Marketing, planning events online can save time, money, prevent last-minute headaches

Event planning can be a data-management nightmare.

There are addresses to manage, registrations to record, payments to keep track of, schedules to manipulate, databases to maintain and chances to make mistakes in every category.

But increasingly, meeting organizers planning everything from major trade shows like SuperComm to smaller seminar-style meetings are using high-tech tools to escape the bad dream.

?We’ve found that utilizing a Web-based product keeps us focused on our core business, event planning, not programming,? said Deb Bartlett, managing partner in Executivevents, a Niwot meeting planning company that handles conferences, seminars and incentive programs.

About 90 percent of Executivevents clients use Boulder-based RegOnline’s online registration- and data-management system developed by Attilla Safari, an alumnus of CareerTrack, the defunct Boulder seminar-producing giant.

Customers look more tech savvy if they’re using cutting-edge registration technology, but they get a real boost from the administrative cost savings and increased accuracy, Bartlett said.

?The Internet has had a significant impact on the planning process, making meeting planners more efficient and more effective,? she said. ?Nearly every step of the planning process, from marketing to registration to evaluation processing is happening via the Web.?

The RegOnline system accepts registrations and payments and immediately deposits credit-card payments into the event’s bank account. It allows the customer to send e-mail invitations, confirmations and reminders that can include a link that allows an expense-report receipt to be printed. At the event site, it can take care of badge printing.

RegOnline also has sophisticated reporting features that range from a downloadable database of names, addresses and company affiliations, to generating precise reports that can be used to book hotel rooms or make sure there are enough brownies and coffee available in between sessions. The fee is $2.50 per registration or 5 percent of the transaction if credit card processing is included.

?As is true with any e-commerce application, the biggest advantage is that you don’t have to do that data entry; your customers do it for you,? said Safari, who is RegOnline’s chief executive officer.

In addition to eliminating the labor needed to handle fax and phone registrations, online registrations typically are more accurate. ?People are going to be more sensitive when they enter their own information,? Bartlett said.

Online credit card processing cleans up the accounts receivable process. ?It verifies the credit card immediately. It just boots out people who can’t pay,? Safari said. ?You don’t complete the order unless the money is there.?

Bartlett, who also is a CareerTrack veteran, said some combination of online and direct marketing of their meetings appeals to most clients. ?It’s rare that you’ll find a buyer without an e-mail address or Internet access,? she said.

Given the choice, people tend to choose e-mail as their preferred way to be contacted, said Julie Herz, vice president of sales and marketing at Redstone Meadery in Boulder. ?When we had a guest book out front with no columns specified, people most often just put down their names and an e-mail address,? she said.

So when it came time to promote the March 16 Boulder Revel, where two Colorado vineyards, Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy and the meadery will show off their wares at an open house, Herz said it was a ?no brainer? to start with a big e-mail push.

?You don’t lose it. It makes a professional impression and makes us look organized,? she said. Herz expects to directly invite about 2,000 people; about half of those will receive e-mail invitations. ?The only thing it costs us is time.?

Herz is handling the Boulder Revel blast internally, using her own address lists, so the contact is effectively free.

If you’re renting a permission-based e-mail list, however, expect to pay $150 to $450 per thousand addresses. Companies provide blast services that can run as much as $299 per month for as many as 10,000 e-mails and as cheap as $299 a year for 10,000 e-mails each month.

?E-mail blasts get way more pop than fax broadcasting, and it’s cheaper,? said Bartlett. But she cautions against using a blast e-mail as cold invitation to a new event. The technique works best when you know your audience, and you’re pitching an event that’s held year after year.

?If you’re going out and marketing something new or trying to gain new attendance, you really need to do direct mail,? Bartlett said. ?We have seen events fail because blasts don’t work when you’re shooting it off to unknown people.?

Bartlett often recommends a combination of direct mail and e-mail. ?We’ve had people do a ?hold-the-date’ postcard that includes a link to register on a Web page,? Bartlett said. ?It’s still pretty inexpensive.?

?Direct mail is really expensive, especially when you’re talking about printing a catalog or brochure then shooting it out to thousands or even millions. There is printing, postage and graphics, and mail-list and processing costs. The more you can reduce the cost with an e-mail blast, the better.?

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