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How can you use event technology to create a thoughtful attendee experience?
Many organizers share this frustration because they chase fancy tools and extravagance over attendee needs. When the curtain closes, they’re left wondering why fewer people showed up or engagement was low.
We won’t leave you to solve this mystery yourself. Instead, in this blog, we’ll show you how to choose event technology for attendees to strategically cut through the noise and focus on what truly matters.
You can implement this in your existing event strategy without needing any elaborate changes, but trust me, these necessary changes will make a MASSIVE difference.
If you want a quick overview, check out this infographic mapping event tech to attendee needs. However, the full article provides more in-depth insights.
We asked Vanessa Lovatt, who’s been in the trenches of the events industry for nearly 20 years, to give some easy-to-follow tips on using event tech to improve attendee experience.
Back in 2012, when most people were still skeptical about virtual events, Vanessa was already experimenting with online formats.
Sure, the technology was basic – think webinars strung together with digital duct tape – but something fascinating happened.
People showed up. Not just a few, but lots of them.
Why? Because they could finally access information and connections that were previously out of reach.
This early insight shaped her entire approach to event technology: it’s not about using tech for tech’s sake but about using it to solve real problems and create better experiences.
You can do the same for your events.
For example, if you’re hosting a conference with 100s of sessions, add a recommendation feature that suggests sessions based on the attendee’s profile. It’ll save them time going through the agenda and finding relevant sessions themselves.
Our free template helps you stay on top of managing content, speakers, exhibitors, and all the details.
Everyone is talking about AI, but how can events embrace it realistically?
Dahlia El Gazzar, founder of Dahlia Plus Agency and a veteran event technology strategist, shared some ideas for using AI to enhance the attendee experience:
If you add a touch of creativity to solving the actual needs of your event stakeholders, events have immense potential for AI usage.
We’ve all abandoned a signup form because it asked for our life story.
A recent poll proved we’re not alone.
Vanessa’s take? It depends on your event. Match what you ask for with what your audience expects to get out of the event.
“If someone’s coming to a massive expo for a few hours of networking, keep it simple – name, email, company, done,” she explains.
“But if it’s a high-level CFO networking event where people expect curated connections? Then yes, ask for more details. Every piece of information should serve a purpose in enhancing their experience.”
Leanne Velkey, a registration expert, advises event planners to strike a balance between gathering essential information and avoiding irrelevant questions.
Want to play it safe?
Leanne also emphasizes knowing the difference between essential information that applies to all vs optional data capture that should not be mandated.
“Nothing frustrates me more than filling out forms where I’m required to answer all questions. I don’t mind filling out a form with 40 questions as long as you let me opt out of questions that don’t apply to me. And you’ll get better data as a result.”
This is where conditional logic becomes valuable in your registration forms. By showing or hiding questions based on previous answers, you can collect data from only the relevant attendees.
For example, dietary requirements only appear for those attending in-person lunch sessions, or session preferences only show for full conference attendees, not expo-only visitors.
Event planners often treat registration as a transactional step, but it should be an experience in itself.
Dahlia El Gazzar advises event planners to think of registration as a ‘marketing and shopping journey’. This shift in perspective transforms registration from data collection to an opportunity for engagement and value creation.
Today’s attendees expect consumer experiences that offer immediate value, like a TikTok Shop that captures interest in the moment with special offers. Registration should evolve into a tailored journey that reflects your event’s brand and creates excitement.
People will complete even lengthy forms if they’re engaged.
Add personality through clever copy, visual elements, and progress indicators to make registration more engaging.
Extend this personalized approach to different types of attendees. “You do not treat a first timer as you do a 10 timer,” Dahlia emphasizes. Consider creating different registration paths for first-time attendees, returning participants, group bookings, and VIPs.
AI can transform registration forms into intelligent wizards that adapt based on attendee responses. “What’s going to start happening is it’s going to probably start getting personalized for you,” Dahlia predicts.
This approach can pre-populate information for returning attendees and show only relevant questions based on previous answers.
By treating registration as an experience rather than a task, event organizers can start building engagement from the very first interaction with attendees.
What if someone registered for the event, bought that $1000 pass 6 months before the event, but later realized they could not attend?
Do they lose out on the event and the money?
As an organizer, you must take care of everyone, whether they make it to your event or not.
Keep your ticketing policies flexible or, as Adam Parry calls it, add a ‘get out of jail free clause’. Give them these options:
Bake this into your registration and ticketing workflow.
Platforms like vFairs offer a comprehensive registration management system that allows organizers to create a customized registration form. They can also add a variety of ticket tiers, discount coupons, and early bird pricing.
You can also process refunds in a few simple steps.
This level of flexibility also helps cater to a variety of audience segments and offer them support even if they are unable to attend.
If you want attendees to be bought into your event, start early.
Provide enough information to convey the value of the event and what to expect.
You can provide all this on your event website. Design a dedicated workflow to send more teasers to registrants about what each speaker will cover or what activities you are planning.
Ask your speakers to submit their presentations in advance, slice out interesting bits, and share through a short video, infographic or bulleted list – whatever works for your event audience.
vFairs’ event marketing tools include email automation, allowing you to schedule content releases to keep potential attendees engaged in the weeks leading up to your event, significantly improving show-up rates.
Besides sharing a preview before the event, pay special attention to your first-time audience.
The content on the event site often assumes that everyone visiting already knows about the event. But what about the newer audience? Designing specific experiences to make them feel welcome.
Create dedicated content to give them a fresh perspective and show them what to expect. If they feel supported, they will connect with the event and want to come back next year as well.
Here are a few ideas of what this could look like:
Even something as basic as event badges is an opportunity to enhance the experience. Forget cramming them with fancy designs and sponsor logos. Vanessa suggests focusing on what actually helps people connect:
And please, for the love of the planet, make it eco-friendly. Add a recycling station at the event, where all the lanyards and cards are collected from the attendees at the end of the event. These can be cleaned and used again.
Your event should not be a confusing maze, leaving people a bit lost and unsure about where to or what to do next.
How an attendee uses an app varies.
Find out what is important to your attendees and how much information they would need before they show up, as they spend time at the event, and after they’ve left.
Set up your mobile app accordingly.
At in-person events, an app with the event agenda helps attendees plan where they want to spend their time.
A floor plan is your best friend when navigating massive conferences in real-time. Anyone who likes to save time and energy is better off using one.
There is also the networking piece. An app provides easy access to other attendees. Even after the event is over, you can search for people from a specific company you didn’t get a chance to connect with and reach out to them.
Event tech expert Kristian Papadakis emphasizes simplicity when building event apps rather than overwhelming features. Sharing his opinion on AI matchmaking, he suggested how alternative approaches can work just as well. Many event tech providers try to build an AI matchmaking feature. But, AI is just large quantities of data that a computer reads for you.
He recommends considering three core elements:
When Vanessa first started experimenting with virtual events, she discovered something surprising: while traditional in-person events typically saw margins of 50-70%, virtual events could hit 92-95%.
She explained how these margins weren’t the goal; they were a byproduct of creating more accessible, scalable experiences that people actually wanted to participate in.
Event organizers can follow the same approach: prioritize meaningful experiences over flashy features to create engaging and financially sustainable events.
Follow this framework:
Suppose you’re hosting mid-sized industry conference for IT industry experts. You initially planned to implement an expensive mixed reality experience for their exhibition floor. The technology, with a $30,000 price tag, would allow attendees to visualize products in 3D spaces.
After surveying past attendees, however, you find out your audience wants on-demand content after the event, simplified scheduling tools, and better mobile battery charging stations throughout the venue.
By reallocating the budget, you can meet their practical needs:
Are event tech buyers and sellers speaking the same language?
You’ve got tech companies saying things like “native integration” and “seamless implementation,” while event planners are just trying to figure out why they can’t move a button two inches to the left.
Bridging this gap is crucial if we want to progress as an industry. At the heart of all efforts, put your audience first.
Every technology decision, from registration forms to mobile apps, should tie back to enhancing the audience experience. Get that right, and everything else tends to fall into place.
Vanessa recommends bringing everyone on the same page and moving toward more integrated, user-friendly solutions.
vFairs is an all-in-one platform providing a centralized platform to manage all event needs with natively built tools to ensure an integrated experience. It provides a dedicated customer support team, including a project manager, to every customer.
The goal is to make sure they understand how to use our software, how it can serve their goals, troubleshoot roadblocks, advise on tactics that can augment their event experience, and help out in any way needed.
This combination helps our customers deliver an effortless event experience.
After wrapping up, a detailed debrief can reveal what worked and what didn’t.
All the data is right there in your event tech platform. Consider checking the app engagement reports, form completion rates, and attendee surveys.
Track what matters to you.
Here are some metrics you can track to understand the impact:
Most importantly, compare these metrics against your initial goals for implementing each technology.
These insights will help you refine your tech stack for each subsequent event.
Technology should either make things easier for attendees or provide value they couldn’t get otherwise.
If it’s not doing either, it doesn’t belong in your stack.
When selecting your event tech stack, start with your attendees’ needs rather than feature lists. Consider how each platform, app, or digital tool will solve specific problems or remove friction points throughout the attendee journey.
By approaching event technology strategically rather than adopting the latest innovations for their own sake, you create digital experiences that genuinely support your event goals while delivering measurable value to your audience.
And remember,
Need help understanding what technology is best for you and your attendees? Read insights from this guide on event management software features.
Have specific questions? Talk to our experts.
Sarah Shaukat
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