mobile+event+app+"for+dummies"+guide


Mobile Event Apps

by Deborah Ng

DoubleDutch Special Edition


Mobile Event Apps For Dummies®, DoubleDutch Special EditionPublished byJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030‐5774www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748‐6011, fax (201) 748‐6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, The Dummies Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.

ISBN 978‐1‐119‐16466‐1 (pbk); ISBN 978‐1‐119‐16468‐5 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For general information on our other products and services, or how to create a custom For Dummies book for your business or organization, please contact our Business Development Department in the U.S. at 877‐409‐4177, contact [email protected], or visit www.wiley.com/go/custompub. For information about licensing the For Dummies brand for products or services, contact BrandedRights&[email protected].

Publisher’s AcknowledgmentsSome of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Development Editor: Elizabeth Kuball

Copy Editor: Elizabeth Kuball

Acquisitions Editor: Amy Fandrei

Editorial Manager: Rev Mengle

Business Development Representative: Karen Hattan

Production Editor: Kumar Chellapa

http://www.wiley.com

http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.wiley.com/go/custompub

mailto:BrandedRights&[email protected]


Table of ContentsIntroduction ....................................................... 1

About This Book ........................................................................ 1Foolish Assumptions ................................................................. 1Icons Used in This Book ............................................................ 2Where to Go from Here ............................................................. 2

Chapter 1: Why Use Event Apps? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3What Event Apps Can Do for Organizers ................................ 3

Save money on printing costs ........................................ 4Provide up‐to‐date information...................................... 5Gather attendee feedback............................................... 6Capture real‐time analytics ............................................ 6Generate revenue............................................................. 8Demonstrate event return

on investment ............................................................... 9What Event Apps Can Do for Attendees ............................... 10

Offer instant access to all event information ............. 11Build an interactive, social community ...................... 11Facilitate networking and business

opportunities .............................................................. 12Enhance the event experience ..................................... 13

What Event Apps Can Do for Sponsors and Exhibitors ...... 14Extend reach and access to their target audience .... 14Connect them with qualified prospects...................... 15Retrieve and qualify leads seamlessly ........................ 15Increase return on event sponsorships ...................... 16

Chapter 2: The Types of Events That Benefit from Event Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Conferences and Roadshows ................................................. 17Trade Shows and Expos .......................................................... 19Internal Meetings ..................................................................... 20

Chapter 3: What to Look for in an Event App . . . . . . . . .21The Essentials .......................................................................... 21

Agenda builder ............................................................... 22Session descriptions ..................................................... 22Speaker bios ................................................................... 23

Mobile Event Apps For Dummies, DoubleDutch Special Edition iv


Exhibitor and sponsor information ............................. 24Interactive floor map ..................................................... 25Offline mode ................................................................... 25Direct access to other critical information ................ 26Social community .......................................................... 26Status updates ................................................................ 27Interactive capabilities.................................................. 27Hashtags and mentions ................................................. 27Gamification ................................................................... 28Compatibility with other social networks .................. 28Promoted posts.............................................................. 29Push notifications .......................................................... 29Surveys ............................................................................ 30Live polling ..................................................................... 30Sponsor and exhibitor opportunities .......................... 31

Data, Analytics, and Insights .................................................. 32Real‐time, actionable insights ...................................... 32Adoption and engagement rates .................................. 33Attendee sentiment analysis ........................................ 33Trending topics .............................................................. 34Influencers and advocates ............................................ 34

Chapter 4: Homework Before Selecting an Event App . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

Plan Ahead ................................................................................ 35Take the App for a Spin ........................................................... 36See What Existing Customers Have to Say ........................... 38Align Your Mobile Strategy with Your Event Goals ............. 39

Chapter 5: Ten Ways Event Apps Can Enhance Your Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41


Introduction

E vents, conferences, and trade shows are an essential part of the marketing mix. They’re the perfect venue to deliver

content to a captive audience, an opportunity to meet face‐to‐face with potential buyers, and create a branded experience like no other marketing channel. Yet, historically, impact from events has been hard to measure when compared to other marketing channels.

Today, mobile event apps are changing the game. They allow conference organizers to communicate with attendees digi-tally, learn from attendee behavior trends, and collect valu-able data to demonstrate event success.

Mobile Event Apps For Dummies, DoubleDutch Special Edition, explains how mobile event apps empower event organizers to enhance the experience for every stakeholder, from attendees to exhibitors, speakers, and sponsors. Pour yourself a cup of coffee, sit back, and relax with this quick read. Soon, you’ll be adding “Event App Aficionado” to your résumé.

About This BookMobile Event Apps For Dummies was created with DoubleDutch, the award‐winning event app platform. In this book, I delve into the many benefits of event apps, cover which features to consider when shopping for an event app, discuss things you should know before committing to a particular vendor, and demonstrate how apps can enhance the attendee experience.

Foolish AssumptionsIf you’re reading this book, I assume you know a thing or two about putting on events. I also assume you know a thing or two about putting together an event agenda, working with

Mobile Event Apps For Dummies, DoubleDutch Special Edition 2


sponsors and exhibitors, and doing all you can to promote an event and ensure the best possible experience for attendees.

I also assume you understand a little about networking and the importance of providing an interactive experience for your attendees. You probably want to understand how your event went over with attendees and sponsors alike, and want to learn other ways to bring in revenue from your event.

You understand the importance of using a mobile app. And you understand that all the people who attend your event have mobile devices and rely on apps to help them stay organized, educated, and amused.

Icons Used in This BookI use icons in the margins throughout this book to draw your attention to certain kinds of information:

When I share some hacks for making the best use of event apps, I use the Tip icon.

I use the Remember icon to reinforce an important thought or idea — one worth remembering.

When I share cautionary tales, I mark them with the Warning icon.

Where to Go from HereTo learn more about how DoubleDutch can impact your event marketing strategy, visit www.doubledutch.me.

http://www.doubledutch.me


Why Use Event Apps?In This Chapter

▶▶ Enhancing the event experience

▶▶ Saving money on printed materials by going green

▶▶ Encouraging interaction between attendees and sponsors

▶▶ Delivering return on investment for all who participate

M obile event apps (apps for smartphones and tablets that are branded to a particular meeting, conference,

or trade show) can enhance the experience for all event stake-holders.

In this chapter, I explain why conference organizers, spon-sors, and attendees should be using event apps. I also fill you in on how each stakeholder can benefit from using a mobile event app.

What Event Apps Can Do for Organizers

Whether it’s a conference, trade show, or internal company meeting, attendees don’t often think about what goes on behind the scenes at an event. There’s more to it than putting up a few signs and setting out chairs. Organizers work with unions, venues, caterers, speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors to ensure a positive experience for all involved. So, if there’s a tool that can help organize and enhance the experience for each stakeholder, it’s in an organizer’s best interest to look into it.

Chapter 1



Save money on printing costsConference organizers and sponsors spend a large amount of time, effort, and money on printed materials. Information is compiled, typed, proofread multiple times, and sent to a printer to be created. These materials include the following:

✓ Signage: Signs are printed ahead of time to mark session rooms so attendees know they’re in the right place. They list the name and time of sessions as well as the speakers for those sessions. There is usually one sign per meeting room listing a schedule of the day’s events for that room.

✓ Directories: Printed directories differ from event to event. Some events put out a heavy, technical‐manual‐sized book, listing everything from schedules and maps to speaker bios and sponsor profiles. Other events give out brochures listing each day’s sessions.

✓ Schedules: Printed schedules featuring all activities must be accurate, but they’re typically sent to the printer two weeks in advance. An event app, such as the one shown in Figure 1-1, ensures that attendees always have access to up‐to‐date information.

✓ Speaker bios and profiles: Attendees and sponsors alike browse the speaker bios and profiles listed in the direc-tory in order to learn more about the presenters.

✓ Maps: Attendees need maps to find conference rooms and navigate the exhibit floor. Conferences often print out maps showing where to find session rooms and the expo floor so attendees can navigate the lay of the land.

✓ Promotional materials: Many speakers and exhibitors bring promotional materials and product brochures to hand out to leads at their booths.

Every event experiences last‐minute changes that can render all the time invested in creating printed materials null and void. Replacing printed materials with an event app not only helps you save money on printing costs, but also enables you to update event‐critical information instantly via the cloud. (The cloud allows you use to use a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.)

Chapter 1: Why Use Event Apps? 5


Provide up‐to‐date informationSomething organizers infrequently discuss is the amount of time that is invested in compiling information for each event they produce. Everything organizers share with their attend-ees must be accurate, or else confusion ensues! This can be a challenge because every single event experiences last‐minute changes. A speaker may miss his flight and be unable to make it on time, technical difficulties may lead to room changes, a problem with the venue may cause a booth to be moved to another location, and the list goes on.

Because event apps are configured and updated via the cloud in real time, organizers can ensure that attendees aren’t ham-pered by out‐of‐date information. Plus, conference organizers don’t experience the wasteful print–update–reprint cycle or the need to print an addendum to the existing conference guide.

Figure 1-1: Use a conference app to display the event schedule and save on printing costs.



Gather attendee feedbackAttendee feedback is the backbone of any successful confer-ence. Without feedback, you’ll never know what works and what doesn’t. For decades, organizers relied heavily on smile sheets (post‐course feedback forms) and paper surveys to gather feedback, which have been supplemented digitally in recent years with email or other online survey tools.

Unfortunately for organizers, respondents most often provide feedback post‐event when the experience is no longer top of mind, so responses are often skewed to the very unhappy or the easily excitable. Recalling your experience during a partic-ular session two weeks after the fact is hard for most people, so response rates tend to be low and feedback is minimal and nonspecific.

Event apps give organizers the ability to capture valuable feedback at a time when it’s most relevant and when respon-dents are more likely to give it, instead of weeks after the fact. With mobile app push notifications (messages sent to users via the app that they can receive even when they aren’t actively using the app), attendees can be reminded to complete a survey immediately after a session has ended, while the infor-mation is still top of mind. Or attendees can access surveys in the app activity feed whenever they have downtime during the event.

Deploying surveys through a mobile event app gives organiz-ers the feedback they need to improve the event experience and learn valuable lessons for the future.

Attendee feedback is crucial to your success. Use this feed-back to gauge attendee happiness and dissect the data to plan your next event.

Capture real‐time analyticsEvent apps can enable organizers to gain valuable insight into their attendees that they simply have never had access to before. For example, attendees can “check in” to sessions, exhibitors, and more during your event. Organizers are instan-taneously able to know with check‐ins not only which ses-sions and exhibitors are most popular, but also whether their



attendees are attending the sessions they signed up for. More sophisticated event app vendors will provide dashboards that give you a clear indication of how well certain sessions within your event are performing, or who your most popular exhibitors are.

Another advanced capability for some event apps is employ-ing natural language processing (NLP), which combs through comments and ratings in the app to give you the pulse on how happy attendees are. This means you can make adjustments on the fly if attendee sentiment is dropping, or do more of what is making them happy.

Use real‐time analytics to find out the following:

✓ How engaged attendees are in each session: As attend-ees post status updates to sessions, you can begin to gauge the popularity of that session. This gives you a good idea of how well each session is performing based on the wants/needs of your attendees and helps to determine which speakers or topics are most (and least) popular.

✓ How well attendees are responding to speakers and subject matter: Attendees can rate speakers and sessions through in‐app surveys or rating cards, allowing you to determine if they did or didn’t like the content or the speaker (or both).

✓ Attendee activity during different times of the day: Sometimes attendees leave the conference to eat lunch outside, take a break, or socialize. By monitoring in‐app activity for peaks and valleys, you can determine when attendees are most engaged in your event, helping to shape future programming based on attendee behavior.

✓ Gauge which exhibitors are causing the biggest buzz: Much like you can with speaker and content ratings, mea-sure which exhibitors and sponsors get the most expo-sure at your event by monitoring attendee activity.

✓ Make adjustments as soon as you need to: Real‐time analytics offer a wealth of data and insights that can help you change the outcome of your event in the moment, rather than after the fact. Test different strategies to engage attendees by making adjustments to the app’s game mechanics, content, and more to see what gets your attendees ticking.



Use the information gathered from your event app’s analytics to sell your event to sponsors. By showing them data on your attendees’ habits, you can also show them why they’re such a great fit for your event.

In fact, you can use the app’s analytics to provide different reports to different stakeholders. Investors, your CEO, and sponsors all can benefit from this type of reporting.

Generate revenueEvent apps offer a wealth of revenue‐generating opportunities that can add tremendous value for both exhibitors and spon-sors. By adding a digital layer to the event, you give sponsors a unique and data‐driven approach to getting their brand in front of the best leads. They’ll appreciate the extra value‐added services, including the following:

✓ In‐app lead retrieval: Exhibitors can scan attendee badges, qualify the lead, and include notes from their conversations directly through the application via their own mobile devices. Ditch clunky lead‐retrieval hardware to give exhibitors a seamless mobile experience.

✓ Promoted posts: Pin a sponsored message to the top of the activity feed (the most frequently accessed part of the app) for a set amount of time. Promoted posts can include an image and a link to a section within the appli-cation or website.

✓ Push notifications: If a sponsor or exhibitor wants to drive attention to a booth, product, contest, or event, you can sell push notifications. Push notifications can be delivered to every user or specific groups within the application for a more targeted approach.

✓ Sponsored section: This highly customizable app section appears in the app’s menu bar and can link to a website, microsite, landing page, or other piece of content chosen by your sponsor.

✓ Gamification: Create sponsored badges that attendees can unlock by taking specific actions within the application, like checking into a booth, sponsored happy hour, or session.

✓ Splash screen: Add key sponsor logos to your app splash screen for attendees to see when accessing the app.



An event app offers a digital, measurable layer of event expo-sure for exhibitors that can help them directly demonstrate a return on their investment in your event, and ensure they return year after year.

Demonstrate event return on investmentThe right event app solution can provide incredible data and insights before, during, and after your event to help you determine and demonstrate the value of your event (see Figure 1-2).

Here’s what you’ll want to monitor before your event:

✓ App adoption rates: Quickly identify what percentage of registered attendees have downloaded and engaged in the application. If you have low adoption rates, consider how you’ll change your strategy to get attendees active in the app and engaging with your brand.

✓ Session and exhibitor bookmarks: Measure session, speaker, and exhibitor popularity ahead of the event to ensure you have enough space or support as needed. If you notice big sessions or exhibitors aren’t that popular,

Figure 1-2: Your event app can help to determine return on investment by showing you real‐time analytics and post‐event engagement reports.



you can leverage promoted posts, push notifications, and game mechanics to increase attendee excitement and attract more attention to those areas.

Here’s what to monitor during your event:

✓ Attendee engagement: Track app engagement levels to see if your attendees are excited and engaged in the application.

✓ Attendee experience: Monitor the overall happiness and engagement levels of attendees to gauge whether you need to do something to improve the experience.

✓ Attendee feedback and sentiment: Status updates, in‐app polls, surveys, and ratings paint a clear picture about what attendees think and feel about your various sessions, speakers, and exhibitors.

And here’s what to monitor after your event:

✓ Popular content: Demonstrate to leadership which ses-sions and speakers were most popular with attendees and why.

✓ Event overview: From a high level, be able to show how many attendees used the app, how many actions were taken within the app, and the average number of actions per user.

✓ Influential attendees: Identify which attendees got the conversations rolling to turn them into brand advocates for future events and marketing collateral.

What Event Apps Can Do for Attendees

Mobile event apps aren’t a perk just for conference organizers — attendees can also benefit from them. Be cause nearly every attendee is already carrying a mobile device at your event, access to an event app is easier than ever. Plus, mobile apps replace outdated directories that are too bulky to carry around and provide an interactive, personalized event experience for attendees that enables them to engage with each other in a new and deeply social manner.



As an organizer, you spend lots of energy focusing on the details, and it doesn’t go unnoticed by attendees, who appre-ciate every effort you go through to ensure a seamless, enjoy-able event experience.

An event app helps attendees achieve their goals at your event, whether it’s education, networking, conducting busi-ness, or a combination of all three. When attendees have a favorable experience, they share it with their friends and col-leagues, which will encourage registration for your next event.

Offer instant access to all event informationAttendees are no longer at the mercy of outdated signage. If there’s an update to session times, speaker information, or room changes, it can all be instantly updated in the app, and attendees can even receive push notifications from you alert-ing them of the changes. No more angry emails and social media mentions from attendees who missed out on activities because they went to the wrong room or showed up for a pre-sentation that was canceled or rescheduled.

Build an interactive, social communityIn our hyper‐connected world, it’s no secret that attendees love to be social, both online and off. Event apps enable attendees to do the following:

✓ Post to sessions, speakers, and exhibitors: Attendees like to show friends and colleagues where they’ll be, and they can do so by posting status updates in your event app. Also, when other attendees see a session is popular or getting lots of buzz, they’ll want to attend to see what all the excitement is about.

✓ Provide commentary: Attendees can share their thoughts as a session is happening, adding their own two cents or asking the speaker or panelists questions directly through the app.



✓ Send messages to other attendees: Attendees can net-work with each other by sharing information, locations, or details with other attendees privately through the application.

✓ Rate sessions, speakers, exhibitors and events: Encourage attendees to give feedback. You’ll find they appreciate being able to share their input and ideas by completing surveys and participating in live polls.

✓ Learn more: By providing recommended sessions, links to speakers’ resources (such as their books, websites, or presentations), and offering a place to discuss each session, you enhance the educational component of your event for attendees.

People attend events to learn and network, creating a natu-rally social environment. Giving them the added perk of being able to network via an event app will add an extra element of fun while creating a hyper‐social community.

At an event, the sharing economy naturally builds on itself. An interesting chain of events happens when attendees are enjoy-ing themselves — they want to share their enjoyment with others via social networks, videos, blogs, and other online content. So, when you provide the additional element of an event app, you’re giving attendees another reason to share your conference with others.

Plus, if the app is making it so attendees can navigate the event or conference more easily (that is, if they’re pleased to not have to carry around a bulky directory and they appreci-ate receiving instant notifications and up‐to‐the-minute infor-mation), they’ll share those benefits as well.

Facilitate networking and business opportunitiesThe social element of the event app also enables attendees to conduct business and establish important relationships with other attendees. For example, attendees can use the event app to do the following:



✓ Learn more about speakers: Through speaker profiles, attendees can learn more about who is presenting to better determine the educational sessions that meet their needs. To top it off, they can engage with speakers in the application by asking questions before, during, and after their presentations.

✓ Learn more about exhibitors: Attendees can make the best use of their conference time by using the app to learn about exhibits that are relevant to their interests and focusing their time on those booths.

✓ Learn more about social events: By using the app to see what is happening each day, attendees can sign up to attend their favorite events — whether academic or social.

✓ Learn more about their fellow attendees: Attendees can browse profiles of fellow attendees to see who is a good fit for collaboration or perhaps a potential customer, partner, or employer.

✓ Interact with other attendees: Attendees can use the social experience provided by the app to chat with other attendees, and then when they network in person it’s a much less awkward first meeting.

✓ Make appointments: Attendees can use the app to make appointments with other attendees, as well as exhibitors.

Enhance the event experienceChances are, most or all of your attendees use apps to make their lives easier. They can order food, hail taxis, and map out a route using their mobile devices. With that in mind, it’s an easy transition for attendees to not only use an app, but also become dependent on the app to enhance their experience at your events.

An event app can make the event experience even better for your attendees by allowing them to do the following:

✓ Spend more time on conference‐related business.

✓ Learn more from interacting with each other.

✓ Express themselves easily — and be heard!

✓ Access all the information they need, on their own time.



Attendees can use an event app to navigate the venue; receive up‐to‐date information; hobnob with others; take notes; learn more about people, products, and services; and socialize.

People prefer to handle their tasks and manage their days via their gadgets. When you can provide all the above via an app — as opposed to requiring them to keep track of printed schedules and maps, make appointments through personal assistants via the phone, and so on — it’s already worth the investment for both you and your attendees.

What Event Apps Can Do for Sponsors and Exhibitors

Without sponsors, many events simply could not happen. Though attendees often pay for passes, the truth is, this only covers a small percentage of what it costs to put on an event. Sponsors provide the bulk of revenue generated by events, so it’s in an organizer’s best interest to provide them with an experience that offers the best return on their investment.

How can event apps benefit sponsors and exhibitors? Read on.

Extend reach and access to their target audienceAn event app can take sponsors’ and exhibitors’ presence beyond signage and a booth. In addition to these more tra-ditional means to connect with attendees, they can monitor conversations within the app and connect with attendees on a one‐to‐one basis.

Sponsors and exhibitors can

✓ Invite attendees to meet up: An app enables sponsors and exhibitors to browse attendee profiles, search hashtags, and monitor session activity to see who is a good fit for their product or service. From there, it’s easy to @mention or send a message directly to attendees, inviting them to stop by the booth for a visit and maybe even schedule a demo.



✓ Take advantage of sponsorship opportunities: Using promoted posts, push notifications, and other sponsored opportunities in the app, sponsors can increase their vis-ibility, directing attendees to their booth or content and ultimately generating more high‐quality leads.

✓ Deliver offers to a targeted audience: Segmenting attendees by interests, sponsors and exhibitors can ensure their message is being seen by the attendees most interested in their product or service (not just the free booth swag).

✓ Engage with potential customers: Sponsors can use an event app to answer questions about their products and services, share discount codes and demo links, and gen-erate event buzz.

✓ Gauge wants and needs: By monitoring conversations within the app, exhibitors can feel out the buzz regarding their product or service and pitch it in a way that makes it relevant to the attendees’ needs.

Connect them with qualified prospectsSponsors and exhibitors invest in conferences for a variety of reasons, but especially because they’re able to put their products or services in front of a new targeted audience and nurture relationships with existing customers. Having an app that helps to do this and more empowers sponsors and exhibitors to receive (and demonstrate) a positive return on their investment.

Retrieve and qualify leads seamlesslyExhibitors have the ability to scan attendee badges, qualify leads, and take notes directly from within the application using their own mobile devices. This eliminates the need to collect business cards, request more information, and share lead retrieval devices with each other, so exhibitors can focus on the task at hand: generating demand. Lead lists are avail-able for instant download and personalized follow‐up.



Increase return on event sponsorshipsSponsors and exhibitors have concrete evidence of what they’ve gained by participating in your event:

✓ Analytics: Show sponsors how many attendees showed an interest in their brands by bookmarking them, check-ing in, or otherwise engaging with them via your event app.

✓ Interaction: By talking with attendees in the app, spon-sors have the opportunity to promote their products or services while coming off as honest and human. Attendees appreciate the ability to connect beyond a rushed conversation at a crowded booth.

✓ Follow‐up: By giving sponsors the ability to follow up with booth visitors immediately, they can keep the excitement from the booth going even after the exhibit doors close.

These sponsor perks are the types of items you can add to your sponsorship and exhibit kits as additional selling points. Use the ability to connect with attendees at the conference, and drive leads as an upsell. Better for them and better for you!


The Types of Events That Benefit from Event Apps

In This Chapter▶▶ Looking at event apps for conferences

▶▶ Enhancing the trade show experience

▶▶ Taking corporate meetings to a new level

I use the word event quite a bit throughout this book, but event is a word that can include anything from an intimate

corporate retreat to a 50,000‐person trade show. Whether your event has a few people or many, it can benefit from an event app.

In this chapter, I discuss some of the more common types of events that only get better with the use of an event app.

Conferences and RoadshowsBusinesspeople are busy. When they attend conferences, they don’t have time to waste on disorganization and misinforma-tion. Plus, the investment business owners make in order to have their people attend conferences can be quite expensive. Having an app that helps enhance their conference experience ensures that their needs are met, whether that’s education or conducting business. And when an attendee’s needs are met, they’ll be sure to return event after event.

Chapter 2



How does an event app help when people are on the road?

✓ Scheduling: By scheduling each day’s activities directly in the app, the app becomes a one‐stop resource. No need to switch to different tools to handle different tasks (from scheduling to room details and appointments). The event app takes care of it all and syncs directly with the phone’s native calendar!

✓ Messaging: Attendees can stay in touch with teammates, connect with speakers, and meet new contacts by using the messaging feature in the event app, as shown in Figure 2-1.

✓ Making your location known: By checking in to different events or sessions, attendees enable people to see where they are at any given time, making them easy to find when they’re needed.

Figure 2-1: Attendees can use an event app to set up meetings with people they want to get to know better.

Chapter 2: The Types of Events That Benefit from Event Apps 19


✓ Generating leads: The app is a terrific place to find busi-ness leads. Speaker, sponsor, exhibitor, and attendee profiles provide important information like experience, website info, and contact details. Seeing these details at a glance saves every event stakeholder from having to go online to find the same information in other places.

Trade Shows and ExposMost business owners attend a trade show at least once a year. It’s the best way for them to find the newest and most innovative products and services in one place. Trade shows also enable those same business owners to make important connections, meet potential clients, set up business meetings, and drive sales.

With an event app, exhibitors and attendees alike can do the following:

✓ Eye the floor: The bigger a trade show, the harder it is to find everything you want to see. Attendees can save time by using the app to find exhibitors that interest them and visit them first. This way they can spend more time meet-ing with like‐minded business owners and save checking out the rest of the trade show floor for after the most important networking is done.

✓ Attend meetings: One reason businesspeople attend trade shows and expos is because many of their clients and potential clients are in the same place at once. They save time setting up as many meetings as possible during these events instead of having to fly out to meetings at different times (and places) throughout the year. An event app cuts out the middleman, enabling business-people to schedule and keep track of meetings without having to go through an executive assistant.

✓ Learn about scheduled activities: Attendees can learn about product demos, contests, giveaways, and other scheduled activities.



Internal MeetingsAlthough event apps are perfect for big conferences, trade shows, and expos, they’re equally as important in managing internal business meetings and corporate retreats. By using an event app, you’re giving your team the ability to work together throughout the event. Meetings are team‐building events, and nothing builds a team better than an event app.

An event app offers the following benefits:

✓ Creating camaraderie amongst team members: In addi-tion to the team‐building activities and educational ses-sions you’re sharing live at the event, your team is able to like, comment, and interact with each other via the app, leading to more camaraderie.

✓ Keeping team members on track: Scheduling and push notifications ensure that team members are where they should be, when they need to be there.

✓ Providing a central location for note taking: Team mem-bers can take notes while information and ideas are fresh in their minds.

✓ Giving feedback on various activities: By monitoring feedback and attendance, you can determine how well each activity is going over, helping to plan future events and activities.

✓ Mapping in‐app behavior to performance: When team members use the app to participate in a business event, you can monitor participation levels to see which mem-bers of your team are getting the most of the event — and who is just going through the motions.

✓ Taking advantage of surveys and polling: Use the bells and whistles provided by the app, to provide opportunities to improve your business by receiving feedback in a fun and innovative way.

Use an event app for meetings of all sizes. Attendees can reap benefits from using an app in a small, one‐hour meeting in a conference room, just as they would at a larger corporate retreat. In fact, you may find that the people you work with really appreciate being able to use an app, and meetings become more productive.


What to Look for in an Event App

In This Chapter▶▶ Identifying the key components of an event app

▶▶ Understanding the importance of a social aspect

▶▶ Enhancing the value of your sponsorships

▶▶ Demonstrating return on investment

I f you’ve learned anything from this guide thus far, it should be that event apps do so much more for every stakeholder

than just listing schedules and showing floor maps. Attendees simply won’t use an event app that is boring or limited in functionality. You also shouldn’t settle for an event app that doesn’t deliver robust engagement data — it goes beyond a pie chart of iPhone versus Android users. It’s important for event organizers to choose apps with as many beneficial fea-tures as possible in order to make the most out of the experi-ence for every event stakeholder.

In this chapter, I fill you in on the features every event app should provide for organizers, attendees, speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors.

The EssentialsBased on your unique event goals, you may not need all the bells and whistles of an event app. Some features will be more essential for your meeting than others. How do you decide which ones are must‐haves or nice‐to‐haves?

Chapter 3



In this section, I walk you through the most important fea-tures to look for in a mobile event app.

Every event is unique. So, although I consider the following features to be essential to your success, you’ll want to keep in mind what features are most important to you in an event application.

Agenda builderAn event app’s scheduling tool is one of the most impor-tant items in your arsenal. Without an up‐to‐date schedule, attendees won’t know where to go or be at any given time. They won’t be able to see who is speaking, nor will they know which sessions best suit their needs. Giving attendees the ability to see a schedule at a glance, build their own agenda, and receive notifications as each of their scheduled activities is taking place ensures a smooth event for all involved.

It’s equally important that attendees be able to build their own schedules in an intuitive manner by simply tapping a book-mark button. Using filters for session tracks or topics makes it easy for attendees to find content that is interesting to them, instead of forcing them to sift through every agenda item.

Another added benefit to the agenda builder in your event app is the ability to export a personalized agenda directly to a mobile device’s calendar. This helps ensure that attendees never miss an important session or meeting.

If you have a last‐minute change to your agenda and you feel attendees may not know about it, use a push notification to send an alert to everyone’s mobile device.

Session descriptionsDon’t underestimate the importance of a session description. Without it, attendees have no idea if a session will provide relevant education or information to them.

Session descriptions in your event app should feature the following information for attendees:

Chapter 3: What to Look for in an Event App 23


✓ Title: A title should grab the reader’s attention and suc-cinctly describe what the session is about. Attendees should be able to look at a title and determine if the session suits their needs and interests. If the title grabs them, they’ll move on to read the descriptive text.

✓ Descriptive text: A session description should feature one to two paragraphs telling attendees what they can expect to learn from the speaker or panel.

✓ Takeaways: The session description should also give an indication of what actionable items the attendee will retain, or “take away,” from each session.

✓ Date, time, and location: Session descriptions should include the date, time, and location so attendees know when and where to arrive.

✓ Speaker info: Session descriptions should include the speaker’s name and allow attendees to easily access the speaker’s bio. This helps attendees learn more about the speaker before the session begins.

Speaker biosSpeaker bios are extremely important — they explain why the speaker is qualified to discuss a particular topic. Your event app should include the following information in the speaker bio:

✓ Experience: Describe the speaker’s business experience, including any notable clients or businesses he or she worked with.

✓ Headshot: A photo of the speaker should be included so attendees recognize the speaker before the presentation.

✓ Related sessions: Attendees should have the ability to see all sessions related to a speaker, bookmark them directly from the speaker’s bio, and tap into the session to read the full description.

✓ Surveys and ratings: Attendees should be able to com-plete surveys and rate and review speakers directly from the speakers’ bios.



✓ Connect in app: Your event app should give attend-ees the ability to connect and follow speakers’ activity throughout the event.

✓ Social media information: Links to Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn accounts can also be included in a speaker bio. This allows speakers and attendees to connect with each other before and after the event.

✓ Links to blogs, websites, and other content: Attendees can browse speakers’ blogs or websites in advance to learn more about them.

Speakers usually have a reason for presenting at a conference — beyond just wanting to talk! For example, a speaker may have a book or business to promote. Include that information in the speaker’s bio to provide speakers with more exposure — attendees and sponsors can learn more about them and even think about ways they can do more business together.

Exhibitor and sponsor informationAttendees should be able to learn as much about sponsors and exhibitors as possible so they can be sure to meet with the right people, have talking points when they visit, and ask the right questions.

Include the following with exhibitor and sponsor information:

✓ Booth number: Let attendees know where they can find this brand.

✓ Location on the floor map: Show attendees how to find each exhibitor’s booth in the app’s interactive map.

✓ A business profile: Share information about the brand so attendees know what the product or service is about and how it can benefit them.

✓ Notable products: If there’s a product launch in the future or if the product or service has won an award or made the news, include this information in the app.



✓ Request information: Give attendees the ability to send an immediate request for more information from the exhibitor or sponsor with the tap of a button. Have an email delivered to the attendee with more information from the exhibitor.

✓ Request a meeting: Give attendees the ability to sched-ule meetings with exhibitors and sponsors directly through the application via email.

✓ Links to social media profiles and business websites: Let attendees know where they can find the business online.

✓ Rate and review: Allow attendees to share their thoughts with you by giving them the ability to rate and review an exhibitor or sponsor.

✓ Exhibitor activity: See what other attendees are saying about the exhibitor or sponsor’s product or service and allow them to ask questions directly through the application.

The more interest you can generate for exhibitors and spon-sors, and the more you highlight their brands, the more likely they are to invest in your event again.

Interactive floor mapA floor map means no one gets lost. This is especially impor-tant if you’re hosting a big event or an event in a large venue with lots of turns and corridors. Make sure each session room, event space, and booth has a name or number, and feature each number prominently on the floor map.

Your event app’s interactive map feature will give attendees the ability to get from point A to point B with just a few taps.

Offline modeAttendees should be able to access critical event information even if the Wi‐Fi network goes down. Make sure offline mode is available and that event information (such as the agenda, speaker bios, and exhibitor lists) is downloaded and stored (cached) locally on the device.



Direct access to other critical informationAn event app can offer other essential information to attend-ees, including the following:

✓ How to access Wi‐Fi: Share the login and password details for the conference Wi‐Fi.

✓ Transportation information: Share information on shut-tle buses, rideshares, and public transit.

✓ Lodging: List the participating hotels and information on how to book with each.

✓ Evening activities: List parties and events, as well as location and directions for each.

Social communityWhile the educational aspect of a conference is important, many attendees cite networking as a primary reason to attend an event. They want to network in the most creative ways, too! Whether they share tweets and Facebook updates, have a lengthy conversation over a cup of coffee, or linger in a conference hallway, attendees agree they learn more from having a conversation than they do from any other aspect of the conference.

Even more important than being able to share via social net-works is the ability to share within the app itself. Attendees should be able to see the following:

✓ Activity: Attendees should be able to see what others are saying about the session, engage with one another, and ask the speaker questions directly through the session activity tab.

✓ Who is attending: At a glance, attendees should get an idea of how many others are planning to attend a ses-sion. If it’s a popular session, this might also increase their likelihood of attending.



The beauty of the app is that everything is in one place with-out having to switch to different platforms or printed materi-als. Having the social elements combined with all the other benefits of the app kicks the attendee experience up a few notches.

Status updatesAn event app can provide a social experience similar to what attendees are already used to on social networks like Twitter and Facebook. Attendees can post status updates detailing where they are, what they’re doing, and what they’re looking forward to doing. They can post comments, share photos, use hashtags, and mention other attendees. The app technology gives everyone involved with the conference — from the orga-nizers, to the sponsors, to the attendees — an equal voice.

The social interaction provided by the app should encourage attendees to “follow” each other. By following each other, attendees are notified when someone posts a status update, which leads to more interaction and familiarity when they meet up with each other offline. And this scenario doesn’t apply just to attendees. Speakers, sponsors, and even you can benefit from chatting in the app!

Interactive capabilitiesConference apps provide a variety of opportunities and sce-narios for socializing, including the following:

✓ Likes: App users can “like” each other’s status updates.

✓ Comments: App users can comment on other users’ status updates, to engage in deeper conversations.

✓ Direct messages: If users don’t want to be so public with their comments, they’ll appreciate the ability to take them private.

Hashtags and mentionsSocializing on event apps has the same functions as it does on a social network such as Twitter. Adding hashtags to a post will make it searchable in the application. When you mention



an attendee (using his or her username preceded by the @ sign), it’s the same as tagging that person. When attendees use these tools, they’re making posts more readily discoverable for other attendees, which makes for a lot more interaction.

GamificationGamification is the act of turning interaction and participation into a game, with rewards and fun bells and whistles. In fact, gamification can turn an event into a competition, but in the best way possible.

Part of the reason gamification is such a successful strategy is because it taps into our most basic instincts and desire for competition and achievement.

For example, you can customize the game mechanics of your event app to offer in‐app badges (achievements) for taking specific actions. Attendees can earn badges by doing the following:

✓ Posting to sessions: For every five sessions an attendee posts a status update to, he or she will earn another, higher‐level achievement.

✓ Socializing: Attendees can earn points when their status updates generate lots of likes and comments.

✓ Visiting exhibits: Reward attendees for posting to as many booths as possible.

✓ Interacting with speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors: Provide a networking achievement for your most outgoing attendees.

Tie your gamification strategy to your overall event goals to ensure a successful event!

Compatibility with other social networksInteracting via a private social community is fun, but con-ference organizers and sponsors like to see activity extend beyond the app as well. For many events, it’s important to



see buzz on social networks because it can drive attendance and sales for future events. When a user syncs his or her social profiles to his or her profile in your event application, he or she can push status updates out to those social net-works directly through the application.

Promoted postsPromoted posts are a great way to communicate important information to attendees. They can also be used to maximize exposure for a paying sponsor. Use them to highlight a prod-uct, drive traffic to a booth, share a web address, or make an announcement. A promoted post appears in the activity feed for a set amount of time.

Organizers should consider how they use promoted posts not only for sponsors, but also for their own communication with attendees. For example, organizers can notify attend-ees of special deals or opportunities during the event, room changes, and more.

Push notificationsPush notifications are updates that appear on a user’s mobile device at a desired time. Push notifications can show up on all users’ screens (depending on how they have notifications set up), or can be segmented to specific groups of users.

For example, they can appear on the phone’s lock screen even if the app is turned off, or show up in a special notification center for those who choose not to allow push notifications to show up on their screens.

Push notifications can be sent to mobile devices in a variety of compelling ways:

✓ Time‐based triggers: Your event app should use time‐based triggers to deliver relevant calls to action for attendees and encourage interaction. For example, while a session is taking place, it should prompt an attendee to check in, post status updates, or engage in polls. After the session has completed, attendees should be prompted to rate the session and complete a survey.



✓ Location‐based triggers: Your event app should use location‐aware technology to deliver relevant, timely content. For example, when an attendee comes within close range of the session, a beacon (using low‐energy Bluetooth) can trigger a welcome announcement to the attendee as he or she physically approaches.

SurveysAttendee surveys can provide important feedback to confer-ence organizers, speakers, and sponsors, while offering a fun experience for attendees. Through your surveys, you can receive information on the following:

✓ Speakers and sessions: Use the survey feature to find out how attendees enjoyed educational sessions and speakers.

✓ Exhibits: Attendees can share their thoughts regarding exhibits, exhibitors, and the exhibit floor.

✓ Venue: Did your chosen venue serve attendees’ needs? They can tell you in a survey.

✓ Conference app: You can even use the event app to ask attendees how they’re enjoying the app itself!

✓ Parties and other events: Were parties fun? Did attend-ees have enough to eat? Did they meet amazing people? Find out via a survey.

✓ Networking opportunities: How are attendees finding all your networking activities? They can tell you in a survey.

✓ Demographic information: Use surveys to learn about your attendees’ habits, wants, and needs by asking specific survey questions.

Live pollingSpeakers can use live polling to make their sessions more interactive by asking their audience members questions during their presentations to collect real‐time feedback.

You can use the information you gathered through the polls (see Figure 3-1) to gather demographic information and learn more about your attendees. In fact, you can even offer rewards to attendees for answering polls.



Sponsor and exhibitor opportunitiesThrough an event app, sponsors and exhibitors can

✓ Gather leads: In‐app lead retrieval can be used to scan badges, qualify leads, and take notes, all through their mobile devices directly at the booth. Leads are available to sponsors for immediate download and follow‐up.

✓ Schedule meetings: Arrange to meet attendees during the event using in‐app messaging and meeting requests.

✓ Sponsor contests and achievements: Take advantage of the app’s customizable game mechanics to set up spon-sored, custom achievements. Attendees can earn points for posting status updates to sponsored areas (like exhib-its and sessions).

Figure 3-1: Polls and surveys provide a different way to collect feedback.



✓ Use premium features to share product information: Sponsors and exhibitors can take advantage of promoted posts, push notifications, and other premium features to share information about their brand, drive booth traffic, and collect leads.

✓ Invite attendees to come to their booths for special perks: With targeted offers, sponsors and exhibitors can segment users in the app to promote special offers (like giveaways, demos, and more) to drive booth traffic.

Sponsors need to demonstrate a clear return on investment in order to return event after event. By providing many ways to interact, you’re enhancing their ability to collect leads, gener-ate buzz, and drive demand for their product.

Data, Analytics, and InsightsTalk about the essentials! Knowing your attendees’ habits and how they react to different experiences and opportunities is crucial to planning future events, as well as attracting spon-sors and exhibitors moving forward. That’s why your event app needs to have a solid analytics dashboard that gives you a clear picture into your event’s performance.

With an app that has a social layer to it, like the features mentioned earlier, you have the ability to capture compelling insights and data that will help you demonstrate event return on investment. Use the data you collect to create reports for your internal team, media kits, one‐sheets, and other market-ing collateral for your conference.

Here are some of the items you should be able to take away from your app before, during, and after the event.

Real‐time, actionable insightsThrough your event app’s insights, you’ll be able to answer the following questions while your event is happening:

✓ Who are the most popular and influential speakers? Your analytics dashboard will show you whom attendees are talking about, identify which speakers received the



highest ratings, and help you decide whom to bring back next time.

✓ Which sessions are receiving the most buzz? If attend-ees had a better time at one session than another, or made mostly positive or negative comments, you’ll learn that from your app’s analytics dashboard.

✓ Which topics are getting the most engagement? See at a glance what attendees are talking about in your applica-tion to continue driving conversations and buzz.

There’s no such thing as bad feedback. Use all the data you gather through the insights as an opportunity to grow — even if some feedback isn’t entirely positive.

Adoption and engagement ratesThe app’s analytics dashboard will give you a quick view into just how engaged attendees are with your event app content. The higher the engagement level, the better the data you’ll have to pull from to demonstrate return on investment.

Monitor app adoption rates leading up to your event to deter-mine what marketing messages work to drive engagement within the application. Did a particular email or promotional tactic lead to higher app downloads? Use that information to improve your onsite app promotional strategies.

Use this information to identify what gets your attendees excited. Is it a particular speaker? Highlight that person in a promoted post.

Attendee sentiment analysisGauge attendee sentiment using natural language processing (NLP), which combs through comments and ratings in the app to give you the pulse on how happy attendees are. Was engagement mostly positive? Did a session spawn many angry tirades? Gauging the mood and feeling of your attendees can help to determine how well your event is going.



Trending topicsYour event app’s analytics dashboard can help you spot attendee trends. For example, you can gauge the following:

✓ Buzzwords: Were some words, phrases, and hashtags used more than others? This is helpful in determining some of the things attendees respond to most.

✓ Influence: Which speakers and attendees are not only engaging the most but eliciting the biggest response to that engagement? Use your app’s analytics to determine which attendees are posting the most popular status updates. Leverage their influence by encouraging them to engage more!

Influencers and advocatesEvery industry has its own set of influencers. It’s important to cultivate relationships with influential attendees because they help to advocate for your brand via online buzz and promo-tion. Use the analytics dashboard to help determine who your influencers are if you don’t know this already:

✓ Response to status updates: The most influential attend-ees will generate the most buzz. You’ll see they have the most popular status updates.

✓ Response to sessions: You can tell who your influential speakers are by their engagement and popularity ratings.

Don’t just engage with your influential attendees while a con-ference is in session. Keep the relationship going year‐round so they can continue to advocate for you during future events.


Homework Before Selecting an Event App

In This Chapter▶▶ Testing event apps

▶▶ Reading reviews

▶▶ Using product feedback

▶▶ Setting clear goals and expectations

M uch like looking for the perfect pair of shoes, finding the right event app takes a little shopping around.

Choosing the right app is a significant undertaking, and the last thing you want is to make an important decision in haste. Take some time to learn about the features you want and the goals you hope to achieve with your event app. When you’ve done your research, you can start shopping around.

In this chapter, I show you some of the things you should consider before committing to an event app.

Plan AheadFinding the right partner starts with identifying your business needs. Before you can begin looking at all the different event apps out there, take a step back and consider your goals. Make a wish list of all the features, tools, and capabilities you expect to get from your event app. Reference and update this list often throughout your search and make sure it helps you achieve your goals.

Chapter 4



When you’re ready to start looking at specific vendors, start by getting the lay of the land. Go online and do a comparison of different apps (from premium offerings to bare bones, and even custom solutions) and evaluate their features. When you have a clearer idea of what you’re looking for and you’ve narrowed down your selections to a few apps that suit your purpose, you’re ready to investigate further and make an informed decision.

Make a checklist of features you’d like to see in an event app and use that to determine which apps make your shortlist. Start with the must‐haves, and leave the nice‐to‐haves at the bottom of the list.

Take the App for a SpinWhen you find an app you feel will be a good fit for your event, contact the company that produces the app to arrange a demo. You want to get as much information about the app’s features and usability as possible, so don’t rush through the demo.

Check YouTube or Vimeo to see if any demos or tutorials are available. Seeing how people outside the brand are using the product can help with your decision.

In addition to the items discussed in the previous pages, here are some of the things you should be looking for in a mobile event app:

✓ Ease of use: You shouldn’t have to call in the Army Corps of Engineers to help you figure out how to use your event app. An app should be easy to use and understand. If an app is too confusing or takes too long to “get,” attend-ees will lose interest and your investment will go to waste.

✓ Analytics: Look for an app that provides you with the insights you need to impact the event’s performance and demonstrate success to leadership. You want to be able to understand attendee habits, see how they interact with your content, and determine popular trends, sessions, people, and activities.

Chapter 4: Homework Before Selecting an Event App 37


✓ Cost: Not everything in life is free. Often, to get the best solution that will help you achieve your event goals, you need to set aside a reasonable budget. Just remember, your event app can be a moneymaker, too. When evaluating cost, take into account the revenue‐ generating opportunities the app provides you, such as in‐app sponsorships or dedicated sections for your exhibitors, coupled with the amount of money you’ll save by reducing printing costs. Features like in‐app lead retrieval, live polling, and more eliminate the need for multiple vendors and tools.

✓ Speed: Your event app should work quickly and effi-ciently. Information shouldn’t be more than a couple taps away, and the ability to interact and post status updates should be a seamless, intuitive experience.

✓ Customization: Does the app offer the ability to make it your own? Can you add your own logo and artwork? Can you edit the names of menu items and icons? Is the app a reflection of your brand, or someone else’s? Being able to brand your event app is essential.

✓ Availability: An event app should be available across multiple platforms. Is the app available in the most popu-lar app stores? If the app is not available in your desired app store, is there an HTML5 version of the application that can be accessible to anyone with a web‐enabled smartphone?

✓ Attendee experience: An event app should provide an exceptional attendee experience with up‐to‐date schedules, maps, and interactive features. Will your app enhance the attendee experience?

✓ Sponsor and exhibitor experience: Can you upsell fea-tures such as promoted posts and push notifications to sponsors and exhibitors? In addition to these promo-tional opportunities, they should also have visibility into analytics and feedback, as well as the ability to interact with attendees.

Try testing the app on different operating systems. For exam-ple, if you’re primarily an iOS user, test it out on your own devices first. Then borrow a friend’s Android device, and test the app there. You want to use an app that works seamlessly across various platforms and is easy to “get.”



See What Existing Customers Have to Say

Many event apps have very few reviews because the events can be small and short. For non‐event apps (like Instagram), it typically takes months of active usage before users leave a review.

That said, while you’re researching event apps, pay attention to online reviews and feedback. An app can look very promis-ing from its website but have very poor performance when it comes time to get down to business. When in doubt, ask the app vendor you’re vetting for customer references that you can speak to directly.

Anyone can write a review, and sometimes people will accept money or free products in exchange for a positive review. Don’t take a review at face value. Take some time to under-stand who is reviewing and why.

Here are some things to look for when reading customer reviews:

✓ Ratings: Check to see what kind of rating or how many stars the app has. Three stars is fair, but maybe you’d rather look into an event app with four or five stars instead. Always look for the best product possible because an app that doesn’t work well or provide a solid attendee experience could be a risky investment.

✓ Which aspects of the app is the reviewer unhappy with: Sometimes people write poor reviews for silly reasons. If a reviewer gave two stars because he or she thought a logo was ugly, it’s probably not something you should use as a basis for your decision — especially if you can custom‐brand the app. But if the reviewer is complaining about things like usability or lack of features, then you might have reason for concern. Don’t look just at the rat-ings — read the reviews.

✓ How long ago the review was written: If a review is five years old, it may not still be relevant. Many app develop-ers read reviews and then make improvements to their apps based on user and customer feedback. Don’t go by an old review — sort reviews by date.

Chapter 4: Homework Before Selecting an Event App 39


✓ Changes that have been made to the app since the review came out: Check out the app store’s history of updates to see when the most recent updates were and what was fixed over time. Looking at updates is also a good way to determine if an app is particularly buggy. If it’s constantly in need of fixing, you’ll probably want to pass. During your demo, be sure to ask about these things for clarification.

✓ Who’s giving the review: Sometimes it’s a good idea to look into who the reviewer is. For example, if it’s someone who always gives bad reviews, you may want to take the review with a grain of salt. Look for reviews from both the end‐user (attendees, sponsors, and exhibi-tors), as well as past and current customers (your fellow organizers).

If an app looks interesting to you but you’re not sure based on the reviews, contact some of the people who reviewed the app with any questions. Their feedback can help you make a decision one way or another. You can also ask the app provider for customer references or testimonials.

Align Your Mobile Strategy with Your Event Goals

If you’re looking into an event app, that means you want to take advantage of the benefits of a mobile strategy to enhance the event experience. With that in mind, you also have to make sure your mobile strategy matches the goals you hope to achieve with your event.

Here are some goals to consider:

✓ Enable attendees to carry everything they need in the palm of their hands: Walking around a conference unencumbered by a bulky directory and cardboard pro-motional materials from exhibitors or speakers will only make the experience better for attendees. They can see everything they need at a glance, all from their mobile devices.



✓ Provide a top‐notch educational experience: An event app can enhance sessions by enabling speakers to con-tinue the conversation on the app long after a session ends. Plus, speakers can add more information about the topic to the app, including links for further research, presentations, and other PDFs. Most speakers are using their valuable time to promote their business, so having the additional opportunity to continue teaching via the app is a perk.

✓ Create an interactive attendee experience: Attendees want to network — adding a contiguous digital extension of the face‐to‐face interaction will help them connect with one another seamlessly.

✓ Understand your attendees: Use the app to receive valu-able insight into attendees’ habits and interests. Find out what sessions they attend, whom they’re hanging out with, which exhibitors pique their interests, and how they interact with others.

✓ Deliver accurate information at a glance: No more old or outdated information in your event guide. If the event app is updated via the cloud as soon as there are changes, attendees will never have to rely on inaccurate information again.

✓ Eliminate paper waste and save on printing costs: An event app can save money by eliminating the need for printed materials at your event. When you consider the fact that most people end up throwing away brochures, event guides, and information sheets, you’ll appreciate how everything they need is in the app — and won’t end up in the trash.

✓ Receive valuable feedback: Use the event app’s insights, surveys, and polls to receive the type of information that helps your event grow.

Most events are using mobile in some form or another and tech‐savvy attendees prefer to attend events that are hip to current trends and technology. By providing an app for attendees to use while they’re at your event, you’re telling them you’re at the cutting edge of technology and want to make the experience easier and better. Now that’s how you get repeat attendees!


Ten Ways Event Apps Can Enhance Your Events

E vent apps offer significant benefits to all stakeholders — from event organizers and attendees to speakers and

exhibitors. Here are the benefits of using a mobile event app:

✓ Event apps help save money and generate revenue. By eliminating the need for printed materials, event apps not only save money on printing costs but help you be more ecologically conscientious. Although you’ll always need signage at conferences, you can eliminate expensive printed directories and promotional materials because attendees can learn all the same information — and more — by using your event app. Plus, sponsors can pay to take advantage of some of the event app’s premium features like lead retrieval, push notifications, promoted posts, and more, which means more money in your pocket.

✓ Event apps gather important feedback and provide valuable insights. The only way event organizers can grow is by understanding all the things they do right (and wrong) and using this information to demonstrate success and shape future events. By empowering attend-ees to leave feedback in the moment (rather than after the fact), and using those insights to learn more about how they’re participating in and talking about the event, you’ll be better able to make necessary changes next time around.

✓ Event apps give access to up‐to‐date information. Nothing is more infuriating to an attendee than receiving outdated information or showing up at the wrong place or the wrong time. And nothing is more frustrating and embarrassing to a speaker than if no one shows up for

Chapter 5



his or her presentation. When you have to send items such as schedules to a printer weeks in advance, infor-mation can quickly become outdated despite your best intentions.

With an event app, you can eliminate misprints and content that is outdated due to cancellations or room changes. An event app allows you to make changes as they happen so all information is current and up to date.

✓ Event apps create a closed social community. Attendees can socialize in confidence, knowing that the only people who will see social updates are other attendees. They can share their thoughts related to programming, ask speakers and exhibitors questions, and find like‐minded individuals to network and conduct business with.

✓ Event apps enhance networking and business oppor-tunities. Without event apps, finding the right people to talk to at a conference is entirely left up to chance. If you turn right, you might bump into the exact person you wanted to meet . . . but if you turn left instead, your paths never cross. Attendees can use event apps to learn who is at the conference and determine whom they should meet. They can chat with them via the app by comment-ing on a status update or use in‐app messaging to set up meetings. The app helps event participants leave less to chance.

✓ Event apps enable exhibitors to go outbound and target prospects in a qualified way. Organizers can seg-ment attendee lists and deliver their message to a highly targeted audience. Now, every booth is in the “perfect” location, because each exhibitor has the ability to reach a targeted audience, generate leads, and increase his or her return on investment directly from the event app.

✓ Event apps empower organizers to improve the event in real time, and learn valuable lessons for the future. The app is your finger on the pulse of your event. Does it look like a speaker is going to have a standing‐room‐only crowd? Change the room to one that’s bigger and use the event app to make the announcements or to reflect the change on the schedule. Did something go wrong? Use the analytics dashboard to identify minor issues before they become big problems. With real‐time analytics, you have a newfound ability to interact with attendees in an honest way and change event outcomes for the better.

Chapter 5: Ten Ways Event Apps Can Enhance Your Events 43


✓ Event apps create a personalized event experience. A hundred different people can use the event app in a hun-dred different ways. One attendee may prefer to use it mostly for networking, while another may find the sched-uling tool to be the best thing ever. Still another attendee may spend a lot of time on the messaging feature, arrang-ing meetings with speakers and exhibitors. The beauty of event apps is that each attendee has a different favorite reason for using them and each experience is different — but equally important.

The event app has the ability to deliver a personalized experience to each attendee based on how he or she uses the app.

✓ Event apps help demonstrate and quantify event return on investment. Your event app can tell you in real time exactly how well your event is performing. If your spon-sors are happy, if people are sharing good feedback, and if the activity feed is enhancing the networking experience, that will help drive sales for next year. With post‐event analytics, you have the ability to tell the complete story of how your event performed from beginning to end.

✓ Event apps create a superior experience for all key stakeholders. At the end of the day, everyone benefits from using event apps. Sponsors can cultivate leads, take advantage of promotional activities, and interact with attendees, while attendees can network, navigate, and schedule their day. Every single person at your event can benefit from using an event app.

WILEY END USER LICENSE AGREEMENTGo to www.wiley.com/go/eula to access Wiley’s ebook EULA.

http://www.wiley.com/go/eula

mobile+event+app+"for+dummies"+guide

Documents