The Challenge
Missing Insights Into Attendee Behavior and Experiences
Compass’s National Events and Partnership Team hosts exclusive retreats that attract 700 to 2,300 real estate agents. These retreats allow agents to network, soak up thought leadership and best practices, and build their book of business with a referral base that stretches across the country.
In 2019, Stephanie Militello, Compass’s Growth Product Marketing and National Events Lead, worked as Marketing Manager, National Events & Partnerships. She was managing a small team of three and needed to overcome obstacles to creating an on-brand attendee experience, including the following:
- The Compass team needed the ability to capture the right event data but had limited visibility into event analytics.
- It was difficult for the team to assign attendees to sessions and tracks when building out programming.
- The team lacked solutions for drilling down into attendee engagement or session registration numbers.
- Compass encountered challenging onsite registration situations that delayed event start times and impacted attendees’ experiences.
Compass turned to Bizzabo to resolve these challenges and take a more data-driven and data-informed approach to events.
The Solution
An All-in-one Onsite and Analytics Powerhouse
With a website builder, event and session registration, analytics, onsite solutions, and an intuitive interface, Bizzabo enabled Compass to not only capture important registration and attendee data (e.g., registrations and ticket sales) but also to compile attendee demographic information (e.g., location) that could be used to inform future event strategy.
Post-event survey data helped the Compass team keep a pulse on engagement with event content, which allowed the team to curate targeted sessions and speakers for future events.
Militello said that driving attendee engagement through session registrations and an in-app experience was a considerable value add with Bizzabo.
“Bizzabo offered customization for the attendees, allowing them to go through and make their selections based on their time and interests,” said Militello.
The Results
A Clear View of Attendee Preferences and Behavior
In 2019, Compass revamped its onsite registration with Bizzabo and saw overwhelmingly positive feedback for its Fall 2019 REtreat, which drew 1,700 attendees in Miami.
With Bizzabo’s Onsite Solution, Compass provided a seamless attendee experience and was able to pull vital data, including the registration versus attendee rate.
“The onsite registration was hands-down the most successful that we’ve ever had to date,” said Militello. “All the agents who came to this event shared those sentiments with us.”
Compass also doubled its mobile event app adoption rates with Bizzabo compared to its previous app vendor. More than 60% of Fall REtreat attendees downloaded the app, and the event app community was abuzz, sending more than 390 messages.
On the backend, event data reporting became increasingly more manageable and helped answer essential questions. For example, the team could see the most popular session had more than 91% attendee registrations.
“You can get a lot more granular with Bizzabo’s reporting,” said Militello. “I think the ways that we can ask questions are much more complex than what we could capture in our previous solution. With Bizzabo, the way the data is extracted is also much clearer and easier.”
The Future
Building More Seamless Attendee-driven Events
With Bizzabo, Compass decreased the amount of time needed to bring an event to life, freeing up the team to focus less on managing event logistics and more on creating a memorable attendee experience.
“The hours Bizzabo saved us building the event website meant a lot for us,” said Militello.
Armed with the correct data and technology to bring its vision to life, Compass can now transform its events from a cultural and community-building initiative to a revenue driver that accelerates company growth.
