From simplifying our ride services, money sharing, and food delivery to calming our minds and keeping us on task at work, apps have revolutionized the way we live. It’s now easier than ever to keep track of scheduled appointments, communicate with people or groups, share documents and photos, and so much more. There’s no reason why an app shouldn’t be having the same impact on your events.
Don’t have time to read right now? Tune in to our event apps podcast episode of The Events Experience to listen to our experts explain the importance of event apps.
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Event apps provide multiple functions with the basic principle remaining the same: to help organize and manage the event for attendees and hosts alike. The right functionality within an app can serve everyone and help them keep track of scheduled events and even who is attending them. Beyond that, they can also help teams manage the audience and communicate with them on the fly, even if they need to segment communications to specific attendees.
In short, event apps are a tool for attendees to schedule events and sessions, store information, interact with other attendees, and explore new content from the event hosts. For hosts, apps offer the opportunity not just to organize, track, and communicate with attendees, but they can also capture feedback during and after the event. They’re incredibly useful for everyone.
Mobile is where it’s at. There are approximately 6.6 billion mobile users in the world today. That means you can connect directly with your guests through a device they are accustomed to using daily for communication and scheduling. Further, they’ll likely start using the event application before the event, which means you can leverage event polling and pre-event notifications.
As with any communication and scheduling tool, your app is essential for a variety of reasons. However, their benefits go beyond instant access to attendees, and some of the uses noted above. In fact, event apps can also:
Hopefully by now, you’re realizing that given the benefits, event apps are indispensable. Obviously, you want an event app that has the essentials, but what if you could also include a few additional features? What would that look like?
There are a few must-haves for your event app—not just in terms of functionality, but in terms of opportunities and expectations.
Whether these items are essential or not is likely up for debate, but some of these are fantastic additions to any event app.
Now that you have a good idea about the functionality you’ll need, you’ll also want to consider some other factors to make your event application the best it can be to ensure a great user experience.
From navigation to personalization, make the app as user-friendly as possible. If your guests have to spend too much time navigating or trying to find features, they’ll abandon it pretty quickly, defeating all of your event application goals.
Including password protection is a good baseline, but creating comprehensive privacy, as well as the option to opt-out of some data sharing, will go a long way toward building trust. If you want high adoption rates of your application, ensuring your app is secure is important.
Whether it’s a registration discount when it’s completed through the app or rewards points for creating a profile, offering incentives is an effective way to get your attendees to download the event app.
From your initial marketing to the last day of your corporate event, continue promoting your application. Early adoption can help you get better sponsorship packages, but even late adopters can provide valuable feedback after your event. Encourage your presenters to direct attendees to the event app for downloads, follow-ups, and continued discussion. Adoption will drive engagement, and engagement will drive ROI.
Guests are already on their phones and social media, making it easy for them to share and promote your brand and event. Consider including a live Twitter feed, so attendees can jump right in a conversation, building buzz and even more engagement.
Your attendees are likely looking to make the most out of your event, and a corporate event application is the best way to do that. Not only do apps make it easier for them to have all the information at their fingertips while they plan their agenda, but they also make it easier for you to stay in touch with your guests, even after the event has ended.
Similarly, your event management is streamlined when you have one application to update and notify all guests of changes or new information. Additionally, your app also pulls valuable data for you through all phases of the event. It’s a win-win for you and for attendees.
If you’re ready to start planning your next corporate event and begin designing your branded app to help organize and manage your event, get in touch with the Bishop-McCann team. We love to talk about event planning, management, and event technology, and our team is ready to leverage our expertise to help you create a memorable corporate event!