Are you looking to elevate your VIP event experience? There are hundreds of ways to impress VIPs, whether they are executives, prospects, influencers, celebrities, or long-time supportive clients.
What makes VIP experiences truly exceptional is personalization and attention to detail. In this post, we’ll explore how to plan ahead to create a VIP experience that enhances your valuable relationships with these attendees and supports your business goals.
The Power of Exclusivity
There are two types of VIP experiences: standalone gatherings and experiences embedded in a larger event. Both serve a distinct purpose—to create a sense of exclusivity that makes people feel valued and gives them an opportunity to form lasting memories and relationships.
For VIP experiences that are part of more general events, one easy way to signal an exclusive experience from the start is to give VIPs a unique badge design. In addition to being a visual indicator, this badge grants them access to special activities and meetings. Activities may include early-access sessions, upscale dinners, spa days, concerts, sports activities, and one-to-one meetings with executives.
Attendee Profiles: The Ideal Starting Point for VIP Event Planning
The need to “wine and dine” executives and influencers at events is standard. But what sets a VIP experience apart is knowing what matters most to individual attendees and using that information to tailor their experience.
Event teams worldwide have discovered that the more they know about their audience, the easier it is to keep them coming back year after year. These attendee profiles are especially useful for VIPs, especially if they compile each person’s likes, dislikes, and behaviors in one place. Teams that successfully build such profiles are far more likely to attract and retain VIP attendees.
There are several ways to build up VIP profiles if you don’t have a lot of data to start with. One way is by looking at past behaviors. What other events have they attended? Search through their social profiles to see what content they’ve interacted with. You can also crowdsource data about VIPs from colleagues and peers. Data can be continually added and updated with each interaction point.
Personalizing VIP Experiences
Once you’ve identified your VIPs’ preferences, you can begin to use that information to personalize experiences. Small details make a difference. For example, if you know several of your VIPs are vegetarian, you can plan meals accordingly before they even submit new dietary requests.
There are many ways to make the most of executive profiles. During INSIGHT Premiere, Devin Cleary from CyberArk shared an example of how his team uses executive profiles to plan who to invite to each event and how to approach them with planning questions.
Tailoring registration based on what you know about your VIPs is another fantastic way to personalize their experience. Using SSO or pre-filling their agendas with activities you’re certain your VIPs will enjoy are little actions that demonstrate how much you value your relationships.
With smart use of data and some advance planning, you can easily set the foundation for memorable VIP experiences. Click here to discover how RainFocus enables event planners to easily build attendee profiles and personalize attendee experiences with centralized event data.
