5 Key Benefits of an Event App

Have you ever reflected on how many apps you use daily? On average, it’s 9 apps a day and 30 apps a month, according to a business intelligence firm. Since numerous mobile apps guide us through various aspects of our lives, it is no surprise that apps have become a part of daily business in the event industry as well.

With meeting apps, you can do live polls and surveys, you can interact with your participants and they can interact among each other before, during and after the event. You can personalize your content for different target groups and, last but not least, the apps are sustainable (less paperwork) and flexible (last-minute changes).

We have come up with five valuable reasons for using an event app, which we would like to share with you; together with some of the risks and challenges that we have experienced.

1. Push Notifications

In-app push notifications offer a simple but very effective way to send out information in real time. They guarantee that all event participants are informed, no matter how big the meeting is.

Decisive advantage. We regularly reap the benefits of push notifications to: i) welcome the participants, ii) highlight key sessions or bus departures to off-site dinners and iii) announce changes to the schedule at short notice. It offers greater flexibility and allows for last-minute tweaks to the meeting plan, if needed.

Challenge. We always give a lot of thought to what message we send when to whom. At events, we want participants to use their time for face-to-face interaction and to immerse themselves in the actual event experience – and not to be distracted by loads of needless notifications. Furthermore, be careful: most of the attendees automatically click on “don’t allow” when the app asks for permission to send push notifications. Therefore, we always make sure to inform and convince the participants of the benefits before the meeting starts.

2. Networking & Support

Let’s be honest, one of the biggest reasons why people go to events is to make connections. Successful networking may be difficult, particularly if there is a large number of attendees. Conference apps facilitate this¹ with functions like browsable attendee lists or meeting scheduling with private messages.

Additionally, mobile event apps offer a support feature that allows participants to ask any question about the event. This creates a valuable two-way communication stream with the participants. In comparison, push notifications provide only one-way communication and users cannot reply to them.

Decisive advantage. As we know from the feedback of our event participants, the support feature makes them feel integrated and less anonymous. Each event participant is important to us! Most of our participants use the support feature to request a new group allocation, to ask specific questions about sessions / speakers or even for general questions such as directions to an off-site dinner location.

Challenge. As on every social platform, the risk of unwanted content, such as cyber harassment or inappropriate pictures, exists at corporate events as well. Consequently, it is crucial to keep an eye on it and monitor every published contribution.

3. Personalized content

Most event apps offer a feature to create personalized content for each participant. If you run an event for various audiences, you can display specific information to chosen attendees or groups. In today’s information-saturated world, this is convenient for meeting attendees.

Decisive advantage. Whether it is personalized content for breakout-sessions or workshops – including room allocations, speaker notes or pre-reads – we learned that our participants highly appreciate receiving only what is relevant to them. It curates a unique and personal experience for them. We are convinced that it is our job as event managers to always satisfy the participant’s craving for a personalized experience.

Challenge. Personalized content might be very helpful, but it is also quite time-consuming to create. Thus, when thinking of using an app, careful consideration should always be given to whether the creation of personalized content really adds value to the participant’s experience.

4. Polls & Surveys

Every single attendee has an opinion, so let’s give them the possibility to express it – with the help of an event app. Live voting, for example, is a great and instant way to interact and connect with your audience. Attendees who don’t want to disclose their identity can submit feedback anonymously. This increases the event’s engagement rate even more.

Decisive advantage. Since attendees can express their opinion immediately, speakers can identify topics and concerns that are top-of-mind for the audience. In most of our live votings, speakers spontaneously include this input in their presentations and make their content instantly more relevant. We think that this is one of the biggest assets of an event app, as it can make a session very dynamic, interactive and exciting. If our clients want to work with the voting results long-term, we sometimes collate these results for further analysis.

Challenge. A strong and stable internet connection is an essential requirement, as everyone will be using the meeting app at the same time. Moreover, as the poll responses are displayed on the screen almost instantaneously, you must be able to filter them fast to avoid inappropriate content. As this process can be stressful, we recommend the use of surveys for more sensitive content, since only you see the results. Some event apps allow you to list specific words to be automatically filtered.²

5. Printed vs Digital Content

Since your guests can access data and information through their conference app, you can abandon printed materials such as brochures, agendas or other event-related hand-outs. A “paperless” event also meets environmental standards that are increasingly the order of the day in event management.

Decisive advantage. Our clients highly appreciate the flexibility of digital content because: i) you can change and adjust digital content last-minute and ii) you are not reliant on production turnaround times for you printed materials.

Challenge. For events with a small number of participants, the time investment³ to set up the content in a meeting app can be more expensive than printed material. In addition: are many of your event “personas” highly accustomed to printed event material? If they are, the use of digital content through a meeting app should then be questioned as well. Because it can be hard to change the behavior of the attendees.

As every meeting and event is unique, has its own goals and its own diverse audience, the degree to which a meeting app can enhance the experience and add value for the participants differs as well. Event apps can make your event more relevant, more interactive and more personalized than ever before – but be thoughtful about usage, content and the quantity of notifications.

Entrepreneurial awareness. As event apps are quite pricy and time-consuming to set up, you should question the added value of every feature you introduce. This can be challenging, as it is hard to estimate the value of “qualitative” advantages, such as “better networking opportunities” or a “more personal event experience” through personalized content. We always set up a time estimate for each feature that our clients are interested in. Although this is a rather pragmatic approach, it leads to a solid basis for dialogue. If your event is small, we generally do not recommend introducing, and investing in, a meeting app.

Are you curious to learn more about how an app would improve your specific event? Contact us today to schedule a meeting or call!

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¹Before, during and after the meeting.
²We often use this for common swearwords but have never experienced these words being used.
³Labor cost.