When you have an organization that runs events and/or has members to take care of, it can be tough to handle everything when you’re likely on-the-go or running around an event floor hours before an event begins. These days managers are looking towards mobile-first platforms that know the pain of being out of the loop as soon as you leave your desk. Here’s some benefits you could be seeing if you simply had an app that had everything you needed no matter if you’re in a taxi, at the airport, or in a meeting.
Personal QR Code for Check-Ins
Traditionally, check-in desks at events have a pen & paper style of double checking if you’re registered, checking off your name, and letting you in. While it’s simply said, it’s not exactly simple in practice when these little questionnaires can add up tens of minutes to the wait time to get into the event. This also doesn’t account for non-registered attendees, or even people falsifying who they are.
Check-ins and new-attendee registration is made often easier by the use of PCs at the desk that take in QR codes scanned by arriving attendees that they received when they registered online before arriving at the event. With the addition of an app however, you can check in attendees via QR codes by scanning them with your phone’s event management tool, and then letting them in. This reduces the friction of check ins and ensures a smooth and secure check in process.
Push Notifications
Push notifications are also a handy option to have when you’re on the go and you need to deliver an important message that has a more guaranteed read-rate. Push notifications allow you to deliver a message directly to member’s or contact’s phones with a higher degree of open-rates than email. This is super handy when you’re on the go and you just can’t simply wait for a PC to send an email campaign, or if the message is urgent.
Event Information Always at Hand
Attendee-to-Attendee Messaging is one of the most in-demand features for events these days, particularly for any larger events or conferences with more than a few hundred people who can’t possibly meet one another during the span of the event. To help facilitate better networking at big events, it can be easier to just have attendees download your app’s front-end and use it to find and chat with other attendees. There’s some cons to this, but we go over it in more detail in our article here.
Newsletters & Campaigns
Newsletters and Email campaigns are also major way to promote events, share news, and deliver any other marketing materials and content you wish to your audience. Having these things be visible and available on the go is super helpful when you know you have your team working on content and you need to keep tabs on the content or the performance of any emails sent out. This works by letting you preview emails or using the analytics feature to find out
Live Event Wall
Live event walls, or otherwise known as event social feeds, are a great way to let attendees to post live updates about their experiences at your event. These walls exist either publicly using hashtags, or more recently, with event-specific apps that attendees use to see what’s going on from other attendee’s perspectives. This is a great front-end experience for attendees and it gives your events new life as you let other attendees create content for you.
Business Card Exchange
Another great front-end feature for attendees or members is that you can use the app to scan QR codes not just for checking in at events, but also to identify yourself via a virtual membership card or business card. This helps make it easier for people to make connections that can’t get lost in someone’s Rolodex somewhere, and it’s overall a much stronger way for people to network since now it removes a lot of awkwardness should you be left without your business cards one day and catch yourself meeting someone you really need to connect with.
Going Forward
Taking on a mobile app is more than just installing it on your phone and going about your business. There’s got to be some level of on-boarding, data transfer, and event some training to help you understand how it all works and connect it to whatever tools your organization is using. It’s a bigger investment that what it seems like on the surface, but as long as you can organize your audience or members to adopt the app prior to events or at membership sign up, the app’s adoption will feed into your organization’s growth.
If you’re looking for a solution, book a demo with us today, and we’ll show you how a mobile app can help your organization, and if you sign up with Glue Up, onboarding is on us!
