Getting the most of your mobile event app sounds simple: Build an app and promote the daylights out of it. In reality, there is more to it than that, starting with your choice of app.
Pick the right event app
The best mobile app is the one that best serves you and your attendees. Take a deep look at what you need and prioritize a list of must-haves. Most apps offer basic features like maps, schedules, and bios. The best apps go further. Apps such as Yapp are customizable, offer multi-track scheduling, allow networking, social connections, and engagement. A customizable app lets you leverage your brand, and those of your sponsors, all while providing the exact information and layout that you want. A key feature of Yapp is push notifications to all registered attendees for those inevitable instances when there are last-minute changes to the schedule or the venue.
Build to full potential
Even the best feature set is irrelevant if you don’t actually implement it. So make sure that the app is user-friendly for you, the planner, to set up, and for the attendees to use.
Start with industry reviews, from event planner organizations and associations, but don’t overlook user reviews that you can find using any basic search by the name of the app.
If the app has a free trial period, take advantage of it and see for yourself how easy it is to set up the app.
You may discover in the process that features you hadn’t prioritized suddenly seem essential, like integrating images, videos and social feeds. Taking full advantage of images and videos brings your mobile event app to life increasing attendee interest and engagement. It also provides a channel for sponsors and speakers to provide more details about themselves and what they have to offer. The more exposure you provide to sponsors, the more valuable that sponsorship becomes.
At Yapp we are pretty confident you’ll find our full set of features easy to implement and use. Sign up for your free trial of Yapp and see what an event app should be.
Promote your app
Your event is not like the Field of Dreams – if you build it, they won’t automatically come. But heavy promotion, both before and during your event, will be worth the effort in attendee adoption and usage, particularly the first time.
Set up your app long before the event. As soon as you begin registering attendees, your app should be downloadable by them. You want to make sure that any time the app is mentioned in any pre-event communication that registered attendees can test it out. The more people that know about and are familiar with the app ahead of time, the more engagement you will see and the more you and your attendees will get out of the app.
A roaming team of “App Specialists” should ask attendees if they are using the app and help stragglers to download on the spot. Every person that your people come into contact with should be trained to use the app and to bring it up in conversation, from the welcome committee, to the registration table, to the kick off speeches. Finally, encourage keynotes and speakers to talk about the app and encourage connections within.
By ensuring you’ve chosen then the best app for your event, built it out to its full potential and promoted it extensively, you can ensure that both you and your attendees get the most out of your mobile event app. Learn more about how Yapp can help you with your next event.
