Eventsquid: Software That Thinks Like You And Works Like Eight Of You

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Below is our recent interview with Michael Kranitz, CEO at Eventsquid:

Q: For those who haven’t heard of it, what is the best way to describe Eventsquid?

A: Eventsquid is a web-based platform that enables event hosts of all types to automate and consolidate in one system a wide array of event management processes including event registration, website creation, mobile app creation, exhibitor sales, attendee communication, surveys, volunteer signup, CE tracking, speaker management, agenda management and reporting.

Our approach to event management distinguishes Eventsquid in three significant ways;

(1) our contracts are simple, transparent and very competitively priced,
(2) our software is highly flexible, enabling you to tailor your attendees’ registration experience to each type of registrant engaging with your form and
(3) our user experience for both event hosts and attendees has been honed for simplicity and ease of use.

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Q: Can you give us insights into your features?

A: Our features span a broad range of tasks and processes typically involved in event registration, speaker/agenda, check-in, communication and reporting. The cornerstone of the software rests on a logic engine that permits planners to create customized registration experiences for any registrant type (e.g. speaker, sponsor, attendee, volunteer) and build a precise registration form that calls for the information needed from that type of registrant. The entire experience is clothed in the colors and branding of the event host, giving the registrant a professional and smooth experience from start to finish.

Many of our features leverage the use of persistent libraries that enable the host to quickly create and recreate events using venues, sponsors, speakers, questions and selection items from previous events. Users who register for events have accounts automatically created for them so that subsequent registrations are pre-populated from the start, making registration a quick and painless process.

The breadth of our platform makes it appealing to planners who wish to eliminate disparate platforms and consolidate their operations inside a single system. From invitations to follow-up surveys, the software operates from a single database. This enables the planner to skip manual data transfer or sync steps required when working with multiple systems.

Our user interface is designed to minimize friction for both the registrant and the host.

Q: Who are your clients? What are some of the key challenges you’re helping them solve?

A: Our clients include corporations, associations, governmental agencies, sporting organizations, nonprofits and educational institutions. We help each of these sectors manage registration, payments, event promotion, onsite experience, education credit tracking and communications. Our clients range in size from small to large, each with varying degrees of event complexity.

Q: Where is the events industry headed in 2020, and beyond?

A: Events typically trend with the economy. Certain sectors weather economic downturns better than others because the events within those sectors tend to be either internal or mandated by the government (e.g. continuing education events). Within the industry, events are becoming more tech-heavy. This is both good and bad. Clearly, using technology to operate events more efficiently and foster more engagement enhances events almost universally. But, too much technology becomes burdensome and can actually detract from the quality of the event. For example, technology that encourages users to interact more with their devices than with the people in attendance is negative in our view. Technology for the sake of technology, like digital scavenger hunts designed to get attendees to visit vendor booths, are a poor use of technology. Although designed to foster further engagements, technology like this often creates more fleeting and less meaningful engagement as users focus more on the prizes being offered than the conversations the games were designed to foster among attendees and vendors. For better or for worse, we see utilization of facial recognition software becoming more prevalent. Is this good? What does it solve for and at what cost to attendee privacy? This remains to be seen.

Beyond technology and the economy, we view events as a persistent and ever-growing industry; one that brings people together by virtue of their common commercial and personal interests. In that respect, we expect events to remain highly relevant as long as humans are running the planet.

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Q: What are your plans for the future?

A: Eventsquid plans to continue adapting to our clients by incorporating their inputs directly into our product. Our software is never finished and we will never stop listening to our planners. In that spirit, we have many planned upgrades for 2020 that will make Eventsquid increasingly more reliable, efficient and fun to use.