Every year, our company starts work on our largest project of the year – an international conference for one of our clients. At this conference, we bring in many of our client’s franchise owners from all over the world, so we want to ensure the event is as enjoyable and useful for the franchise owners as possible. We have discovered that the best way to ensure we are running a successful conference is by listening to our attendees. By listening to them, we gain valuable feedback that enables us to make the most out of both the conference experience and the money we put into the project as a whole.
Last year, our team developed a smartphone app, that can later be used as an event planning app for more events, in-house that allowed our client to connect with the attendees, as well as the attendees to connect with each other. The demand for our app was much higher than we anticipated, with over 55 percent of conference attendees downloading it. Read on to learn about the most popular features of our app.
1. Attendee Check-In:
When the attendees got to the event, they checked in on the app. Once checked in, the app displayed all their event information, tailored specifically to them. This made it easy for us, behind the scenes, to find out when people were arriving, allowing us to accurately predict and plan for seating arrangements, food orders, etc…
2. Picture and status feed:
We included a place for attendees to post and share status updates, thoughts, and pictures during the event. The app could be linked to Facebook and Twitter, allowing attendees to tag themselves and their friends. On the second day of the event, we posted the live feed on the projection screens in front of all 1200 attendees. Once the attendees realized that the feed was live, and what they posted was instantly on the screens, the interaction rate went through the roof. For the rest of the week, this section was the hit of the convention.
3. Map of surrounding areas:
Most of the convention attendees were from out of town, and not familiar with Omaha, where the convention was held. The app included maps of the surrounding areas, including restaurants and entertainment. This helped the app users to navigate their way downtown with ease during breaks.
4. Event surveys – Unique to event:
In past years, we have gathered attendee’s feedback through paper surveys that we left out during different events throughout convention. With the introduction of the convention app, we were able to gather feedback instantly. With paper surveys, somebody had to enter each one in individually, which was very time consuming, and took our team away from other work. With the implementation of electronic surveys, the feedback is instant, allowing us to save time and respond right away to any problems that arose.
5. Pre-event surveys:
The capability to send out pre-event surveys allows us to find out what our attendees are expecting from our event. We are able to act on their feedback, allowing us to give the attendees the best event experience possible.
6. Say “thank you”:
The last feature that we included is the ability to thank attendees who attended the event, and posted to social media about the event. This could spur more feedback we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.
Overall, the app was a very good way to simplify some of the tedious work we used to have to do, as well as allow the attendees to connect with each other easily. This allowed for a unique event experience, and set the standard for events to come.
You can find the app on appbrain.com