The Power of Smart Content in Mobile Apps

Event mobile apps are transitioning from portable directories to personalization tools. Delivering specific content—reminders, suggestions, or push notifications—at the precise moment when it is most valuable (and based on attendees’ interaction with the app), not only enhances the attendee experience, but delivers a number of important benefits to planners.

Direct attendee actions

Messages that remind attendees that they have signed up for a specific presentation are more than a convenience for event participants. They are a critical component of effective event execution. Event organizers meticulously plan the space, seating and scheduling of sessions to conform to an overall “flow” of an event. When participants don’t attend in the way that is anticipated—for example, they go for a coffee or attendee a session other than what they registered for—it disrupts the flow resulting in too many or too few seats, unfulfilled speaker expectations, and poor session sponsor visibility. A simple reminder in the mobile app can help change that outcome.

Recommend other features and programming

By acting on attendee behaviors, such as messages they send to colleagues or tweets and photos they post on social media channels, event organizers can illuminate aspects of the event in ways that never existed before. By consolidating conversations, interactions, and updates in a central feed on the app, planners can focus on keywords, sentiments and individuals to deliver relevant messages. Someone commenting on a particular speaker or session topic, for example, can be directed to a related exhibit, product pavilion, or presentation. The attendee receives personalized attention and the planner gets an opportunity to market another aspect of the event to a self-qualified attendee.

Monetize through targeted messaging

Event sponsors rely on the ability of a face-to-face event to deliver an audience of pre-qualified individuals to a specific location. Mobile apps that deliver smart content (relevant information to the right audience at the right time) increase the value of the event even further. Sponsored messages, for example, delivered to individuals who have indicated through their interaction with the app that they are potential buyers of a product or service can be an effective marketing tactic for a sponsor. The more precise the targeting is, the higher the value of the application, and the greater the ability to monetize it. Besides being tremendous systems that enhance attendee productivity, distill very large events down into bite-sized pieces, and deliver content in a portable form factor to attendees, the new generation of intelligent event mobile applications do something more. Those with built-in mechanisms, such as smart content, for capitalizing on attendee behaviors bring the genre of mobile apps to a new level and provide new value to event organizers. Written by Michelle Bruno