How it really works... live attendee tracking

When events become more intelligent, it takes the guesswork out of attendee preferences. By tracking delegate data points throughout the lifecycle of an event and visualising attendee footprints, planners can get a clearer picture of what engages delegates and what they want from the event.

Will Kataria, director of sales, APAC at Cvent gives us the lowdown on the tech.

What exactly is live attendee tracking?

It uses technology to collect data from attendees regarding their on-site behaviour at events. By tracking a delegate’s session attendance and duration, show floor attendance, booth dwell time, event flow and overall foot traffic, organisers can see where their attendees went, how they engaged with exhibitors and sponsors and which sessions were most popular.

What benefits does it offer event organisers?

People vote with their feet and with this data in hand, organisers can gain valuable insights into attendees’ true interests and use it to improve their experience for upcoming events. The data can also be used to provide more customised post-event content to the attendees based on these interests.

Data can also help make better use of sponsorship packages—events can partner with brands that will appeal most to the attendees. From an exhibitor and sponsor perspective, they can then leverage these insights to customise and target their pitch and offers in their post-event follow-up.

What is the next big thing with regards to the technology?

When it comes to capturing attendee data on site, Radio Frequency Identification (or RFID) is now the gold standard at events. It is a passive and unobtrusive way to track attendees’ interactions and capture the full attendee journey at events, and enables organisers to track general sessions, breakout sessions, exhibitor floor flow, meal attendance, and more in real time.

In the future, we have our eyes on technologies like wearable beacons and biometric-based technology like facial recognition.

Some technologies still face data privacy concerns and others have not yet proven
to have the same accuracy levels as RFID. But on both fronts, the technology is rapidly evolving.