worldwide
• 50,000+ users
Ungerboeck

36. • Find me at booth O122
• See a demo
• Have a coffee with me
Wanna see Ungerboeck in action?

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38. THANK YOU