It’s almost time for your event to start. Everything is
ready, and registration is about to begin. This event is a big deal for your
company—so don’t tell me you still have people waiting for attendees with
printed agendas, checklists and all that chaos.
Why bother with that when you can just use an app?
More and more, attendee check-in and engagement is switching
toward utilizing people’s addiction to their mobile devices. How? By using
event-specific apps rather than employee manpower. Applications
like Cvent and Attendify are event management software that can streamline your
registration, event payment processing, reporting, scheduling and information
dissemination.
“Especially for full-conference servicing, besides doing
registration, [apps can] have easy content management. They’ll have instant
updates, have complete event guides, schedules and maps,” says Rachel Nasse,
senior account manager for Utah event planning and management company In the
Event.
Think mobile
When preparing for a big event, there are a lot of costs in
printing agendas or schedules, which can quickly become obsolete (or even harmful)
if information changes.
“We’re often printing a lot of banners and signs—and they
can only be used for that one event. Then they get thrown away,” says Becca
Pickens, account manager for In the Event. “What I love about these apps, it’s
that they make all these maps and directional signs, and information can show
up as push notifications on your cell phone.”
So there’s no need to worry if a breakout session moves from
Ballroom A to Ballroom C, or if your morning keynote speaker had a delayed
flight and needed to be bumped from 10:00 to 11:30—the apps will take care of
disseminating that information for you.
Drive engagement
How can you incentivize people to mingle, to interact with
your sponsors or even to work (just a little bit!) for their event-branded
swag?
Enter apps like GooseChase, which can make a customized
scavenger hunt for your attendees. The
scavenger hunts can be completely tailored for your event size, location and
event: have people take pictures at your step-and-repeat, find a mascot, chat
at your sponsorship booths—whatever you want.
“The website itself already has 100-plus missions or you can
make your own. You can give them point values. You can track the action of
everybody playing and see the response to it,” says Pickens. “Some are photo
missions, like, ‘Go get into the phone booth with your colleagues and get a
pic!’ That uploads to a game and you can publish it on the social media side of
your event.”
Social media is another huge boon to using apps at your
event. Say you have a photo booth: people can upload photos from it or even
simply use your event hashtag, and the app can collect those photos for you.
You have full control over the photos that stream in: project them onto a
screen, let people browse through them, download them, etc.
“It’s invaluable for the company, because they’re going to
be able to figure out what drives future attendance, and have that slide show
and those memories. It’ll inspire elite levels of engagement amongst their
attendees,” says Pickens. “They can even use those photos for future marketing
initiatives. It’s a great way to engage everyone at the event.”
Be creative with the way you reach out to your attendees. An app
allows your attendees to communicate with you in real time, so utilize
that! If you have a DJ or a band playing in the evening, use your app to reach
out and ask people what they want to hear.
“You can request songs at your event. The band gets a full
set list and everyone gets to hear the songs they want,” says Pickens. “You can
have screens around that have live social media interaction during the event,
[with people saying] ‘This is my song!’”
See what you did
right (and wrong)
Using an app can also provide your company with analytics
about your event. How many people participated in the scavenger hunt? What did
people have to say, during the event and while things were happening, that you
could improve upon?
“Feedback is something that’s so priceless about these apps.
Your guests are able to give you feedback afterwards about the event in the
app,” says Nasse. “So many times, when you send out a comment card, people will
ignore them. But if they can give you feedback during the event that you can
use in analytics and surveys after the event, that’s so valuable.”
Source: Utahbusiness
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