Is your event app primed for a year of great events? Like any technology event apps are constantly evolving. What was innovative and forward thinking in 2015 may not be as fresh and effective in 2018. While your tried and tested event app may do a perfectly adequate job, are you getting the ROI you deserve?
Here are the event app features you should expect right now:
Smart and Easy Experiential
Check out any of the 2018 event trend lists in circulation and experiential is up there as a major focus for event organisers. It may feel like a term that is hard to define, but in short it means creating a more immersive and exciting experience for event goers.
Yes, that can include the spectacular and jaw-dropping (which is often the focus of experiential marketing) but it can also extend to a simple exchange of ideas between speakers and attendees.
Forget static sessions where speakers deliver a didactic talk on a given topic to a passive audience. Think about turning audience members into participants.
Q&A sessions or polling via your event app gives attendees a voice. They enable a dynamic learning environment where attendees can actively shape session content and outcomes.
It may not make create a social media storm, but offering attendees the chance to actively engage with your event content delivers meaningful outcomes for event organisers, sponsors and attendees.
Gamification With Impact
Gamification has been around for a while now but it’s moved on from the novelty status it once had.
Gamification is now a hard-working stalwart feature of forward thinking events. In its infancy gamification was a neat way to inject a bit of fun into events via emerging technology. Now, it’s an important tool to deliver a whole range of event metrics including attendee engagement, sponsor ROI and networking.
While gamification is an event app must have, success depends on smart deployment. Linking activities to tangible outcomes, e.g. quality lead generation, will ensure efforts are targeted and measurable.
In addition to gaming specific features, utilise other event app capabilities (such as social media feeds) in your strategy. Photo or wordplay challenges can have a viral effect that delivers widespread results.
End-to-End Communication
How well does your event app communicate with the rest of your event tech? Event apps can now exist as part of a suite or family of services.
Where providers once focused on specific platforms, such as registration or event app or lead generation, it’s now possible to work with end-to-end solutions that can help manage your event from ticket sales and promotion right through to post event data analysis.
The benefits of an end-to-end solution include streamlined processes that minimises downloads and log-ins for attendees. Data transfer between systems (e.g. registration to event app) also reduces data entry for organisers and ensures information passed through the event tech chain remains consistent.
Even if your event app doesn’t exist as part of an end-to-end solution, having the capability to communicate effectively and securely with the rest of your event tech is important so ask your provider about compatibility and reporting capabilities.
Next Gen Branding
Of course, a decent event app will offer a level of custom branding. Event apps at the cheaper end of the scale may offer custom options in combination with the provider’s own branding.
But for sophisticated and high profile events it’s reasonable to expect that the event app design will be highly flexible, beautiful and customised.
Forward thinking event apps offer organisers a range of creative options that allow the event and sponsor branding to shine. An organiser’s graphic design team should have the same flexibility as a web designer. From animated graphics to pop-up banners, a modern event app will deliver sophisticated branding options that meet aesthetic objectives and wow attendees.
