How Event Apps Boost Engagement and Attendee Experience 

Event apps have come to be an important digital tool for fostering attendee interaction and enhancing the experience of events in today’s digital age. Event apps can enhance the event experience, providing commonality for accessing information and engaging in activities that were not previously possible with documentation and email updates, as well as enabling networking opportunities for attendees. 

Attendee Interaction  

Finally, we need to create a memorable and engaging experience for attendees in a world of competition, after all, it is important we make it worth their time to attend. Here, we will discuss a few strategies for creating an engaged audience, which resulting in a memorable experience.  

Tailored Content and Recommendations  

Event apps can capture attendee data: registration data, last point of attendance, session preferences (i.e. topics of interest) and create discoveries and recommendations based on the attendee’s experience. In turn, attendees then receive valid and meaningful content and information based on their information. A good example would be an app creating recommendations for sessions based on attendees’ job title, industry, or previous attendance at events.  

Networking and Connection  

Event apps have functions to connect attendees to one another, and foster relationships. Attendees can build profiles that include information about their interests, their expertise, and their company. Each attendee profiles allow the attendees to search for other attendees with similar interests or attendees that plan to attend specific sessions. With access to an event app, attendees can start conversations, schedule meetings, and participate in group chats that will assist in networking and forming meaningful relationships. 

Providing Time sensitive Updates and Information 

An event app can provide time sensitive updates to help keep attendees informed with everything from the event schedule and information about the speakers and sessions changes to important instructions about the event. Just for the convenience of having the most up-to-date and current information, attendees can use an app to maximize their time. An event app can also provide more than time sensitive updates. An event app could also facilitate push notifications to allow for important information or announcements to reach attendees in real time. Another way to maximize the time to keep the attendees focused on the event is for an event app to provide session reminders so attendees can remember when sessions are and plan their time accordingly. 

2. Improving Event Logistics 

Improving the event logistics will aid in allowing for a seamless event experience and maintaining attendee engagement, happiness and positive overall event atmosphere. When you appropriately plan and make improvements with event logistics like registration, attendee check-in, and managing on-site logistics, lead to decreased stress, creating efficiencies, and contribute to the overall vibe of the event experience for the attendees. In this section, we discuss how optimal event apps can help you improve logistics and more so in a complimentary way to the attendee experience. 

Improving Registration/Check-In Process: 

Events apps can help maximize efficiencies and provide time savings during the check-in and registration process for attendees, ultimately minimizing wait times for attendees and improving the overall event experience. Instead of attendees registering in person at the event, they could register online with an event app and receive digital badges upon checked-in, confirming they registered properly. This eliminates paperwork and gets the attendees checked in. This enables savings for both attendees and staff while minimizing errors and maximizing efficiency.  

Providing Simple Access to Event Schedules and Agendas: 

Event apps can provide attendees with clear visibility to schedules, agendas, and even speaker information available in advance. This allows attendees to plan out their time, identify sessions they want to attend and make sure they do not miss events they would prefer to attend. Moreover, event apps can utilize features like interactive maps to assist attendees in finding their way around the venue, and to assist with finding where sessions are occurring. 

Providing Contactless Payment and Ticketing: 

By providing contactless payment via mobile app functions and ticketing digitally, organizations can not only assist staff and vendors with processing transactions and reducing lines, but it makes it a much more convenient and efficient experience for the attendee, especially in crowded environments. Contactless payments also help to eliminate fraud and improve security. 

3. Enhancing Attendee Experience 

Attendee experience is a crucial aspect of any event’s success, and event apps can maintain attendee satisfaction by providing additional experiences and value in terms of personalized features; they can assist in organizing and providing access to resources and valuable information. By providing services and stakeholder resources, and emphasizing these key themes, we would help to improve overall attendee experience and even yield disciplines of high engagement or long-term re-engagement. 

Providing Invaluable Content and Resources: 

To improve the experience of attendees, event organizers should consider providing attendees with a resource portal or content that is relevant and unique, in addition to the basic event information. The potential material may include slide presentations and speaker presentations, handouts and additional material, recordings of major sessions, and unique materials which include interviews with speakers and behind-the-scenes content. 

Providing a Streamlined and User-Friendly Experience:  

A well-designed event app needs to ensure that attending members can access and use it without confusion. Considerations of navigation, branding consistency, mobile optimization, and accessibility are important. A well-developed event app needs to improve the event experience by enabling attending members to quickly find information, easily navigate from section to section in the app, and use the features of the app without hitting obstacles.  

Providing Target Layers of Support and Help: 

To enhance the overall experience for your attending members and demonstrate good customer service, you can also provide support and help features in your app that can assist attendees, if they have inquiries and/or are experiencing issues while using the app. Use live chat in your app that provides users with immediate help, develop a FAQ that incorporate questions or concerns that came up in previous events, and have accessible contact information for personnel and/or organizers to clarify any questions. 

4. Measuring App Effectiveness  

If you want to assess your event app effectiveness, or identify areas for improvement, it is important to capture key metrics and assess usage data. This section covers key metrics to track and offers suggestions for evaluating your app data to ensure you’re on track with event app strategy. 

Key Metrics to Track: 

To determine the effectiveness of your event app, you should track key metrics that provide data on app usage and event attendee engagement. Metrics help you assess ways that attendees are using the app, areas of improvement, and determine the impact of the app on event outcomes. Examples of some key metrics are app downloads, usage frequency, amount of time spent in the app, user feedback, usage of app features, rate of session attendance, and the amount of networking activity. 

Evaluating Data to Optimize App Features: 

Using the key metrics you have identified, you can derive insights from them to determine app performance and recognize areas for improvement. Data may help you recommend what content better fits attendees, improve ease of use by fixing difficulty and minimizing navigation, identify impact from usage data to prioritize feature development, and determine the return on investment (ROI) for your app. 

Conclusion

Event apps are an integral part of providing engaging attendee experiences and improving attendee experiences overall. Giving personalized content, improving logistics and providing great features are some of the ways an event app can help you provide memorable and successful events. If you follow the best practices suggested in this guide, you can use event apps to successfully enhance your events and develop attendee satisfaction. 

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