Real-Time Conference Data with Google Drive and Zapier
When it comes to conference planning, the focus tends to be on pre-event planning. Are speakers lined up? What about vendors? What will attendees eat?
Once the conference begins, however, things tend to be a free for all. Attendees are often free to attend whichever sessions they choose with no formal record of who goes where. That lack of data makes future planning difficult and forces organizers to rely on anecdotal evidence when estimating for future years.
The Mid-South Minority Business Council Continuum (MMBC) turned to SimpleTix to help change that. We used Zapier to create a custom integration between SimpleTix and Google Drive, which allowed the consortium to track attendance at multiple sessions with the same ticket.
The MMBC Continuum is one of the largest economic development conferences in the mid-south. It connects Fortune 500 CEOs and senior executives, renowned speakers, national thought leaders, and regional and local community leaders at its events throughout the year.
Once a ticket is scanned at the event, data is sent to Zapier as an intermediary then to a Google spreadsheet that is updated in real-time as the event happens. If anyone had a question about who checked in where during the event, the spreadsheet could provide a quick answer. Looking forward, the data from the spreadsheet will allow for more complete analysis when planning next year’s event.
The tickets are also able to be unscanned, which allows them to be used multiple times. MMBC used this feature for its VIP-level tickets and were able to use the same group of tickets over again.
Tickets were scanned using mobile devices, which made it easy for staff to move around between sessions. This integration also supports multiple ticket types, which allows for varied pricing tiers, membership discounts, or other custom options for each event.
SimpleTix is the only ticketing vendor who is able to unscan a ticket in this manner and to develop a solution like this using Zapier. We can use Zapier to integrate with more than 500 other apps and would love to help you figure out how it can streamline your ticketing process.
