Proximity has been gaining traction in the business world – and one major part of the reason stems from its location analytics capabilities. Recently, during our deployment of beacons and the Proximi.io platform, we have gained some insights into how location analytics improves event organizing. Here are our top 5 picks:

1. Food and Catering Analytics

We start off with food – one of the most important factors that affect people’s experience at large conferences and meet-ups. Clearly enough, nobody can enjoy the day with an empty or aching stomach.

Can proximity analytics help here? Of course! The total number of visitors and the percentages of visitors that had meals at the events may be a good start to peek into how satisfied they were with the food – allowing organizers to make some slight tweaks to improve the process.

Lines and queues at buffet tables is also worth mentioning. Proximity data allows for iteratively shortening of waiting time – which affects the experience immensely. Hot points with heatmaps can also pinpoint where to focus cater effort to better fulfill food demands from visitors. This is also applicable using peak time analysis – pinpointing on when instead.

2. Presentations and Perfomances Analytics

Another crucial aspect in events is what happen on-stage. The audience numbers at different times can yield really insights.   Coordinating that with the presentation schedule, you’ll be able to see which topics resonated the most with the attendees, and who only got a handful of listerners. Next year, you’ll be able to refine the schedule accordingly.

Also interesting is how other event organizers can use proximity to check drop-off points and search for distraction or annoyance in the event that affected stage attention. When stage attention is higher, it means that attendees are appreciative of the presentation’s content, speakers get more visibility and the event gets even more visitors next time. Everybody wins.

3. Networking Analytics

Networking is a key factor in attending different conferences and events. The data gained from different meeting areas can be really insightful. Especially useful it is in cases, where the various stakeholders are encouraged to set up meeting beforehand for specifically marked meeting ares or deal rooms. Some of the questions the data will be able to provide you with:

• How many people actually went to meetings when compared to how many people registered for meetings?
• Did the presentation affect the number of meetings at all?
• What was the average meeting time? How efficient were the meetings – in terms of saving time while also being effective for attendees?

You’ll be able to see also more generally what the hot spots for networking were, how long people stayed in each networking area before exiting, and which areas people went to after networking with each other.

4. Expo Area Analytics

The exhibitors pay a hefty amount of money to present their company at your event. They must be able to see that their investment is going to be worth the money before they make the investment. What better way to show them the potential of reserving a booth than giving them the exact visitors numbers by the exhibition area – or even the exact booth they are contemplating on taking – from the previous years. And, on the other hand, if one of the exhibitors feels after the event that they have not received enough contacts from the event, you could prove them wrong with the hard facts.

Bonus: if the app includes a login function, the app can be also used for automatic lead collection. The ability to gain the contact information even from those visitors, who are trying to sneak away from your booth without leaving any contact information could be worth a lot of money for the exhibitors’ sales teams.

5. Venue and Facility Analytics

At events thousands of people will be gathered in tightly packed areas. That means lightning, connectivity, heating, ventilation, etc. all have to be spot-on for the best attendee experience.

By analyzing hot-spots, an organizing team can find our where facilities can be focused to best cater to attendees. A crowded area may need more attention to air conditioning and ventilation. Noise reduction can also be of importance – especially at tech conferences where off-stage discussion can affect on-stage speeches. At concerts, the sound and audio systems can be better distributed to get the best performing effects. Even toilet queues and waiting times can be measured for improved performance the following year.

The data can be adapted to specific event needs – to ask the right questions and get the right answers.

Here were just a handful of ideas to get you started. To get further ideas about how location analytics could boost your event, download our whitepaer that presents the Arctic15 conference and how they used 13 beacons and the Proximi.io platform to gain detailed location analytics.