10 Reasons Mobile Event Apps Are Becoming Indispensable

Anoop Pai Dhungat, Chairman & Managing Director, Galaxy Office Automation Pvt. Ltd

a successful event requires you to go beyond the traditional methods today. As consumerization picked up, the expectations of a typical event attendee have changed dramatically. For event organizers, this means that they must be better at planning, execution, and the way their audience are engaged.

The demand for mobile event apps is thus on an all-time high. Mobile event app provides a secure, scalable and customizable platform with many valuable elements that improve event management. With the event owners relentlessly looking for ways to improve their RoI (return on investment), increasingly brands are turning to mobile apps for a futuristic approach.

Interestingly, many event owners today prefer to build their own event app, which can be customized and tailored according to their needs, rather than downloading a ready-to-use, rigid event app.

Anoop Pai Dhungat, Chairman & Managing Director, Galaxy Office Automation Pvt. Ltd

Here are the 10 most sought-after features offered by thoughtfully designed mobile event apps, which are becoming essential components of any event:

Real-Time Content: Most app-building platforms work on a web-based configuration and rely on easy to use content management systems. Event organizers can control all the components and content of the app, so the attendees are always up-to-date and in-the-loop. From every small to big changes during the event, app-based platforms empower event organizers with instant access to their entire delegation, ensuring attendees are kept up to date with the latest information and resources available.

Security: They come with authentication and security features that ensure users only access and receive the information authorized by the event organizer. With the Permissions based infrastructure, attendee credentials are made secure and this also ensures that they are only exposed to relevant up-to-date information.

Save Costs & Paper: Saving on printing brochures is not only a big contribution towards environment protection, it also helps in cost reduction. All your event agenda, sessions, speakers, venue details and any other details can be viewed in the app directly. It comes with additional advantage of in-app registration. Imagine an event where attendee do not have to stand in long queue to register!

Notification & Alerts: One of the most common (and frustrating) things that happen during events is the change in plan! There are rescheduling of the meetings, change in the speaker's list at the last minute, or sudden unavailability of meeting rooms. Unfortunately, most organizers add to the fury by not effectively updating their attendees. A simple update to the meeting app with the new information will send a push-notification to each attendee’s device alerting them about the changes.

Facilitating Social Interaction and Networking: With the abundance of information on sessions and speakers available at their fingertips, attendees can easily be part of activities in line with their interests. And it makes easier for like-minded individuals to connect with each other easily.

Fostering Discussion and Participation: Event apps are providing an easier, more intuitive way of becoming a part of the discussion during an event. Whether through real-time polling, Q&As, or discussion boards, these apps can provide a way forward to make one’s voice heard and get feedback.

Business Card Exchange: This is one of the most advanced feature in mobile apps, which allow attendees to electronically exchange business cards with fellow attendees or speakers. This eliminates the worry of carrying the physical cards. Also with the exchange of business cards, most of the apps allow attendees to have a private conversation between registered delegates, speakers or even exhibitor and sponsors.

Surveys & Feedback: Organizers can easily collect & analyze valuable session and overall event related feedback like content, speakers, room comfort etc., that could be used to make future events even better. In-app feedback polls empower attendees with the ability to easily express their opinions and provide feedback about presentations in their own time.

Generate Revenue by Offering More to Sponsors: Event apps help optimizes brand visibility of the sponsors with the options of the audience for each ad based on the attendee's profile. In-app sponsorship areas provide great exposure for the partners. This allows sponsors to get actionable data – page views, page clicks and info about prospects and helps measure ROI effectively.

Easy Location and Transportation Details: They can give attendees directions on how to reach the venue. It also helps provide an easy way to find the transportation option to reach the venue from the nearest airport, train station, bus stop or driving directions.

Conclusion

In the technology age, the lines between virtual and physical interactions are becoming ever blurred. Mobile apps are one of the most important and fastest growing areas of the events and meetings industry.