Association Event Tools and How to Leverage Their Data
Association events are essential for providing value to members but are also often costly investments. This can put pressure on your team as they try to balance your budget while still creating an engaging experience for your members.
That’s why your trade or professional association should leverage the right event management tools to boost attendance, maximize engagement, streamline operations, and make the most of each event.
We’ve identified essential association event software solutions and what features to look for in each tool. Make sure that you come prepared with these tools for your next event:
Ready to supercharge your in-person, hybrid, or virtual association events? We’ll explore top solutions and practices for making the most of them, from practicing good data hygiene to ensuring you choose the right vendor for your needs.
Event Management Software
Event management software refers to a broad set of tools that help associations plan, promote, and manage events. This software facilitates every step of the event lifecycle, from multichannel marketing to post-event reports. Plus, these systems improve the event experience for organizers and attendees alike.
That being said, some event management systems are more comprehensive than others. If you’re looking for an all-in-one platform to manage the creation and execution of your events, a few top features to keep an eye out for include:
- The ability to plan and manage all event formats—virtual, hybrid, and in-person
- Easy-to-use, mobile-optimized forms to streamline registration
- Ticketing and QR code or barcode scanning capabilities
- Seamless data integration with your association management software
- Reports on event and attendee data
- Management capabilities for vendors, sponsors, speakers, and exhibitors
When assessing event management software, be aware that many top providers cater to a range of audiences and may not have association-specific features. Narrow your search to vendors used to working with associations and have the resources you need to host your unique networking events, new member welcome meetings, conferences, online courses, and other events.
Community Engagement Platform
Associations don’t just need tools to host their events but to announce events, promote them, and continue conversations long after each event wraps up.
This is where a community engagement platform comes in. These tools enable associations to create private online platforms where their members can post content, interact with one another, and engage with your association’s offerings. Think of it as creating your own private Facebook or LinkedIn just for your association’s members.
When assessing community engagement platforms, look for the following features:
- Community feed. A community feed not only allows your members to connect with one another but also provides a place for your association to announce and promote events. Then, after the event wraps up, your team and your members can keep conversations going.
- Event hosting. Your community engagement platform should have basic video conferencing software for hosting virtual events. Plus, even if you have other event hosting tools, your community engagement platform should still have event scheduling tools so members can RSVP and stay updated with all event details.
- Marketing automation. Prior to your event, your community engagement platform can send alerts to RSVPed members to remind them about your event. Schedule when these reminders go out, such as one week, a day, and an hour before the event.
- Sponsorship promotions. Look for community engagement platforms that open the door to non-dues revenue opportunities, like sponsorships. For example, our favorite community engagement platform, Tradewing, allows associations to promote sponsors through a visible but non-obtrusive tab during events.
For trade and professional associations on a budget, Tradewing can double as your community engagement platform and your virtual event software. Compared to subscriptions for services like Zoom, you might find an all-in-one platform like Tradewing to be the most cost-effective option.
An Event Platform
Virtual and hybrid events are essential for engaging members throughout the year for many associations. As such, it’s essential to invest in an online event space where all attendees can gather to enjoy everything your association offers.
While there are plenty of free conferencing apps with basic streaming and discussion features, a dedicated event platform gives your association the power to connect with virtual attendees, encourage greater member engagement, and facilitate networking and community-building.
Many professional and trade associations have a significant number of members join solely to network. As such, hosting only a handful of in-person events a year isn’t optimal, nor are virtual events where attendees are passive.
Ensure your members get the most out of your event experience by seeking out an event platform that offers:
- Live chat and reaction features
- Polls, highlighted questions, and other interaction features
- Virtual community and committee creation features
- Viewable attendee profiles
- Chat and video invitation capabilities
These tools aren’t only important for virtual attendees, but they also help in-person attendees use their mobile devices to connect with others and enjoy a fuller, multi-faceted event experience.
Membership Data Software and Resources
Events provide an opportunity for associations to connect with their members. If done correctly, your association can encourage members to move to higher membership tiers, purchase add-ons, or increase their value by engaging in other activities. However, this is only possible with high-quality membership data management.
Having software to manage your memberships makes it easy to continually learn about your members and enhance your event follow-up. When members first join your association, ask them to create detailed profiles. While they should be able to pick and choose which of this information is private, your association will have access to essential details you can leverage to improve your communications.
Using membership management software is the best way for your association to keep detailed records at your event so that you always know how to contact your members afterward.
Unsure what data you should be targeting? Here are some suggestions for what data you should collect:
- Preferred name
- Age
- Email address
- Phone number
- Physical address
- Employment status and employer
- Educational background
You can ask for other information relevant to your association’s specific industry or about members’ interests and hobbies. While this may seem intensive, members are more likely to give out this information when completing their profiles since these details will help them network with other members.
Data Appends
If your association lacks member data or you fear your members’ information is outdated, you can ask members to take a second to update their profiles. If this proves ineffective, your emails are bouncing, or your physical invitations are being returned to sender, that might be a sign to kick your data collection practices up a notch with a data append.
Having updated records is critical in preserving your relationships with your members. Appending your data also encourages strong event turnout. Appending services such as those NPOInfo offers empower you to maintain contact with your members.
To conduct an append, reach out to secure appending services. During the appending process, you’ll share your members’ contact data with their team, who will then deliver appended records of phone numbers, email addresses, or any other information you request.
Regardless of whether you’re hosting a virtual networking fair or an in-person awards ceremony, all events can be improved when the right software is powering the planning, management, and hosting processes.
By taking advantage of the software platforms we’ve highlighted, you can increase member engagement, leverage your data, raise the value of your membership program, and reduce stress for your event organizing team.
