Some of the biggest companies rely on strategic meetings at events and trade shows to boost their business growth, increase qualified business avenues and ultimately drive topline and profit. But of the many strategic meetings that are organized, are unproductive and a waste of time. The reasons for this may range from unclear agendas and the absence of decision-makers to the use of outdated technology.
This blog aims to paint a before and after picture of strategic meetings at events and what a product like Jifflenow Event Meetings brings to the fold.
Scheduling meetings and gaining confirmations
Before:
Meeting Managers and Coordinators had a tough time getting attendees to accept and confirm meeting requests for events that were two or three months away. They had to go back-and-forth with emails and update multiple spreadsheets. An average of 14 emails are sent between requesters and attendees before a meeting is confirmed. And the rate of meeting acceptance via emails was not promising to say the least.
Spreadsheets have their own set of pitfalls. In short, not only was this a tedious task but it an extremely error-prone process. And these types of errors have the potential to cost companies thousands and even millions of dollars.
After:
With Jifflenow Event Meetings (JEM), a Meeting Manager is able to pre-schedule meetings with ease. Needless to say, the Meeting Automation Platform eliminates the need to update multiple spreadsheets, go back-and-forth with emails, and helps avoid grave errors. Moreover, JEM helps Meeting Managers increase the number of strategic meetings organized at events and create impactful interactions.
Calendars and executive availability
Before:
Having SMEs and C-suite executives attend meetings drastically shortens the decision-making process and in turn, the sales cycle. But Meeting Managers and Coordinators had absolutely no visibility into Executive and SME calendars and schedules. These Executives have time slots on multiple calendars and these are not in sync. And this makes it difficult for Meeting Managers to lock them down for high-impact meetings.
After:
JEM’s interface offers a calendar view where Meeting Managers and Coordinators are able to book meetings according to the availability of internal attendees. Additionally, it integrates with calendar applications like GCal and Microsoft Exchange. This ensures that Executive and SME calendars are synced with the MAP interface to block off time slots reserved for personal commitments. This not only provides transparency but helps avoid overlaps and double-bookings.
Utilization of resources
Before:
Organizations spend thousands and even millions of dollars on events and trade shows in an attempt to bring in credible business, build relationships with customers, and engage with highly segmented audiences. Meeting spaces and booths are two of the biggest components of the budget. However, despite the effort that goes into setting up the booth and managing multiple spaces, a number of meetings get rescheduled because of the lack of meeting spaces.
After:
The calendar view while booking a meeting on the Jifflenow MAP offers Meeting Managers complete transparency into the availability of meeting spaces. Meeting Managers can not only see availability of rooms at any given point but can also allot meeting spaces based on requirements. Moreover, they can additionally be prepared to accommodate walk-ins or ad-hoc meetings.
CRM, Marketing Automation, Badge Scanners, and Event Apps
Before:
An event is aided by technology to a great extent. Software like CRM, Marketing Automation, Badge Scanners, and Event Apps are all crucial tools to help event marketers gather information from attendees, update records, expedite marketing initiatives and deliver delightful event experiences. However, more often than not, these tools work in silos. They store a wealth of information but in isolation, this information is hard to derive and collate. And this means that marketers lose out on actionable insights that can help them improve their campaigns as well as drive better results.
After:
The power of the Jifflenow Meeting Automation Platform is best realized when it is integrated into a customer’s existing system. Jifflenow Event Meetings integrates with a number of marketing and sales enablement software like CRM, Marketing Automation, Badge Scanning, Virtual Conferencing, and Mobile Event applications. These integrations enables the seamless flow of information and data among systems and can not only help event teams avoid the need to manually maintain multiple records but can also improve efficiency by a great extent.
Tracking metrics and measuring ROI
Before:
Analytics is an important aspect of understanding returns and attributing value to events. As mentioned earlier, since Meeting Managers and Coordinators use multiple tools to manage and coordinate strategic meetings at events and trade shows. Analyzing meetings at events can tell Meeting Managers a great deal about how well the event campaign has done and can help improve efficiency. Unfortunately, a lot of information is lost in spreadsheets. This means that a lot of insightful metrics do not get noticed.
After:
With Jifflenow Event Meetings, Meeting Managers have access to crucial meeting metrics that can help them not only monitor performance in real-time but can help them attribute meetings with influenced revenue. This helps marketing make smarter decisions in terms of improving efficiency and projecting a more accurate ROI figure through standard and custom reports. They can then use these reports to justify spends and budgets.
To learn more about Jifflenow Event Meetings, visit www.jifflenow.com or click on the button below to talk to one of our product experts.
