Planning an event can be an exciting yet daunting task. With a myriad of event types to choose from, understanding your options for event management is crucial to ensure your event hits your targets. When it comes down to it, there’s a reason why you’d want to invest in different types of events — and a few crucial variables (i.e., goals, business, and audience) will often be the difference in results between, say, a conference thrown by a B2B tech company versus a conference thrown by a B2C retailer.
Private events are big in the tech industry. These popular in-person events typically connect high-profile individuals like C-level executives, VPs, and other decision-makers. More often than not, VIP events target a highly specific group of people.
The goal of a private event is typically to give a small group of people a unique and memorable experience and create a space for them to network and have valuable conversations – whether it’s about a new product launch, industry news, or a thought leadership topic.
For example, companies often provide a VIP section at sporting events to get decision-makers in a room with salespeople in a fun, relaxed environment.
Another example is Splash’s Magic Spark dinner series, private VIP dinners we host all over the globe for key customers and prospects. At events like these, event planners must make your high-value accounts feel special, and you can use Splash to administer the event experience, from invite email to post-event survey.
Brand activations and product launches are another common type of event.
When a company introduces a new product or service, a product launch event is organized to create awareness and generate excitement among target audiences.
Brand activations are a marketing strategy designed to bring a brand’s identity to life and engage its target audience through experiences and interactions. These events may include presentations, demonstrations, and media coverage. For example, at Cannes Lions 2023, companies like Spotify, Pinterest, and Meta created unique brand activations that engaged their audiences. Spotify created activation experiences that resembled a sound bath stage and a cute coffee and juice bar called “Sonic Sips.”
Some best practices for event planners creating brand activations:
While both conferences and seminars are events that bring people together for learning and knowledge sharing, there are some key differences between the two.
A conference is a larger-scale event that often spans multiple days and includes a diverse range of sessions, workshops, and presentations. It typically accommodates a more significant number of participants and focuses on broader topics or industry themes.
On the other hand, a seminar is a more focused and intimate gathering that revolves around a specific topic or subject. It usually lasts for a shorter duration, typically a few hours or a single day, and involves in-depth discussions, presentations, and interactions among a smaller group of attendees. Seminars often involve a more interactive and participatory format, allowing for active engagement and knowledge exchange.
The purpose of internal events is to foster engagement, collaboration, and communication within an organization or company. These events are designed to unite employees, enhance team dynamics, and promote community and belonging. Internal events can serve various purposes, such as:
Overall, internal events are vital in building a positive work environment, strengthening employee relationships, promoting growth and development, and nurturing a shared sense of purpose within the organization.
Keynote conferences are a kind of event commonly driven by brands paying a prominent person a sponsorship fee to attract a large audience or potential customers.
Keynotes typically happen at large-scale events during a conference's opening or closing session. Most of these types of events were paused during the pandemic, leading to a shift to virtual events.
The keynote speaker is typically an expert or a thought leader in the industry or field related to the conference's theme.
Keynote conferences are often considered the event's highlight and serve multiple purposes. They can provide thought leadership, inspire and motivate attendees, and create a unifying experience for conference-goers.
Large-scale conferences like this also typically involve presentations, panel discussions, workshops, and networking opportunities.
An industry trade show aims to bring together businesses, professionals, and organizations within a specific industry to showcase their products, services, and innovations.
Trade shows serve as a platform for companies to promote their brands, build relationships with potential customers, generate leads, and stay updated on industry trends. They offer a valuable opportunity for networking, market research, and gaining visibility within their industry. Trade shows also often feature educational sessions, seminars, and product demonstrations, further enhancing industry knowledge and fostering business growth.
Seminars and training sessions predominately appear in industries like tech, real estate, health and fitness, and other industries.
Companies in tech will also often host customer-focused educational events — including one-day conferences or seminars, partner events, thought leadership workshops, and product training.
These types of events empower customers and prospects to share ideas, network, and collaborate, and enable brands to showcase their latest product features and services.
A great example of a training session is Splash’s own weekly training sessions called Meet Splash, where a product expert hosts a virtual webinar and shows customers and potential customers how to use the platform and what features they can use to run successful event programs.
Fundraising and charity events aim to raise funds and support a specific cause, organization, or community in need. These types of events create awareness about a particular issue and encourage individuals or businesses to contribute financially or support in other ways.
The goals of fundraising and charity events include:
Fundraising and charity events are vital in addressing societal needs, mobilizing resources, and bringing communities together to make a positive difference in the world.
Virtual events, webinars, and hybrid events have become trendy for businesses to reach their audience regardless of location.
A virtual event (or a webinar), on the other hand, is an entirely online or digital gathering where participants attend and participate remotely through web-based platforms or virtual environments. It typically includes live presentations, webinars, virtual booths, networking opportunities, and interactive features, enabling engagement and interaction from anywhere with an internet connection.
A hybrid event is an event that combines both in-person and virtual elements, allowing participants to attend and engage either physically or remotely. It combines on-site activities, such as presentations, workshops, or networking, and live streaming or virtual components to reach a broader audience.
For example, Splash holds regular virtual events that engage prospects and customers all over the world.
The goal of networking events is to connect people. There may also be specific breakout segments where people can go into smaller rooms to discuss particular topics in more intimate settings.
The purpose of a networking event is to provide individuals and professionals with an opportunity to connect, establish relationships, and expand their professional network. These events facilitate face-to-face or virtual interactions, allowing attendees to meet potential clients, collaborators, mentors, or industry peers.
A common goal of networking events is exchanging information, sharing expertise, exploring potential partnerships, and creating valuable connections that can lead to business opportunities, career advancements, or knowledge sharing.
Community events unite people, fostering a sense of belonging and unity within a specific locality or shared interest group. These events serve as platforms for social interaction and community development, promoting a more vital and vibrant community.
In a business setting, community events typically focus on communities of customers or users of a specific product. Customer community events aim to strengthen relationships between a company and its customers by providing a platform for engagement, interaction, and shared experiences. These events help build loyalty, gather feedback, and foster a sense of community among customers.
A co-marketing event is a collaborative effort between two or more businesses or brands to organize and promote an event jointly. A co-marketing event aims to leverage each other's resources, audience, and expertise to achieve mutual marketing objectives, such as expanding reach, increasing brand visibility, generating leads, or driving sales. It combines marketing efforts, shares event-related costs, and creates a unified experience that benefits all participating parties.
Splash is the best possible platform for event management and event marketing, regardless of which type of event you're planning.
With Splash, you can create a beautiful, on-brand event in minutes. Splash builds our templates to showcase your brand at every touchpoint of the attendee journey. We continually update our library with the latest trends in design and marketing to help your brand stand out from the crowd.
Splash makes it easy to promote your event with striking emails and easy automation. From Splash’s beautiful user interface, you can build, target, and schedule all communications with a few simple clicks and ensure event promotions go to the right people at the right time — every time.
Splash gives you real-time visibility into registration. See every response, status change, and answer to registration questions from Splash’s Guest List. This information also syncs to your CRM and messaging platforms to maintain consistency and transparency across teams, making event management a breeze.
On the day of your event, dazzle attendees with a seamless, engaging experience. Whether in-person, virtual, or hybrid, check-in with Splash is a breeze on both sides of the screen. Built-in engagement tools take your programming to the next level without the heavy lifting.
Splash makes it easy for you to measure results, prove the impact of your event, and replicate success. Create a data-driven event strategy and prove its success with built-in reporting and analytics. Splash measures data like RSVPs, email performance, page views, ticket purchases, and check-ins so you can make informed decisions about future event programs.
Splash saves customers time and energy in event setup and unlocks scalability for event management teams. Not only that, but customers see increases in their sales pipelines. Register for our weekly live demo or request a personalized demo here.
Yes, selling tickets on social media is possible, but it’s generally pretty hard because of how saturated social media channels are. Here are a few strategies for promoting ticket sales on social media:
The right event for your company depends on your business goals — for example, is it lead generation, brand building, networking, etc?
As event marketers, we know the importance of aligning our events to our goals (everything from brand awareness, to driving pipeline, to customer retention, etc.) and our business (b2b, b2c, or both). And as our newest event marketing report of 600+ global companies shows, events are dynamic and nuanced — and most importantly, never one-event-fits-all.
As an event organizer, you should always strive to...
