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Streamlining event management with an end-to-end event technology solution

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Hunkeler, a renowned technology leader in paper processing came to Stova having relied on four or more different providers to handle various aspects of their largest event leading to: 

• Inconsistences due to multiple tech vendors 
• Inefficient and limited data processing capabilities  
• Fragmented experience for attendees  
• Lack of a seamless process 

Choosing Stova as their exclusive technology partner, Hunkler was able to achieve streamlined event management, enhanced attendee experiences, and increased exhibitor success for their 14th annual event.  

Objective Solution Event Success

Objective

Objective

Hunkeler's goal was to consolidate their event's registration, badging, lead retrieval, and mobile app into a single event technology provider. This case study explores how Hunkeler successfully partnered with Stova and leveraged their suite of onsite solutions to minimize their tech stack and streamline their operations.

Solution

Solution

Hunkeler's Innovationdays relied on four or more different providers to handle various aspects of the event. However, this fragmented approach led to functional limitations and inefficiencies in data processing between third-party systems and integrations. Recognizing the need for a unified and seamless solution, Hunkeler sought a partner that could provide comprehensive onsite services and streamline their event management processes. 

Event Success

Event Success

After careful evaluation, Hunkeler chose to collaborate with Stova based on their platform's flexibility, Stova's impressive track record in onsite work, and positive interactions with their professional services team. For Innovationdays 2023, Hunkeler implemented Stova's suite of onsite solutions, including onsite check-in, registration, badging, mobile app, and lead retrieval. 

Location: Switzerland
Founded: 1922
Employees: 200+
Industry: Paper processing

Hunkeler AG is one of the world market leaders in the development, construction, and sale of paper finishing systems for high-performance digital printing.

Key Statistics

• Over 6,700 attendees from 100 countries
• More than 100 exhibitors and sponsors utilized Stova's lead retrieval system

Products Leveraged

• Onsite Check-in
• Badge Printing
• Lead Retrieval
• Mobile App
• Virtual Platform

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Washington, D.C. – October 10, 2022 – Following the merger of MeetingPlay and Aventri and the acquisition of eventcore earlier this year, these leading event technology companies are debuting today as one global leader in event management solutions: Stova. Marking another major milestone in the evolution of the consolidation of three major event technology pioneers, Stova is the most comprehensive platform in the industry for delivering exceptional experiences for global enterprise clients.

The new branding is rooted in the heritage, technology, and people of these three iconic brands – three drivers that have made the company and its portfolio what it is today. As the organization continues to look ahead, creating a strong, unified brand in the marketplace is essential while ensuring the new identity matches the innovative technology firm the company has become.

Born from the phrase “standing ovation”, “Stova” is a statement to the brand’s value of delivering synergistic, solutions-based products and services for event management that supports clients in creating epic experiences for events of any size and for every audience.

“For over a decade, our three unique brands have offered innovative products and technologies to help companies deliver highly impactful events,” said Eric Lochner, CEO of Stova. “We have immense pride in the consolidated entity we have created, and we’ve only just begun. We are deeply connected to our clients’ event landscape and will continue to invest in and build event technology solutions that consistently meet our clients’ changing needs to deliver epic events, every time. We’re excited to unveil an updated corporate name and branding that more accurately reflect the company we’ve become, a true one-stop-shop for our clients’ event technology needs.”

A sophisticated platform built for the new event ecosystem, Stova is an all-in-one event technology solution that partners with visionary brands to bring their individual goals, ideas, and experiences to life with award-winning, end-to-end technology and technology enabled services. Delivering a range of products and services, both bespoke and off-the-shelf, Stova offers capabilities for any event budget, size, and format from onsite and hybrid to fully virtual events.

Stova’s robust product portfolio, continued innovation and data integration, merger & acquisition strategy, and dedication to being a true client partner set the company apart from its competitors. The company is committed to providing a smooth planning process from start to finish and offering solutions for event planners and organizers to engage and excite attendees, manage and connect sponsors with attendees, measure impact and exceed expectations, reach growth goals, and so much more.

For more information about Stova visit www.stova.io.

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Learn how event badge printing can drive attendee satisfaction and value at your events.

1. Live Badge Printing Registration

Goodbye are the days of pre-printing badges for your meetings and events. Instead, you can live print badges during attendee check-in.

Live-printing event badges can save trees and money by ensuring you don’t waste badges on no-shows or have to reprint badges for name changes. Attendees can also enter their information using self-service kiosks, ensuring there are no more misspelled or outdated event badges.

In addition, because live badge printing only takes seven seconds, you can manage more attendee check-ins per hour. With the addition of self-service kiosks, you can also reduce your registration staff by 50 percent saving you money.

If you’re really looking to keep your events green, ditch the plastic badge holders and use lanyards that are recycled. Or better, email attendees their badge and have them scan their smartwatch, smartphone or wearable, eliminating paper use altogether!

2. Increasing Attendee Satisfaction

Using badges with digital technology not only eliminate paper waste but also helps increase their satisfaction with your overall event.

For instance, with the NFC or RFID digitization of attendee’s badges, you can eliminate long check-in lines at registration. Some wearable badging technology can automatically check attendees in and out of events, so they don’t have to wait to be checked in or out of events.

In addition, digitized badges, like wearables, also provide attendees with the option to link their credit cards. By linking their payment method to their NFC badges, attendees can pay for anything at your event without opening their wallet or standing on line.

By decreasing wait time and eliminating long lines, attendees will be able to connect with others and enjoy everything your event has to over, which will surely increase their satisfaction with your overall event.

3. Exchange Information Digitally 

Instead of wasting paper by handing out business cards, you can add barcodes, QR codes, RFID, NFC, or Bluetooth technology to attendee badges. This addition will allow attendees to use their event badge to digitally collect and share information with other attendees.

Some event management software companies offer an integrated mobile app. Using the digitized badge and the mobile event app, attendees can record the connects they make and view the information on their mobile event app during or and after the event.

If you integrate your badge with RFID, NFC, or Bluetooth technology, you can also paperlessly track which sessions or booths attendee visit. This information is not only invaluable in understanding which sessions or booths were the most interesting to your attendees, but it also allows you to improve the traffic flow and session choices for your future events.

How do you go green at your events? Do you use event badging? 

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At Stova, we are passionate about creating elegant and highly personalized event registration experiences, built to spec for our clients.

And it looks like the event industry likes what we are putting out there.

“Where other companies try to do everything, Stova is very focused on registration and doing it well,” notes this post on the 22 Event Planning Apps to Watch in 2019 from Event Manager Blog.

“That does not mean the platform cannot talk to other types of technology,” the article continues. “In fact, Stova does integrate easily with event apps or your preferred CRM platform. The thing I like here is that each product is custom developed for your event. Think of it as the custom suit tailor of event registration.”

Thanks, EMB team. Those words evoke exactly what we do here — create beautifully tailored solutions so you get exactly the right fit.

There are so many choices out there, on everything from analytics to engagement to registration to vendor support. It’s great to be included on your list of 22 event tech solutions to watch in 2019.

(Curious? Read Event Manager Blog’s full review of our bespoke registration solution. Then let’s talk. No pressure, no hard sell, just some revolutionary talk about event tech.)

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Whether you’re new to giving back at events or are just looking for some new ideas, check out our top six ways to add a charitable engagement opportunity at your next event.

Get Attendees Inspired Through Food & Drink

Nothing brings people together more than sharing a meal! In fact, recently at Stova headquarters, we worked with a local restaurant who donated free pizza that we sold during lunch for $1 a slice. All proceeds went to our local Light the Night Walk team, which raises money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s fight against blood cancers. This can easily be replicated at larger events and includes the added benefit of working with a local business to provide a local cuisine or specialty.

Bring Your Attendees Together Through Wellness

Many attendees, especially those who travel a lot, love to find ways to stay fit while on the road. It’s why so many events host health and fitness activities like meditation, yoga or 5Ks. Why not add a charitable angle to these activities? Along with finding your charity of choice to raise money for, find local fitness instructors to teach for free or businesses to sponsor these events for free publicity. Attendees will love that not only are they participating in something that’s good for their health, but that they’re able to give back at the same time.

Get the Conversation Going by Going Green

If there’s anything better than being more sustainable at events, it’s educating attendees about it. I recently wrote about the latest trend in event sustainability, getting rid of single-use plastic straws. Get attendees on board and a part of the conversation by displaying signs with facts about how removing something like straws impacts your event’s carbon footprint, as well as affects ocean life. Step up your efforts by offering to donate to an environmental cause or hand out glass or metal straws to attendees who commit to going straw-less throughout your event.

Get the Word Out Via Social Media

Engaging your attendees to give back can be as simple as starting a social media campaign. By using a special hashtag, you can not only track engagement but encourage attendees to share their charitable experience at your event. Let’s continue with the straw example. Your campaign can include attendees posting images of their straw-less beverages or having straw-less drinks with fellow attendees. For each time your special hashtag (#StovaGoesStrawless for example) is used, you can commit to donating a few dollars to an environmental charity.

Utilize Mobile App Features & Gamification

Another simple way to get attendees engaged in a good cause is to utilize features already built into your event mobile app. It can be as simple adding a section in your app that makes it easy to donate to and find information about your charity of choice, or sending reminders to donate/participate in a charitable event via push notifications. You can also facilitate your philanthropic  efforts via gamification options in your app, like a scavenger hunt or earning badges via event participation. Promise to  donate on behalf of those who complete these games or give the highest earners special recognition at the end of your event.

Connect Attendees With the Charity Directly

Another reason to work with local charities is you can invite a representative to speak at or have a booth at your event. Hearing the importance of a good cause directly from the organization itself and/or seeing the impact first-hand can motivate attendees to help and will be a great talking point throughout your event. One popular trend is to bring something interactive. During the first weekend of SXSW, for example, Mars Petcare and Whistle (a pet activity and location tracker) hosted a pop-up dog park, where adoptable dogs from Austin Pets Alive were available for cuddles and walks. For every 10 minutes visitors walk around the block with a shelter dog, Mars Petcare and Whistle donated $100 to local animal shelters.

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As any experienced event planner knows, solid registration and housing solutions are integral to running a good meeting.  An online registration system is standard for even the most casual B2B gatherings with out-of-town guests, and most organizers secure hotel room blocks and discounts for their guests.

Yet depending on your event tech setup, your registration and housing data may live in entirely different silos – and this can have a huge impact on how your attendees experience the event.

Some registration providers hand off hotel reservations and room block management to another company; others manage this as part of a comprehensive technology and service offering. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each model and see when it makes more sense to keep everything under one roof.

Two providers, two silos

The most common event model includes two different providers — one for registration and the other for housing. Attendees experience this as a simple link from one to the other. Once your attendees register for the event, they are referred to a housing page, which is linked to a separate housing platform (or directly to the hotel’s booking system). The handoff can appear seamless, but the data lives in two different databases (silos). This impacts how planners can manage the room block and how attendees can make changes to their room reservations.  

Having separate providers managing registration and housing gets the job done, and can be cost-effective for smaller scale events. But there are some distinct disadvantages compared to a single-platform (where one company handles both registration and housing using the same software):

• If your registration service and housing solution are with two different providers, your data for each will live in different silos. Having those separate databases could lead to extra work for both planners and attendees, increasing the odds of mistakes.
• The event team will have to go to the housing provider (or directly to the hotel) for room pickup information or to manage the room block. This makes it more challenging to get the complete picture of your event, like seeing what guests have registered for the events, but haven’t booked their hotel room.
• For attendees, they’ll need to deal with both the event registration platform and the housing provider to make changes. For example, say a guest cancels their event registration, but forgets to cancel their hotel reservation. This could lead to the attendee paying a no-show charge with the hotel.
• There’s another problem that creeps up in this model, too. Many registration services utilize conference codes and links to the hotel block where attendees can book directly with the hotel. This could allow users to make a reservation at the group rate without making a registration for the event.

One provider, one silo

These disadvantages disappear when one provider manages both housing and registration, and stores the data in one silo. In the single-provider system, planners can access data on registration and housing from the same platform; similarly, an attendee making changes to any aspect of her participation (dates, cancellations, sessions, room types, roommates, etc.) can do all of that in one place.

Let’s say someone cancels a registration. In a single- silo system, their room reservation is automatically cancelled. Likewise, if someone tries to book a room at the discounted rate, they cannot do so without also registering for the event. In a two-silo system, these mistakes can often go unnoticed.

Many event technology providers operate this way, including some of the SaaS solution providers.  While definitely a step up from the two-provider system, many of these out-of-the-box event programs still lack the capacity for users to have the kind of self-directed experience we’ve come to expect in the age of big data and personalization.

One provider, completely custom experience 

It’s pretty obvious that any decent sized event would do well to keep their registration and housing data in the same silo, through the same provider. SaaS solutions can help get you there, yet there is an even more efficient single-platform configuration that planners should consider: a custom-built, single-platform that includes registration and housing as part of a comprehensive event solution. A build-to-specification provider delivers all of the benefits of one vendor for both services, and also provides a high-touch and personalized support system that includes:

• Storing of historical pick-up data to help planners negotiate more accurate contracts based on their event’s needs.
• Expert understanding of hotel contracting to ensure new clients fully understand the terms and conditions.
• An efficient process for assigning contracted concessions like room upgrades and amenities that are passed directly to the hotel.
• Complete user visibility into reservation data and room pickup, and total flexibility to drive specific attendees to specific hotels or room types based on event and attendee needs.
• Management of the room block, including monitoring room pickup, advising planners when pickup isn’t going to be met, taking action to contact attendees who haven’t yet booked a room, and reducing room blocks at contracted review periods and cut-off dates to avoid attrition.
• Audit of hotel records before cutoff dates and at the end of the contract period to ensure that all data in the registration and housing platform aligns with the hotel’s, that hotel commissions are appropriately paid, and that any rooms booked outside the block are credited.
• Custom-built add-ons for roommate assignments and group reservations and payments, making the attendee user experience even more flexible and autonomous.
• Dedicated customer service to help attendees navigate date changes, cancellations, no-show charges and invoicing, when they’d prefer to work directly with a human.

This integrated registration and housing solution ultimately builds a strong rapport with hotels to ensure a good working relationship year after year.

Understanding your options

Housing and registration technologies and services run the gamut — from those requiring extensive hands-on planner supervision and attendee effort on one end of the spectrum,  to full-service management of the venue contract, room block, and attendee customer experience on the other end. When selecting a registration and housing solution, be aware of all the options available and ask prospective providers where your data will live, and how that will impact your overall event experience.  To learn more about integrating your event tech solutions for a seamless experience, visit us at stova.io.

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