Massive Maritz Study: Late Registrations = Extra Revenue
Late meeting and event registration keeping you up at night with heartburn and night sweats? Don't fret, planner! The later the registration the more ancillary spend an attendee drops at an event.
Maritz has released a groundbreaking Registration Insights Report that collected data over three years from 360,000 registrations at 30 tradeshows.
[Related: How Late Event Registration Translates Into More Meetings Spend]
While the financial consequences of late registration range from missing out on revenue from bookings in the hotel room block, attrition damages for unfilled blocks and surcharges from suppliers, the closer in to the meeting attendees sign up, the more they shell out for ancillary products—in addition to higher registration fees.
Emily Laufgraben, market insight manager for the global meetings and events giant, reveals the sweet spot between fretting over late arrivals and taking their event spend to the bank.
[Related: Live From PCMA CL: Maritz CEO Peckinpaugh Digs Into 2024 Meetings and Events Trends]
Listen now:
To access Martiz/Louisville Tourism’s Registration Insights Report, visit Registration Insights Report by Maritz.
Transcript:
Editors note: The following transcription was facilitated by AI program Otter.ai and proofed by our editors. Although it is very accurate, there inevitably will be some mistakes, so please consider that when reading. Thank you.
Tyler Davidson
Hello, and welcome to this Meetings Today Podcast. I'm Tyler Davidson, Vice President and Chief Content Director for Meetings Today. And today we are joined by Emily Laufgraben, who is the Market Insights Manager for Maritz, and they have a very interesting, very robust survey they're putting out today. So, I thought I should just grab them right away, as I'm even learning more about it, to talk about the registration Insights report. Thanks for joining us, Emily.
Emily Laufgraben
Thank you, Tyler. Appreciate the opportunity. Yeah,
Tyler Davidson
And this is really fascinating. And I was just talking to someone else today, that I guess as technology increases, the data sets, allows such amazing information to be compiled. And this was fascinating, because I think, correct me if I'm wrong, but you analyzed more than 360,000 attendee registration records over three over a three year period. And basically to find out when people are signing up for events, and then the kind of their spend habits around that. So maybe kind of a, give us the quick version of this report you're putting out today.
Emily Laufgraben
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. And thank you for the opportunity. Thank you Meetings Today, as well as our partners at Louisville Tourism for the opportunity; they joined us in co-sponsoring this research effort, so really appreciate it.
And yeah, you said it exactly right. We thought there was a unique opportunity here to really look at how behavior in terms [how] attendee registration has changed. Post-COVID. We know, or we thought we knew, as an industry that people are registering closer to when events actually take place. So, we went and we looked at, like you said, 360,000 registration records over a three year period. And we thought that was a unique vantage point, because there's lots of surveys out there about intent or attitudes.
But this was actually when the rubber meets the road. How are attendees making these decisions? Why, and how does that impact their spend behavior? So yeah, not to give away the farm, but we learned some interesting things about--I think there's this sense that late registrations are bad. As event organizers we feel a lot of pain around that, we feel a lot of logistical havoc, missing out on bookings in the block. And yet we learned from this research that late registrants can actually be some of our most lucrative attendees in terms of how they're spending.
Tyler Davidson
And I think one interesting fact in this was that 22%, nearly one in four attendees, waits until the final week before the show to register. Now, that's got to give you a heart palpitations. Right?
Emily Laufgraben
Absolutely right. That's what we were talking about. What is the late registration, and we said, oh, it's one month out, or two weeks out, and then we thought the real heartburn, those people--that 22%--that's a quarter of people almost, who are waiting until the final week to register; 9% of those are people who just show up onsite, registration on site, and that's your worst nightmare as an event organizer, right? That's where you don't have enough, you know, workers, temp staff, badge stock, F&B transportation. It's a little bit of a nightmare. And we and our clients certainly live that from time to time.
Tyler Davidson
And I think it was 45% registered in less than four weeks. That's almost half. Yeah. But that's like, there's like a sweet spot in there. Right? The survey found where people that will register within a certain period--maybe three to four weeks--maybe on average spend like I think it was like $60 more, roughly, than the other attendees?
Emily Laufgraben
Yeah, absolutely. There is a little bit of a sweet spot there. So, what we found was that the really optimal window for registration where people are spending the most--and by the most we mean more than about $92--more than the really early birds that's in that 31 to 60 day window. So about a month or two out is where we see the highest spending.
And by the way, when we talk about that, that's on the added show offerings. We're not even counting in that the fact that they're paying a higher registration fee when they're registering late, because they're not getting early bird discounts. They're spending more on these added, you know, on-demand content, social offerings, additional meetings, that kind of thing.
So yeah, they're spending a lot more and that's really that sweet spot, that 31 to 60 days. What we find is the further out they register--are those really early birds that has a negative impact on how much they're spending? And there's a lot of implications inside of that. So, we have a lot of organizers really feel pressure to open registration early to open it six months, seven months, eight months, nine months out. And what we're finding is the further out you go, the more negative and impact that has on their spending.
Tyler Davidson
That is,so interesting. And it I guess, this was across 30 tradeshows, I guess, you based this information on? And I mean, I guess, you know, sort of backing up, the question is why, I mean, people might think, Oh, this is like a COVID thing. You know, the pandemic, people are just getting back in the meetings. They're not quite sure. But I think you've found that this is not necessarily a super direct correlation to that. Right.?
Emily Laufgraben
Yeah. What's interesting is I think there's this notion, or this, this commonly held view, that this was new after COVID. That wasn't necessarily true from our data, even before COVID. There were quite a few people registering in that final month; we did see a strong uptick in that, during kind of the height of the pandemic, when shows we're just starting to come back and 2021 2022 especially, it's normalized somewhat.
But you know, we're not completely sure the why--that's an interesting question. There is this sense, I think, as so many of us have shifted to remote working, that we're not as quite, you know, public ready, we're not ready for primetime in terms of being face to face necessarily with 5,000 or 10,000 people. And that could be simple things like, do I have, you know, appropriate conference attire that fits in is in style? Do I have someone to pick up the kids and walk the dog. It can be those, those really, you know, things that we don't think of as impacting our attendees are really the day to day decisions that they're really facing. But it's an interesting question, for sure. Yeah.
Tyler Davidson
And you know, and then who is registering late? Are they first-time kind of non-regular attendees? What industries typically are they from? And what I guess I'm--you know, I have a cheat sheet here with the results, so these are sort of educated questions--but is there certain markets where they kind of predominantly registered late, also?
Emily Laufgraben
Yeah, yeah, there were a few. We looked at a few different indicators to see what are the predictors of who's registering late. Yeah, a few different things inside of that.
So, one of them was, like you said, first-time attendees; that is a big predictor of who's registering last minute. So it's not your veterans that are the problem, you know, about three quarters of them are registering, or those repeat attendees. It's maybe those new ones who aren't, you know, are on the fence about whether to attend will it be valuable, may be waiting for co workers or contacts in their network to pull the trigger first.
So, that's driving some of it; definitely looking at what percent of your attendees historically have been first-timers versus repeat is an indicator of how many late registrations you can expect. Another one you alluded to was industry. Yeah, we found this interesting pattern where some of the industries that we think of more as rule followers--so, your doctors, your teachers, your financial professionals--they were more rule followers, they registered early. Whereas if you compare that to a food and beverage and restaurant show, you had a higher than average incidence of late registrants. So, there was an industry factor there, too.
And then a final indicator was how many of them have to drive versus fly. And this is where doing some zip code analysis on your specific event location and how far your attendees are traveling from their home state or home city can be really interesting. So, the people that live within 250 miles of the event city, we found were more like, we're presuming, more likely drivers. And they were waiting longer since they didn't have a flight reservation to deal with, didn't have to work deal with, you know, that level of commitment; they were waiting longer to register.
So, as a side note, really interesting patterns here in terms of differences by city and event location. People who hold an event in Nashville; you've got a lot more of a drive at market compared to a city like Phoenix or New Orleans or Minneapolis. And that can impact again if you're at a drivable market like Nashville--more late registrants.
Tyler Davidson
I thought it was interesting. Like Honolulu was like one of the least; I guess you're if you're on the island, they're not necessarily I mean, or if you're flying and you got to make a lot of make a lot of reservations and take care of business a lot.
Emily Laufgraben
That's a big commitment, right?
Tyler Davidson
So I mean, I guess, you know, if you're a meeting planner, and the stakeholder is worried about, hey, our registrations aren't where they're at, you can say, "Hey, don't you know, hey, don't worry, the money's gonna come in." Right? You know, I mean, I guess this was an excuse, right? I guess what I'm getting at. But, um, but what, what should planners take away from this? And how does this enter into their event strategy?
Emily Laufgraben
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think our view is, this is a really important place to start having those conversations.
You said, you know, yeah, be confident that the attendees are going to materialize, right? Easier said than done, right? It's so easy to say that, and yet, when you're the organizer, you're getting white knuckles worried, okay? Are these registrations really going to come in? Are we going to meet our revenue goals?
And then on the flip side, if you're a supplier, like a hotel, you're worried too, right? You're facing risk of is my room block gonna fail? Is it you know, you want to see that evidence or that data? And we hope that this report, and this data will start to drive some of that and say, hey, look, registration patterns have shifted, so how can we adapt to that. And I think for the event organizers, and the suppliers, there's a lot of implications about how we price how we, you know, when we open registration, and how we market our events, as well as logistical application.
So, a couple of examples there. In terms of our marketing efforts, maybe it starts with, we don't necessarily need to open or should open registration nine months in advance; that might be leaving money on the table, by opening your registration site before your offerings are really ready. And before people have that appetite to spend.
So, really trying to drive it maybe more than that, you know, 30 days out to six months out window when people are likely to spend more. Another thought is, let's challenge the holy grail of it has to be early bird discount pricing. Maybe timing isn't the best way to drive attendance in today's world. And we do see a few clients looking at what I would say are non traditional pricing strategies. Are there different ways they can, instead of discounting for early registration, can they target discounts more strategically, towards certain groups, and maybe drive a higher rate for people that are, you know, that aren't normal registration patterns.
So, those are two of them. And I think the final one is, don't be afraid to have those conversations with your suppliers, with your destination partners, your DMOs, and start that dialogue, say, "Hey, here's what registration patterns look like," particularly if you can show your own data and start to say, you know, maybe there is evidence that we can extend hotel cut-off dates and try to capture more of those attendees booking in the block, that sort of thing.
Tyler Davidson
I was wondering, too, is any of this--I've been hearing trends that say exhibitors are sending less people to shows--are you noticing that?
Emily Laufgraben
Yeah. You know, we have heard that anecdotally, for sure. And I think there's a sense with--even though it's not really within the scope of this research,--there is a sense of that, within our ranks, is you see, the actual number of companies that are exhibiting hasn't necessarily fall fallen off. There's still a lot of appetite to exhibit at shows, but they might be sending fewer people to their booth, for sure.
Tyler Davidson
Very interesting. Wow, there's a lot to unpack on this. And I really appreciate you making some time for us on such short notice. Any other big takeaways you think meeting planners should get from this report? And where can they find it online?
Emily Laufgraben
Yeah, absolutely. Definitely on our LinkedIn page on Maritz. the LinkedIn page is a great place to access it.
And as far as other takeaways, I think it's what we've talked about, about really just starting the dialogue and challenging that notion that we have to hold our data close to the vest. The more we can be transparent and communicate openly; you know, here's what the data looks like, that's going to create confidence for all parties, for your event companies, your hotels, your DMOS, that's going to create that confidence about how can we drive a better outcome for all of us that mitigates our risk and maximizes the opportunity.
Tyler Davidson
Excellent. Yeah. And such a robust study--360,000 records. Can we expect more studies like this coming from you guys on different subjects?
Emily Laufgraben
That's a great question--a little bit TBD. There's definitely interest in looking at this data from different angles in the future. So, whether it's exactly like this at a further point in time, or whether it's a little bit of a different spin on it, the next time around remains to be seen. But we're really excited about it and the the opportunities to talk with people like you about it.
Tyler Davidson
Well, you know where to find me and I appreciate it. So, thanks for joining us today.
Emily Laufgraben
Thank you, Tyler. Appreciate it.
Tyler Davidson
And that was Emily Laufgraben. She is the Market Insights Manager for Maritz, talking about their new Registration Insights report. I'm Tyler Davidson, Vice President and Chief Content Director for Meetings Today. Thank you for joining us for this Meetings Today Podcast. And if you're interested in our other podcast with industry thought leaders, just head on over to MeetingsToday.com to our podcast section, where you'll find a whole collection of them. Thanks for joining us today. And no matter what you have to do with the rest of it, go out and make it great!
