Lehi, UT, Feb. 02, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RainFocus, the leading event marketing and management platform, announced record-setting attendance at the company’s virtual event, RainFocus INSIGHT (January 19-21). Previously known as RainFocus CAB, the event was expanded this year to include a larger public audience of customers, partners, and other event industry professionals. RainFocus exceeded its registration goal by 300%.
The theme of RainFocus INSIGHT, “Making History,” acknowledges the innovations that were achieved in response to the challenges of 2020. In the last year, RainFocus clients and employees have leveraged the flexibility of the RainFocus Platform to drive attendee engagement, facilitate networking opportunities, and activate exhibitor value—all within an immersive virtual environment. RainFocus INSIGHT pulled together 2020 insights and best practices from those history-making virtual experiences.
Some of the key features of the event include:
- Points-based gamification with 14 badges and various prizes awarded to those who participated to maximize engagement.
- Interactive exhibitor booths where attendees could schedule 1:1 meetings, chat, view resources, or request additional content.
- RainFocus’ Virtual Streaming Solution, which was used to stream live workshops and keynote presentations directly from the RainFocus Platform.
- Real-time dashboards that illustrated pre-event engagement, attendance metrics, gamification participation, speaker and exhibitor task completion, progress towards goals, and much more.
- Seamless API integrations with D3G Productions, Pigeonhole, Ubersnap, Eventbase, and Braindate.
The event included seven role-based content tracks with visionary and best practices sessions, user-led case studies, interactive workshops, and panels. Sessions from each track were automatically populated on attendees’ schedules with the flexibility to choose additional sessions from the Session Catalog. Session content covered all topics relating to virtual and hybrid events, from bolstering attendee experiences to providing sales and exhibitor value. Additionally, RainFocus emcees interacted with attendees from across the globe live each day, providing them a fully immersive experience.
Highlights from keynote and breakout sessions:
“Having an attendee experience that is easy to adapt to, having a single place where all the activities of around an attendee are presented, having the interactions happen in one spot and doing that in a branded seamless way is extremely important for driving adoption and usage in a digital environment.” - Doug Baird, President & Founder of RainFocus, State of the Events Industry
"To us, hybrid means bringing the right people at the right time together for the right experience and extending that virtually. Our partnerships with our event agencies and platforms are critical to our ongoing success, especially as we go hybrid." - Colleen Bisconti, Vice President, Global Conferences and Events, IBM Consolidating the Event Marketing Channel
"Just having videos on a webpage is not enough, and it's not really a digital experience. We've always had an agenda page or a sponsors page, or a schedule, but digital is now right at the front. To do digital well is a complete shift for the industry. You’ve got to be good at doing events and good at the digital aspect too." - Scott Owens Sr. Director, Strategic Events at ServiceNow, Quick, Pivot NOW!
"The trick to leveraging events as a part of your ABM strategy is matching the content of the event, the intent of the event, the people of the event, and the experience of the event with the needs of your customers." - Megan Heuer, Managing Director, Winning By Design, The Reimagined Role of Events in an ABM Strategy for 2021
“Our previous event data showed us that when an attendee actually goes in and schedules a breakout, they are more likely to attend...So build the catalog, build the scheduling experience and make it as consistent as you can to cater to attendees across all regions. And when possible, make that experience match the look and feel of your website." - Beth Narrish, Senior Event Content Manager, Splunk, Global from Home: Content Scheduling for Everyone
“Revenue doesn’t happen the day after the event. What does happen? Sales follow-up. It is important to determine how long after an event a person can reply to sales in order to get event credit. The more campaign successes you have, the more attribution touchpoints you have.” - Tom Keefe, Director of Marketing Operations, Demandbase, Raising the Bar on Event ROI
“It was really hard for us to decide what should be our driving force, where should we start planning, should it be content or should it be the technology? What we found is the answer really lies somewhere in the middle and the key is in your relationships. The ‘hub of the wheel’ the thing that comes first, is a combination of both content and event tech.” - Emily Kanar, Senior Program Manager, and Allison Crooker, Director of Event Content, VMware, What Comes First, Event Content or Event Tech?
“Looking forward, exhibitors will have opportunities to not only engage in large tier-one conferences but also on webinars, webcasts, and other events. We’ll definitely see exhibitors playing a big role in the entire event ecosystem.” - Irene Martynova, Sales Executive, RainFocus, Providing Exhibitors With Value to Keep Them Coming Back
“Flexibility is important to avoid getting caught in processes that don’t scale.” - Todd Harrison, Event Manager, SUSE, Process and Flexibility: How to use both to successfully “Pivot” and “Pivot Back”
“Virtual can’t just be bolted on to in-person events it needs to be an integral part of the event experience. The two audiences need to feel like they are one. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the pricing structure needs to be the same for both in-person or virtual, or even that they get all of the same benefits, but we need to facilitate the networking whether they are onsite or not.” - Marilyn Good, Sr. Director of Events, Oracle, Let’s Get Physical: Planning for a Safe Return to In-Person Events
The event concluded with RainFocus’ traditional Innovation Awards ceremony. Winners of the Innovation Awards were recognized for their excellence in managing, delivering, and optimizing their events throughout 2020. Award winners include:
- Grow-Getters: Adobe and IBM
- Data Nerd: IBM
- Innovator: Salesforce.org
- Experience-Makers: VMware and ServiceNow
- History-Maker: Cisco
- High Performers: doTERRA and PTC
- Pathfinder: ServiceNow
Access to on-demand content from the virtual experience is now available at rainfocusinsight.com.
About RainFocus
RainFocus is a next-generation event marketing and management platform built from the ground up to capture, analyze, and harness an unprecedented amount of data for significantly better events and conferences. As a true SaaS platform, RainFocus simplifies event registration, content management, exhibitor activation, and on-site experiences from a single dashboard. Save time, increase engagement, and maximize event value for every event regardless of whether they are virtual, physical, or hybrid.
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