As trade shows, exhibitions, and other live events get increasingly popular, managing the growing number of attendees can become a challenge. This is the situation that affiliate marketing services firm Rakuten LinkShare Corp. found itself in when the five networking symposiums it produces each year attracted as many as 900 attendees.
At these events, which bring together web-based publishers and the retailers with whom they work, Rakuten LinkShare's account managers found themselves trying to coordinate up to 2,000 individual meetings for attendees, booking them manually using Microsoft Outlook.
"Our account managers began to get overwhelmed," says Pam O'Neill, manager of trade shows and events at Rakuten LinkShare.
"They had great difficulty juggling the meeting schedules of our attendees. In the weeks leading up to each event, it had become a full-time job for our account managers to schedule -- and often re-schedule -- networking meetings for our attendees. The process just wasn't practical or effective."
Attendees wanted more control over the meeting-booking process, and sometimes even found themselves doublebooked, she adds. So Ratuken LinkShare turned to Pathable, which provides online and mobile social networking platforms for event producers. The company created a private social network for the symposiums, which allowed attendees to view each others' schedules and prearrange meetings on their own through a central platform. Account managers were able to do the same thing for attendees who wished to use their services in half the time and with fewer errors.
"Pathable started out with networking events," says Jordan Schwartz, CEO of Pathable. "It's difficult to find the right person to talk to at a 1,000-person cocktail party."
Released last November, Pathable's event experience platform includes an online agenda, alerts, exhibitor listings, private meeting scheduling, interactive facility and trade show floor maps, surveys and audience response, and other aspects of a conference's digital program. "Our vision was to create a digital event experience," Schwartz says. "A digital conference-in-a-box, so the planners can concentrate on managing the event, getting speakers, attracting attendees."
Still, Pathable is much more than an online scheduling tool. It also creates a digital community where attendees can meet, mingle, and communicate before, during, and after the event. It integrates with major registration providers like Cvent and EventBrite.
At this point, a mobile experience for attendees is "table stakes" says Tony Wagner, vice president, Americas region, for CWT Meetings & Events. "You'll see more and more of that extended after the meeting," he says. "I think [event planners] are going to look at how they engage their customers throughout the year, before and after the event. The organization that wants them to come craves that regular engagement."