Earlier this year, UK events company Square Meal approached EventElephant to help them build a registration website for their upcoming ‘Altitude 360’ event in London. The event was to celebrate the launch of Altitude 360’s new event space including the brand new River Room, plus an exclusive first view of the newly expanded panoramic space with 360 views of the London skyline. Time was short as they needed to get invitations sent out straight away as well as start taking bookings for the event. This is where EventElephant stepped in.
Simon Anderson, Marketing Executive for Square Meal commented ‘I've used several other online attendee management systems in the past, but always been disappointed - EventElephant was an entirely different experience. We didn't have a great deal of time to market the event and needed to set up an online registration page immediately - to my relief, the EventElephant set-up process was extremely user-friendly, and the site was up and running in a matter of hours’.
Not only were Square Meal able to set up their event in a very short space of time, they managed to sell out their event in record time also. To do this they used the simple marketing tools available to all organiser within the system.
Simon said ‘The system offers a wide range of layout, graphic and text options, so creating a bespoke site is incredibly simple. You certainly don't need to be a web genius to produce an eye-catching website, and the EventElephant team are always happy to help out over the phone.’
Square Meal are already planning their next event using EventElephant due to the massive success of ‘Altitude 360’. Simon added ‘The registration process for our event went very smoothly and we even surpassed our original target number of registrants. To any marketers frustrated with their current attendee management systems, I would certainly recommend EventElephant’.
Check out Square Meals growing database of venues both in London and throughout the UK www.squaremeal.co.uk
EventElephant are delighted to announce the launch of the EventElephant Partner Portal. Now not only can you SAVE money by organising and promoting your events through EventElephant, but you can also MAKE money!You can use EventElephant to Make Money in the form of commission. When you apply to become a partner you will receive your unique Partner ID. For any event that carries your partner ID code you will receive a pre-agreed percentage of the fees that EventElephant receive. That means for every event organiser that sets up an event using your code, you will receive a percentage of any money taken through ticket sales, simple!EventElephant is the perfect referral product. It clearly transforms online registration and payment for event organisers. They use it to increase their event attendances, reduce their administrative costs and improve the attendee experience. It’s easy to use and entirely self service.There are many tools within the Partner Portal that will help you to attract partners and promote EventElephant’s benefits and features. They include email templates, videos, HTML banners for your website, buttons for your blogs and a choice of sales collateral PDF’s.As soon as one of your organisers creates an event using your Partner ID, a member of the EventElephant team will contact you to arrange payment of your commission.To get started click here and sign up to become an EventElephant Partner today!
Central Hall Westminster one of London’s most famous event venues and EventElephant the leading online product for event organisers, team up to offer a powerful new event service.
Central Hall Westminster and EventElephant today announced that they have joined forces to offer a highly innovative new event partnership that opens up great new opportunities for all event organisers to transform the running of their events.
Together Central Hall Westminster and EventElephant will give event organisers the complete end to end event package - both from using self service online technology to being able to market to and register attendees, to also receiving superior ‘at show’ facilities and ‘on the ground’ support .Colin Pauley, Business Development Director at EventElephant, states that the combined expertise of both companies will deliver ‘success without stress for organisers – and will minimise costs, increase revenues and create great attendee experience, time and time again’.
About Central Hall Westminster
Central Hall Westminster is one of London’s most historic conference, exhibition and concert centres. Located adjacent to Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, Central Hall Westminster offers event organisers versatile meeting room facilities, as well as spaces for syndicate rooms, offices and dinners. With a team of dedicated event Managers and the latest audio and visual facilities, Central Hall Westminster offers every option for every event in stunning surroundings.
About EventElephant
EventElephant is a self service online product that makes it easy for event organisers to plan, organise and manage their events and their attendees. With EventElephant organisers can self build a registration website for specific events, promote and market the event online, sign up bookings and collect online payments, as well as monitor event progress with reporting dashboards.
‘We are delighted to be working so closely with EventElephant. Lots of our clients are looking for ways of making the driving of attendees to their events more efficient and affordable – and with EventElephant we can now offer them that ability and service’.
Michael Sharp, Managing Director Central Hall Westminster
‘We are thrilled to be partnering with such a wonderful venue. Users of EventElephant are always on the lookout for prestigious and magical event settings and Central Hall certainly fits the bill .The link up is a true meeting of the historic past and the innovative future’.
Ron Downey, CEO EventElephant
Along with the great new functionality that was launched last week for the EventElephant system, we have one more fantastic update that will make it even easier for you to sell out your events.
A new tool in the EventElephant system lets you instantly share your event with your social network including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and Bebo.
When you click on the relevant icon, an update about your event will be published on to your social networking page and with a link back to the event registration web page - meaning your whole personal network will be able to view and book directly on to your event. Make sure you check it out today!
Don’t forget that you can also follow EventElephant on Twitter by clicking here or become an EventElephant fan on Facebook by clicking here.
This week saw the launch of a new bunch of updates to the EventElephant system.
At EventElephant we’re committed to making the event organiser’s life as hassle-free as possible. That’s why we’re continually updating EventElephant. We release literally dozens of functionality enhancements every month. A nip here. A tuck there. If it makes EventElephant faster, easier, or more enjoyable to use, we’ll do it. Many of the updates we release are based on the feedback we receive from organisers themselves.
The great new functionality and tools are available for you to use immediately and will make creating your registration pages and managing your event even easier! For a full list of the updates click here. Here are some of the highlights;
Copy you existing events
When you are creating a new event registration page you will have the opportunity to copy most of the details from an existing or previous event. This will save you precious time when trying to duplicate an event.
Preview your event as you go along
As you are creating your event in the ‘create an event’ wizard you will now be able to view what you are creating as you create it. When you click the ‘Preview’ button a new window will open allowing you to visualise how your event registration page looks each time that you add text, a banner/logo or an image.
Waiting lists for sold out events
When tickets have been sold out for your event the system will automatically start to compile a waiting list of potential attendees.
Attendees who try to book tickets only to find them sold out will be asked if they want to join the waiting list for when more tickets are released by the organiser.
New RSVP functionality for organisers
Organisers will be able to give attendees the option of responding to an invite to attend their event with a Yes/No or a Maybe. If you have chosen to use the RSVP functionality then a new RSVP report will be available for your event in the Event Control Area. The report will present a list of potential attendees who have declined your invitation or who are as yet unsure about attending.
If you would like to know about future updates to the system please subscribe to the EventElephant Blog.
'WHAT A PAIR!' is an annual celebration of duets by Hollywood icons to benefit breast cancer research. The annual event, now in it’s seventh year, has raised over $2 million dollars towards breast cancer research. Proceeds from the Los Angeles show will go to the Breast Centre at the John Wayne Cancer Institute at St. John's Health Centre.
The show attracts huge Hollywood stars and for one night only they can let their hair down and show their support for this great charity by collaborating and singing famous duets. Artists who have performed in past "What A Pair!" events since 2002 including Jamie Lee-Curtis, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Taylor Dane, Jackie DeShannon, Joely Fisher, Sally Kellerman, Faith Prince, Lea Salonga, Lea Thompson, Nia Vardalos, Marg Helgenberger and Jorja Fox from CSI Vegas, will unite with new participants to continue the tradition.
This year's event is taking place on September 26, 2009 at Santa Monica's new Broad Stage Theatre. To read more about the event and to purchase tickets visit http://www.eventelephant.com/whatapair.
Switching from an offline to an online booking process can take a bit of getting used to – for organisers and attendees. Organisers sometimes feel anxious about ditching the paper-phone combo and going exclusively digital. Meanwhile attendees will carry on using the booking method they’ve always used for the organiser’s events – until they’re prompted otherwise. The emphasis for switching, however, lies with the organiser. They must take the lead if both parties are to reap the rewards of online event registration systems. Here are ten tips for getting your attendees on board: 1. Go 100% onlineDon’t give your attendees a choice. When you book a flight online, airlines don’t also give you the option to make phone bookings. And surprise, surprise – we book our flights online without a second thought.2. Tighten your marketing
Marketing emails should be attention-grabbing trailers. They’re not the place for listing all your event info. So make your emails short and punchy. A single, concise paragraph covering the highlights works a treat.
And to really maximise registrations, position your ‘Register Now’ button so it’s impossible to miss. Plus make sure it takes attendees straight to the bookings page of your event registration website.
3. Get linked up
Plaster the URL for your registration website everywhere. Always include it in any marketing emails you send out. Display it prominently on your corporate website. Add it to any social networking sites you use, like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, and include it in any emails to groups you belong to.
And don’t forget to add a clear call to action, like ‘Don’t miss out – register now’.
4. Create online incentives
People assume buying stuff on the internet is cheaper. So play on this assumption and make it cheaper to book online. For phone or postal registrations you could add a ‘manual processing fee’, for example.
Plus you can create another incentive by offering a discount for ‘early bird’ online bookings.
5. Refuse phone bookings
If someone calls wanting to make a telephone booking, tell them registrations and payments are only taken online and explain why. Then make things really easy for them by immediately emailing them the link to the registration page.
6. Give good warning
Prepare your attendees for the switch. Email them in advance explaining that for your next event bookings and payments will only be taken online.
If you let them know what to expect and how the process works, they’ll be far more agreeable.
7. You’ll love it
Email attendees and let them know exactly how they’ll benefit from online registrations – quick and easy to use, more convenient with 24x7 access, greater security, better communication etc.
See the Why event attendees love online registrations blog for more ideas.
8. Make it official
Let people know about the switch to online wherever and whenever you can. For example, mention it in automated phone greetings, incorporate it in your voicemail and in all printed materials, like mailshots and e-newsletters.
If you run lots of events at once, devote a page to your events on your corporate website. Include URLs and punchy descriptions for each event.
9. Educate attendees
Pre-empt any attendee concerns and include a short FAQ section or page on your corporate website (EventElephant’s FAQs will help you).
Provide easy-to-follow steps on how to register for your event. Put it on your corporate website or in any emails to attendees. And be positive and inspire confidence with an encouraging message like ‘Register now – it couldn’t be easier’.
10. Get your staff on board
Sounds obvious but make sure your staff know how online registrations work and are completely comfortable explaining the process to attendees. If they’re unsure about anything, you can always enroll them in one of EventElephant’s free online registration training sessions.
Earlier this year, UK events company Square Meal approached EventElephant to help them build a registration website for their upcoming ‘Altitude 360’ event in London. The event was to celebrate the launch of Altitude 360’s new event space including the brand new River Room, plus an exclusive first view of the newly expanded panoramic space with 360 views of the London skyline. Time was short as they needed to get invitations sent out straight away as well as start taking bookings for the event. This is where EventElephant stepped in.
