EventElephant using social media to set it apart from herd

Irish Tech journalist, Marie Boran recently did a feature piece on EventElephant for the Irish Times, focusing on our social media strategies and how social networking is contributing to our revenue and its impact as a lead generator. You can read her article here.

FOR ONLINE businesses, global reach also means global competition but Dublin-based ticketing firm EventElephant is separating itself from the herd – by tapping into the fast-growing social media scene where word of mouth and “liking” something based on your friend’s recommendation are what sell tickets.

EventElephant was founded in 2008 but already has prestigious clients including KPMG and An Post, and is signing up nearly 500 new event organisers per month across Ireland and the UK.

Catering for smaller companies as well as large-scale events EventElephant is an end-to-end service that includes branded event website, secure online payments for tickets, a Facebook app for event promotion, sales tracking and a contact database that the client can export

The recently added Facebook integration provides an easy “one-click” way for events planners to socialise their event online without getting bogged down in social media strategies.

“We are currently running a survey to look at how social networking is influencing the choices people make about attending music events,” says Una Coleman, the firm’s marketing manager.

“For instance, 63pc of respondents say Facebook is their preferred platform to hear about music events and 48pc say they receive between one and five Facebook music event invites a week.”

Social media is also an important enterprise tool for the company itself; 10pc of new business each month is a direct result of its social networking activity, which includes a blog, Twitter account and LinkedIn group.

“In as much as we can, resources permitting, we manage our presence across all the key social networking platforms. Facebook is becoming a hub for events, particularly entertainment events,” says Coleman.“We’ve had some great wins recently via Twitter including London Air Ambulance, and Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce.

As well as keen use of social media, EventElephant has also taken another leaf out of the new wave of Silicon Valley start-ups’ handbook: bootstrapping is preferable to relying on external funding.

“Bootstrapping is always difficult, especially when developing very complex software and there is a big investment required in the technology. Operating a ‘lean start-up’ as recommended by Eric Ries, a Silicon Valley author, speaker and consultant, you watch the costs like a hawk and measure everything.”

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Events marketing service hooks up with Facebook

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Summer Special for Dublin Chamber of Commerce Members

In the spirit of the silly season we are delighted to offer all Dublin Chamber members the opportunity to set up their first event on EventElephant for FREE, for events set up by July 31st.

EventElephant is an Online Events Registration system. It’s easy to use. You don’t have to be a techie.

• Create an event registration website in minutes
• Promote your events automatically via Facebook
• Sell you event tickets with online registration
• Take secure online payments for your event bookings

Don’t forget the deadline of July 31. All you have to do is set your event up before the 31st – the actual date of your event can be any date before or thereafter. Leave a comment here that you're a member and we'll send you the promotion code.

Sign up now

EventElephant Integrates with Facebook

~ EventElephant Creates A Buzz For Event Organisers with its Facebook integration application~

Dublin, London, 13 July, 2010
EventElephant, a leading European online event registration provider, launches its new Facebook integration application. Event organisers can now quickly and easily upload their events to their Facebook pages.
“Word of mouth has always been the most effective and low cost marketing strategy for event organisers”, says Eamon O’Brien, CEO of EventElephant. “Now, “world of mouth” and social networking are great ways of letting lots of people know about your event.”


Whether you are a professional event organiser selling tickets online for your music festival or seminar and conference, a university managing alumni events, a training company marketing your training modules, or a sports organiser planning a sports event or fund raiser “socialising” your events will help you increase your ticket sales. With just one click you can upload and publish your event on Facebook. From there, event planners can invite their friends and spread the word.

Social Networking platforms like Facebook are powerful tools to help event planners promote their events. Facebook is reaching more and more users every day and it’s a great way to spread the excitement about your event and reach your target customers. Fernando T. Martin, Life Festival Director comments, “EventElephant’s new Facebook integration is good news for Life Festival and music festival organisers. Our attendees are aged between 20 and 40. They all use Facebook. They all talk to each other about the gigs through Facebook. This is a great opportunity for us to be able to promote our festival and provide a direct link to sell tickets from Facebook.”


Eamon O’Brien, EventElephant’s CEO explains how technology is both revolutionising and democratising the event industry. “You don’t have to be a techie to take advantage of these tools. EventElephant’s easy to use and affordable online event software means all event planners can have professional looking websites, can invite attendees automatically and sell tickets online. With our Facebook integration event planners can now upgrade their marketing into viral conversations and create an online buzz about their event”.


Start Socialising Your Events Today:


About EventElephant
www.EventElephant.com was established in 2008 and is rapidly gaining a reputation as an innovative technology provider in the event management industry. Its event planning technology now underpins events and festivals of all sizes in the UK, Ireland and other countries across the globe. EventElephant won the Best Innovative Start-Up through Digital Enterprise award at the Digital Media Awards 2010. EventElephant has offices in London and Dublin.


Marketing & Media Contact
Una Coleman
Marketing Manager
+ 353 (86) 8186903,
+44 (0)20 34112035

Tips for Green Event Planning & Marketing

Are you planning your events in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner? Some simple actions can make a difference and win you a green badge of responsibility and another way to help you stand out from your competitors. Being perceived as green can bolster your reputation as an event organiser: indeed, many businesses actively promote their “green” practices to enhance their reputation. Many companies have already learned that an increasing number of consumers are demanding more environmentally responsible products and services: you’ll also find that it encourages good business practices among your employees.

We hear a lot about going green in the event marketing and planning industry. Luckily, the worlds of "cost-effective" and "eco-friendly" are converging - in many cases, going green can actually cut costs and time. Whatever event you are organising, it’s easy to go green. Here are some easy ways that EventElephant can help you to support the green movement from within your organization.

1. Be Creative
Why not get your staff together to brainstorm promotional and marketing techniques that cut down on flyers and printed advertisements. Produce environmentally responsible marketing materials and signage. Use ambient media instead of flyers where you can communicate with just as many people with less cost and waste.

2. Use Paperless Technology
Use new media and electronic technology to cut down your paper use. Create a conference web site; offer online registration and confirmation; and promote your event online using the web and/or email. It’s environmentally friendly, reduces your administration costs and your workload!

3. Use the Internet and Social Media to Promote Your Event
Reduce waste and use our online invitation tool to invite your guests to your events. Send them reminders and deliver their tickets online.
Use Social Media to promote your event. EventElephant’s new Facebook integration allows you to post your event to your Facebook page and inform your “friends” of your next event. Eliminating paper and using e- invitations will save you money on postage and printing cost as well as reducing the environmental impact of your event.

4. Use Transport Services
Can you organise buses and car pooling to your gig? How far is the venue from the airport? Is there a shuttle service? Can attendees share taxis? Having your venue in a rural location can mean an overload of traffic and massive traffic pollution: it is the biggest cause of pollution at festivals. Here’s an example of how Sibin Festival 2010 used its EventElephant festival website to organise transport for the attendees: they could book their tickets online but also buy bus tickets online to get to and from the festival: You can build a customised website in minutes and include detail on a whole range of subjects relevant to your event.













5. Sell Tickets Online
Did you know that you can anticipate an increase of 20% in ticket sales when you sell tickets online? And be environmentally at the same time.

Now spread the word! Ask delegates to evaluate the sustainability aspects of your conference, your music festival or golf tournament for instance. You can post a questionnaire on your EventElephant website and email to attendees to fill out after the event. It’s also a good way to build your relationship with your attendees, for future events. Tell delegates and the media about your sustainable practices. You'll be surprised, green efforts are contagious.

Turn your marketing green with us today. Get Started Now!.

Take the stress out of organising your golf event and sell tickets online

We’re all fired up with enthusiasm and renewed interest in our golf game after last week’s fantastic win by Graeme McDowell – the first European to take the coveted trophy since 1970. What an achievement and great day for the Northern Irish man.

Over the next few months most of you are probably going to have busy playing schedules: more of you will be running golf tournaments and competitions, planning corporate and golf society outings. Deliver a successful golf outing and you can be a winner too!

Whether your clients golf on a single digit handicap or just play for pleasure EventElephant, the online event registration system, is here to help you make your golfing events run smoothly and professionally.

EventElephant automates all the essential tasks to help you market and promote your golf event. You can:

• Create a contact database and event contact list.
• Sell tickets online. We know this will increase your ticket sales by at least 20%.
• Set up several ticket categories, including concessions and promotional offers.
• Send promotional emails about your event and manage the responses, attendee sign-up and create name badges.

All that will give you your albatross!

Here are a few tips to running a winning golf society event.

• If it’s a fundraiser get it registered on the website of the charity / charities you are supporting.
• Send out invites early and ensure you collect your funds through EventElephant to avoid cancellations. EventElephant lets you send email invitations for your events straight to your target audience.
• Social networking sites are great for letting lots of people know about your event. It’s easy and cost effective. Just log on to Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn and send your url to your contacts. With EventElephant’s new Facebook Application, as the event organiser you can automatically and quickly upload details of your event to your Facebook page, getting notice of your event in front of your own friends. Ask your contact list to spread the word and upload to their social networking sites.
  
• Send out reminders 3 days in advance with start times: ask attendees to arrive 30 minutes early to allow time for players to get introduced and find their team members. EventElephant’s email functionality allows you to send an email to everybody who is registered and or invited.
• Remind people to advise you if they’re not available to play so you can reallocate places and reorganise teams.
• If networking is important to the event make sure you get permission from attendees to circulate the attendee list in advance of the event.
• Advise people of the club’s dress code. You can do this in your invitation or reminder. You can also include a section on your EventElephant website on dress code and any other club rules.
• Give clear instructions to all players when they arrive: facilitate introductions to get players quickly sorted into their teams.
• Ensure the teeing off times are kept to schedule. Try booking tee times 4 months in advance to secure the date you want. Business societies usually prefer to get tee times from 1.30pm onwards.

Get Started today: learn more and see what other golf event organisers have done: click here.

“We are running our 6 golf events on EventElephant’s online event registration software. It has made life so much easier for our society golf organisers. We have a great looking website with all the information of the tournaments. We can email our members directly and people can sign up to our mailing list. In fact, we use EventElephant’s registration system as the website for the IFSC Golfing Society. It’s a tremendous resource and so cost effective”. Honorary Secretary, IFSC golf society.

Now go for that hole in one – Eventelephant online event registration software. It’s free to give it a go – just click here.