Change the conversation, change the world. Through its Impact event series, The Economist facilitates informed debate and intelligent analysis of critical, global issues with more than 80 events across 30 countries each year.
Attended by VIPs including financial leaders, industry experts, business owners, and politicians, the events can be the catalyst for meaningful change. The challenge? Ensuring VIPs get value from these events—and are willing to return. Here's how The Economist is streamlining its processes and taking a leadership role with idloom.
The Situation: Streamlining the Registration Process
According to Chara Dina, Senior Director for Events and Operations of Southeast Europe events for The Economist, "It's difficult to get VIPs to register after COVID. Many are busy and need a quick and easy registration process. But with people often changing roles and places, this takes a lot of time and effort."
Dina says that before idloom, her team was still taking some registrations over the phone, which took a significant amount of time. She also notes that there's no room for error when it comes to the logistical aspects of these events. From participant lists to payment tracking to dinner seating arrangements, everything must be complete and accurate. Manual operations naturally introduce the potential for problems in the registration process, in turn leading to issues with securing VIP attendance.
The Solution: Improving the VIP Experience with idloom
"We first used idloom at an event in New York," says Dina. "The Americans are faster than the Europeans, and our existing registration procedure was not very efficient. We did market research, tested a few platforms, and found that idloom was the best."
The results of the New York event were clear-cut. "Everyone was happy," says Dina, "and said that we should explore this in Southeast Europe." Easy and quick registrations with idloom were the first big change. "It might sound simple," says Dina, "but it's good to have the exact numbers and allow delegates to digitally check in. I think that idloom updates, especially the implementation of QR codes, are excellent. They are ahead of the industry."
In addition, payments are easier with idloom. Instead of following up with VIPs to take physical payments, the process is handled digitally. idloom is also GDPR-compliant. "It gives VIPs the option to choose if they want to receive newsletters and opt in to follow-up notifications about upcoming events or sessions." Finally, Dina notes that idloom makes it easy to extract contact data into CRM systems, which makes the event team's job easier during and after events.
The Results: Taking a Leadership Role
With VIPs in demand to attend events worldwide, The Economist recognizes the importance of taking a leadership role. If potential attendees are confident that all aspects of an event—from registration to payment to logistics—will be handled seamlessly, they're more likely to commit their time and effort.
"It's about customer service when dealing with VIP delegates," says Dina. "We want to make sure they enjoy the event and leave with a good experience. We want to establish ourselves as a leader." With idloom, it's easier for The Economist to embrace this leadership role.
Dina puts it simply: "I have more confidence in our events. The customer experience is elegant, effective, and efficient. Tasks require limited preparation time and are easy to build, and the training process is easy as well. We can also see how many people attend each session, which is useful to see where we need to make improvements."
The Economist has a simple formula for meaningful change: insight + innovation + influence = impact. With idloom, it's easier to get the right answer by adding value for VIPs.
Could you be our next success story? Check out idloom for the all-in-one event management solution your business needs. Contact us to know more.