With smartphone ownership at an all-time high, developing the right mobile application for your event can deliver key value for both you and your delegates. But you need to get it right, says Lanyon Mobile’s Michael Douglas. Here are his five tips for success.
When developing a mobile application for your event, first you need to take a close look at what you’re trying to achieve and what the people attending want from the experience to identify key objectives and functionality. Then work with your supplier from the outset to make sure your app delivers on all counts.
Here are five basic rules for creating an app that works for you and your delegates:
1. Know your delegate’s needs
Understand your audience and what they want from your event, plus what intelligence you need. Then give a clear brief to your supplier. There’s plenty of functionality available, but it won’t all be right for your event.
2. Encourage networking
A common key driver for attendees is to meet people, and an app can be the perfect networking tool. To do this, it will need to allow visitors to search who’s there and help them research their backgrounds, so they can choose the appropriate people to meet, and ideally let them schedule a meeting.
3. Showcase the programme
With education becoming increasingly important to ensure delegates get key business value from attending events, and programmes becoming more sophisticated, choosing the right content can be vital, such as seminars, workshops, etc, and developing a schedule. To allow attendees to achieve this, your app must be able to showcase what’s available quickly and easily, and allow delegates to book a place.
4. Collect key data
From an organiser perspective, apps can help assess the effectiveness of an event by delivering key intelligence. This can include seminar and workshop attendance figures, number of meetings arranged between delegates and/or exhibitors if your event has a sponsored element, and requests for delegate feedback.
5. Market your app
Make sure delegates are aware of your app by marketing it effectively, plus provide guidance on how to get the most from it. A good vendor will help with this, such as providing a branded video tutorial you can host on your website. You can then send delegates a link to it. Make sure you don’t just tell delegates how to use it, but also how it helps them meet their objectives and get the most from the event. You can extend this awareness and guidance to signage prompts across the event, and even have people on the ground providing hands-on help.