How to convince your boss to invest in an EMS

Are you having trouble keeping up with several requests to organize a corporate event? Are these events that you can't take on passed on to another colleague who isn't really an Event Prof? Do you juggle between multiple tools to do your job? Do you lack the resources to help you reach your goals? Are you struggling to harmonize your event marketing because no one respects your brand guidelines? If you answered yes any of these questions, don't worry, there's hope. We've got you covered to help you convince upper management that investing in Event Management Software (EMS) is key to your corporate events' success!

Why should you use an EMS to organize your virtual, hybrid, and in-person events?

Save Time

Having more time is a dream for most people, especially Event Profs. We are ambitious and we set goals for ourselves that are not always achievable. This is often due to a lack of resources: both monetary and human. We'd like to do lots of great things but the reality is that we don't always have a huge budget or a large team for that matter. However, there are always ways to get there, because when there's a will, there's a way.

We waste time looking all over the place for data. Between email threads, Excel files, and conversations had in our internal communication tools #slack, our data is everywhere. An EMS helps you centralize your data in one spot. Whether it's attendee information, results from your polls, quizzes, and surveys, or your event KPIs, your data grouped together in an event management software. Imagine the time you could save! This argument alone is enough to convince your boss!

Company seminars, quarterly meetings, press conferences, training ... There are plenty of event formats to manage. What if you had event templates you could use to create an event in record time? It's possible with an EMS. The next time you're in front of your Marketing Director talking about a new product launch event, you can show them, right on the spot, what their event website will look like with just a few clicks. This goes beyond the conventional definition of efficiency.

Some EMS allow you to create event models or even duplicate your events. Your event team can create templates beforehand for your different types of events as well as for your event emails. You'll not only save time, but you'll be able to ensure your event branding is flawless.

An event to-do list can sometimes be long and you probably work with other colleagues, even several agencies, to help organize your events. With an EMS, you can easily collaborate with others. You can create groups to limit accesses (third parties shouldn't be able to see confidential company information). You also have the ability to create to-do lists, assign specific tasks to your team, and monitor your corporate event's progress.

Want to know how to create virtual events?

Save money

An EMS is an all-in-one tool. You'll be able to manage your logistics for each and every one of your events. You'll also be able to streamline your event communication with a dedicated event website, email, and text message campaigns, and create virtual, hybrid, and in-person events on the same platform. In addition, you'll be able to create and publish a branded event app, in both a web version and a mobile app, that can also be used to group all your company events. There's no need to invest in multiple tools when an EMS like Eventdrive can do it all.

As mentioned above, you're going to save a lot of time. You'll be able to use this time to work on more important things, where you have a true added value and probably have outsourced up until now. External providers can take a big chunk of your event budget and their work is not always outstanding. Let's be honest, you have a better understanding of your job and company culture than an event agency.

Sometimes we tend to order too much or not enough. Either way, it's detrimental to your event's success. With an EMS, you'll have better visibility over your entire event and participants. You'll be able to obtain exact counts to manage transportation, snacks, and giveaways. When you control your data, you control your budget.

Use professional tools

Most event planners, or at least those who have yet to invest in an event management software, use an excel file to track their event registrations. And let's be honest, you're not an accountant and Excel is not at all suitable for attendee management. There are even some of you who chose to use Teams or Zoom when you pivoted to virtual events. These video conferencing tools are far from meeting your needs. They do not centralize your data. They are not secure and often are required to be downloaded, which is sometimes difficult with company firewalls. And, most importantly, they are not branded!

Indeed, branding is important for an event team. An EMS like Eventdrive allows you to harmonize your event communication for your entire company. There'll no longer be John, Jane, and Karen using random colors in their event emails and moreover, your logos will always be the right size.

Corporate events go hand-in-hand with reporting. Track your analytics and event performance in one place. You'll be able to easily monitor stats that are key to a successful event and see the overall return on investment from all your hard work. You'll have real data to share with other teams and that can be used to show the importance of events in company performance. With solid reporting, management will spend less time validating your yearly event budget. Indeed, it's difficult to dispute key facts and figures and therefore you'll be able to secure a budget that'll allow you to keep moving forward.

It's clear that an EMS will allow you and your company to save time, save money, and professionally equip your events department. So, why don't you already have one? #WorkSmarterNotHarder