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  • Twelve Forms of Hybrid Event Content That Both In-Person and Digital Audiences Can Enjoy

    Twelve Forms of Hybrid Event Content That Both In-Person and Digital Audiences Can Enjoy

    Ensuring both your in-person and digital audiences find paramount value from your hybrid event content takes skillful planning. Due to the recent evolution of event management and marketing platforms, there are millions of ways to connect your two audiences. But before we offer you ideas for delivering content to both a digital and a physical audience, let’s walk through the essentials of hybrid event content planning.

    Put Purpose Before Process

    Before you begin brainstorming the most elaborate hybrid experience, consider what you hope to get out of your event. What actions do you want your attendees to take? Is your primary event goal to drive client retention and engagement or build a pipeline? Hybrid event content can bring audiences together to help you meet your business goals, so plan accordingly.

    Align With Stakeholders

    To get executive buy-in for your hybrid events, you’ll need to align your content goals with stakeholders’ expectations. For example, if your sales team hopes to meet with attendees onsite for a live demonstration, you’ll want to promote in-person sessions and experiences to prospect attendees before offering digital content. Having a clear understanding of organizational goals will aid you in the planning process and will enable you to show post-event ROI.

    Fortunately, over the last two years, the roles of CMOs and other key stakeholders have been disrupted as they are now having to adapt to changing buying behaviors. With a renewed focus on the customer experience, these stakeholders are looking to events to provide meaningful experiences that will drive business growth. Now is the optimal time to strengthen your cross-functional relationships and work together to usher in a new hybrid experience.

     

    Forms of Hybrid Event Content

    Once you have your goals and stakeholders’ expectations in mind, you are ready to begin calculating how you will deliver your hybrid event. Most if not all of your event content can be shared both online and offline through live streaming and mobile. Your challenge is to figure out which forms of content will enable you to meet your goals and expectations. To inspire you, we’ve collected the 12 following ideas:

    1. Keynotes with a Live Audience

    While digital attendees don’t have a physical chair in your keynote sessions, they can still enjoy the energy of your keynote sessions through live streaming. With live streaming, digital attendees get the best seat in the house.

     2. Q&As

    Give every attendee the ability to weigh in during your Q&A by assigning moderators to communicate online questions to the speaker.

    3. Short Motivational Sessions

    Short motivating talks (similar to TED Talks) can serve as some of your most valued content. Because they require very little interaction, these sessions are ideal for any audience.

    4. Paid Exclusive Content

    Charging a small fee often increases the perceived value of sessions both online and offline. Regain some of the money that you put into live streaming by charging attendees for special access sessions.

    5. Games

    Games are a great way to get both audiences interacting with each other and with content. With a little bit of creativity, you can gamify almost any event activity. Some event teams are leveraging bingo cards to promote exhibitor visits, while others are incorporating leaderboards with points-based tracking to highlight top players.

    6. Polling

    With a mobile app, you can quickly gather poll results from both of your audiences. Giving digital attendees a say in the live poll will help them feel included even as they watch remotely.

    7. Product Launches

    Use product announcements as drivers for your event and as a way to inform your in-person and online audiences at the same time.

    8. Training & Certification

    Host online training before your event and allow attendees to complete certification at your live event with extended post-event opportunities for those who cannot be there in person.

    9. Pre-Event Promotional Content

    Prior to your event, give all attendees a glimpse of what they will experience the day or week of the event. Publish videos to your event website or attendee portal to drum up excitement and begin conversations prior to the event.

    10. Hands-On Experiences

    Set up workshop lounges onsite where in-person attendees can comfortably join online attendees in a hands-on digital experience with your products.

    11. Speed Demos

    Use broadcasting rooms to give exhibitors a short amount of time to pitch their products or services to online attendees.

    12. Customer Stories

    Last but not least, consider asking customers to share their stories as part of your event. Though not unique to hybrid events, customer stories bolster the hybrid experience by enabling digital attendees to hear from their peers.

    Learn more about RainFocus’ approach to hybrid event content strategy by reading our latest guide.

  • Choosing the Best Platform Provider for Hybrid Events

    Choosing the Best Platform Provider for Hybrid Events

    Choosing the ideal event marketing and management platform has never been more difficult. As organizations turn their focus to hybrid delivery, they are seeking event solutions that can do it all. Unfortunately, several misconceptions about hybrid event technology have been formed with the rise of so many new vendors in the space. To combat these misconceptions, we’ve put together some tips that can help you make that decision easier.

    Misconception #1: You Need a Different Platform for Each Event

    When evaluating a platform, it can be considerably difficult to source a solution that solves for multiple event programs. You’ll want to start by looking for a provider that can personalize your customer journey through seamless event delivery across your entire event portfolio. Constantly sourcing event tech can be very time-consuming and costly. The best way to avoid regular sourcing is by looking for an all-in-one solution.

    At RainFocus, we break down silos, encourage collaboration, and provide maximum attendee value by using event behaviors and actions to drive and accelerate event marketing campaigns. Additionally, we offer customized integrations that allow you to communicate data efficiently, personalize best-in-class experiences for your attendees, and streamline the production process for virtual and hybrid events.

    Misconception #2: All Virtual Event Platforms Provide Equal Stability

    Furthermore, it can feel overwhelming when choosing which platform is best for your company and your goals. Ideally, you will want to pick a provider that will allow you to thrive and integrate well. Because experience cannot be gained in just a few months, it is important that you choose a platform with stability and experience. Reliability is going to be something that will matter, so you will want to choose a platform with a good reputation and reliable past. One of the best things to do is ask for client references.  Ensure the platform you choose has consistently followed through with the promises they’ve made. Consider, do their past users attest to their dependability, and do they speak highly of the platform?

    “RainFocus is not just a registration housing and content platform, but it’s truly a multifunctional platform that can perform and scale to meet your program needs, map out what you want your event and attendee journey to look like, and RainFocus will partner with you to execute on your vision.” – Carrie Lewis, Senior Event Technology Specialist, Splunk

    Misconception #3: Virtual Event Platforms Are Suitable for Hybrid Events

    Hybrid events are becoming the most significant delivery type for virtual platform providers this past year. While many virtual event platforms tout the ability to deliver end-to-end hybrid events, their lack of experience and onsite technology makes them a questionable source for in-person delivery. We expect to see a shift back to true all-in-one platforms, such as RainFocus, that draw upon years of experience to drive engagement, whether onsite or online. Such platforms are well-equipped to deliver segmented registration, virtual and physical sponsorship value, reliable data capture, and onsite support in addition to live, simulive, and on-demand content.

    Misconception #4: When Given the Option of Virtual or In-Person Attendance, Attendees Will Opt for Virtual Attendance Simply Because It’s More Cost-Effective

    Additionally, one of the most important aspects of choosing the right hybrid event platform is considering what attendees are seeking. Many fear that investing in a physical venue might backfire as attendees may choose to attend online to save time and money. One of the easiest ways to calm this fear is by simply asking attendees how they would prefer to attend your event. Because our human nature drives us to connect with one another, you’ll likely find that attendees are anxious to return to in-person events. Once you understand what your attendees are expecting, you’ll want to target the aspects of your event marketing and management platform that will drive the most engagement with your attendees.

    Misconception #5: Hybrid Delivery is Limited to a Digital Experience Accompanied by an Onsite Event

    It is equally important to realize that no two hybrid experiences look exactly alike. Event teams are constantly seeking new ways to engage their attendees. Now is the time to break the rules and think outside the box to discover new ideas that help incentivize people to stay engaged at your events. Consider how you might use your smaller virtual events to drive registration and spark conversation for your larger hybrid or in-person events.

    Misconception #6: Compliance and Certification Are the Same When It Comes to Platform Security

    Lastly, when screening for a platform provider, you want to ensure that you have continued trust with the company that you select. To achieve this, you should review your provider’s security standards. You’ll want to make sure that you have chosen a platform that takes security measures and data privacy very seriously. While most, if not all, event software providers will claim to be ISO 27001:2013, GDPR, and CCPA compliant, few are actually certified. Software solutions that are certified go through an extensive screening process to ensure the entire organization is abiding by the latest security standards. Lastly, examine how data is stored, who has access to it, and any past issues such as a data breach.

    Learn more about RainFocus’ hybrid event delivery by reading our most recent guide, The Future of Hybrid Engagement.

  • How to Execute a Winning Hybrid Event Portfolio with RainFocus Client Success

    How to Execute a Winning Hybrid Event Portfolio with RainFocus Client Success

    Hybrid is more than just event delivery. It is a comprehensive and unified event strategy that encompasses all events in your company portfolio. While a hybrid event could look like a blended in-person/virtual event, we see it more of a way for you to meet the needs of a larger number of attendees and gather the insights needed to meet your goals. Our hybrid strategy uses data from in-person and virtual events to accelerate customer and business value. To achieve hybrid success, RainFocus’ Client Success team offers the help of several key advisors who engage in strategic collaboration, offer hands-on training, provide quick responses and supply actionable insights.

    What makes a successful hybrid event portfolio?

    Unified event data

    RainFocus’ technology allows you to have all of your event data in a single event platform. This source of unified data eliminates barriers and allows data to be connected throughout many other channels. Every touchpoint, interaction, and activity will be collected and stored in an easy-to-read dashboard.

    Connected experiences that serve as touch points along the customer journey

    With a unified source of truth, RainFocus allows you to visualize your entire customer journey from start to finish — enabling marketing and sales teams to use their most effective marketing channel to influence buying decisions in real-time.

    Integrations with marketing and sales technology

    RainFocus integrations can be used to connect event portfolio data with marketing and sales technology to drive better engagement, accelerate marketing conversions, increase sales productivity, and boost customer retention.

    How does RainFocus’ Client Success Team Help?

    While planning a connected and successful hybrid event portfolio may seem daunting, RainFocus’ experienced Client Success team is here to help. When clients join with RainFocus they gain the help of a Client Success Executive, a Technical Account Manager, and a Program Manager (when needed), as well as some additional resources. Our team is passionate about helping you achieve event success!

    Client Success Executive (CSE)

    Your CSE will partner with you to develop and execute your event portfolio plans, as well as stand as your advocate within RainFocus to ensure that you have all of the resources you need to be successful. Your CSE will also conduct regular executive business reviews to help identify event insights, trends, and metrics for success.

    Technical Account Manager (TAM)

    Your TAM will provide you with valuable technical guidance and data alignment across your entire event portfolio. Additionally, your TAM will demonstrate our platform best practices and showcase any new updates or features that will improve your ROI.

    Program Manager

    Your Program Manager will help provide alignment and coordination across your entire event portfolio by ensuring that processes and management remain consistent from event to event.

    Additional Resources

    Some additional resources will be available to you as you execute your event portfolio. These include a project manager, solution consultant, business intelligence team, and quality assurance team.

    For more urgent issues, our Help Center and Client Care team will provide helpful guides, how-to questions, product-related solutions, and 24/7 support. Our RainFocus Academy is also available for additional training.

    With years of experience planning both in-person and virtual events, RainFocus offers you the best tools to succeed with any hybrid event portfolio. RainFocus brings companies and customers together with all the tools they need to successfully deliver events from start to finish. You can see the complete picture from an integrated and simple event platform with data driven analytics and will always feel supported by our skilled team. Discover more about our client success team here.

     

  • 3 Ways that RainFocus Integrations Can Enhance the Success of Your Event

    3 Ways that RainFocus Integrations Can Enhance the Success of Your Event

    When hosting events, it is important that you provide an excellent experience for your attendees. With the way that we unify events and marketing teams at RainFocus, we make it possible to connect and customize your event with integrations. In fact, according to the Forrester Wave™: B2B Marketing Events Management Solutions, Q1 2021 Report, “RainFocus boasts among the broadest list of out-of-the-box technology integrations.” These integrations give you the opportunity to incorporate and communicate data efficiently, personalize best-in-class experiences for your attendees, and streamline the production processes for virtual and hybrid events. At RainFocus, we use integrations in three ways — to connect event data, amplify the attendee experience, and for streaming and production.

     

    1. Connect Event Data

    An open architecture and robust APIs provide integration opportunities for marketing technology platforms and business systems to form a two-way channel for communicating data efficiently. RainFocus integrations can be used to connect event data through salesforce automation and marketing automation platforms. Benefits include enhanced analytics, payment options, and robust security through single-sign-on. RainFocus has partnered with leading companies such as Salesforce, Adobe Marketo, Pardot, Google Analytics, Spreedly, and GitHub, as well as many others.

    2. Amplify the Attendee Experience

    With our end-to-end event management and marketing capabilities, RainFocus allows you to personalize and extend your attendee experience with integrations made to engage audiences through games, networking, photobooths, and rewards to name a few. Captivating your audience through these types of integrations can help to enhance the attendee experience. Functions of these integrations include:

    • Attendee-to-attendee networking

    • Q&A chat polling

    • Meeting automation

    • Virtual photo booth

    • In-person photo booth, games, and social walls

    • Rewards platform

    • Mobile app

    • Virtual meetings

    Some vendors that have partnered with RainFocus in their efforts to amplify the attendee experience are Braindate, Pigeonhole, RainFocus Meetings, Ubersnap, Look Mister, Tremendous, Eventbase, Zoom Meetings, and many more.

    3. Streaming and Production

    At RainFocus, we have the flexibility to pivot between virtual, hybrid, and in-person events with top notch security and scalability. To help you engage attendees in your events, RainFocus utilizes production integrations to create high-quality streaming content for hybrid and virtual sessions. The functions of these integrations include:

    • Event venue and hotel sourcing for physical audiences,

    • DIY media production for live and recorded content

    • Automatic conversion of media into closed captioning, and

    • Full service media production companies for both virtual and physical production live, simu-live, and ondemand media streaming.

    Partners that assist RainFocus in bringing these types of integrations to their clients include Groups360, Socialive, 3Play Media, D3G Productions, Brightcove, and others.

    Additional Integrations

    To help make your events successful, RainFocus helps you to drive better engagement, connect your sales and marketing efforts, and securely conduct business with a single platform. Whether you need to connect your sales and marketing tech stack, offer SSO authentication, process payments, or provide virtual streaming we’ve got you covered. Using the RainFocus Platform, you can host events that will help drive your business and be remembered for years to come.

    See our integration partners and learn more here.

  • Enabling a Safe Return to In-Person Events

    Enabling a Safe Return to In-Person Events

    As things begin to return to normal in a post-Covid world, we at RainFocus are determined to provide a safe and engaging onsite experience.  Returning to a physical venue and expanding content to a virtual audience will require strategic use of onsite hardware to maximize hybrid experiences.  With the growing excitement around hybrid events, we’re leveling up our in-person experience for attendees, staff, exhibitors, and speakers through RainFocus Onsite.

    What is RainFocus Onsite?

    RainFocus Onsite is the event industry’s premier onsite as a service (OaaS) solution. RainFocus Onsite offers superior service, technology, and processes to facilitate a safe, smooth, and engaging in-person experience for attendees — whether in-person or hybrid.

    What are My Choices?

    RainFocus offers two onsite packages, Onsite Suite and Onsite in a Box, to ensure events and marketing teams have the right amount of hardware and software to support their different audiences.  Onsite Suite is best suited for larger and more complex events whereas, Onsite in a Box is an excellent fit for smaller meetings and events.

    Proven Track Record

    Drawing upon years of experience delivering in-person and virtual events, RainFocus has developed RainFocus Onsite to offer best-in-class event services to support day-of-show experiences regardless of size or complexity. RainFocus Onsite consists of both hardware and software solutions for gathering, measuring, and guiding attendee engagement. Designed to unify events and marketing teams through actionable data, RainFocus Onsite includes everything organizations need to fuel sales pipelines, drive client engagement and retention, and prove event ROI.

    Key Features of RainFocus Onsite

    • A holistic insight dashboard for tracking all in-person and virtual event activity

    • A 100% fault-tolerant system

    • RainFocus Onsite software licenses

    • Contactless rapid check-in

    • Socially distanced lead scanning

    • Session access and capacity control

    • Dynamic full-color badge printers

    • Print on the fly custom badge identifiers

    • Premium support

    • Top-notch security

    Our Commitment

    “As we work with event organizers to plan their return to in-person venues whether that’s through an in-person or a hybrid event, safety, in all its forms, remains our top priority,” explains RainFocus CEO, JR Sherman. “Our RainFocus Onsite offering not only ensures the safety of individuals’ personal information, but it also safeguards them with innovative solutions for a true no-touch experience.”

    RainFocus understands the need to account for the safety of individuals. That’s why we’ve established an EventSafe Methodology to provide attendees with experiences that align with CDC guidelines. We also believe that face-to-face interaction creates valuable relationships that drive business results.  RainFocus Onsite is an innovative approach to building those relationships, driving results while maintaining attendees’ safety.

    To learn more about RainFocus’ Onsite Suite offering, click here.

  • Answers to Common Questions About Hybrid Events

    Answers to Common Questions About Hybrid Events

    If there is one thing that all event professionals can agree on right now, it’s that hybrid events are still somewhat of a mystery. Hybrid events have the potential to be the greatest drivers for maximum engagement, insights, and sponsorship value, yet everyone is still questioning how best to execute them. In helping our clients prepare for their hybrid events, we’ve come across several recurring questions. In this post, we’ll answer these questions and offer you our solutions for common hybrid concerns. 

    Q. How do you describe a hybrid event?

    Hybrid events are not new. Sporting events, for example, have been hosted both online and in-person for years. A hybrid event is a combination of online and offline event experiences. Many perceive the key challenge to solve is how to handle audiences virtually and physically for an event. In that challenge, organizations are only solving for event needs and not framing their experience around the customer. This is the event industry’s opportunity to run as an end-to-end event portfolio strategy. The right way to be thinking of hybrid is as a comprehensive and unified event strategy for your entire event portfolio. 

    Q. What are your recommended technical onsite requirements for hosting a hybrid event?

    To ensure a safe, smooth, and engaging experience for your hybrid event, you’ll need both hardware and software that offer you the ability to service attendees in a socially distanced and safe environment. Hardware includes check-in kiosks, badge printers, and scanners for sessions, exhibitors, and gift redemption. As for software, you’ll need segmented registration workflows, call for papers, call for demos, and all of the other software solutions you would need for a virtual or in-person event. Most importantly, you’ll want to have a holistic dashboard of onsite and online event activity with insights from on-the-spot registration check-in, sessions, and more.   

    Q. How would you approach live streaming an in-person event?

    Whether you offer sessions live, simulive, or on-demand to virtual attendees, you will need to ensure you have professional AV recording technology to record or stream sessions. One of the key factors to evaluate is the venue infrastructure and its ability to accommodate these technology requirements. If you choose to record and/or stream sessions, we recommend hiring an experienced production company to assist in the recording. With RainFocus, you can live stream RTMP feeds directly to a video player on attendees’ digital event portals to ensure everyone has access to the live video. 

    Q. How can you then ensure that the virtual attendees still feel like they are part of the live experience?

    We’ve seen event planners approach this in several ways. Some are sending physical SWAG boxes to connect virtual attendees to the live experience, and others have been maximizing the power of mobile networking to connect live and digital attendees. Another way to simulate the live experience is having live emcees who communicate with attendees online and offline. When setting up time with exhibitors, peers, or SMEs, RainFocus offers integrations with meeting providers as a valuable way to connect audiences and engage them in the conversation.

    Q. How do you provide virtual attendees with the opportunity to engage with physical attendees at the live event?

    As mentioned above, many event planners are leveraging mobile apps to facilitate networking via chat and polls. In addition, you could incorporate gamification into your event and unite attendees with leaderboards, social media engagement, and other activities. Having a digital photo booth is another way you can build camaraderie — giving digital attendees an opportunity to show their faces and personalities.  

    Q. Our exhibitors have been pretty clear that they cannot manage a physical and virtual booth at the same time. How do you offer in-person exhibitors the same opportunities if half of your audience is online? 

    While in-person sponsors may not have the time or resources to manage both an online and an offline booth, you can offer them the opportunity for virtual commercial spots and non-interactive virtual booths where virtual attendees can view information and request email contact at a later date. Additionally, you could offer your in-person exhibitors the opportunity to sponsor their own sessions and gather virtual leads through virtual session attendance.  

    Q. How do you prevent having an empty exhibit hall at your live event? 

    Many worry that fewer exhibitors will want to exhibit live, or worse, that there won’t be enough live attendees to provide live exhibitors with the value they deserve. Let us not forget that human nature drives us to make face-to-face connections. While many exhibitors have gathered an abundance of leads online, they are still eager to return to onsite exhibitions. Likewise, attendees are excited to get back to the regular ebb and flow of live events. Promote exhibitors as you typically would by building exhibition time into attendees’ schedules, directing attendees to the right exhibitors through meaningful recommendations, and incorporating exhibitors into your event gamification. 

    Q. How do you measure the effectiveness of networking in a hybrid environment?

    Consider using the same tactics you would use to measure networking at any other type of event. Gather attendee feedback via surveys or polls, measure the number of times attendees clicked to schedule a meeting with an exhibitor, or request email feedback post-event. 

    With years of experience planning both in-person and virtual events, RainFocus is the ideal technology for planning and executing matchless hybrid experiences. RainFocus’ all-in-one event marketing and management platform offers the tools you need to support pre-, during, and post-event experiences—including staffing, support, hardware, software, data, and analytics—all in a safe, touchless environment in accordance with CDC recommendations.

    Learn more about our hybrid event solutions here.

  • How to Take Your Virtual Event Sponsorships to the Next Level

    How to Take Your Virtual Event Sponsorships to the Next Level

    While everyone is talking about planning for hybrid events, virtual events remain the prominent form of delivery for now. In a recent meeting our team had with event technology experts from around the world, we discussed the top concerns of modern event professionals. The leading concern was virtual event sponsorships — how do you drive value and how can your event technology provider help you?

    Before 2020, 64% of in-person attendees became leads. By the fall of 2020, that rate changed to 14%. While at first, it may seem to have been a loss for exhibitors, virtual events actually yielded 4-6x the number of attendees resulting in more leads than ever before. According to our platform data, 85% of exhibitors indicated that they would exhibit virtually again. Exhibitors who were once skeptical of virtual events are quickly realizing the potential of such events to further their business strategy. In this blog post, we’ll share forward-thinking ideas for sponsorship activation and share best practices from event teams worldwide.

    Include Exhibitors in Your Planning Process

    The bottom line is you’ll never reach your exhibitors’ goals until you know what they are. First, gather exhibitors’ expectations and then present them with a game plan of how you are going to help them meet those expectations. Communicating goals builds anticipation for the event and encourages exhibitors to return time and time again.

    Develop Year-Round Sponsorship Opportunities

    The concept of a 365 marketplace is gaining momentum. Exhibitors are excited to get prolonged exposure through virtual events. Consider different strategies for year-round exhibitor booths. Given that exhibitors likely won’t have the resources to man the booth year-round, offer self-serve booths with video demos, links to sponsored sessions on-demand, email request forms, 1:1 meeting requests, and readable content rather than instant chat.

    Give Exhibitors the Experience You Would Want for Yourself

    Put yourself in your exhibitors’ shoes. If you were exhibiting at another virtual event, what would you want for your money? You’d likely want lots of visibility, mentions in emails and on social, inclusion in sessions, and a way to communicate directly with specific attendees. Offering different packages with different forms of visibility can be an effective way to monetize your event, especially now that exhibitors are beginning to see the value of virtual sponsorship.

    Let Attendees Decide How They Would Like to Connect

    One benefit of virtual events is that attendees don’t have to be seen if they don’t want to be. Allowing attendees to interact with exhibitors however they would like is crucial to increasing exhibitor engagement. Some attendees are happy to schedule a meeting while others would prefer a more tentative approach to learning about an exhibitor, such as attending a sponsored session or opting-in for email communications. Fortunately, nearly all attendee interactions can be accounted for with virtual events and reported back to your exhibitors.

    Leverage Registration Data to Pair Attendees with Sponsors

    As we enter a new era of virtual and hybrid events, pre-event matchmaking will be a key driver of exhibitors’ success. Through intelligent registration workflows, you can ensure attendees get in contact with the right exhibitors, whether they are attending online or in person. Matchmaking also guides attendees to the exhibitors that they would be most interested in. Targeted Agendas, personalized recommendations, and tailored gamification can all be effective strategies for matching attendees with sponsors. Brainstorm with your exhibitors to find out who they are targeting and let the matchmaking begin.

    To learn more about virtual event sponsorships and what RainFocus has to offer, click here.

  • Highlights from RainFocus’ Quarterly Product Webinar

    Highlights from RainFocus’ Quarterly Product Webinar

    This week, we hosted our quarterly product webinar during which RainFocus product owners demonstrated enhancements that will enable clients to deliver best-in-class virtual and hybrid experiences for their audiences. The primary focus areas of the webinar included event templates, our new Media Suite, and gamification enhancements.

    Event Templates

    Having delivered virtual experiences to over 3.5M attendees, our team has put together optimized event templates with predefined settings for common configurations. The templates were built with industry best practices in mind to enable teams to deliver personalized and premium attendee experiences with ease. Teams can switch out colors, logos, fonts, and imagery to make the event templates match the look and feel of their event brand. With new scheduling capabilities, event teams will save time with automated updates to page content.

    Media Suite

    With a growing number of virtual and hybrid events, RainFocus product teams have created a new Media Suite to manage all session and media content natively within RainFocus — whether live, simulive, or on-demand. The Media Suite gives event teams a holistic view of session metrics and enables teams to choose how and when they would like to display session content. Additionally, Media Suite offers teams the best security, data privacy, compliance, scalability, access control, SSO, reporting, integrations, user experience, and marketing automation while eliminating the need to jump from solution to solution to deliver content.

    Gamification Enhancements

    Updates to our superior and flexible Gamification enable event teams to align their engagement strategy with their overall event goals. With RainFocus, teams can build several games (sticker master, scavenger hunt, point leader, level up, and more) that can be fully customized to encourage and reward specified attendee behavior. Our Gamification allows admins to define the types of data, actions and behaviors used to power a game. They can specify awarding points, badges, and levels in any combination with all data captured in RainFocus in real-time. Teams can define, track and use just about any data point or action to award points, badges, exclusive access, gifts, and credits.

    Read our latest ebook to discover other impactful practices and tools for successful virtual event delivery.

  • How to Accommodate Growth in a Modernized Hybrid Event Ecosystem

    How to Accommodate Growth in a Modernized Hybrid Event Ecosystem

    Throughout 2020 and 2021, RainFocus has been working with the world’s largest and most innovative organizations to build the foundation for hybrid event scalability and success. By accomodating multiple audiences, we anticipate that hybrid events will have the potential to exceed the benchmarks set by virtual events. As organizations begin to plan for and implement hybrid events, we cannot help but reflect on the innovations that have led us to this point.

    Here’s how RainFocus has adapted to meet the needs of clients and attendees throughout 2020 and 2021:

    Thinking Holistically About the Data Strategy

    Before we begin implementation for an event, we identify which insights our customers want to get out of their events. With the introduction of virtual events, we took a more holistic approach to data strategy by asking clients which data points they wanted to measure and compare from virtual to physical and vice versa. As hybrid events emerge, we will continue to enable clients to view their data holistically to dial in the best attendee experiences possible.

    Expanding Integrations

    Along with the need for holistic data, event teams need to harness the multitude of insights that come from digital interactions. Immediately, our team began enhancing our large list of integrations to enable clients to share their virtual event data with their various stakeholders while delivering live, simulive, and on-demand sessions from one modern, fully optimized platform.

    According to the 2021 Forrester Wave Report on B2B Marketing Events Management, “RainFocus boasts among the broadest list of out-of-the-box technology integrations, training, and support services, and native onsite production and rentals services, making it an all-in-one contender for hybrid events leadership when in-person returns.”

    Executing Load Testing

    After receiving 4x the number of registrations for the first virtual conference of 2020, we decided it would be wise to perform routine load testing for every event. Taking the time to ensure that every event could handle a significantly larger audience than they had in previous years really paid off as RainFocus clients experienced flawless registration processes. ServiceNow’s Senior Director of Strategic Events explained, “RainFocus did a ton of performance testing for us to make sure our event could scale for the highest demand, and it did.”

    By completing load testing for each event, we were also able to ensure the security of registrants’ data. Clients need not fear losing any of their data as we have proven that our pre-established best-of-class security procedures will support all physical, virtual, and hybrid events.

    Developing a Virtual Waiting Room

    In tandem with load testing, our team set a new standard of having a virtual waiting room for registrants. Traditionally for in-person events, registrations could be queued to process overnight. But, with thousands of attendees registering at all hours worldwide, a waiting room holds registration data so as not to overload any of a client’s backend systems — creating a smooth registration experience for attendees.

    Becoming Cloud-Agnostic

    With holistic, secure, and reliable data in check, the final element needed to accommodate growth was the ability to operate on any cloud. Working with IBM, our team developed the RainFocus platform to be cloud-agnostic, making it ideal for teams who hope to share and store data on their own cloud. In their recent case study titled, “Re-Thinking Marketing Events,” IBM explained, “[Having] a scalable platform using IBM Cloud capabilities not only made a speedy transition to a virtual format possible but also provided novel opportunities for innovation.”

    Though our team accomplished a lot in the last two years, we are committed to working alongside customers to better the events industry. Read the complete story of IBM Think to learn more about the partnership between RainFocus and IBM and how the two companies are working together to establish the future of event success.

    From RainFocus’ Perspective:https://learning.rainfocus.com/one-solution-for-every-event

    From IBM’s Perspective: https://www.ibm.com/case-studies/rainfocus/

  • 5 Essential Elements of Successful Video Streaming for Events

    5 Essential Elements of Successful Video Streaming for Events

    Video streaming has taken on a whole new role in the production of events in 2021. As teams ramp up for a future filled with hybrid audiences, they are exploring new ways to stream and market their video content. With so many options available, finding a video streaming provider can be both exciting and nerve-wracking. In honor of our newest product release, RainFocus Media Suite, we’ve put together this blog post to outline the key components of a successful video streaming solution.

    1. Extensive Data Collection and Insights

    It’s no secret that virtual events yield more data than physical events. Having a video streaming tool that can capture every single interaction during a session is an absolute must. Along with having a clear picture of who has attended each session, look for a solution that can provide you the following insights:

    • Number of times a video is displayed
    • Number of times a video is played
    • The percentage of the video that is watched
    • The average time a video is watched
    • Devices a video is watched on (to help you determine whether mobile is more effective)
    • What brand of devices are being used to watch videos
    • Current viewers

    Having this information readily available will enable you to qualify prospects, gauge customer interest, determine which sessions are most popular, and help you prepare better for your upcoming events.

    1. Ease of Integration

    Consider what you’ll do with all of your session data once you have collected it. If you plan to share your data with your Sales and Marketing teams, you’ll need a solution that will integrate seamlessly to provide real-time insights. Some solutions are easier to integrate than others. Search for a solution that can provide a transparent experience for your different stakeholders.

    1. Real-Time Updates

    Many streaming solutions fall short in real-time analysis. Unfortunately, we’ve heard horror stories from teams who did not get their session data as quickly as they had hoped and were unable to make changes when they mattered most. Insights are like puzzle pieces; having all of your insights in place in a tidy dashboard will enable you to make real-time decisions based on the bigger picture.

    1. Security and Reliability

    Without the assurance of complete security, even the most impressive streaming solutions can fall short. When selecting a video streaming tool, seek a solution that meets the latest GDPR and CCPA requirements and is ISO 27001:2013 certified. Additionally, your video streaming tool should scale to meet the demand of a larger audience with ease, given virtual events typically have 4-6x the number of attendees that in-person events do.

    1. Flexible Branding

    Last but not least, seek out a solution that can be branded to match the look and feel of your event. Can the video player be embedded into your event webpage? Do the colors coordinate with your event’s theme? Even the smallest details can make the video experience feel disjointed from your event.

    In addition to having all of the qualities listed above, our new Media Suite pairs perfectly with our data and analytics offering to ensure that event teams have easy access to all of the streaming data they need for any event. Because it’s housed in the RainFocus platform, Media Suite is managed alongside all other aspects of your event for a quicker and easier planning process. Powered by the latest and greatest video technology, this solution empowers event teams to harness streaming in all forms — live, simulive, or on-demand — to create the ultimate attendee experience and ramp up engagement.

    Learn more about RainFocus’ Media Suite by requesting a demo here.