Thinking Outside the Box for Event Servicing and Engagement

Q3: How has the feedback been from Event Organizers?

The feedback has been positive and I’ll share a good example of where this worked.

We had a Gymnastics group we were working with who wanted to come up with some cool indoor things to do for their athletes while they were in Boise for MLK weekend. He asked if I had any contacts and I said, “Instead of giving you contacts, let me build you out a webpage where we can list 15 to 20 key attractions people can go and check out”. This was an extra layer of service that helped him give his teams an improved visitor experience.

The nice thing with this too, that I often recommend to destinations, is doing the website plug-in where you can put the Playeasy event pages on your own website. Because then all the traffic they are generating for that event will go directly into their DMO’s website.

So then not only do visitors have the information within the event page, but can also dig through your website to find blog posts and other destination information. Compass will be a big help in keeping this all-in-one place too which we’re excited about.

Q4: Are there any examples of events where Playeasy made a noticeable difference in servicing or communication? And how do you get these event pages in front of visitors?

We handle every event a little bit differently… some events just want the group discounts and others use third-parties for hotels. It’s very flexible to where we can put the third-party link on there, or it can just be event servicing and discounts.

We do have to rely on event organizers to share the event page and push it to their attendees. Where we've found success here is working directly with the event owner's marketing person. The main event organizer contact isn’t always responsible for the marketing of the event, so establishing a relationship with the marketing contact has been helpful in sharing the event pages out.

Another thing we do is when we have financial ties to an event, we have started making that part of the requirement for the event organizer that they put the hotel or promotions link on their website. This was an easy addition since there's already some requirements that go into our partnership with our grant where they must have a logo and things like that on their website. So sometimes we can use our logo and then if you click on the logo, it'll go into a Playeasy event page on our website.

Q5: How does your team collaborate internally to build event pages and support visitors onsite?  

I tag team this with Julia who is our project coordinator. She helps me with sports, helps our executive director with board-related stuff, and supports marketing.

Julia works directly with the event marketing person or the event organizer to add photos, update the city profile, and make any adjustments they want. Some organizers want to make a lot of changes, while others are like, “Yeah, this looks great,” and they’ll just put it up on their website and call it good.

In some cases, organizers also want QR codes on-site at the event. We haven’t done it a ton, but when we do, we’ll print a simple 8.5x11 sheet with the QR code, put it in a small stand, and place it at areas like the registration desk.

That’s especially helpful when we’re working with organizers who aren’t local. They get a lot of questions like where to eat or what to do, and they don’t always know the area. So we tell them, if you’re getting those questions, just have people scan the QR code. It gives attendees a resource without putting more work on the event staff.

Q6: What approaches do you take when offering promotions to visitors?

Boise is a big city, so it's hard for us to go door to door. The approach that we've taken with it is using promotions that already exist from businesses and giving them a platform to offer that promotion to attendees.

Another approach we take is promoting specific businesses with multiple locations that aren’t necessarily offering a promotion. For example, adding it as a “promotion” but communicating that it’s a popular spot that they should check out which is a simple approach. Or something like a hike or trailheads around Boise that visitors should check out.

We try to take a creative approach to make visitors feel special and catered to. Julia and I will share ideas back and forth which is how our “hike of the week” idea came about which was a very successful promotion we offered in the Summer.

With the data on promotion clicks, we can then see what worked and what didn’t and refine our approach from there. I always encourage others to be creative with it and think of ways that you can use the Playeasy software to promote different elements of your city and not be so boxed into one way of doing things.

Q7: Do you use Playeasy in your pitch to event organizers? And what are you most excited about heading into the new year?

Playeasy is definitely a part of our pitch and it depends on the event we're working with. When organizers ask about things to do, it’s appealing when I can say we can get you group discounts to 20 to 30 different attractions across the county.

Boise is emerging on the sports tourism scene right now with it being one of the fastest growing cities in the country. My excitement is not just about sports tourism, as we're getting bigger concerts and events start to come through. It's been an exciting growth period for us and I’m looking forward to seeing that momentum continue this year.