Gorkana keynote at Eventopedia Discovery event highlights tangible Event ROI from Event Tech

Posted On: 26 Jan 2017

London,UK - 20th January 2017

Eventopedia – the leading cloud-based venue search platform and demand generation tool for the global meetings & events industry – invited leading global media intelligence company Gorkana to keynote at the new etc venues County Hall on Thursday evening to demonstrate the tangible ROI delivered by Event Tech.

Gorkana Event & Marketing Manager, Victoria Morrison, delivered a keynote before joining a panel session moderated by experienced conference host, Jeremy Jacobs, and comprising Event Tech CEOs Mike Piddock of Glisser, and Clemi Hardie of Noodle Live.

A poll run during registration found that 41% of (107) registrants are using Event Tech for their 2017 events, with 48% outlining they “may be” incorporating usage of Event Tech into their 2017 events.

The 60-strong audience of event planners, who were joined by a Facebook live stream audience, learned what practitioners need to know to get a seat at the board table. Victoria Morrison outlined the importance of defining holistic objectives to measure successes through the different stages of the event management process – pre, during and post event. Victoria suggested that the opportunity for technology & data to make a positive difference for event professionals is massive.

“The value of live events is given greater visibility by linking the measurement of Gorkana’s tactics back to the organisations’ objectives”, said Victoria.

In response to brands wanting to hear customers talking of their ‘love’ for their brand, Victoria continued,

“Events can provide a ‘wow’ that connects directly with customers, more than other forms of marketing. Being able to measure this more scientifically will be part of the future of event technology and live event marketing.”

The event was made available by live stream globally from EventStream Live, a service of London-based Easy TV Ltd. In another world first for Eventopedia, the event featured the first public outing of the beta version integration of EventStream Live with Glisser, the leading platform developed in Microsoft Accelerator allowing presenters to interact with their audience through their presentation deck.

A Glisser poll run during the event found:
   77.8% of event planners currently measure the success of their events

The most popular metrics were identified as
   27% Attendee satisfaction surveys
   9% Show Rate
   18% Number of Attendees
   46% £ ROI

(Poll size: 58)

Mike Piddock, CEO of Event Tech Glisser, likened the emergence and importance of Event Tech to 1849 San Francisco and the Gold Rush.

“Metrics used in the right way can be transformative for live events. There is a massive opportunity to utilise data – like other sectors – to provide meaningful context to the value of live events, and to help event professionals demonstrate this to colleagues across their businesses who may not understand the impact they are having.”

Glisser shared that, on average, 25% of a corporate marketing budget is spent on events, yet it is the piece event planners can measure the least

Attendee, Simon Hughes, an experiencedleader and business consultant with over 25 years’ experience in developing and managing events in both the public and private sector, worries that the events industry is ‘way behind’ in comparison to other consumer sectors and the way in which they utilise data. He suggested that the events industry is often constrained by clients who don’t like paying for data and research, saying,

“The great thing about event tech is that it is lowering the cost barrier and making it easier for us to present clients with real and meaningful data, allowing more discussion about objectives and strategy, placing event professionals – where we want to be – at the top table with other marketers.”

Addressing the issue of clients paying for data, Victoria Morrison, said,

“On average, clients allocate about 10% of their PR budgets on measuring their campaigns. There is no reason why it shouldn’t be the same for events.”

Clemi Hardie, CEO of Event Tech Noodle Live, identified the need for Event Tech to remain human.

"Computers and data are neat. Human beings are messy. Event professionals may want to track the attendees’ journey through an event, but what we've seen so often is that when you look at the data sets, you've got people who didn't check in for the event, but they're checking in for sessions. That's the human aspect of gathering data. That's what makes it a challenge. You still need humans to analyse the data we're gathering. You always will."

Eventopedia COO, Alan Newton, comments:

“Our first Eventopedia Discovery event of 2017 followed our familiar format of producing simple educational events providing event managers with thought-provoking content, delivered by industry experts and free from our own narrative.”

-ENDS-

EvenWorld War II Bomb Doesn't Stop etc. County Hall Delivering Latest Eventopedia Discovery

London, UK – 20 January 2017

An unexploded World War II bomb was found in the Thames in the Westminster and County Hall area last night, closing multiple bridges and tube stations whilst police and bomb disposal experts dealt with the situation.

The old expression 'The Show Must Go On' couldn't have been more apt as some delegates found it a challenge to reach new venue opening etc. County Hall in the heart of ground zero for the latest Eventopedia Discovery event - How Does Event Tech Deliver ROI? In fact, the challenges didn't end there as authorities contacted etc. County Hall to advise that precautionary safety measures meant all events scheduled to occur in any of the Thames facing rooms needed to be moved. So, with the champagne in full flow during registration and networking, the venue operator executed flawless crisis management in switching to a room within a 'safety zone' and completing the set-up in quick time, so well that executed the delegates didn't know the difference.

Toby Heelis, co-founder & CEO of Eventopedia, said,

"When you need a venue to step up to the plate and deliver in a crisis, you want a calm, experienced and well-oiled team, and we were highly impressed with our experience with a brand-new venue where sometimes the team are still finding their way. The etc. County Hall teams' delivery and crisis management was flawless and they've proven to be a credit to the etc. group."

Theteam at the newest events offering from etc. venues County Hall, which opened this month, perhaps had their biggest event challenge yet as security concerns over the unexploded WWII bomb meant that the venue were instructed to vacate anyone from the Thames suite with only 20 minutes before the event was due to start.

AlanNewton, co-founder & COO of Eventopedia said,

“etc.venues did a super job last night. TheCounty Hall venue is one of the best new venues I’ve seen in a long time. It’s sure to be popular with event organisers owing to the design, flexibility of space, and the flawless delivery.”

-ENDS-

About Eventopedia

Eventopedia is the leading cloud-based venue search platform and demand generation tool for the global meetings & events industry, and its mission is to increase enquiry conversion and industry efficiency.

The powerful search and match platform makes event planning easier for all event planners, allowing more time to create more impactful events.

Eventopedia also helps event venues, hotels and suppliers to promote their brands across the web and social media, ensuring that event all suppliers communicate their story cost effectively.

Visit About Us http://eventopedia.com/page/about-us/

Visit us online at Twitter, Facebook,LinkedIn, and Instagram

For more information, press only:

Contact toby@eventopedia.com (+44) 780 133 6068

Note to editors: For more information, news from Eventopedia, please visit the Press Coverage page: http://eventopedia.com/press-coverage/

About Gorkana

Gorkana is the UK’s leader in media intelligence and is owned by Cision.

Cisionis a leading media communication technology and analytics company that enables marketers and communicators to effectively manage their earned media programs in coordination with paid and owned channels to drive business impact.

As the creator of the Cision Communication Cloud, the first-of-its-kind earned media cloud-based platform, Cision has combined cutting-edge data, analytics, technology and services into a unified communication ecosystem that brands can use to build consistent, meaningful and enduring relationships with influencers and buyers in order to amplify their marketplace influence.

Cisionsolutions also include market-leading media technologies such as PR Newswire, Gorkana, PRWeb, Help a Reporter Out (HARO) and iContact. Headquartered in Chicago, Cision serves over 100,000 customers in 170 countries and 40 languages worldwide, and maintains offices in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and Australia.

For more information, visit www.cision.com or follow @Cision on Twitter.

About etc County Hall

etc.venues County Hall is etc.venues'largest event space located in London's iconic County Hall.

Thevenue offers conference, meeting and event space situated on the 4th floor at County Hall, with an enviable location on the riverside overlooking The London Eye and opposite the iconic Houses of Parliament & Big Ben. The venue boasts large multi-purpose interconnecting space including two suites for groups of up to 900, who can enjoy stunning views across The Thames towards Westminster.

About Glisser

Glisserconnects your audience, via their smartphone or other device, to your presentation, enabling real-time polls, digital Q&A, social sharing, likes and slide downloads for the ultimate engagement experience.

Glisserwas created to offer a simple way of collecting more data at business events and meetings. With over 10 years of marketing experience, Glisser CEO Mike Piddock consistently saw live events and meetings taking the lion's share of his budget but not delivering the data needed to prove their ROI. He also attended a vast number of presentations that were poorly delivered and frankly quite boring, there had to be an opportunity here to disrupt the space.

For more information, visit https://glisser.com/about orfollow @Glisser

About Easy TV

Easy TV operates and manages the TV Studio facilities of The Cocoon Innovation Centre, Europe’s biggest accelerator/incubator which opened in December 2016; operates a proprietary platform for remote-control broadcast of public company communications to institutional investors, via International Capital Connections Limited and Bloomberg; and operates EventStream Live, a suite of outside event live streaming solutions to fit all budgets and engage with a global Facebook Live and other audiences – delivering the live event together with live sponsor interviews, messaging and advertising, as well as post-production highlight edits and transcripts, for maximum ROI.

For more information, visit http://www.easytv.tv Contact

For examples of live programs produced by Easy TV visit http://www.IntelligentCrowd.tv

About the Glisser and Easy TV’s EventStream Live Collaboration

Together, when fully released, EventStream Live and Glisser will provide an immersive and interactive experience for remote audiences who are unable to attend events in person, significantly leveraging the return on the effort, content, and value embodied in live events. The beta version is available now on Windows for PC only, with support for iOS, Android and Windows Mobile to follow.

About Noodle Live

NoodleLive was launched in January 2013 by Clemi Hardie with the aim of using simple technology hacks to help #EventProfs create better events. Over the past 4 years they have grown into one of the industry's leading tech providers, believing in the power of tech to deliver a better experience for both attendees and organisers. Noodle Live use a combination of RFID, NFC and smart-phone apps to make event environments easier to navigate and more productive. They are constantly researching new tech trends that could be useful for the events industry. Noodle Live’s client list includes Xero, Fujitsu, Lidl, Arup, Jaguar Land Rover, Deloitte and Google.

For more information, visit http://www.noodlelive.com/ or follow @NoodleLIve

About Jeremy Jacobs

JeremyJacobs is an experienced conference host and master of ceremonies with over 25 years’ experience in public speaking. Whether you want a host for your corporate event, a broadcast presenter for webinars, or you want to learn how to become an inspirational speaker yourself, Jeremy has a range of solutions that will give you instant results and long lasting impact.

For more information, visit http://www.jeremyjacobs.com or follow @JeremyJacobs