Workflow of the Week: Top Automation Features for Hosting and Sponsoring Events

In our last Workflow of the Week, we discussed how automation can help streamline conference selection, approval, and attendance. But the opportunities don’t stop there. If you find yourself sponsoring, speaking at, or even hosting an event, an intuitive workflow automation tool like TAP can help accelerate your to-do’s in preparation for the big day.

Sponsoring or partnering on an event usually means co-hosting a panel or conference session. However, with that opportunity comes a lot of emails, session outlines, and back-and-forth updates that can easily get lost in someone’s inbox or spreadsheets.

Workflow automation is the tool that brings all the moving parts into one system. All requests, contracts, and assets are stored in a central location. Meanwhile, follow-up is automated, and time-based escalations are customized for your event deadlines.

Here are some top workflow automation use cases that could come in handy when sponsoring an event:

• Event Contract Portal 
• Speaker waiver sign-off for video/audio 
• Scheduling on-site demos and meetings
• On-site personal info intake (add to a contact list, newsletter sign-up, etc.)

Planning an event is a group project; the entire company will get involved. So, consolidating the paperwork, requests, and stray tasks helps keep everyone (marketing, sales, account management, stakeholders, customers, and 3rd-party speakers) on track. Some scenarios for workflow automation when hosting an event include:

• Speaker application portals
• Attendee intake for scheduling on-site meetings
• Request for discount or accommodations 
• Marketing approval for 3rd-party speaker sessions
• Press release and image sign-off for recorded sessions and event promo.

At Mitratech, we know a thing or two about hosting conferences. Our Annual User Conference, Interact, for example, is taking place this August. With 40+ sessions and festivities to manage, we’re using TAP to automate and track much of the planning and preparation work leading up to the event. Ryan Dinkler, Mitratech’s Customer Marketing Specialist, is one of its primary users: 

“TAP helps us remain flexible and adaptive to the evolving needs of our event and speakers. All tasks that would have been both tedious & manual— gathering client information, fielding both internal and external requests, routing the information to the correct person, etc. — can instead be put into a workflow. And when plans, processes, and needs change, it’s as simple as adjusting the workflow or generating a new one. Either way, we didn’t miss a beat. Now, we can focus on the real needle-mover tasks and make progress while the ones that typically clutter up the to-do list are automated.” 

Conferences involve many moving parts, but with workflow automation, these parts can become incorporated into a larger framework that prioritizes the goals of the company and the department.