By Tia Crawford

As an Event Planner in the Financial Services Industry, you recognize that your events have specific needs, and technology is a critical factor in modern events. More than just providing equipment, the right event technology partner can become a trusted advisor that helps you ensure that your event is exceeding the demands of the industry. In Part One of this article, we look at the mission and focus of Financial Services Industry events, and discuss the unique objectives and standards that are particular to the industry.

  1. Maximize Impact – at each stage of the event, your technology should impress your attendees. The right technology functions in symbiosis with attention to detail—personalized attendee information feeds the technology, which in turn creates a customized experience for each attendee. This level of personalization reflects stunningly on your client. Investment professionals and other Financial Services attendees are expecting an “experience” from your event.
  2. Streamline Technology – for the Financial Services Industry, your event technology must feel seamlessly integrated into the surroundings in an elegant and unobtrusive way. Certainly, information-gathering and ROI reporting analytics technology is vital; however, Event Planners for FSI events know the importance of gathering the necessary data with technology housed in sophisticated yet functional designs.
  3. Facilitate the Attendee Experience – look at your event from the perspective of your guests. Use technology to get them registered, keep them informed, ease their information-gathering, and help them find their way with as little effort on their part as possible.
  4. Security is Paramount – from event set-up through take-down, the information gained and exchanged at a Financial Services event must remain confidential. For the sake of clients, attendees, and investors, all technology needs to run on a secure server. In many cases, the technology used may need to be wiped clean of data and presentations after the event, to guarantee that sensitive information remains private. Clearly, these events require constancy and true professionalism from a technology provider. This is a situation where “saving” on an un-tested technology vendor could result in billions of dollars in damage.
  5. Gather Data – Financial institutions expect a flawless system of data collection—one that captures demographics and patterns across dozens of categories, while also being unobtrusive to guests.
  6. Be Ahead of the Curve – many of your attendees may cycle through multiple industry events, in which case, your technology needs to be a step ahead of your competitors. With each event, visitors are expecting more interactivity, more connection, more personalization, information that is both relevant and immediate, faster information transfer, and the latest cutting-edge technology. In short, you must exceed their expectations.

It’s not difficult to notice that the bar is set pretty high—Investment Professionals and Financial Institutions hold high standards. Rest assured, in Part Two of this article we’ll discuss the event technology options that can help you achieve these lofty goals!