New Features for Better Events

Here at ezEvent, we're always working to make sure our event organizers have the tools they need to create events that will help them achieve success and make money. We released several new features earlier this week to help with that effort. Below you will find a brief overview of each new feature. Be sure to check out our Help Center for more in-depth information on how to use all of these features.

Automatic and Custom Fees: The automatic ticket fee feature takes the guesswork out of setting per ticket fees to the buyer! The feature, located on the Customize screen, allows the event organizer to decide whether they want ezEvent to automatically calculate the appropriate fee based on ticket price, if they want to manually enter in their own fee, or if they would not like to set any fee at all. Organizers also have the ability to set custom fees (like parking or shipping fees) that will be displayed during checkout after the ticket total is calculated and will be added to the total amount.

Multiple Event Dates: If you're hosting a play or other event that will occur on several different dates, the multiple event dates feature makes it easy for the ticket buyer to decide which date they'd like to attend. When you're on the Create Event page, you'll now be able to add in more than one date for your event. When you save the page, it will generate a unique event page for each event. Rather than having the buyer search through all of your event listings, they can land on any of the events and when they go to checkout they'll have the option to select which date they're looking to buy tickets to.

Tracking Codes - Google Analytics: Wondering which of your event promotions have been most effective? Enter in your Google Analytics tracking ID to start learning more about how ticket buyers are finding out about your event.

Discount Enhancements: If you're looking to create a discount code for your event, you now have the ability to limit the number of uses per discount code, set up a time frame for when the discount can be used, and set up sequential discounts so that when one runs out the next one will kick in.

Excel Import for Email Marketing: Not everyone keeps their email list in an email provider's address book. To make life easier for organizers who don't, we now allow you to upload an Excel spreadsheet containing all of your contacts so that in one step you can upload your contacts and send them an email invitation to your event.

Host Email Address in Buyer Ticket Email: As buyers place orders they receive confirmation emails. In the past these emails told them to direct questions to ezEvent's support team, however we ended up receiving many questions related to the event itself that we were unable to answer and had to forward on to the event organizer. User will now be given the event organizer's email address so that questions regarding the event can be answered more quickly and more efficiently.

Post-Checkout Host Site Link: Want users to be directed back to your website after they complete their ticket order? This new feature, located on the Customize screen, allows you to add in a link to the order confirmation page that will take customers back to any web page that you specify.

 

We hope you're as excited as we are about our new release! Which feature are you looking forward to using most?

Lessons Learned From the 2014 Academy Awards

The 2014 Academy Awards aired last night and there were many things that happened over the course of the night that event planners can learn from.

Planning an Efficient Schedule 

Award ceremonies like this are known to run long, which is more acceptable when there's good, relevant content filling up that time. That was often not the case at last night's ceremony.

Several film montages about animated features and movie heroes were aired throughout the night, which were nice but didn't really contribute anything to the show. Bette Midler performed immediately after the "In Memoriam" tribute rather than during, which not only took up unnecessary time but took away from what could have been an even more touching tribute. Host Ellen DeGeneres kept the show moving pretty well, but some of the skits, like the selfies with celebrities, went on longer than they needed to and only added to the show's run time.

The one thing last night's show did very well was not cutting off acceptance speeches early, which happens frequently at these shows. The event is an awards ceremony, so the honorees should always get priority over filler content. As an event planner you have to find the right balance between the required content at your event and the extra entertainment. Guests will be bored if they have to sit there for hours without entertainment, but if the entertainment makes the event run long they won't be happy with that either. Detailed scheduling and rehearsals can help you find the right balance.

Feeding Guests at Lengthy Events 

Unlike similar Hollywood ceremonies where attendees get a full dinner during the show, Oscar attendees have to sit through a 3+ hour ceremony with rumbling stomachs. Sure, they'll get plenty of food at the Governor's Ball immediately following the event, but during the event they're left hungry. Throughout the course of last night's show, DeGeneres made a point to continuously ask guests if they were hungry until she eventually brought out several pizzas and served them up to appreciative guests in the audience.

While it's by no means a requirement to serve food at every event, when you're hosting an event this long event attendees will be more understanding about it when their stomachs are happy. Serving hot apps while guests are entering is a great solution at an event that this because it will be enough to hold them over until they get a real meal after the event. It's best not to serve them during the show so that they aren't distracted and don't get unexpectedly caught on camera chowing down.

Making Sure Presenters are Prepared 

One of the most important things to do when you have several presenters at an event is to make sure they rehearse. Doing that will help prevent embarrassing blunders such as John Travolta's horrible pronunciation of Idina Menzel's name (who is Adele Dazeem?), or Bill Murray incorrectly stressing that he was presenting "the 2013" award for cinematography. While going through rehearsals, it will be obvious if guests need help with pronunciations or if the teleprompter timing needs to be adjusted. If a presenter can't make it to the rehearsal, make sure they get the script in advance and ask them if there is anything they need help with. Of course, you can't expect that even the most rehearsed presenters won't get nervous and make a mistake, but planning in advance will help prevent blatant errors.

Avoiding the Stress of Event Planning

Many people assume the life of an event planner is glamorous because they get to spend other people's money and throw fun parties. What they don't realize is that there are tight deadlines, strict budget guidelines, inevitable last minute changes, and clients expecting big things. As the event date gets closer and plans need to be finalized, event planners are dealing with an extremely busy schedule and can be left feeling drained by the end. How do you go about hosting an unforgettable event without burning yourself out? Follow these tips:

Prioritize

An event planner's to-do list tends to grow as the event date gets closer. In order to keep from getting overwhelmed by increasing demands when you have a decreasing amount of time, start each week by planning and scheduling your top priorities for each day of that week. Make sure the top priority tasks for the day get taken care of, and everything else that gets accomplished will just be an added bonus. New time sensitive priorities are likely to come up, but when you know what your daily and weekly plans are it will be a lot easier to accommodate without feeling overwhelmed.

Delegate

Event planners can't do everything on their own. It's just not possible. While you may be the person in charge, it doesn't mean you have to handle everything yourself. When the initial planning begins, make a to-do list and divide it up amongst your staff. Larger tasks can be given to several people if needed to get things done more efficiently. Keep the lines of communication open with everyone to ensure that they're ok with their workload and are able to meet their deadlines. If someone starts to fall behind, you'll know who may have some extra time to help give others the support they need. If you have a competent team you should feel safe trusting them to get things done.

Keep Things in Perspective

It's important to remember that if a mistake is made, you're probably going to think it's worse than it is. The attendees at the event don't know what you have planned, so if something small isn't quite right you're likely going to be the only one who notices. If you're a good planner you'll have a backup plan ready, so rather than spending time worrying about what went wrong you can focus on making the change and knowing you had it under control. 

Event planners also tend to forget that events are not a life or death situation. A holiday party or conference is not worth giving yourself a heart attack over. If something goes wrong, it's most likely not going to cause major or lasting problems. Maybe a client will be upset but when guests leave happy because the overall event was great, the client will likely forgive you. You may feel awful about it when it happens, but you'll survive and can take it as a learning opportunity. If the client doesn't forgive you, then so what? Sometimes people lose clients. There will be more, so you can't let it get to you.

Find Time to Relax

The most important thing to do when planning an event is finding time to relax. It may seem like you need to work nonstop or you won't finish, but that's usually not really the case. Planners are typically the hub of communication, so often it's hard to get away from all of the people coming to you with questions or approval requests. Set specific times of the day to check your email and don't look at it aside from those times. If you have a lot of employees, set open office hours so that when you sit down to work you know you won't get interrupted. Turn off your phone when you leave work for the day so that you're not tempted to keep working. If you give yourself time away from the job, you'll sleep better and will be able to come back to work the next day feeling recharged and refreshed, which will increase your productivity.

Use Technology for More Engaging Events

Keeping participants engaged during a conference or other live event is an important task. Guests will have a much better experience if they get to participate and be active instead of just being talked at. As the world becomes more digital, opportunities for attendee engagement have widened, and there are many tools available to help you out.

Hashtags are a great way to get attendees involved on social media. Before the conference, create a hashtag that's unique to the event. Include the hashtag in your promotional materials before the show and explain how and when to use it. Doing this gets attendees to interact with each other and with you. There are a ton of ways you can utilize hashtags, including:

• Holding contests on social media sites where the participant needs to include the hashtag in their post to win.
• Having guests submit questions to speakers and panelists via Twitter with the hashtag included in their tweet. If you have the budget, you can set up a screen so that attendees can see the tweets show up in real time.
• Having guests post pictures from the conference on Instagram or Facebook with the hashtag included in the post.  

As the event organizer, you are able to watch all of these interactions happen and find about what people are thinking about the event. People who didn't attend the conference will see also be able to see the posts, which is free publicity for you that could help gain attendees for your next event. It's pretty much a win-win.

Another way to engage guests during events is to use polling programs. There are many options available online that allow you to propose a question to your guests and have their responses show up within your presentation in real time. Attendees will love the opportunity to pull out their devices and voice their opinion. A speaker can ask about points on the current topic and use the results for an immediate response or to determine the audience's preference for further topics, which keeps the crowd interested. If you're doing awards or choosing a winner for a contest, attendees can vote for their favorite option, which makes them feel that they had an impact on what happened.

There are also numerous phone apps that have been designed for employee engagement at events. Within these apps you can not only embed your floor plan and schedule, but you can include social media channels, photo galleries, speaker profiles, and messaging systems so that guests have a variety of different ways to connect and stay updated.

Have you tried any of these at your events?

Prepare the Right Food for America's Most Popular Sporting Event

The Super Bowl has become one of the biggest events of the year, with viewers around the world gathering to watch the game, the halftime show, and the commercials. For many people though, the the big game is about one thing: food. If you're hosting a Super Bowl event, don't expect that serving any old food will be accepted by guests. What you serve matters! There are foods that are acceptable for a Super Bowl gathering, and some that just don't belong. 

Here is a list of the most popular foods to pig out on during celebrations for this major football event, and some recipes to go along with each to help you prepare the perfect menu.

Chips and Dip 
The great thing about chips is that you don't have to make them. Buy a few different types and pair them with a variety of dips, such as salsa, guacamole, 7-layer dip, an aioli, hummus, or even a bruschetta. People will appreciate the variety of flavors over the course of the long game, and everyone will find something they like.

Recipes: Seven-layer dip; Queso dip; Easy Guacamole; Caramelized Onion Dip

Pigs in a Blanket
These appetizers are not only cute, but they're easy to make and safe to eat.Whether you make them classic style or throw in some bacon, they're sure to be a hit.

Recipes: Crescent Dogs; Neely's Pigs in a Blanket; Bacon-Cheddar Pigs in a Blanket

Wings
Wings have become a must-have for Super Bowl parties. These saucy snacks have grown popular due to the wide variety of flavors, their practicality (they're accessible, deliverable, and inexpensive) and the fact that they go so well with beer.

Recipes: Classic Buffalo Wings; Baked Chicken Wings; Hot Wings
 
Pizza 
Super Bowl Sunday is pizza's biggest day of the year. It's a food you can easily get delivered that you know everyone will enjoy. If you'd rather not have to wait for your order, it's just as easy to make on your own. In either case, as long as you offer guests a variety of toppings to choose from, they'll be happy.

Recipes: Basic Pepperoni Pizza; Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza; Wingless Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Game-Day Desserts
After eating all of the savory foods of the night, it's nice to finish up the fourth quarter with a sweet snack. The best part is that you can dress up your desserts to match the theme of the night and use them as decoration before you chow down on them!

Recipes: Oreo Football Cookies; Pull Apart Touchdown Cupcakes: Peanut Butter Football Cookie

Beer
We know that beer isn't technically a food, but it's not the Super Bowl without it. It's heavily advertised during the game, so if you don't have it you'll constantly be reminded that you're missing out on something. Plus, there's nothing like cracking open a can and taking that first sip as the ball is kicked off.

We aren't going to suggest that you attempt to make beer this late in the game, so you can just pick up something from one of the many brands that are heavily promoted during the game.

Get the Word Out: How to Effectively Promote Your Event

Event planners have a lot to think about when putting together an event, but one of the most important parts of the event planning process should be publicity. You could put together a gorgeous event page in preparation for the event you've spent so much time, money and energy planning, but if no one knows about it you're not very likely to sell tickets. Luckily, ezEvent's publicity tools make it simple to spread the word and get your tickets sold!

The methods you use to promote your event will depend on the event's purpose, the likely audience, the best ways to reach that audience, and your promotional budget and resources. Below are a list of popular marketing channels that you can use to get the word out about your event and how ezEvent can help you utilize them.

1. Social Media

Social media has a vast reach, with nearly one in four people worldwide having an online social presence. For that reason, social media should be a primary weapon in your arsenal for generating buzz for your event. Facebook and Twitter should be your primary tools, as they're designed for spreading a message. Having a Facebook page, rather than a group, allows your posts to appear in News Feeds every time you update the page's status. On Twitter, you can create a hashtag for the event (or use a popular existing one) and ask for retweets of the most important information. No matter which vehicle you use, make sure to post your event link consistently in the time leading up to the event. You should also vary your posts with different types of content, including event information, contests, and pictures that showcase what guests will see at the event. Since everyone uses social media differently, the repetition and varied content assures you'll engage as many people as possible.

ezEvent's Share Your Event tools allow you to like your event on Facebook so that your friends can see it, tweet the link, publicly recommend it on Google+, or share it on LinkedIn. With one click of a button, you also have the capability to create a Facebook event page that has all of the information you entered on your event page along with a Get Tickets button that links back to your page.

2. Email

Email marketing is effective because you can directly reach people you know are interested in your event or the general type of event you're hosting. Email marketing is permission-based, meaning the people on your email list have told you they want to receive messages from you, so these people are very likely to buy tickets to your event. People also check their email constantly, wherever they are, and that allows you to stay connected to them. To get people to open the email you send, make sure you include a great subject line that is clear what the contents of the email are.

ezEvent allows you to email out your event page to everyone in your contacts list. Simply type in or import your contacts, enter in a subject line, add in a custom message and click send. It's that easy.

3. Utilizing Your Website

When guests look for information about your event, it's likely that the first place they'll check is your website. Links to the event should be placed anywhere and everywhere on the site where it seems appropriate, whether that be on the home page, an events section, announcements section, etc.

ezEvent has several options that make it easy for buyers to access your event page from your website. If you simply want to include your event link, you can copy and paste it from your Event Information page. When your event is created, an HTML code is generated for several types of buy tickets buttons that you can include on your page. These buttons look cleaner than just having a link and make it obvious where the person will be going when they click it. If you have several events going on and you want to promote them all at once, you can use our Event Calendar/Event List widget so that a potential customer can scroll through a map and see which dates have events.

4. Print Media (Flyers, Posters, Newspaper Ads, etc.)

Many people have stopped utilizing print media since the world is so online-focused nowadays, but it can still be a viable marketing option if your target audience utilizes it. Buying ad space in a newspaper that's target audience is the same as your event's is a great way to reach those people. If the event is in a high traffic area, conveniently placed posters and flyers may also help catch the eye of your target. Just make sure all of your print media contain your event link!

ezEvent allows you to customize your event link so that it's easy to remember. Under the Customize section, you can enter in an easy to remember event link so that when someone sees it listed on a poster or in the newspaper, they'll be able to remember it when they have a chance to go online.

Now that you know which marketing channels you can use to promote your events, you'll need to create content that will allow you to effectively connect with your audience. Once you do that, you're sure to have a well-attended event!

Don't Let Winter Weather Ruin Your Events!

Here in Connecticut we woke up to a foot of snow. Being that it's a Friday, there's a high likelihood that many events around the state are going to be impacted. 

If you've been following our blog, you know that when planning your events you should hope for the best and plan for the worst, and always make plans to minimize weather worries. Sometimes, no matter how much planning you've done you're still going to have some last minute decisions to make regarding the status of your event. Here are some questions you'll need to ask yourself and some tips for dealing with them.

 

Should I make backup plans?

If you're planning a winter event, be sure you've considered how it will change if snow threatens to ruin your day. While weather problems like rain or extreme heat may allows for a change of venue, snow is likely to prevent people from getting to your event no matter where it's held. You should always have a "Snow Date" in mind and advertise it in advance. If you're contracting with vendors, musicians, or anyone else, you should be able to work out an alternate event date when you first negotiate your contracts and service orders.

 

Can I still hold my event if there's snow?

If you're able to modify your plans sufficiently to make sure your event is safe and are confident that guests will be able to travel to your event safely, then you can proceed even if there's snow on the ground. This is advisable if the snow ends hours before your event is scheduled to begin or if there's only a light snow expected. If it's still snowing during your event or if a storm could come in earlier than expected, it may not be wise to proceed. Sometimes you may not even have a choice, as your venue could decide not to open or event staff might not be able to get to the venue. If you are able to go on with the event as scheduled, make sure all parking areas and walkways have been plowed thoroughly to ensure guest safety. 

 

Is it alright to simply cancel the event when it snows?

In many cases, the best decision may be to cancel to ensure guests' safety. If you do cancel, make sure everyone scheduled to attend is aware of the decision. Send out a message via email and/or social media saying "This event will be cancelled on account of snow." If it's a paid event, let guests know how they will be refunded.

 

If it's snowing or threatening to snow, how and when should I implement alternate plans?

Making this call can be tricky, and sometimes unpopular, and takes a person or team with confidence in their decision-making abilities. Sometimes there won't be snow early in the day, but major storms threaten to hit during your event. You need to decide if it's safe, financially smart, and worth proceeding. This plan should really be custom to every specific event, but some elements that are common to help making this decision include:

• Who will make the call?
• What safety concerns need to be considered?
• What are the costs/losses associated with cancelling, moving or postponing vs. going forward with potentially smaller attendance?
• When will you make the call? (Some timelines may depend on contracts you've signed)
• Who needs to be notified?

 

What if a presenter/performer is delayed due to the weather?

If you know far enough in advance that your presenter or performer can't make it, it's best to work with your presenter to try to reschedule or make a call for a cancellation. Contractual agreements and ticket sales/refunds will affect how you handle this. If the news comes last minute and you already have an audience at your venue or on their way, you might choose to think creatively about an alternate offering. Do not plan to stall the start of the event for longer that 20 minutes without communicating changes to your attendees.