3 Event Nightmares You Can Avoid with RSVP Technology event rsvp

It’s the day of your big event and you’re about to have a panic attack. You kind of know how many people will show up, but you’re fuzzy about whether you counted 54 or 45. Do people even take Facebook event RSVPs seriously anyway? You tried sending a Facebook reminder to all of your attendees yesterday, but you’re not sure how many people saw it. You set up extra chairs just in case.

Suddenly, you get a call from the caterer that they’re running late. Coffee, tea, juice, bagels, fruit, donuts, and gluten free muffins are on the way. Without knowing the dietary needs of your attendees, you tried to cover all of your bases and blew half of your event budget on as many breakfast options as you could. You head to the registration table where you have a stack of blank name tags for each person to fill out when they arrive. Heck, you don’t even know how many people will show up, let alone their names. You keep your fingers crossed that your event will come off as professional and not as an expensive mess.

Even if the thought of an event as disorganized as this makes you cringe, we all know what it feels like to be unprepared. When planning an event, there’s always room to be more confident, more organized, and more prepared. Did you know that RSVP technology is the secret tool that can close the gap between a stressful event and a successful one? Create an email list that lets you easily communicate with your attendees before and after your event; use customizable forms to learn about your attendees’ needs and desires; send event reminders as frequently as needed to make sure that your attendees have the most up to date information about your event and don’t forget to show up when the big day arrives.

Given the features included with RSVP technology, there are no more excuses for being unprepared for your next event. Here are 3 nightmare event scenarios you can avoid because of RSVP technology.

Having No Idea How Many People Will Show Up to Your Event

It’s pretty obvious that RSVP tools can help you know how many people will walk through the door of your event. That’s the entire point, right? Yet, simply collecting a list of acceptances and regrets leaves a lot to be desired. What if your attendees forget about your event by the time it arrives? What if people on your regret list change their minds without updating you? To ensure a successful event, you need to do so much more than send out an RSVP form one time and then keep your fingers crossed.

RSVP tools make it easier than ever to communicate with your event attendees on a regular basis to make sure that everyone is on the same page. If your first RSVP notification went out two months prior to the event, send another notification six weeks later to confirm that responses haven’t changed. Given how easy it is to integrate RSVP services with email marketing tools, you should be communicating with your event attendees as much as needed to ensure that you have an appropriate head count for the big day. If you’re worried about annoying people; don’t. Your attendees have busy lives and they will be grateful for reminders that your event is just around the corner.

Blowing Your Budget on Things You Don’t Need

If you don’t know anything about your event participants, you will need to prepare for any and all scenarios. Every accommodation, dietary restriction, learning preference, and skill level will need to be accounted for. While there is the direct monetary impact of buying gluten free muffins for an audience who would rather eat doughnuts, you also need to account for the time and energy that you and your staff put into preparing for situations that may never happen. If the majority of your participants pass up your beginner worksheets in favor of your advanced content, for example, you’ve failed to anticipate the needs of your guests while also wasting time and money on preparing your advanced techniques for a beginner audience.

Along with your RSVP requests, ask your attendees to fill out forms and surveys stating their needs, desires, and goals for your event. What sorts of accommodations do they need? What do they hope to learn? RSVP technology makes this incredibly easy by allowing you to send customized questions within the same platform you used to create your RSVP. Not only will this help you save on costs by informing you of the resources that your event attendees actually need, it will also help you plan a better event. Instead of wasting time and money on topics and items that your audience doesn’t want and won’t use, use surveys to get information that will help you prioritize your time and energy as you prepare for your event.

Coming Off as Unprofessional and Unprepared

There’s nothing that can ruin a company’s reputation faster than coming off as unprofessional and unprepared at an event that people took time out of their schedules to attend. If your event comes with an entrance fee, the stakes are even higher. RSVP tools can empower you to have all the information you need to wow your attendees, from how many chairs you should set up to the topics you should be presenting. Customize your RSVP’s landing page to reflect the vibe of your event so that your attendees know what to expect; send out surveys that let your audience share their needs and desires with you; offer pre-event materials that enhance learning even before your event begins.

Failing to use all of the features that RSVP technology has to offer means that you’re failing to be as prepared for your event as you could be. Take the time to treat your RSVP service as a valuable tool in your marketing team’s toolbelt and you’ll be better suited to have a successful event.

AddEvent is helping companies turn their events from nightmares into fantasies with their feature-packed RSVP technology. Using beautiful landing pages, customizable surveys, appointment reminders, and more, AddEvent has turned a basic RSVP tool into an invaluable marketing tool.