Sponsored by ASP, MeetingTechOnline conducts quantitative research on the trends and patterns of innovative event website development, based on the demands and expectations of top industry organizations.
I. DEMOGRAPHICS OF SURVEY SAMPLE
Through statistical induction from a sample of 25 participants, the following research analysis represents a general appraisal of trends, preferences, and current practices of web design for event websites. Participants range from five types of organizations, with association organizations most represented at 44% of the entire sample. The number of shows and events that survey respondents engage in varies widely, with a substantial minority involved in 1-5 annual shows (44%) and a majority engaging in more than five annual shows (56% composite: 8% for 6-10 shows, 20% for 11-20 shows, 8% for 21-50 shows, and 20% for 50+ shows). Furthermore, the majority (55%) of survey respondents deal with 10,000+ attendees as well as up to 500 exhibitors per year.
In terms of geographical distribution in the United States, survey participants encompass all regions of the country, with central Texas and Washington D.C. heavily represented. As displayed in Graph 1 – Demographics: U.S. Locations, respondents from industry-rich locales such as New York, Dallas, and Las Vegas/Rocky Mountains also form a considerable portion of the sample. This sample corresponds to a representative segment of the industry population.
II. ANNUAL WEB DESIGN BUDGET
Of the survey participants’ fiscal plans, the mean annual budget allocated for web design centers around $64,000. The distribution of web budgets is conveyed through survey choices of interval measurements, with increasing fiscal ranges affixed to each of the five answer selections. As shown in Graph 2 - Demographic: Annual Budget, the majority (60% composite) of survey respondents have budgets of more than $25,000 specifically allotted for web design. However, from the vantage point of individual interval choices, the single interval that is chosen most by survey participants points toward budgets of less than $25,000. Despite the fact that the majority of survey respondents are willing to pay more, this figure also implies the existence of a substantial group (40% composite) who lean towards a smaller budget for the maintenance and development of their organization websites.
III. VISIBILITY AMONG WEB DEVELOPERS
Of the respondents who are extremely or very familiar with external web developers, the majority of the survey participants selected a2z Inc and BD Metrics as companies most recognizable in the industry. To a lesser extent, internet4associations, ASP Inc., and NGN were also included as extremely or very familiar developers. As presented in Chart 1 - Visibility of Web Developers, the familiarity discrepancy between the percentages of a2z Inc, BD Metrics, and the less familiar developers translates to different degrees of industry visibility for particular developers, a2z Inc and BD Metrics in particular, over others.
IV. DETERMINING CRITERIA FOR CURRENT AND ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPERS
In regards to current developer criteria, most participants chose customer service, performance/execution, price, and innovation as features that developers must adequately provide. In terms of selecting alternative vendors, two criterions that are considered tipping points for organizations involve performance/execution and innovation features. These results suggest that a web developer does not have to be the lowest priced vendor in order to win business, but rather company messaging should include customer retention rates and satisfaction ratings. Innovation can be utilized to gain market attention and allow web developers the opportunity to be included in RFP requests. Unique tools and services should be promoted as a way to give potential customers a reason to consider alternative suppliers.
V. PRODUCT FEATURES OF EVENT WEBSITES
A. Tier One Features
Of the survey respondents, 92% indicate navigation as an important web design feature. A well-prepared navigation system provides visitors with convenient ways to find the information they seek, helping the website serve its original intent and purpose. In order to endorse an event website as an effective form of online marketing, the ability to easily move around a website is essential in attracting attendee visitors to events and promoting higher revenue dollars.
The overall look and feel of an event website is also deemed highly important by 92% of survey respondents. The aesthetics and visual stimulation of a website help brand an event. In addition to the website look and feel, pre-event marketing can also take place through other online mediums such as banner ads placed on third party websites or email marketing. The primary intention of these marketing efforts is to bring additional traffic to the website itself. These reasons indicate the importance of the overall visitor experience that web design developers must take heed in. By providing them with a look and feel that visually pleases, the extended stay of website visitors will naturally increase their interest in an event.
Another important facet that participants identify are content management systems (CMS), programs used to easily publish content (e.g. computer files, image media, audio files, documents) to a particular website. The need for CMS originates from the fact that web developers are not always the content providers of online material. Publishing content to a website easily through a CMS program is valuable to any organization, as specified by the 72% of the survey respondents who believe that the feature is vital to their web design needs.
Constant efforts to engage visitors has placed user interactivity among one of the most imperative of website features. In fact, 72% of respondents believe that user interactivity rate as extremely important. Typically encouraged through weblogs, forums, or social networking tools, user interactivity effectively promotes visitors’ attraction to the websites in general. Downloadable items, such as prospectus, forms, and other documents, also contribute to increased interest of, and subsequent interaction by, website visitors.
B. Tier Two Features
Events with tradeshow components generate a significant amount of revenue by selling exhibit space and other sponsorship opportunities. These exhibitor zones are considered noticeably important to 64% of survey respondents. The purpose of these exhibitor-only portions of an event website relies on systematically providing exhibitors with access to particular sponsorship availability, pricing, and purchasing options.
Furthermore, determining the traffic volume an event website experiences is valuable in indicating visitor patterns and behavior. Website metrics represents a feature that was deemed significant to 64% of survey respondents. The process of attaining the metrics associated with a website assists tremendously in generating online dollars. Proving its value to sponsors through numerical metrics-generated data allows event organizers more leverage in selling online advertising space.
When a visitor searches for an event, they will often use one of the most popular search engines such as Google or Yahoo. However, when searching for an event or related industry topics, visitors will attempt to seek information through associated keywords, making search engine optimization a significant feature for websites. 56% of survey participants designate this as an important feature while considering web design.
C. Tier Three Features
According to Chart 2 – Importance of Product Features, other attributes that ranked less significantly in importance include vertical search (44%), web sponsorship options (44%), media (36%), and e-commerce (32%).
D. Visitor Benefits From Web Design Product Feature
Visitors of an event website tend to fall into three main categories: event management, exhibitors, and general attendees. Each of the product features shown in Chart 3 – Visitor Category Correlation correlate to and affects a respective visitor category. Event management visitors directly benefit from content management systems, user interactivity, exhibitor zone, metrics, web sponsorship options, and e-commerce features. Likewise, exhibitors find features such as an exhibitor zone, SEO, web sponsorship options the most applicable for their purposes, in addition to indirectly benefiting from navigation, overall look and feel, website metrics, and e-commerce. Finally, visitors classified as general attendees gain most from features of navigation, overall look and feel, user interactivity, SEO, vertical search, media, and e-commerce.
When the aforementioned web design features are ranked from the most to least important, survey respondents clearly rank web design features that benefit the general attendee visitor at the highest level of importance.
VI. USER INTERACTION TRENDS
A. Current Website Features Built To Promote User Interaction
From the data on user interaction features currently utilized by survey participants on their websites, two distinctive trends manifest as general tendencies across the industry. First of all, Chart 4 – Current Interaction Features displays that most event websites have more interactive features available to engage their visitors rather than suppliers. This generalization may once again reflect the purpose and utilization of event websites for the appeal of visitors more than anyone else.
Secondly, the most prevalent interaction features that currently exist on event websites center on downloadable files and social networking elements. This tendency suggest that interaction features that require more resources, financial investment, and energy, such as the maintenance of weblogs and development of video casts, are not as readily offered on current websites as conveniently manageable social networking features and downloadable files. These tools are also directly related to specific needs of the event community: accessing information through PDF files or establishing new relationships. Consequently, the features associated with higher percentage may more adequately reflect the practicality or value of implementation rather than the organizations’ belief of that these features may produce more website user interactions.
B. Web 2.0 Interaction Features
As internet communication and processes mature over time, novel approaches to online interaction began rising to the forefront. The term “Web 2.0” refers to this new wave of tools and features geared towards increasing the communicative and interactive aspects among the diverse online community through weblogs, forum, and networking. As a natural component in increasing user interaction, event websites have also started to implement Web 2.0 to hold the attention and interest of their visitors in recent years. As shown in Chart 5 – Importance of Web 2.0 Features, survey respondents most value blogs and forums among all other Web 2.0 tools, perhaps due to their potential to encourage discussion while maintaining a certain level of control over the topics of interaction. Conversely, only 12% of survey participants deem visitor-oriented user generated content important, implying their reluctance to give up too much jurisdiction over website content to its visitors. Moreover, the popularity of video casts (that 36% respondents find important) over podcasts (that 20% of participants deem significant) denotes a general preference towards visually-oriented features to engage website visitors.
VII. CONCLUDING COMMENTARY
As event websites continue to move beyond their original purpose of promoting particular shows and events to newer grounds of generating revenue, attracting visitors, and increasing website interaction, web design developers must understand the values and intentions of the organizations behind these websites. Among the determining criteria for organizations to either stay with their current developer or switch to another solution, the most decisive factors that vendors need to provide are features that enhance performance/execution and demonstrate innovation. According to survey results, price is deemed less important as a selection criterion in comparison the aforementioned features, with the additional consideration of integration with existing tools and high customer service.
Features that are deemed most important for the implementation of successful websites point towards ease of navigation, overall aesthetic appeal, and effective content management systems. The high percentages associated with these features suggest that organizations prefer websites to first and foremost address the primary purposes of visitor appeal and the ability to regulate content. Beyond laying the basic foundation, the expansion of Web 2.0 tools online has now increased the need for innovative website attributes that encourage interaction and exhibit innovation, such as blogs, forums, and video casts. This trend is especially prominent for the purpose of engaging visitor interaction, as seen through the respondents’ heavy partiality towards visually-oriented Web 2.0 features that would likely attract and hold visitors’ attention. Moreover, weblogs and forums appear particularly accepted in event websites as well, due to the fact that they combine a comfortable blend of interaction encouragement and administrative control over content.
For web developers seeking to increase their visibility in the market space, the first course of action is to build more references, establish relationships, and network with significant players. In the meetings industry, references have been the best support for new business. Hence, personal networking is crucial in turning awareness and visibility success into RFP invitations. Supporting this claim, one survey respondent suggested word-of-mouth marketing and two respondents suggested utilizing references in gaining more business opportunities. Along with successfully producing deliverables, contending web developers must be available and visible at tradeshows, ready to build relationships in order to affirm their positions as viable, competitive players for event website development in the meetings industry.