Trade show trends indicate that more than four in five attendees (82%) hold buying authority. It’s, therefore, no surprise that the average ROI for such events is at least 500%—without a premium meeting scheduler software.
The most successful businesses see an ROI closer to 1000%—that’s $10 earned for every $1 spent. The problem for many businesses that don’t see these returns is partly because of their reliance on marketing and scheduling tools that are not designed specifically for event meetings.
Are you using Outlook, Google Calendar, or Calendly as meeting scheduler software? If so, you might be missing out on big opportunities.
What’s the problem with using standard calendar tools to optimize meeting scheduling? And how do you determine whether your tradeshow meetings are high value? Let’s unpack how to increase your trade show ROI and maximize every meeting opportunity by switching to the right tools ASAP.
Basic Meeting Scheduling Tools: Are They Enough for You?
While spreadsheets, Outlook, Google Calendar, and other applications might suffice for simple appointments and reminders, they are not good enough for B2B events where the goal is scheduling, managing, and analyzing as many high-quality meetings as possible.
You need a solution that can handle complex scheduling at an event—especially a hybrid event. Real-time team insights, resource management, and business system integration are mission-critical for best results. Events present incredible opportunities to engage with international and local buyers at scale. A missed opportunity here is often an opportunity you’ll never have again.
Suppose competitors have a more robust meeting scheduler software. In that case, there’s a good chance that they’ll make better sense of organizing and streamlining big event chaos to draw in new business and solidify potential deals.
Dynamic meeting scheduler software lets attendees book event meetings via a mobile app and links your most suitable sales experts accordingly.
With client details immediately available, sales reps can access customer information before the meeting. This allows them to prepare appropriately and maximize every sales opportunity with contextual upsell or cross-sell suggestions.
Confirmation notifications are automated, and cancellations are instantly processed to open time slots for new requests on demand. This means less time spent planning—and more time spent networking and selling.
Appointment schedulers that integrate with other sales tools and CMS like Salesforce reduce error-prone manual tasks. Automated data integration further eliminates time-consuming tracking between applications.
You need pre, during, and post-event meeting analysis to maximize your trade show ROI. If your meeting scheduling software does not provide data-driven event insights, you’re missing out on a chance to strategize for future events, maximize post-event follow-ups, and perfect your marketing.
Essential Features of Robust Meeting Scheduler Software for Trade Show Meetings
Now that you know what basic calendaring software is missing, what should you look for when choosing more effective meeting scheduler software?
1. The Ability to Capture the Key Elements of High-Value Trade Show Meetings
Events entail coordinating hundreds (or even thousands) of meetings simultaneously. Making notes for manual processing at the bottom of a calendar invite only adds to the administrative burden and delays efficient scheduling.
With the best-in-class event meeting scheduler software, the customized form accompanying meeting requests lets you get relevant meeting context and easily categorize the who, what, when, and where.
The meeting is automatically assigned to the most appropriate salesperson or executive according to topic and expertise. Additionally, the application automates venue and time confirmation according to availability and room capacity to prevent double bookings.
2. Privacy and Security Features to Protect Critical Data
There is always a security risk whenever a business or personal information is involved in a transaction. When asking attendees to provide personal details for booking events or meetings, you are responsible for protecting their data.
Instead of numerous paper trails containing attendee and company information, meeting scheduler software allows organizers to manage all the data digitally. Hard copies are easy to misplace and sensitive data can quickly end up in the wrong hands during the chaos of an event.
A quality meeting scheduler software protects sensitive information with security measures such as password protection and secure data storage. The software should feature controls to restrict access to specific individuals and track activity to detect suspicious behavior.
Since attendees use an attendee version of the app for personal event management and meeting booking, you can securely share executive briefing documents, presentations, brochures, and manuals directly to their personal devices.
3. Integration With Business Tools for Seamless Workflow
Meeting scheduler software should integrate with other business tools, including customer relationship management (CRM) systems, email platforms, and marketing automation tools.
The integration lets teams gather and analyze data from various sources. This information is key to personalizing attendee experiences, tracking engagement, and measuring a trade show’s impact.
Cross-platform integration lets you expedite and streamline tasks, minimize errors, and save on hours of manual work.
You can share relevant meeting and customer data across sales and marketing teams, enabling them to take customer touchpoints to the next level. Conversely, not having access to important information when needed slows decision-making and results in missed opportunities.
Integration additionally allows teams to view reports and track progress holistically instead of only having insights into selected sales activities at any given time.
4. Data Analytics and Reporting Capabilities to Measure Trade Show Success
Event analytics offer valuable insights into customer feedback at every event stage. You can see which areas drive the most traction and gain a deeper understanding of your target audience.
Reporting and data visibility allows you to track metrics such as:
- Event engagement
- Customer feedback
- The number of meetings booked versus the number of meetings executed
- Room utilization
- Sales leaderboards
- Popular topics
The best meeting scheduling software will display relevant insights on-demand in an easy-to-read format. This enables you to generate KPIs for follow-ups and optimize your budget for future events.
It also allows easy sharing of automated reports so that you can present accurate feedback—with no human error—to the relevant execs and stakeholders for on-point decision-making.
Empower Your Team With the Right Meeting Scheduler Software
Coordinating multiple touchpoints with hundreds of attendees at trade shows is only possible with robust meeting scheduler software.
You want a tool that replaces tedious and error-prone manual processes with detailed, efficient, and accurate scheduling. It should enable in-person, online, and off-site meeting bookings while offering transparency and data insights into sales activities.
You also want a real-time tool to measure event ROI and access scheduling, sales, and customer engagement reports on-demand. Fully secure and compatible with your existing tech stack, the right meeting scheduler software can facilitate a memorable full-circle customer journey—from initial event marketing to signing the deal.
Empower your team to maximize every opportunity and lead prospects on a remarkable customer journey through the sales funnel.
