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If you are in event management, you know all too well that optimizing resources while ensuring a great attendee experience is a delicate balancing act. However, with people-counting systems, managing everything from planning to execution becomes easier. People-counting systems provide real-time and historical data on your event.
Regardless of your event type, be it a conference, festival or trade show, you can use data-driven insights to guide every step of the event.
Before an event begins, you will want to do some pre-event planning to ensure everything goes like clockwork — from beginning to end. There are six ways people-counting data can help with event planning.
If you have hosted a similar event before, looking at past attendance records can help you predict how many people will show up. Knowing this figure allows you to order the right amount of supplies and allocate enough resources so you can avoid going over budget. For new events, industry benchmarks or ticket sales data combined with people-counting data help make informed decisions.
Using similar past event data, you can position key elements, like popular booths, food stalls and restrooms, more strategically. This way, you can improve attendee movement.
Staffing and security are two important human resources for any event. If possible, use people-counting data of similar events at the venue to see where most people enter at certain gates or gather in specific spots. You can place more staff and security in these cluster areas to manage crowds.
Some venues may have strict capacity limits. With people-counting systems, you can use past data to ensure the event doesn’t exceed this limit. Knowing how many attendees may show up helps you decide whether you need a bigger venue or additional ticket tiers.
If certain days, times or event types attract more visitors, you can shift your marketing strategies accordingly. For example, if past data shows weekend events draw bigger crowds, you can advertise more heavily on social media leading up to the weekend.
People-counting data can also identify areas prone to congestion. With this information, you can plan for emergency exits, determine evacuation routes and allocate medical stations more effectively.
Once the event is underway, real-time people-counting systems help organizers make decisions on the fly. Here are the various ways people-counting data aids in event management.
Using real-time people counting, you can easily monitor the crowd. With a bird’s-eye view, you can quickly identify which areas build up too much congestion or require more foot traffic. This information allows you to make immediate data-driven decisions to ensure the event runs smoothly.
Whether the queue is at an entrance or an exit, a popular stall or vendor or even the restrooms, no one likes long lines. Use people-counting data to open more lanes or send extra staff. If possible, you can even send notifications to the event’s app to inform and redirect attendees.
If people tend to stay in one area while other spaces are empty, you can make traffic flow adjustments. Crowd control is another way real-time people-counting data can aid event managers. They can either use signage, event staff, live announcements or in-app notifications to adjust traffic.
Using people-counting data, event managers can see when and where a dangerous amount of attendees form in a specific space. They can send out security teams to keep foot traffic moving and intervene before a problem arises.
People counting systems can also help optimize concession stands or merch booths, which may become busy at certain peak times. Real-time tracking helps optimize their staffing. For example, if a food stall receives more traffic than expected, organizers can send another vendor to that area or increase staff or stock.
Many large venues can adjust their energy and resource usage based on the crowd density. Using people-counting data, you can redirect these resources to busy areas to potentially save costs.
Event planning also takes place after the event. Once the event ends, event managers can use their people-counting data as a post-event analysis tool.
After the event, use the newly gathered data from the people-counting system to evaluate the event’s success. Use these insights to see what worked and what did not. For example, you can ask yourself:
You can also use people-counting data to see if certain areas caused bottlenecks or had the opposite effect, and underperformed. For instance, you can use this data for future similar events to:
Sponsors may want information about how many visitors their booths received to measure their return on investment (ROI). This is where a people-counting system can provide important insights, such as:
Using the people-counting data you gather, you can refine your marketing strategy for other events. For example, you can look into which days and sessions were most popular. If Friday had lower attendance than Saturday, you could offer discounts or other promotions for future events held on a Friday to encourage more attendees.
People-counting systems may also aid in budgeting. Knowing where money was used ineffectively or effectively helps optimize future event budgets. For instance, if an area had too many staff members but low foot traffic, you can cut costs next time.
Most importantly, people-counting data can also improve the attendee experience. If attendees complained about long lines, crowded spaces, not enough attractions or engagement, data can show where these issues occurred. Event managers can then make the necessary adjustments for future events.
People-counting data turns guesswork into strategic decisions. There are various ways in which these insights can help optimize your current and future events — from planning to execution. Take the time to invest in a reliable people-counting system.
Traf-Sys offers a wide range of people-counting systems designed to provide you with precise foot traffic data. With over 10 billion people counted across 50,000 locations, Traf-Sys has empowered more than 2,500 clients to enhance their efficiency and profitability. Our solutions are tailored to meet the unique needs of various industries.
Ready to improve event success? Get a free quote and learn how our technology can transform any event management strategy.
