How to Make the Most Out of a Mobile Event App
If you summarized all the articles out there about how to choose the perfect mobile event app, the main takeaways would involve looking for benefits such as increasing efficiency, scaling your event, or gaining more time.
If you scrolled through all the different event app sites, you’d learn how these digital tools could save you effort and stress by automatizing the logistics.
And if you truly stopped and paid attention to all those event app ads that pop up frequently in your browser or social media pages, you’d realize just “how easy it is to run a conference.”
Yet you know that the reality is quite different.
Although you may be using the best mobile event app out there, you still have to plan a congress, meeting, or seminar from scratch, which requires long weeks of planning and hard work.
And this constant rush for “miraculous automatization” and “shortcuts” will make you ignore the best part of using an app: to accompany you during the design of a powerful event strategy.
Why do you need an event strategy?
First, without a good event roadmap, you’ll lack clear direction and vision, meaning you’ll run the risk of making decisions that will have a negative impact on your event’s outcomes.
Second, only a powerful event strategy will provide you with a trustworthy framework to maximize your results.
Finally, how do you plan to achieve a positive ROI without a killer strategy that includes an action plan to jumpstart your event marketing?
By now, you might be thinking, “What does any of this have to do with making the most out of my mobile event app?”
A powerful way to boost your event strategy is to consider and leverage all the hidden benefits that your event app can bring to the table, including:
Increasing the number of event sponsors
As event professionals, we understand how difficult it can be to find and convince people to financially support your endeavor. That’s why, when designing your event strategy, apart from including the list of potential sponsors, think about the ways you could convince these people to help you out.
What benefits could they extract from your event? Is there a way to raise brand awareness among your attendees? Write down a proposal, highlighting the big wins potential sponsors will gain by supporting you. For example, you could offer to showcase a sponsor’s logos and profiles through the mobile event app and send push notifications to your guests to inform them about any special offers that sponsor may have for them during the event.
Defining the way you'll engage people at your event
An important aspect that you must cover in your event strategy is the interaction experience you want to generate among your audience. What are the ways you’d motivate your guests to engage during the event? What are the contexts in which you could encourage this type of behavior?
How could a mobile event app help you with this task? For example, one of the features EventEye is proud of is the ability to run live polls and conduct surveys. People can directly engage with the speakers, the moderators, or the content by sharing their opinions in real time. This lets your participants have a voice and encourages them to be the co-creators of the session.
Helping you get the most out of your data
You can gather as much data about your attendees as you want, but if you don’t know what to do with it, you won’t be able to gain valuable insights about how to improve or change future events.
When designing your event strategy, indicate the things you’d like to measure in your attendees’ behavior and how this information could affect your further decisions.
Be sure to include data regarding how your guests used and interacted with the event mobile app. How often did they interact with the app? How many times did they check the event program?
If the data indicates attendees were highly interactive with the app, maybe you can consider the possibility of future events going paperless. On the other hand, if not too many people interacted with the app or there was infrequent activity, maybe it’s not quite yet time to eliminate the printed brochures.
Identifying the unique experience your event could provide
Nowadays, people come to events with high expectations, and event professionals go big lengths to deliver unique experiences. Of course, you shouldn’t run searching for the next Cirque du Soleil. But what if you could provide a differentiating element altogether by allowing your attendees to choose?
When designing your event strategy, evaluate the possibility of setting up a multi-track event. A solid mobile event app will enable your guests to personalize their event agenda and design their day in the way it suits them best. Now that’s a unique event experience.
Setting up the event budget and foreseen expenses
It’s impossible to create an event strategy without including the budget. You must know what your financial plan is and how you’d like to execute it. An event mobile app can help you significantly cut down your expenses.
For example, you maybe can finally take the plunge into paperless events (what a relief!), and encourage attendees to check the agenda online. Can you imagine how much money you’ll save, not having to print hundreds (or even thousands) of programs?
Final thoughts
As Seungwon “Shawn” Lee, Dessislava Boshnakova, and Joe Goldblatt note in their book The 21st Century Meeting and Event Technologies, event professionals need to effectively leverage the true potential of event apps.
In other words, you should stop thinking about them as simple digital tools that promote basic goals such as automatizing the logistic processes or saving you time. Those were cool features five years ago, but nowadays, event mobile apps have so much more to offer.
That’s why, when designing your event strategy, consider the entire blend of benefits it can provide—from increasing the number of your sponsors to gathering valuable data. Only by doing so will you be able to plan a truly successful event, provide awesome experiences to your guests, and really make most out of your event mobile app.
Curious to learn more?
Book a time for a free event app consultation with one of our experts. We'll look into your case and help you plan how to get started integrating an app with your event.
