Tech tools that generate revenue for your event

August 20, 2012

We all know the phrase, ‘nothing in life is free except for the air we breathe’. Well unfortunately this is mostly true for all of us. With the ever increasing costs associated with planning, hosting and even participating in an event we need to be innovative in exploring new ways to cover the costs and where possible, generate additional revenue for an event, other than the obvious, increasing participation fees for attendees. So why mention this in relation to engaging technology?

There are a lot of points to consider when selecting an event technology vendor/developer. Some of the key points I have addressed in a MICEtalk August 2012 article titled ‘Choosing the Right Mobile Event Apps® for your Event’.

I want to share with you a few simple things you should be looking for in event technology that will help you reduce or even eliminate development and implementation costs. Hey, with a bit of creative thinking you could even increase revenue for your event.

Wouldn’t that be a welcome change?

Sponsorship Opportunities

Check with your technology developer to ensure that the tools developed provide opportunities to promote various levels of sponsorship. Sponsorship should be available in a variety of levels from Gold, Silver etc. (call them what you will) and include landing pages, banners advertising, brand placements, brand watermarks in order to maximise the exposure of your sponsors. When using an Event App or communication tool you could even sell session, speaker and alert sponsorship in order to develop additional revenue streams.

Banner Advertising

Check with your technology developer to ensure that the tools developed provide opportunities to offer various levels of advertising to sponsors, exhibitors or other event stakeholders. Banner ads, Full screen ads, Alert based ads. You could even sell advertising to local restaurants, transportation companies, golf courses, theatres and other local area attractions and activities. Explore new ways to reach attendees.

Enhanced Exhibitor Profiles in Event Apps

Sell enhanced profile listing to sponsors and exhibitors. If you don’t feel you can ask exhibitors for additional contributions simply include the profile listings as part of the booth participation fee. Sell banner ads, alerts, sponsorship, lead generation, QR code builders and connection schedulers. Also offer sponsors and exhibitors the opportunity to include handouts and video in their profiles, all for an additional fee.

Revenue share

Another option to further reduce your development costs is to ask your developer if they would be interested in a revenue share model where you both share the upfront development cost, reducing your initial outlay. In turn you would then share any revenue generated through sponsorship or advertising sales with the developer as a reward for the risk.

If you think creatively I am certain you will come up with many new and innovative ways to increase event revenue through implementation of event technology tools. As development of these tools is inevitable we will continue to see both the opportunities and benefits increase for all stakeholders at your event.

Should you choose to implement one or all of the strategies, done properly, an Event tech tool should never represent a cost to your event. Event Tech represents an opportunity for you and your attendees to improve communication, collaboration and networking, increase exposure for all stakeholders, extend the life of your event and provide a new stream of revenue.

There are a host of fantastic tools available. Go out and deploy one at your next event.