Overwhelming mobile usage leads to increases in attendee engagement.
You stood in line 6 hours for tickets. You’ve waited months for this day to come. You’re finally seeing that band you love live! You get to your seat, the music starts, and a cloud of smoke erupts from the stage. The band starts to play and you are instantly disappointed. Not because the band isn’t everything you dreamed of and more, but because you’re watching their performance through the thousands of tiny mobile devices being held up in front of you.
Nobody can deny that technology has changed the way we experience live events, and not always for the better. Any professional speaker or performer, who has been in the business prior to 2007 (the year the iPhone first launched), will tell you that there has been a major shift in audience engagement over the past 7 years. They used to look out into a sea of faces and now they look out to see the tops of everybody’s head. We can’t escape the inevitability that people are going to use their mobile devices. That’s just the reality of the world we live in today. It may seem all bad, but in the world of conferences and meetings it may be exactly what we need.
Conference planners have begun to realize that their attendees have a desire to be engaged participants, not passive listeners. Mobile apps are one of the easiest ways to capture their attention and flip the script. With the continuing trends of live polling, crowdsourced q & a, gamification, and social curation, we are engaging our audiences more than ever before. The top of your attendee’s heads may be exactly what you want to see; because the chances are pretty high they’re currently talking about your event on social media.
According to Flurry Analytics, mobile-app usage in the messaging and social-media space increased some 203% in 2013. The ability for your attendees to communicate with one another throughout an event allows a greater social impact, which can lead to higher brand awareness and increased attendee numbers for your future conferences and meetings. Who doesn’t want that?
The best way for you to learn more about new and innovative mobile attendee engagement is by talking to your event’s mobile app provider. Let them know what the goals of your event are and they can recommend the best way to reach them using your mobile app. Take a look at how ERMobile can improve your attendee engagement.
