Today, the internet has become an integral part of life as we use it constantly to source information and to communicate with family, friends, colleagues and even strangers who are scattered all over the globe. It is also growing in popularity as a mode of shopping because of its convenience and ease of use. The event management industry can use the internet’s countless benefits to target those individuals who would like to attend events but miss out just because they do not have the time to stand in queues.

As an event organizer whose business is people-centric, you have to keep in mind that your potential delegates or attendees are just like you, your wife, family and friends. They too have busy lives. They don’t want to call your office half a dozen times in order to learn more about your event; nor do they have the time to drive down to the nearest registration or ticket centre between 9 to 5. Moreover, they are used to instant solutions whether it is finding answers online or home delivery. Today, finding information about your event online is not an expectation, it is a basic requirement. Most of you are already accommodating these expectations by creating websites for your event. Now, you have to take one more step to increase your online conversion rates and customer satisfaction. You need to add an online registration system to your event website. This will help transform your event website into a proactive and powerful sales engine that collects registrations and accepts payments in real time.

A few years ago, only registration facilities were limited to big event organizations because developing your own solution was an expensive undertaking. Today, however, there are solution providers that offer ready-to-use, easy-to-integrate and cost-effective event solutions. So, whether you are a big event organization or a one-man show, you can launch your event online easily and take advantage of the internet’s reach and real time capabilities. Here are few of the features and functionalities that you gain on signing up for an online event solution.

	An online registration facility that enables you to collect registrations directly online and send your attendees instant confirmation with ID badges
	An online payment facility that enables you to accept payments from attendees in real time
	A variety of payment options to ensure that lack of payment options don’t cost you attendees
	A range of online event management and report generating tools that reduces your pre and post event workload
	Reduce operational costs such as paper, postage and courier charges

Please note: This is a rough list and the features will vary depending on the solution chosen.

To summarize, today, busier lifestyles and the convenience of the internet has caused changes in lifestyle patterns. To ensure the success of their events, the event management industry needs to adapt along with their target audience. Today, it is extremely important to move beyond just developing a website for your event, you need to add a real time registration and payment facility to your website in order to add value for your attendees, broaden your target market and close registrations in real time.