Mastering the Art of Team Communication at Events
Live, in person events are back with a vengeance, and with them come all the challenges of making larger and increasingly complex shows a huge success.
With new expectations for events in the post-pandemic event space, exhibitors and show organizers are busier than ever adding interest and excitement to events with high quality content, driving engagement with new activations, scavenger hunts, leader boards and point rewards that drive participation in sponsored activities and sessions.
With all these moving pieces, corporate event success relies on the use of platforms that are capable of acting as command centers with multiple solutions under the hood, and that prioritize best practices in EVENT TEAM COMMUNICATION.
Paramount to every successful event is how event teams handle COMMUNICATION.
1: A Multi-Channel Approach
At events, team members are often distributed across the show floor; sometimes because they are staffing different trade show booths, other times separated by different tasks. One team member may be networking on the show floor while the other is staffing a support desk or trade show booth.
So, how do you create a clean, organized and cohesive environment for team communications?
When asked, an event professional recently mentioned their team uses tools like Slack to communicate at their events. Slack is a great tool to keep teams together on various projects at the same time, but as a communication channel for events, Slack can really create more confusion than good. Considering the volume of channels and team members on Slack, it can be difficult to prioritize messages by importance.
For example, if you’re on the show floor with a VIP and need to connect them with another team member they may already have a great relationship with, would you contact them by Slack? On Slack, they may be getting “@Sally” notifications for everything from what they want for lunch to questions about where a certain box of brochures can be found. To them, your message is just another “tap-tap-tap”.
You might take this message up a level to SMS or phone conversation to elevate the importance. Are you sure the phone number you have is correct? Why aren’t they answering, and why are you interrupting a VIP conversation with phone call or text activity?
There are a plethora of incredible communication channels available: Slack, Zoom, email, phone calls and text messages, WeChat, WhatsApp, Skype and FaceTime… Dropbox and Google Drive, where you can share important documents and more, if you can get to them quickly and efficiently… and therein lies the problem.
Which methods of communication take what priority?
How does your event team prioritize which communication channels to check first?
Communication at events isn’t something you want convoluted or vaguely defined…
And there are personal privacy issues.
Your event crew may all be on the same team. They may all have the same goals and be employed by the same company… but that doesn’t mean they are comfortable sharing their mobile phone number with everyone on the team.
In some cases, employees have been found using team member phone numbers for prospecting more than just business. This unprofessional and unsolicited style of communication can make team members uncomfortable, further complicate communications, and undermine the undertaking of tasks at hand.
A team member reaching out by SMS to engage someone in personal conversation can easily distract them from an important conversation related to the event, which reflects on overall event success measured by things like brand exposure, relationship / partnership building, and deals won.
Finally, which team members are available to respond to urgent or important requests, and which ones are unavailable; out on a break, in a meeting, etcetera?
These aren’t questions we like to answer by trial and error, dialing multiple numbers, or sending multiple texts and emails.
Every event team needs one central hub where all team members can go for all of their communication needs.
THESE INCLUDE:
- Individual and Group Messaging
Corporate event and trade show communications shouldn’t be lumped in with general business conversations where details can get lost amidst multiple other conversations and channels.
When planning event communications, use a platform that provides important information like, where team members are at the show, if they are available or unavailable, and enables group and individual messaging with respect for individual privacy.
- Documentation and File Sharing
Document and file sharing should be easy to access by all team members, and available to share instantly with prospects. Captello’s universal lead capture app enables users to customize responsive forms and include documentation while scanning in the lead. Automated processes email the documents directly to the prospect using the lead-owner’s personalized messaging and email signature.
- Team Member Availability Status
Give everyone quick visibility into who is available on the floor, and who’s not. A green circle around the team member’s picture indicates they’re ready and available. A red circle = unavailable.
- Team Lead Capture – On and Off the Show Floor
Dump the scanning equipment rentals and equip the entire team with lead capture on their own devices. True universal lead capture means being able to scan badges and business cards anywhere, any time, on any connected device with immediate access to your precious lead data.
- Phone Conversations, SMS Messaging and more – without having to share personal information.
Give your events team the upper hand with a communications hub that exists inside their lead capture app so capturing, grading, assigning, and discussing leads can all happen in one space. This also ensures your team members stay on topic and can keep their personal information private.
- Performance Metrics for Booths & Stations
Share performance metrics with the whole team inside the lead capture app to encourage healthy competition and victory sharing. Captello’s Stations feature makes it easy to assign booth staff and check leads coming in from each station on the fly.
One Central Hub So That:
- Team leaders can easily provide and restrict access to group conversations.
- Team members can get a global overview of needs, leads, lead quality, and important notifications in one place.
- Phone numbers, email addresses and more are always up to date, and can be kept private.
- Inappropriate conversations can be flagged, reviewed and deleted by leaders or moderators.
These solutions for event and team building success are all part of the Captello platform, and they’re changing the way events are done for the better.
Captello is a multifunctional event platform that provides: Universal Lead Capture, User Customizable Gamification, Marketing Automation, CRM, Lead Management, Sales Enablement, Leader Boards, Point Rewards & e-Gift Cards, Waypoints for Sessions & Scavenger Hunts, Player Profiles, and more with over 2,000 integrations for all common CRM and Marketing Automation platforms.
To see how Captello’s growing library of digital activations (games), universal lead capture, and reward-based solutions can help your company generate more leads at your trade shows, contact us today!
