Engagement 365 days a year. That’s the ultimate goal of every association or corporation that spends money on their event apps. Nobody likes a one time only use app. It takes up space on your phone and ultimately gets buried in a folder of apps that you no longer use or gets deleted completely. Neither of those situations is ideal for the app that your association just paid thousands of dollars for.
If you’re just looking to create an app that provides information about your specific event, then a basic throw-away app is probably what you should get. But, if your goals include 365 engagement, you really need to consider what your plan is pre and post conference. An event app can and should be used for more than a mobile information desk. It’s time we start thinking about Event Apps as knowledge sharing products, not information sharing products. You may be asking, what’s the difference between knowledge sharing and information sharing?
Information sharing is exactly how it sounds. The app provides information to your attendees about the event; Schedules, Speaker Bios, Trade Show Floorplans, Attendee Lists, etc. The basics. Knowledge sharing is completely different. Think of knowledge sharing as “communal”. You may have already begun to see some of these features popping up on event apps you’ve used.
- Open forums for attendees to network and share information.
- Slide deck sharing from presenters to attendees.
- Two-way digital communication (text and video).
- Integration with event websites and social media.
- Live-streaming sessions and behind-the-scenes content (Meerkat and Periscope).
- Photo-based content (attendee and association/corporation generated).
- Webinars, podcasts, and reports available throughout the year.
These are just a few of the possibilities for knowledge sharing within an event app. It promotes engagement and interaction, both attendee to attendee and attendee to association/corporation. It also encourages sponsors to reach out beyond a mere scrolling banner, and interact with the attendees.
An additional benefit to developing an event app ready for pre and post event knowledge sharing, is the hybrid interaction that can take place during the event or conference. Fully integrating hybrid attendees into the knowledge sharing process allows them to feel like they are getting a large return on their investment, and strongly encourages them to participate face to face in the future.
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