There has been an explosion of Mobile Apps for Events and
Conferences in the last few years. The demand from the
Event planners, from the Attendees and from the Exhibitors
is clearly there.
But what to look for when selecting a Mobile App for your
A 10 MINUTE OVERVIEW OF KEY
FEATURES FOR EVENT MOBILE
APPS.
1
CONNECTIVITY
AND CONTENT
YOUR ATTENDEES NEED TO BE
ABLE TO SEE THE CONTENT
WITHOUT BEING CONNECTED TO
WIFI.
The iPad challenge
The iPad introduced an interesting challenge to the Mobile Event apps. An argument prior to the iPad was that the mobile devices are always connected to a carrier network, therefore a “website” that looked good on the small screen was enough for the event participants.
The iPad changed that, with few iPads having both a wireless (carrier) connection and a wifi connection. The majority of iPads sold have just a wifi connection, and rely on a wifi hotspots to be functional. So what use is a mobile app that requires a permanent connection, if we now see 50%+ of our attendees using iPads during the event?
1. Select a native app for your event
The event planners are faced with a difficult choice when selecting a technology solution for a mobile presentation of the event data: either to work with Event site managers to ensure solid wifi hotspots, or to go with a native app solution, that allows people to “download” the event app before the event, and eventually sync some data when a hotspot is available.
The only type of app that does that is the “native” app – these apps have the ability to tap into the mobile device memory, and store tens of megabytes of data: agenda, speaker profiles, sponsors presentations etc. On top of that, the native apps also can leverage the mobile device full functionality – messaging is one key capability that is only for native apps. If an Event planner wants to message the participants, only a native app can tap that function of the mobile device, and create a “SMS” like experience via the native app functions.
NATIVE
MOBILE
APPS
ALLOW
CONTENT
BROWSING
WHILE NOT
CONNECTED
Wifi is still spotty in the Event centers, especially when you bring a few hundred or thousand attendees. The hotspots quickly get overwhelmed with the multitude of connection requests.
A mobile native app is available from the iTunes store, from Google Play or from the Kindle Fire app store.
2
2. WRITE ONCE, PUBLISH ON ALL DEVICES
The event participants have a multitude of devices to access the Event materials, and they expect a consistent experience for all thesedevices: iPad, iPhone, Android phones and Android tablets, or Kindle fire devices.
The often forgotten device is the PC, or the Mac…many participants still use these devices during events, especially in Corporate events. The content manager needs to automatically perform the translation into the various form factors, taking advantage of the capability of the device: storage of information, sync of data, access to Google maps for directions, messaging to attendees.
Check with your mobile app provider if extra steps need to be taken to translate the content into different form factors.
KEY FORM FACTORS FOR YOUR EVENT APP
If your mobile app is not present in at least:- iOS store (iphone and iPad)
- Google Play store (Android phones) - Kindle Store (Kindle Fire tablets) - PC and Macs form factors
then I would recommend you look somewhere.
WRITE
ONCE,
PUBLISH ON
ALL
DEVICES
The native mobile app needs to have versions for iPhone, iPad, Android phones, Android tablets, Kindle Fire and also PC and Mac.
The translation into these formats should be done automatically.
3
3. STANDARD FEATURES COMBINED WITH ABILITY TO
CUSTOMIZE CONTENT CATEGORIES
In the last few years, the entire mobile app market evolves, and at a minimum you should expect out of the box Meeting Agenda, Speaker profiles, A personal calendar for participants, Maps and Alerting. Several apps have a pricing per section – starting with two “included” categories, and then a pay per feature. This can raise your cost per app very quickly.
In our app, we included a capability to add your own categories – Sponsors, Exhibitors or other Custom Sections. This is done via one click in the backend, vs. a complex configuration or being dependent on the app vendor to do that for you.
ABILITY TO
ADJUST TO
YOUR
EVENT
NEEDS
All Event Mobile Apps now have a Meeting Agenda, Speaker Profiles, A Personal calendar, Maps and Alerting. The ability to add custom section is
important: Sponsors Section, Exhibitors
Section and other Custom Sections.
4
4. INTEGRATION WITH SOCIAL MEDIA
Meeting are all about making connections, and sharing experiences and expertise.At a minimum, the event mobile app should be able to integrate with social media channels, and pre-populate messages with the event hashtag set by the Event organizer.
Note below the capability to tweet from inside the app, with the references prepopulated by the app, to ensure consistency.
Also note the capability to see and connect with other participants in the event below:
INTEGRATION
WITH
LINKEDIN,
AND TWITTER
Participants should be able to see who else is attending the event, connect with them, post on Twitter or connect in LinkedIn .
Because events are all about making connections.
5
5. CHECK THE BASICS, JUST IN CASE
At the surface all meeting apps look the same, and have the basics taken care of.Meeting agenda, and speakers profile? All mobile apps for events have that. But can you add multiple speakers for one topic?
Can you create multiple tracks for your event?
Can you secure the meeting, and have SSL encryption for a corporate event?
At Zwoor, we have several years of events under our belt, and we continuously developed the app to where it is today.
And yes, you can have multiple speakers for one topic, and you can also create tracks for events.
And all our data is encrypted, with the strongest SSL certificate available, just in case you need that for a corporate Leadership meeting.
Just a few things that come from experience, and continuously listening to Event Planners.
THE
BASICS
Simple thing become crucial when needed: - Ability to have
multiple speakers for one topic - Ability to add
tracks for your event (most events are multi-track) - Is the data encrypted – for special meetings and corporate events?
Make sure that you ask key questions as you look for a mobile app, so it fits your real need.
6
CLEAR PRICING FOR THE MOBILE APP
Pricing can be quite confusing when creating a mobile app for your event. Free basic capability, with add-ons that quickly take you in the $10,000+ range? Connectivity charges during the event? Feature by feature pricing? Make sure you understand the pricing upfront. At Zwoor, we belive in a very clear upfront pricing for our Zwoor Event App - $500 for the mobile app, all features included.No surcharges, no hidden fees. Check us out if you plan to have a mobile app . Below a summary of the Zwoor Event platform and native apps.
Basic Features
Event description
Event Schedule
Speaker Bios, Multiple Speakers for a Topic
Personalized Calendar for participants
Rooms, maps, integration with Mobile Maps
Add Tracks for your Event Calendar
Social Media and Connections
Dynamic Who is attending the event?
Session Ratings and Comments
Create Event Hashtag, included in all social media posts
Twitter and LinkedIn integration
Event Alerts
Exhibitors “One Touch Connect”
Ease of maintaining content
“Do it yourself” content creation
Invite speakers to update content
Multiple content editors
Distribution
Native apps for iPhone and iPad
Native apps for Android Phones and Tablets
Native apps for Kindle Fire
Meeting Content access via PC, MAC or BBerry browser
Encrypted data communication
IS THE
PRICING
CLEAR?
Make sure you understand the add-ons, and the final pricing. Some apps can cost as much as 15,000. Your budget is not that flexible, why your budget cost should be?
