Open Forum

Hello! 

We are hosting our Sales Meetings virtually this year. Because networking and camaraderie are two of the big things that our sales reps are missing out on, we are encouraging them to view the event as a group in their offices (approximately 3-6 people would be in each group).

We would like to send a gift to event participants after the event. Because of this 'group viewing' dynamic, each participant won't be logging in to the event site on their own computer for analytics. Does anyone have recommendations on how they would track who actually participated in the meeting? I'm thinking it would have to be a poll or survey at the end that asks them who was in their group (which relies on the honor system), but wanted to see if anyone had any other ideas.

Thank you in advance!
#ManagingVirtualEvents

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Amy Bell
Meeting and Event Planner
Carlisle Construction Materials
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Hello Amy, 

If you are encouraging people to attend as small groups from their office, my suggestion would be to send, PRIOR to the event, a pack of branded masks to the offices they'll be gathering at. This would show that, while you are encouraging them to attend as a group, you still have their health in mind as they do so. This would also be a draw to get people to actually attend - if they don't come, they don't get the gift. 

Cheers,

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Béline FALZON
Event Planner
California Teachers Association
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Hi Amy, 

If you are using Cvent as a registration tool for these meetings, you could include a "survey" for them to complete after the meeting where they need to submit certain answers that would prove they were in the room. Maybe on the call you give a code word or something that they need to enter into the survey?

You could even make it fun and have each group attend in person with "The most creative face coverings" and submit a photo of their group - You would have photo evidence of everyone there, you are encouraging mask wearing AND the winning team could get an extra special guest. 

All the best,

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Sharna Pascolo
Program Director
Texas Society of Architects
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Hi Amy,
It could be as simple as asking one person per group to email you a list of attendees in their group.

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Lori Wildman
Senior Marketing Manager
DuCharme, McMillen & Associates, Inc.
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We rely heavily on the registrant's confirmation number for many of our tasks, research, verifications, and finance needs. 

Perhaps it would be a viable option for you to specify ahead of time that the registrants will receive a unique group confirmation code that will be used when you run a "thank you" survey afterward. If they were surveyed and asked to input their group's confirmation code then every group who completed the survey could then get a follow-up email. In the follow-up email, the group leader would be asked to submit a screenshot of their event attendance and a digital confirmation (check box & "signature" of the group leader).

Maybe that would give your event something beyond the honor system. Even some of the Cvent Celebrity challenges ask for screenshots for confirmation.

The screenshot could be mentioned at several way-points during the meeting. I would not suggest mentioning it in the housekeeping items at the beginning of the meeting lest people screenshot and "walk out". Intermingle that message.

Still honor system-esque, but more evidentiary. I think it would also depend on the skill level of your attendees.

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Amanda Adams
Professional Learning Coordinator
Cognia, Inc.
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Hi Amy -I think a survey asking specific questions, as mentioned below, is a good idea.  It could be time consuming, though, for you to go through the surveys.  In those surveys, you could collect shipping info for the attendees for the swag you want to send, so they aren't feeling as though you're checking in on them, but also looking to thank them for their time (with the gift).  Depending on how many meetings you will be running at once, you could log-in to check attendance on each meeting. Hope this helps!

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Kayla Sisco
Convention Coordinator
Impact XM
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You've got some great ideas here! An additional thought would be to ask them to like/comment on one of your social media posts regarding an aspect of the event they liked. That way you have more positive publicity for your company!

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Amy Jones
Assistant Conference and Event Coordinator and Marketing
Georgia Southern University Division of Continuing Education
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