Event management with Bitrix24

If you think that it is easy to hold an event with the participation of live people, you probably have not come across this yet. Whether it's a client presentation, a seminar, a training session, or a huge event for 100,500 people, you will have to interact with people in different areas, manage resources and keep a lot of things under control. And if you do this with a pen and notepad, then you can go crazy very quickly. But this is not at all necessary, since Bitrix24, as a unique product for management, marketing and customer relationship management (CRM), has all the tools you need as an organizer. In this article, based on my own experience of an event for 250+ people, I will tell you the general theory of event management with Bitrix24 and try to give some life hacks.

Preparing for the event

And so, at the very beginning, you should know the answers to three main questions similar to the name of an intellectual TV show: to conduct “What?”, “Where?” and when?" The first answer will determine the theme of the future event, its format, and most importantly, who your participants will be. It is clear that the audience of a business seminar and a dance master class are very different, as well as the approximate number of possible listeners. From the format dances the place of providence: you need a stadium or a small conference room. And the answer to "When?" immediately allows you to imagine the stages of preparation and promotion of the event, the approximate turnout.

Great, now we immediately go to the Bitrix24 portal and create an extranet group for the future event. Note that the group is necessary for:

• Connecting your team members to the organization of the event;

• Planning in the calendar of key events;

• Structuring the execution of tasks in this particular direction;

• A separate place on Bitrix24.Disk for storing the necessary information and quick access to it for all participants;

• Future connection of the group to the landing page of the event to display dynamic content.

An extranet group is desirable initially because it allows you to empower the team and improve the accounting process. First of all, you will be able to connect here people who are not in your Bitrix24 portal for collaboration. Secondly, such groups have the potential for improvements if necessary. For example, our company has created an extension for an extranet group that allows you to keep track of the working hours of contractors (employees-hourly workers). This is very convenient if security, animators, photographers and musicians work for you during the event, who need to be paid depending on their time costs.

Half the job is done. Now you have a separate place in the portal and a special chat for communication, where all the most important things will happen. You can safely set tasks, determine deadlines, responsible people and already see all the behind the scenes of preparing for the event.

Set of listeners

In the case of a “get-together” this point loses its meaning, but, basically, people need to be sought out and invited to events. I will not touch on the social media resource, as they are able to spread information about your future event, but not to take a lead. It will depend on Bitrix24 how the contacts of the person who wishes will appear in your CRM.

The main thing in which Bitrix24 will be very useful to you now is the creation of a CRM form - a kind of “trap” for potential visitors. You set up the form yourself and have the right to determine the logic by which it will work: either a person enters his data and becomes a lead, or after filling out a deal will be created in CRM - honestly, there is no single correct algorithm here. Personally, we received deals, but if you have a new Bitrix24 portal, then it is better to fill the system with leads. The main thing is that the form takes a name, contact number and email from a person. This is a mandatory minimum to work with such applications further.

When it comes to hosting a CRM form, there are many options. You can attach it to an existing site, send a link to the form through different channels, but with Bitrix24 you always get more opportunities. And one of them is your own landing page for the event.

The Bitrix24.Sites service allows you to quickly assemble a fully working website from ready-made blocks. The main purpose of the service, according to top managers of the company, is to help in sales. So, such sites are quite suitable for attracting listeners to the event! With the help of the constructor, having spent two cups of coffee and one sandwich, instead of several days and a certain amount for custom development by a contractor, you will receive a landing page with a description of the event, a capture form and a large arsenal of marketing tricks, such as a countdown timer, etc. In the Bitrix24 update .Dubai also has the ability to display blocks with dynamic content changes on such sites. Now, when creating a post in the Live feed of your event group, the information can appear on the landing page, as in the news feed. And this is good for visitors who will see a “live” site, and not a set of static content.

Such a site can be promoted by SEO, traffic from all social networks can be poured onto it. I recommend using only one CRM form and bringing leads to it from different ones.

On the eve of the event

Practice shows that additional information for registered participants increases the conversion of those who reach your event by 30%. Yes, do not be surprised, but statistics are a stubborn aunt: not everyone who left you an application will come. Even if people made any payment in advance, this does not mean that they will be ironically present. Someone will have a force majeure and someone will simply forget. If you are an altruist and host a free event, the conversion here is generally 50%! It works, I have personally tested it.

Thus, people need to be reminded that the event is coming soon and Bitrix24 can do it in several ways at once.

In the CRM marketing section, several useful tools are available at once:

• Email distribution. Everything is clear here. CRM forms have collected the mails of those who wish, so segmenting leads (or contacts) will not be difficult at all. You can also attach additional content to the letter, such as the event program or information about the speakers.

• SMS-mailing is a bit old-fashioned, but also effective. Now, basically, only operators, banks and all kinds of marketers send short text messages, so it will be very pleasant to find a reminder SMS from the organizers on your phone.

• Calling. But this is a very interesting thing. Automatic ringing of applicants not only saves time for organizers, but can also enhance the effect for leads. For example, Dmitry Suslov, Director of Bitrix24, invited me to a partner conference by phone. At first, I even answered him... The program itself can voice the written text, substituting the name of the person, but this tool does the proper effect in increasing the conversion in any case.

In addition to relationships with leads before the event, Bitrix24 will work out all the necessary reminders, remind you of deadlines, show the readiness of checklists in tasks, and in general, if you keep records in good faith, will not let you forget about anything.

The last chord will be the formation of a list of participants. No matter how you organize your work, Bitrix24 can upload both the list of leads and deals.

Personally, during the preparation, I wanted to get the final table in a special form, for which I turned to the Bitrix24 developer. Very quickly, I was specifically provided with a code for custom uploading to an Excel file, which distributed the fields, painted over the necessary cells, and much more. But it was quite possible to do without such “Wishlist”.

The aftertaste of the best event in the world

During the event itself, Bitrix24 should become your reliable assistant in terms of controlling the situation. The mobile application will allow you to always keep abreast of events even at the most crucial moments. Messages, documents on disk, details, CRM - everything is available on your phone.

And when the satisfied guests disperse, the suppliers sort their things, and the cleaners wash the hall, you can relax. Why? Yes, because without Bitrix24, the organizers just then begin pitch hell: budget balance, logistics checks, reporting .... The program will do all this quickly, correctly, and most importantly, to a greater extent automatically. And you will be able to open champagne and finalize the best event in the world. The best, because you and Bitrix24 made it.