A vendor-neutral toolkit for planners. Define what you need, score your shortlist and ask the right questions in every demo and sales call, so you are clear on exactly what you are getting and how your business will be handled.

Buy in the right order and the rest gets easier

Most event technology is bought the wrong way round. A demo looks impressive, a feature list ticks every box, the contract gets signed and the problems only show up onsite when it is too late to change anything.

The issue is rarely the software. It is that the decision started with the tool instead of the job it has to do and the hard questions never got asked out loud. This toolkit puts the order back the right way. It works for any category you are buying: registration, event apps, AI tools, AV or matchmaking.

The five moves

1. Define the job and the metric. Decide what the technology has to achieve and the one number that proves it worked.
2. Map it to your real workflow. Find every point where the tool has to hand over to something else.
3. Score your shortlist. Judge vendors against weighted criteria, not against who gave the best demo.
4. Interrogate it in the demo. Use the question sets to get clear on data, security, AI, reliability and support.
5. Settle the commercial and exit terms. Agree renewal, notice and how you get your data out, before you sign.

Move one: define the job and the metric

Before you look at a single product, write down the outcome the technology has to deliver and the one number that proves it worked.

Not “we need an event app.” Instead: “we need 40% of attendees to book meetings in advance and we will measure booked meetings per attendee.” Not “we need better registration,” but “we need to cut drop-off between starting and completing registration and we will measure completion rate.”

If you cannot name the metric, you are not ready to buy. The metric is two things at once: the standard you will hold the vendor to and the result you will report back to your own leadership once the event is done.

ASK YOURSELF

What single number would tell my director this technology was worth the money? If the answer is vague, the purchase will be too.

Move two: map it to your real workflow

Event technology fails at the joins, not in the demo. A tool that is excellent on its own and poor at the handovers will cost you more time than it saves.

Walk the full journey and mark every point where this tool has to hand over to something else. Registration into your email and comms. Comms into onsite check-in. Check-in into the badge or app. The whole event into the post-event data that lands back in your CRM.

The question that matters is not “what can it do.” It is “what does it have to talk to and how well does it do that?” Ask for the specific integrations by name, not a wall of logos and whether each one is built and supported or needs a developer and a project plan.

WATCH FOR

Manual exports and re-imports between systems. Every one of those is a place where data goes missing, timing slips and your team loses an afternoon on the day.

Move three: score your shortlist

Pick the criteria that matter for your event and weight them out of 100. Score each shortlisted vendor out of five against each one, multiply by the weight and total. It moves the decision off “who gave the best demo” and onto evidence you can defend.

HOW TO SCORE

Give a 5 only where the answer is evidenced and in writing. A 3 means it was claimed but not shown. A 1 means the question was dodged. Set the weights as a team before any scoring, so the loudest voice or the slickest demo does not decide for you.

Move four: the questions to ask in every demo and sales call

Six question sets that get you clear on exactly what you are buying and how your business will be handled. Ask them out loud and write the answers down.

A. Your data: ownership and portability

If you cannot get your data out, you do not really own your audience.

• Do we own all attendee and event data outright, or do you hold any rights to it?
• Can we export everything, in full, in a standard format, at any time and without a fee?
• What happens to our data when the contract ends and how long before it is deleted?
• If we move to another provider, does our event history come with us?

A good answer sounds like: you own it, you can export all of it any time and it leaves with you when you go.

B. Data security and compliance

Your attendee list is personal data. A weak supplier quietly becomes your problem.

• Where is our data hosted and does that meet UK and EU data rules for our attendees?
• What security certifications do you hold, such as ISO 27001 or SOC 2 and can we see them?
• When was your last independent penetration test and will you share the result?
• Have you ever had a data breach and how did you handle it?
• Who on your side can see our attendee data and how is that access controlled?

A good answer sounds like: named certifications, recent independent testing, a clear hosting location and an honest answer on breaches.

C. AI and whether your data trains their models

Most tools now run on AI. The real questions are whether your data trains their models and who is accountable for what the AI does.

• Do you use our attendee or event data to train your AI models, or anyone else’s?
• Can we opt out of all model training in writing and is opting out the default?
• Where is the AI processing done and which third-party AI providers are involved?
• Who owns the content the AI produces from our data?
• Is there human review before anything the AI generates reaches our attendees?
• Can we switch the AI features off and still run the core product?

A good answer sounds like: your data does not train their models by default, the providers are disclosed, you own the outputs and AI is optional.

D. Reliability and the SLA

A demo runs on a quiet day. Your event does not. The service level agreement is the promise that counts.

• What uptime do you guarantee and is it written into the contract as an SLA?
• What does the SLA actually commit you to and what do we get back if you miss it?
• How does the platform behave under peak load, like a registration rush or mass check-in?
• When do you schedule maintenance and will you avoid our event dates?

A good answer sounds like: a written uptime SLA with real remedies and evidence it holds under load.

E. Support, online and offline

Support that runs nine to five in another time zone is no support on event day.

• What are your support hours and do they cover our event hours and our time zone?
• During our event, do we get a named contact or a general ticket queue?
• What are your response times by severity and are they guaranteed?
• What happens if the wifi or your service fails onsite? Show us the offline mode rather than describe it.

A good answer sounds like: a named human on the day, guaranteed response times and a real offline fallback you have seen working.

F. Integrations and handovers

Event technology fails at the joins, not in the demo. The handovers are where the time goes.

• Which of our systems do you integrate with by name and are those built and supported or do they need a developer?
• How often does data sync between systems and is it live or in batches?
• Where will we still have to export and re-import by hand?

A good answer sounds like: named, supported integrations with live sync and very few manual steps left to you.

Move five: settle the commercial and exit terms

The first-year price is the offer. The renewal and the exit are the real costs. Get these answers before you sign, not after.

G. Commercial, renewal and exit

Agree the full cost and the way out while you still have leverage.

• What is the full price, including set-up, support and any per-attendee fees?
• How does pricing change at renewal and is there a cap?
• What is the notice period and does the contract renew automatically?
• What does it cost us, in money and in time, to leave?

A good answer sounds like: a transparent total cost, a cap on renewal rises, clear notice and a clean way out.

See it all at Event Tech Live

The fastest way to work through this toolkit is to do it in person, with the suppliers in front of you and other buyers beside you. 

Event Tech Live London brings the whole event technology market under one roof at Excel London in November 2026. 

Registration is free for event professionals.

• Four stages of education. The Main Stage, the AI and Innovation Stage, the MarTech and Growth Stage and the Experiential and Engagement Stage, with sessions from organisers, buyers and the people building the tools.
• The exhibition floor. The latest event technology in one place, with live demos and new launches, so you can compare tools side by side and ask the questions in this toolkit face to face.
• The Hosted Buyer Programme. Structured, pre-matched meetings that put qualified buyers in front of the right suppliers, without the cold-call grind.
• The Meetup Zone. A dedicated space to meet peers, join community sessions and hear how other organisers are solving the same problems you are.
• The people who run events. Two days alongside the organisers and buyers shaping where the industry goes next, which is where the most useful conversations tend to happen.

EVENT TECH LIVE LONDON 2026

Free for event professionals. Register and see the full programme at eventtechlive.com.