Vivastream
Empowering Companies by Powering New Metrics of Event Success

Addressing a critical need

Top-tier companies, such as Atlassian, AT&T, Dell Technologies, Red Hat, Splunk, and Workday regularly organize large-scale events. These events present huge opportunities for peer connection, knowledge sharing, introduction of products and services, and sales. It is no surprise, then, that companies pour substantial resources into events. Atlassian’s Team ‘22, the software giant’s annual flagship conference, had tens of thousands of registrants across the globe engaging with hundreds of sessions over 2 days.

So how do companies ensure a return on their investment? This largely depends on making effective use of event data. Ideally, insights derived from this data allow companies to develop, refine, and recommend products, better target customers, and establish and strengthen relationships. The problem is, as events have become bigger and more elaborate, gathering and analyzing data has become that much more difficult. Further complicating the situation is the emergence of virtual and hybrid events, which generate additional sets of data.

Adding to the frustration, the traditional metric applied to event success has been attendance numbers. Events have evolved but this simplistic method of measuring their impact has not—only becoming more inadequate. Can superficial, number-based metrics tell the whole story? Can they fuel revenue by helping sales teams connect with potential customers? Can they help companies extend the success of their events?

The short answer is ‘No.’ Companies design events around a set of objectives, yet without the means to effectively process event data and obtain more than just attendance numbers and limited survey responses, they cannot fulfill on them. They are unable to glean actionable insights about attendees, get vital information to their teams, or even confirm the value of their events.

Vivastream is bridging the gap between what host companies have traditionally been getting out of their event data and what they need.

“We transform disparate event data into powerful insights to ultimately drive lead conversion and boost the sales pipeline,” says Nick Fugaro, CEO of Vivastream.

It isn’t alchemy but rather Vivastream’s ingeniously designed data analytics platform, a.k.a. Audience Intelligence Engine, that makes this possible. The platform distills vast attendee data into valuable insights about customers and content engagement—the new metrics of event success.

Realizing the Potential of Event Data

Enterprises employ multiple technology partners and vendors to seamlessly conduct events, whether in-person, virtual, or a hybrid of the two. They utilize tools such as Cvent for event registration, Eventbase for mobile event applications, SurveyMonkey for event surveying, PRMconnect for badge scanning, and Twitter for social activities. Companies also rely on virtual platforms like ON24, Zoom, or Notified to create the best possible digital experience for attendees.

All of the technologies implemented around events capture different data points on attendees. Unfortunately, host companies are then left with volumes of data scattered across disparate platforms. Without the proper tools, it nearly impossible to integrate and analyze all of the data collected at an event to achieve a coherent, holistic view.

Vivastream’s event data analytics platform streamlines disconnected data, pulling it in regardless of format.

It then quickly organizes and analyzes isolated data sets and presents them in meaningful, practical ways. The Vivastream visualization dashboard provides well-rounded views of attendee interests and behaviors on individual, account, and event levels in formats that are easily understood, displayed and shared. Customized reports provide clients with exactly the information their stakeholders need.

Because data is only as useful as it is available, Vivastream has developed the capability to feed streamlined, visually interpreted data into CRM systems like Salesforce.com, marketing automation tools such as Eloqua or Marketo, data warehouses, and BI tools to give clients instant access to actionable information.

“We do not focus on where the data comes from. Our technology is setting a gold standard in seamlessly pulling incongruent, disconnected batches of data from different sources and presenting them as a clear, cohesive picture,” says Fugaro.

Case study: Splunk leveraged multiple technologies to capture attendee data at its biggest annual customer and partner event, .conf, but the burden of consolidating and analyzing it fell to the event and marketing teams. Rather than spending weeks or months wading through spreadsheets of data, Splunk engaged Vivastream to streamline the various data sets, enabling company teams to get executive-level insights about their customers in real time.

We transform disparate event data into powerful insights to ultimately drive lead conversion and boost the sales pipeline

Providing a Granular View of Customer Insights

One of the quandaries companies face is how to resolve the discrepancy between the stated and actual needs and behavior of their customers. Without that understanding, companies cannot make informed decisions and properly target customers. Legacy metrics cannot solve this problem. By contrast, the customer insights derived by Vivastream provide companies with reliable, detailed information about attendees. They supply sales and marketing teams with answers to various questions such as which activities attendees participated in, which topics interested them most, whether they visited exhibitors or specific product booths, and which demos they received. The Audience Intelligence Engine even analyzes attendees’ answers to survey questions. This represents a paradigm shift in the world of event data analysis—from anecdotally to behaviorally evaluating attendees to construct more accurate profiles.

Case study: Red Hat wanted to better serve one of their clients. According to the Red Hat account team and the client’s own responses in an event registration form, cloud and security were their primary needs. However, based on behavioral data from the event, Vivastream determined that the client was actually most interested in containers. Red Hat was able to use this insight to provide the client with more content about containers, leading to a multimillion-dollar upsell.

More detailed data points help companies take more precise action, which is why Vivastream augments findings with a unique engagement scoring system. This system takes varying degrees of engagement into account, e.g., attending an entire session demonstrates greater engagement than just viewing the first few minutes of a session online, and therefore receives a higher score. This allows an attendee’s engagement to be quantified as well as analyzed on a topic and product level.

Now, when sales and marketing teams need details about the topics and products customers most cared about over time, the software can instantly uncover insights based on the assigned score.

Taking Lead Engagement Further

A successful event does not end when it’s over—what happens afterwards can be just as important as what happens during. Properly used, event data are an opportunity to establish and strengthen relationships and provide added value to sponsors and attendees. The key is taking advantage of this opportunity.

Vivastream has a solution for that—Trip Reports. These are personalized reports about each attendee’s journey through an event, detailing the sessions and products they were most interested in. Trip Reports have reciprocal benefits for the host company and attendees. For the host company, they enhance post-event lead engagement, enabling internal teams to make strategic recommendations, deliver relevant content, and cultivate qualified leads. They also allow hosts to follow up with attendees in a meaningful way. Attendees can use Trip Reports to review the content they engaged with and share what they learned at the event to justify their attendance.

Vivastream also recognizes the importance of nurturing sponsor relationships by validating and strengthening their investments. Sponsors traditionally receive a lead list from the event host or lead capture device. Vivastream takes sponsor follow-up to an entirely new level by delivering more than a spreadsheet of leads. Vivastream Sponsor Reports streamline lead engagement data collected at exhibits and sponsor booths and show all of the lead activity in one place, enabling sponsors to see how each lead behaved across various sponsor engagement points. The reports also provide data that might not otherwise be available (e.g., rating information for sessions, asset interactions). Adding to their value, the reports are often provided in realtime so that sponsors can benchmark their performance at the event against other similar sponsors.

Driving Solutions that Move Business Forward

So what’s next on the horizon? Realizing that its technology has potential beyond corporate events, Vivastream aims to expand its services to trade shows, conferences, webinars, and other marketing activities. It also envisions incorporating AI into its software to make recommendations for marketing solutions.

Vivastream has assembled a brilliant team of technologists and data integration and reporting specialists. Together, they have built and continue to refine a smart and uniquely agile platform. The objective has always been clear: enable clients to derive maximum value from their events with minimal effort on their part. Vivastream achieves this through a customer-first mindset, listening to clients and interpreting, anticipating, and delivering on their needs. This unparalleled commitment to service excellence makes Vivastream a go-to partner for enterprises that recognize the importance and value of effective data analytics and reporting.