How to Start An Exhibition & Event Management Business

Hosting events is one of the effective ways in which businesses find potential clients and new customers. Whether it is about announcing a new product or opening a new branch, an event is a way to express your business achievements to the mass. This industry is witnessing a clean growth and the same is suggested through the expected 11% growth rate between 2016 and 2026.

So before we get any further, let us know more about this industry, its trends, challenges, benefits and the wise use of technology for better growth and sales.

Latest Trends in the Event Management Business

• The demand for events and meetings will still remain ahead of the supply.
• Use of app interfaces to connect with more number of people
• Use of chatbots and voice assistants to help event attendees.
• Using marketing tech to reach a larger audience and new attendees.
• Improve the experience of attendees using facial recognition and guest management
• Invite people to increase the publicity of your event
• Use of modern imaging techniques to design the stage
• Bring together techies to create a social experience

Challenges of Event Management Business

Lack of Resource

Organizing an event means you will need to have a significant number of people on board as well as all the tools and equipment for various needs. In case you have no sufficient people and needed things, you will end up facing issues during the planning phase as well as on the day of the event. Avoiding this situation is definitely one of the key challenges faced by event organizers.

Under-staffing

Events often come across the issue of understaffing and in most of the cases the issue comes up on the actual day of the event. In such a scenario, it becomes quite tough to handle things. This can be prevented by properly analyzing the optimum number of people you want on board. You need to know for what all tasks you require people and then describe each role title to know who can help you get done with it. You can even decide the strength of the staff based on the strength of the crowd you expect at the crowd.

Overspending

When it comes to an event planning business, the budget remains the most crucial challenge. So if you are too concerned about the same, keep in mind that you are not alone. During the event planning process, many little things can come up and all that can add up the expense. So it would be better that you analyze your previous budgets and look for areas where you can make budget cuttings.

Track & Scheduling

This is very important while hard to follow. Schedules in the event are bound to change and if you fail to track them, you will end up in a great mess. You may have stretched the timeframe of things and an over-budget on the other side. Documenting changes and communicating the same ahead is the only solution here.

Budgeting difference with the season(timing)

Events do not have the same kind of crowd on all days of the year and at different times during the day. So you need to plan the budget of your event accordingly or else you will end up spending more over a thin crowd.

Management

Managing an event involves many tasks and as an event planner, you are supposed to look after many things. Forgetting something very important turns up to be a common thing in such a case. Again, trying to handle everything on your own can increase stress and you may end up messing things.

Marketing

Marketing the event in the right manner is one of the key challenges faced by event managers. It happens because of the lack of budget or lack of human resources. Because of the same, the event is not promoted well and this results in the lesser crowd turning out at the venue.

Things you Need to Consider when Starting an Exhibition & Event Management Business

Whom can you Serve?

For an exhibition and event management company, the potential clients can be individuals or big corporate.

Based on the kind of the event & its size, the number of attendees will vary -the requirements would change and so the resources too. This means that based on the changing events, you will have to offer a personalized solution.

Types of Services you can Provide to the Client

Different Ways to Earn from Event Management Business

By Conducting Seminars

You can go ahead and conduct training seminars. You can choose your niche for training or hire a trainer who can conduct it for you. In both ways, you will be able to make some money.

Organizing Pet Shows

With more people owning pets today, it would be good enough to organize pet shows by bringing together pet owners. You can come up with a creative concept to organize pet shows. This would help you generate some income.

Organize Sports Tournaments

You can plan to organize sports events for sports fanatics. Organize different sports events based on the choice of people. Include different avid sportsmen who are interested in the game as well as gather sports enthusiastic to watch the events.

Craft Shows

If you are low on budget and looking for ways to make a good amount of money out of your events, then you can plan to organize craft events.

How to Structure your Fee?

Flat project rate based fee

In case of flat project rate, clients are offered a packaged event which is inclusive of all rates. Here the event planner will be contacted by the clients for coordinating all the tasks like venue, catering, logistics, lodging expenses, etc.

Percentage of expenses based fee

On average, event planners charge their clients around 15-20% of the total cost of planning the event. The charge can vary based on how complex the event is and how much time is utilized to plan and execute it.

Event fee based on an hourly rate

Few clients ask their event planner the hourly rate of their services and the total hours needed to get the work done. This proves to be a flexible model as both parties get to adjust the requirements as needed during the planning process.

Fee-based on the percentage of expenses plus hourly rate

At times, the client hires you to organize an event and pays you a percentage for the task. However, the amount does not cover all your expenses and so it would be better you come up with your fee structure that comes with hourly rate too.

Commissionable rates

Another way to get paid for conducting an event is by getting paid for the services in the form of commissions.

What is the Startup Cost to Setup your Event Business?

Office space

To set up your event management business, you need to setup an office space first. Now finding a place means you need to either rent it or buy it. In both cases, you should be ready to spend enough amount of money on securing your favourite location.

Marketing & Branding (Website, Social media, offline stuff)

Such kind of activities needs experts. This means you will have to hire enough resources to take care of such tasks and this will cost you money. You need to hire a web developer to develop your website. Once you have developed your website, you need to go ahead with the marketing efforts and this means you need to use a part of your budget on different social media activities. You also need to spend some amount of money on getting business cards, hoardings, etc. All those activities will need more money to be spent.

Management (Event Management Solutions)

The use of event management solutions can help you manage your business as expected. When it comes to building such a software solution, you need to spend money from your existing budget.

License

In order to make your business legal and authenticate yourself in the market, you need to get a license for your business. Such a license comes at a cost and so you need to keep a part of your budget aside to get this process done.

Salary

An event management business needs the right people on board to take responsibility for different tasks. It cannot be a one-person show. This means you will need to hire people for the role of manager to helper for the event. Hiring people means you will need to spend money in the form of salaries. So you need to consider some part of your capital money for this too before starting a business.

Miscellaneous Expense

Not all expenses can be planned in advance. You may end up facing some small expenses here and there during the whole event planning process. So you need to consider some money for the same too. This can be anything like a last-minute repair for equipment or hiring an extra cab, etc.

How Technology Helps to Manage Stress & Boost your Event Management Business

Event management business is all about coordinating with different people and stakeholders to get the work done on time and as expected. This means you need to stay on your toes always and this can build a lot of stress in you. Again, if you fail to plan well, you will end up spoiling the event. It is possible to get rid of all the stress and relieve the pressure by the proper use of technology in your event management business.

Features that Helps to In Managing Business with Event Management App

Calendar Integration

When it comes to organizing an event, you need to look into everything right from the beginning. You need to have a clear schedule of everything planned beforehand. For the same, it would be great if you have the calendar service integrated into your system. It will help you schedule appointments, schedule tasks, plan your team’s schedule, etc. So everything can be done in a single place.

Event Sessions & Schedule

Planning an event involves a lot of things. With the feature of Event Sessions & Schedule, you will be able to schedule the tasks and plan the sessions for the event beforehand. This will help you arrange your resources and staff accordingly.

Multi-language Support

Talent has no boundaries. So if the people you are working with do not speak English, then you will have difficulty in using their talent for your work. When you make use of an event management solution that supports multiple languages, they will be able to understand all the requirements well and reciprocate back properly.

Push Notifications

Conducting an event means you have a lot on your plate. Using push notifications will help you a lot when it comes to your business. You can use push notifications to alert your potential attendees about an upcoming event, to urge them to buy tickets, to tell them about any discounts, etc. You can even use push notifications to alert all third-parties who are working with you on the event like catering services, light & sound arranging teams, etc.

Cloud Integration

Having cloud integration with the event management solutions will help you keep all your data and records over the cloud. This will make them accessible anytime and from anywhere. This will make it easy for you to conduct events at new places which you had not chosen before.

Bookmarking

Conducting an event is all about creativity. A good event management company always looks for new themes and ideas which can be implemented in the next event. The proper bookmarking feature will help to save ideas easily so that it can be accessed when needed.

Contact Management

When you are into an event management business, you will have a good number of people in your contact. They can be your clients, suppliers, staff as well as other third-party businesses that coordinate with your business for events. Proper contact management feature will help to manage all the contacts appropriately. You will be able to easily search, add, edit, delete and filter contacts with ease.

Resource Management

Resource management is very important when it comes to running an event management business. You need to be clear about your resources first. You need to be clear about your staff strength as well as other resources before you start your planning your event. This is very crucial, especially when you are planning more than one event at a time.

Payment Integration

Keeping in mind the convenience of the clients, you should offer easy payment integration within the app. This way, your clients will be able to make payments for the event to you with ease. Again, if you are managing the event for your client, you will have the responsibility to take care of tasks like selling tickets for the event. This feature will let the attendees buy tickets for the event with ease.

Ticket Booking

On your event management app, you should offer a simple ticket buying option. You should come up with a very user-friendly page on your app or the website where the attendees can easily buy tickets by filling up a registration form. You should mention this page on the homepage as well as on the site navigation of your website or app.

Benefits you Get by Integrating Event Management App in your Business

• You get to easily save your time in communication using an event management app. Here the application dashboard lets you send email or SMS with ease without having to leave the app.
• Such an app keeps you completely organized. You can easily schedule your event as well as check if everything is in place as desired with a single tap on the app.
• Such an app is completely customizable based on the kind of the event management business you follow.
• The event management app lets you manage different events efficiently at a time. Here every event will be placed differently within the app and you can view it by a single tap.
• You can easily come up with an attractive page for your event in no time and let it go live. This will let you know the number of interested people in the event and thereby track sales.
• You can keep track of your budget and spending using such an event management application. You can integrate your ticket sales to know the kind of sales you have made.

Features that Helps in Marketing Business with Event Marketing Solutions

Analytics & Reports

Analytics is what runs businesses today. This means you need to look for an event management solution that offers a better facility on in-depth reporting. Getting the analytics done and checking the reports will get you a clear idea about what works well for your business and what not. You can even compare the statistics that you generate from such business with some industry benchmarks. Once you have analyzed all the data and made better decisions, you will be able to see improvements in your next events.

Social Media Integration

The world of marketing has changed dramatically with the introduction of social media. Social media is considered today as an effective medium to connect with people across the globe. People use this platform to share their thoughts, build a personal image and the rest. So when you make use of event marketing solutions for your event management business, you will be able to get your business on social media and promote your events on different networks. This simply means that going ahead with the integration of your business with such an event management app will help you get social with ease.

Email & SMS Integration

This feature will help you send messages to the clients, suppliers, and attendees as and when required. You will be able to send emails and SMS through the event marketing solutions directly. So whether it is about sending information or taking follow-ups, email & SMS integration features play a key role.

CMS

Event management business is all about reaching customers directly. This means having a feature of CMS in your event marketing solution will help you market your business in a better way through creative and effective content. You can make use of blogs, videos, and other forms of content for your business and manage it well using the CMS solution.

Blogging

Blogging is all about providing effective information to the customers so as to attract them towards your brand. Event marketing solutions now include blogging so that they can attract viewers towards it and thereby increasing the base of potential customers.

Benefits you Get by Integrating Event Marketing App in your Business

• The event marketing solution will help you with increased foot traffic and sales. The proper marketing strategy will help you leave a better impression on the customers.
• Such a marketing solution will let you reach your targeted audience with ease. You will be able to reach the potential buyers who have a genuine interest in your service or product.
• One of the benefits of such an event management solution is that it lets you build valuable connections over time. You will be able to catch up with people who are business owners, media people, etc.
• Such a solution offers you greater brand exposure than what you can imagine. Events are always about getting a lot of media attention and this will lead to more people knowing about you and your work.
• Social media benefits that you get from such an event marketing solutions are outstanding. You should encourage your attendees to take photos and videos of the event and post them on social media.
• You will get valuable citations with each event as you are sure to publish about your event at every calendar available out there. When you inform about the event, you will also give information about your brand and this will help with local SEO.

How much does it Cost to Develop an Exhibition & Event Management App?

When you are working on to develop an event management solution, you need to look into a number of factors. You need to hire an expert and experienced designers and developers to build the solution as per your needs and desire. We can say that based on the complexity of the project and the time taken to complete it, your project cost will be decided.

Final thoughts

Event management is a booming business today. With more businesses and people wanting to come together and interact with each other in this digital era, such a business has a scope. Then like any other business niche, it has its challenges and efforts needed. So work in that direction to improve your business and make good use of technology integration to make things simpler and boost revenue.