mobile event apps Archives

Mobile event apps have become an important, and often expected part of the conference experience. When paired with online conference materials, you provide the perfect combination of usability and accessibility for your event content.

One question we get from customers is whether it’s necessary to offer both a mobile app and web-based access to the event schedule and session content. The answer depends upon your attendees, their preferences, and how they use technology. But it’s also important to understand that a mobile event app doesn’t replace online conference materials. It complements them.

Here are five reasons to keep your online conference materials

1. Web and mobile content serve different purposes

When attendees view your event schedule and session content online before the conference begins, they are usually starting to plan their event experience—including making the decision whether to attend. After they conference, they will usually hop online again to revisit favorite papers and presentations.

Conference apps, meanwhile, help drive the on-site event experience. Attendees use them to navigate the event schedule and logistics, and connect with other attendees. Event organizers use them to provide timely updates to attendees, increase engagement, and promote sponsors.

2. Online conference materials have a longer shelf life

Some attendees may start using an event app during the days before a conference begins to scope out other attendees and make appointments. But the majority of an app’s usage happens during the event. And most attendees don’t return to the app after returning home.

Online materials are viewed days, weeks, and even months after the conference wraps up. Attendees will revisit learning concepts from sessions they attended, and use it as an opportunity to seek out content from sessions they weren’t able to attend.

3. The online platform provides increased exposure for event sponsors

One of the benefits of having both a mobile app and online conference materials is you have an additional place to promote event sponsors and exhibitors. Within your online proceedings website or platform, include your sponsors’ banner ads, videos, company descriptions, logos, and other promotional materials. And because everything is online, you can easily track and measure engagement for each sponsor.

4. Online content can be discovered by search engines

To access content in the app, an attendee has to already be registered for the conference. But what about those that haven’t registered yet? When you put your event content online, you increase the opportunity for it to be picked up by search engines and served to prospective new attendees who are interested in these same topics (as long as the content has been search-engine optimized, of course!). You can still restrict access to content, like full technical papers, so that only registered attendees can view them. Just make sure your conference and session descriptions are on pages that can be crawled by search engines.

5. Online conference materials can become a source of non-dues revenue

Think beyond this year’s event. Start building a multi-year library of online conference proceedings and charge members or non-members for access. You can select who gets to see what content from recent or past events and start building a new source of non-dues revenue for your organization.

Mobile app vs. online conference materials shouldn’t be an either/or scenario. They both serve very different purposes. Together, they can increase the value of your event for attendees and beyond.

Mobile event apps have become a key part of the event experience for attendees. They deliver important real-time information, help to increase engagement, and facilitate connections with exhibitors, sponsors, and fellow attendees. With hundreds of mobile event apps to choose from today, finding the best one for your conference can be overwhelming. To help you narrow down your options, we’ve put together an overview of the different types of apps available, common features, and considerations.

Determine What Type of Mobile Event App You Need

The first aspect of a mobile event app to consider is what type you’ll need. Mobile event apps come in three basic forms: native, web, and hybrid.

Native Apps

Native apps are built for a specific platform or operating system, such as iOS or Android, and are self-contained. Once you install it, the app lives on your mobile device, stores relevant data on your phone, and can access features of your device, such as the camera or GPS as part of its functionality. Most features operate with or without an internet connection. An internet connection will be required, however, to update content once a user has downloaded the app.

Examples of native apps include:

WhatsApp
Spotify
Mobile banking apps
Pokemon Go

Web Apps

Web apps are accessed through the mobile device’s web browser, not installed on the device like a native app. It can launch on any device, including a desktop computer, mobile phone, or tablet. This means they require an internet connection to access the content, and will function according to the device you are using. They also can’t access native device features such as your camera or GPS. On some devices, users can create an app-like experience by adding a bookmark to their home screen that, when clicked, will take them directly to the website.

Examples of web apps include:

Google Docs
Netflix
Microsoft Office

Hybrid Apps

Hybrid apps use a native app “shell” that is built for each operating system and downloaded to the device, but pull content from the cloud. These apps can offer partial functionality while offline, but require an internet connection for the app to fully function.

Examples of hybrid apps include:

Gmail
Facebook
Uber

Table: Side-by-side comparison of mobile event app types

	Description	Advantages	Disadvantages
Native Apps	Built specifically for each operating system (Apple’s iOS or Android) and installed directly on the mobile device.	Speed, performance and user interface are optimized Works without Internet connection	Must build a specific app for each operating system Takes more time to develop and deploy Higher development costs
Web-Based Apps	Websites built using HTML that are designed specifically for smaller screens	No need to distribute using app stores Works on any device with a browser, but experience varies Lower deployment costs	Slower performance Internet connection is required Not as secure
Hybrid Apps	Native app shell that is platform-specific and installed on the mobile device, but with content being fed from the web	Caches content, so it works offline to a degree Downloadable from app stores Easier to deploy cross-platform than native apps Lower cost than native apps	Doesn’t run as smoothly as native apps Offline performance can be inconsistent Built to specific operating system

When choosing the type of mobile app that is best for your event, you’ll want to keep a few things in mind:

What type of WiFi access will you have?
What content are you featuring in your app?
How will attendees interact with the app?

Does your conference location offer free and reliable WiFi? If not, a web-based or hybrid app may not be the best choice. A native app with preloaded content is probably a better fit in this scenario.

How do you want attendees to engage with the app during the event? Is it meant to be a tool to check session schedules and room assignments? Or are you hoping they’ll connect and share experiences on social media? If the latter, a hybrid app may be the best option. Access to content can largely be done on offline native apps, but interactivity and live information feeds will require internet access and will be better suited for a hybrid app.

One Important Note: Some mobile event app providers also offer a companion desktop platform that has most of the same look, feel, and functionality as the mobile app. This allows attendees to more readily access the content before and during the event on the device of their choice. It also delivers a consistent experience if you’re holding an event with both in-person and virtual participants.

Understand Which Features are Most Important to Your Attendees

Nearly all mobile event apps on the market contain the same base features because they tend to be the most important for nearly any event type:

Event agenda with session description and details, often with the ability to select sessions and build a personalized itinerary
Event map showing the layout of the venue
Speaker information
Attendee profiles
Exhibitor and sponsor listings

Beyond this, it’s important to know which features your attendees want and will actually use.

If you’ve used a mobile event app in the past, look at your app data to see which features were accessed by the most people, and how often they were used. If this is the first time you’re offering a mobile app, send a brief survey to past attendees asking them how likely and frequently they are to use certain features such as:

Social networking & social feeds
Direct messaging
AI matchmaking
Gamification
Polls and surveys
Digital exhibitor booths
Notetaking

One important note: If you’re going to offer features like gamification, social engagement, and networking, make sure to allocate time and resources to promote and facilitate these activities. There will be a fraction of your attendees that go all-in on participation without any assistance. But most of your attendees will need ongoing prompting and encouragement.

Know Which Features are Important to Your Organization

In addition to meeting your attendees’ needs, what do you need from your mobile event app?

Are you looking for more revenue generation opportunities? Your chosen mobile app should offer multiple opportunities for sponsor and exhibitor exposure such as banner ads, sponsored posts, and lead retrieval.

Do you need an easier way to track and manage CE credits? Look for an app where attendees “check-in” to the sessions they attend.

Do you want to streamline processes and the exchange of data? Select an app that can integrate with other systems, such as your abstract management software, association management system, or registration system.

Do you want to be able to schedule and send push notifications? Your chosen app should not only have this functionality, but its back-end interface needs to be easy for you and your team to navigate and use.

What type of data and analytics will you need, and to whom? Your internal organization may be most interested in the ROI of the app, which means you’ll need metrics on app adoption and usage. Your sponsors and exhibitors may need data that illustrates the ROI of your event, including clicks to banner ads, sponsor profiles, and video views.

Recognize What Level of Support Will You Need

Many mobile app providers only provide the technology, and all setup is done by you and your team. This includes populating all event, session, and speaker data. This tends to be a less expensive option, but that also means all the upfront work is falling on you. On the other hand, some mobile app vendors also provide full app setup. This does often add to the app cost, but it allows you and your team to focus on other crucial tasks.

After the initial setup is complete, what type of ongoing support is important to you? Do you prefer to have one, dedicated point of contact for questions and technical issues? Or are you okay with submitting requests to a general support team?

It goes without saying that any mobile event app needs to be intuitive and easy to use—for you and your attendees. And, the price needs to fit within your event budget. Beyond that, it’s important to understand not only which features are important, but why. This will help you prioritize feature sets and narrow down the prospective list of mobile event apps to evaluate for your next conference.

Tag: mobile event apps

5 Reasons to Offer Online Conference Materials (Even If You Already Have an App)