We live in a personalized world. From the music we stream to the products we buy, personalization shapes how we experience brands.
But there’s a disconnect: according to the Adobe 2024 Digital Trends Report, just 26% of consumers described their digital experience with a brand they have an existing relationship with as “excellent.” Personalization remains a top business priority, but many organizations are still struggling to get it right.
Events offer a solution. They provide rich, first-party data, which powers personalization efforts. In turn, personalization boosts engagement, strengthens brand loyalty, and elevates the overall event experience. Read on to learn how to use the power of personalization to create highly engaging experiences.
What is event personalization?
Event personalization means tailoring an attendees’ event experience to their needs and preferences. This can include a range of touchpoints, from pre-event invitations to onsite session recommendations and follow-up emails.
By using relevant attendee data, event organizers can craft relevant experiences that make attendees feel valued and engaged.
💡 Check out our podcast episode on how to create events that feel personal
Why event personalization matters
1. It drives engagement
Personalized experiences make attendees feel seen and valued, leading to higher engagement. When participants receive relevant content and recommendations, they are more likely to interact, participate, and enjoy your event. If your attendees feel like you’re talking directly to them, it means you’ve considered their preferences and expectations.
2. It strengthens brand loyalty
A tailored event experience creates a deeper connection between your audience and your brand. When attendees feel your event aligns with their interests, they’re more likely to recommend it to friends and colleagues and much more likely to return for the next one.
3. It provides valuable data insights
Effective personalization means collecting and analyzing attendee data, which gives you valuable insights into your audience's preferences and behavior. These insights can help improve future events and refine marketing strategies.
Why you need data for event personalization
Data is the foundation of effective personalization. By collecting and analyzing relevant data, you can make informed decisions that enhance the attendee's journey and ensure engagement remains high.
Understanding the data types you need to collect ahead of time, and why, is important. If you don’t know why you’re collecting it, it’s unlikely that you’ll analyze it.
Pro-tip: When collecting data, be clear about where it will be held and who it will be shared with. Attendees have a right to know, so being transparent with your intentions will give them peace of mind when they provide their personal information.
Sources of useful attendee data
Attendee data provides valuable insights into what participants want from an event. Data can come from a variety of sources. Here are some examples:
- Registration forms: These are where you can curate questions that capture the interests and preferences of your attendees. For example, the topics they are interested in, the sessions they’d like to attend, or even their product interests.
- Past event data: This shows which sessions, speakers, and exhibitors were most engaged with by attendees. You can use this information to evaluate the most popular speakers, which booths received the most traffic, and so on.
- Existing data: It’s likely that you’ll already have some data in your CRM or database that provides key information such as industry, company size, etc. Use this information to help with segmenting and tailoring.
“Feedback is vital for improving events. While traditional surveys are useful, analyzing behavioral data often provides more reliable insights. For instance, if attendees actively participate in multiple sessions, their behavior indicates engagement, even if survey responses suggest otherwise.”
Felicia Asiedu, Director,Europe Marketing, Cvent
Examples of event personalization
1. Pre-event personalization
Personalize invites and communications
Start with personalization before the event begins.
Your attendees aren’t a one-size-fits all – you may have VIPs, speakers, exhibitors, sponsors, and staff. Each of these will have different needs.
Addressing each of these needs begins at the registration stage. Ask the right questions upfront so you can segment your audience.
Tailor event experiences, communications, and offers based on the distinct preferences, demographics, and behaviors of different attendee groups.
Customize registration forms and paths
Customized registration paths enable you to create personalized experiences tailored to individual attendee profiles, specific audience types, or targeted audience segments.
This lets you drive registration and collect the correct details from each invitee. You have the flexibility to create paths with different registration questions, pricing, session options, and more.
Start the matchmaking process
Before they arrive at the venue, offer attendees personalized suggestions of whom to meet through your event app. This enables them to check out the recommendations and plan their meetings ahead of time.
2. On-site personalization
Keep attendees up to date
Use push notifications with personalized alerts about schedule updates and networking opportunities.
Attendees will appreciate being given specific notifications for things they need to know about. Instead of broadcast messages aimed at everyone, personalized notifications ensure that what is sent is more likely to be directly interesting to a specific individual or group. For example, if a segment of your attendees are from a specific industry, you could use a push notification to remind them of an upcoming industry specific session.
Tailor agendas and session recommendations
Content is essential for attendees when deciding to participate in an event. They want to experience relevant content tailored to their needs. Offering session recommendations can help them curate their agendas, and event technology can suggest sessions based on their past behavior and engagement.
Smart networking
Events are a great place for networking, but it can be frustrating if attendees don’t meet the right people. If you incorporate AI-powered matchmaking tools into the event app, attendees can connect with each other based on industry, job role, or shared interests.
3. Post-event personalization
Follow-up communications
After your event, you can continue to give value with follow-up communication.
With accurate data you’ve already captured about their interests and behavior at your event, you can send personalized emails with key takeaways and relevant content, such as recordings of sessions they didn’t get to, or curated post-event resources based on the sessions they attended.
On-demand content recommendations
You have extra opportunities to add value if you have a library of event content. Look at using your attendee preference data and matching it to your content. Then, create personalized emails recommending recorded sessions or related content based on their interests.
Personalized surveys and feedback forms
Personalized surveys are a highly effective way for you to gather feedback specific to an attendee’s experience.
To make this feedback even more valuable, create and offer incentives for providing detailed insights. The more specific the data is, the more effectively targeted your marketing will be.
How to use AI for event personalization
1.Chatbots and virtual assistants
AI-powered chatbots can give attendees real-time recommendations and personalized assistance before, during, and after the event.
Incorporating AI chatbots and virtual assistants into event apps helps attendees navigate schedules and find answers to FAQs.
2. Session and content recommendations
Machine learning algorithms analyze attendee data to suggest relevant sessions, speakers, and exhibitor booths.
The AI can make instant recommendations based on real-time engagement, ensuring attendees get the most out of their event experience.
3. Automated networking suggestions
Using AI to offer networking suggestions is a great way to connect attendees based on similar interests or professional goals.
4. Real-time data analysis
Events can generate massive amounts of data, from registration details and engagement metrics to session preferences and networking interactions. Managing and analyzing this data efficiently to provide personalized experiences can be overwhelming without the right infrastructure.
Luckily, artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms can quickly analyze vast datasets, identifying patterns and preferences that would be almost impossible to process manually.
AI can monitor attendee engagement, sentiment, and interaction, allowing you to adjust content and experiences in real-time.
“AI-driven personalization will be a game-changer for the meeting industry, allowing attendees to experience highly tailored content, sessions and networking opportunities,all based on their unique preferences and behaviors.”
McNeel Keenan, Vice President, Product Management, Cvent.
How to measure the impact of your personalization efforts
The success of your personalization strategy depends on how well it resonates with attendees. Measuring effectiveness ensures that personalization efforts deliver real value and can be refined for future events.
There are several reasons why measuring the effectiveness of personalization is crucial.
- Optimizes future events: Data-driven insights help event planners refine personalization strategies.
- Demonstrates ROI: Justifies investments in technology and resources.
- Enhances attendee satisfaction: Helps organizers understand what attendees value the most.
1. Attendee surveys and feedback forms
Use pre-event surveys to understand expectations and post-event surveys to gauge satisfaction.
Ask specific questions such as, “Did you find it easy to find sessions relevant to you?” or “Were networking recommendations relevant to you?”
Use a mix of rating scales and open-ended questions to capture qualitative and quantitative insights.
2. Event app and website analytics
Data is everything when it comes to improving the attendee experience. The event app could track interactions with personalized schedules, recommendations, and session bookmarks.
You can measure the app's effectiveness by measuring how often attendees use its personalized features, such as AI-driven networking or agenda suggestions.
By identifying drop-off points where attendees disengage, planners can refine future experiences.
3. RFID attendance tracking
The use of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a great way of capturing attendee data onsite. You can track session attendance and booth visits. Similarly, monitoring dwell time in different event areas can help you understand the interest levels of attendees.
4. AI-powered sentiment analysis
AI tools allow you to analyze live chat messages, social media mentions, and feedback surveys. The AI will detect positive, neutral, or negative sentiments about your events.
The ability to identify patterns in attendee feedback provides you with an opportunity to continuously refine future personalization efforts.
5. Engagement with personalized content
Measuring open rates and click-through rates for personalized emails and notifications provides clear insights into engagement levels. Tracking which attendees engage with recommended sessions, networking matches, or exhibitor suggestions can give deeper information that can be used to design new content.
You can track which sessions are accessed after the event by personalizing links to recordings or event materials. Similarly, measuring how many attendees revisit recommended content is important to assess lasting engagement.
6. Social media activity
Social media activity contains a wealth of information. Monitor social media mentions to see how attendees react to personalized experiences, and use engagement metrics such as shares, likes, and comments to measure interest levels and predict future reactions.
7. Heatmaps and foot traffic analysis
Use heatmaps to track attendee movement throughout the venue. This will help you identify high-traffic areas and less-popular traffic routes.
Comparing heatmaps with attendees' actual movements makes it easier to determine whether personalized exhibitor or networking recommendations actually influenced attendee behavior.
Tips for getting started with event personalization
1. Start small & focus on key areas
If you’re new to event personalization, begin with one or two areas rather than trying to personalize everything at once. Gathering data at registration and using it to make agenda recommendations are two great places to start. They both directly impact attendee satisfaction. You can build from this and expand to networking recommendations, content delivery, and post-event engagement.
2. Use attendee feedback to refine personalization strategies
Personalization is an ongoing process that improves over time. Collect feedback through surveys, social media, and direct attendee input to understand what worked and what didn’t. The more you refine your approach, the more effective your personalization efforts will become.
3. Invest in and use event technology and AI solutions
Event tech platforms and AI-driven solutions can handle much of the heavy lifting when it comes to personalization.
AI tools can suggest content, automate networking matches, and adjust real-time recommendations based on attendee behavior.
Investing in robust event technology will ensure a seamless, personalized experience without overwhelming your team. Make sure to integrate your event tech with the rest of your martech stack, so your data is synched across systems.
4. Align personalization efforts with event objectives
Before implementing personalization strategies, ask yourself what you want to achieve. If your goal is higher engagement, focus on interactive elements like polls, Q&A sessions, and AI-powered networking. If you want to drive post-event loyalty, invest in follow-up communications and exclusive attendee content.
The key is to plan with intent and ensure that your data collection and personalization efforts align with your event goals.
5. Continuously improve and adapt
Use analytics tools to track engagement, session attendance, and networking interactions to understand which aspects of your personalization strategy are most effective. Regularly update and refine your approach to keep up with industry trends and attendee preferences.
6. Prioritize data privacy
Handling attendee data comes with responsibility. You need to comply with regulations such as GDPR, ensuring data is used ethically and securely while leveraging it effectively for personalization.
Stay current with data handling practices to build trust and comply with privacy regulations. Encrypting personal information, using opt-in consent mechanisms, and communicating how data will be used, helps ensure that attendees feel safe while benefiting from personalization.
Enhance your events with personalization
To captivate attendees, build brand loyalty, and maximize event ROI, tailored experiences must be at the heart of your strategy.
With AI and data-driven insights, scaling personalization is more achievable than ever. Start with small, strategic changes, leverage attendee feedback, and continuously refine your approach. The result? Events that feel personal, meaningful, and unforgettable.
For more insights on how to create and market successful and memorable events, download our Ultimate Guide to In-Person Events
