Certain Software has unveiled version 6.0 of its Certain Meetings suite of SaaS-based meeting and event management applications, which company executives say delivers two key components: instant mobilization and digital marketing. The enhanced platform features Certain Mobile, a web-based application that provides real-time information to attendees via their mobile devices, plus new marketing capabilities that capitalize on viral marketing (e.g., e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), and analysis of the results through Google Analytics.
The result, says CEO PeterMicciche, is a meeting management system that reaches the entire “events ecosystem” (C-level executives, meeting planners, attendees and sponsors) and also delivers a measure of the meeting’s ROI “in terms of time and resources as well as money.”
The availability of Certain Meetings V6 on iPads and tablet computers — called Certain Mobile by the company — allows planners and organizers to exchange their clipboards, stacks of folders and walkie-talkies for handheld device. The physical burden on attendees is similarly reduced with instant mobile access to event information —including changes and new details; the ability to manage and change their own schedules, rate sessions and access sessions’ hand-outs electronically rather than with printouts.
Chief among the new digital marketing capabilities in Certain Meetings 6.0 is the e-mail marketing module that allows users to manage campaigns, target lists, deliver email and analyze results. The process is compliant with government CAN-SPAM standards for e-mail marketing, which keeps the marketing messages “from ending up in spam boxes,” says Olivier Delerm, Certain’s chief marketing officer. (CAN-SPAM is an acronym for Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003.) It includes the social media-based ability for meeting registrants to share their intentions to attend and later, as participants, their event experiences with friends and colleagues — “leveraging the benefit of word-of-mouth,” points out Delerm.
Also, real-time tracking of use of Certain-powered event websites by Google Analytics allows meeting marketers “to see where attendees are coming from, what search terms they are using, if they’re dropping out at some point,” says Delerm. With that information, they can analyze and understand usage patterns and traffic sources so that they can optimize the registration process and increase participation.