Quickmobile
is an event app provider that released a report stating trends that
they think will be crucial in 2015. We developed only the ones we though
most relevant to future event planners. The event app industry is
growing as large-scale enterprises seek to become cost and effort
efficient. They already tend to unify their travel and meetings team to
one. They also push their corporate meeting manager to follow
centralized procurement policies. the Global Business Travel Association
named in 2005 this rising discipline as Strategic Meeting Management
Programs (SMMP). One of Quickmobile predictions is that such enterprises
will adopt a unique multi-event platform instead of a one event-related
app fit the big enterprise requirements - it will enable economies of
scale for example.
Meetings of all size and shape will become mobile
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Quickmobile
also states that for the same reasons, even smaller events will go
mobile. Mobile technology in the field of meetings and events becomes
more and more critical due to the level of adoption by end-users, its
utility and its operational transformation. Indeed, “app is the new
normal”as end-users tend to rely on their smartphones in every
situations. It also fit the sustainable business requirements and enable
24/7 access to data. The business information technology innovations
are now related to the SMAC paradigm (Social, Mobile, Analytics and
Cloud), and the mobile-related technology is one of them. Thus, the
event-app will become unavoidable. Also, mobile-apps for events seem to
have a positive return on investment as the benefits are larger than the
cost and time spent to implement one.
A
larger market of small and short event is out there but it is hard to
estimate it. As now, clients, partners and more generally every worker
spend more and more time on their smartphones for work-related reasons,
it is only logical to think that event this market will turn to mobile
app.
Moreover,
the larger events were thought to become irrelevant as they were cost
and time consuming. But combined with an app, it extents their utility
and increasing their benefits. The app also enable event planners to
prove the efficiency and benefits of face-to-face events.
Opportunities of personalization increase their efficiency
The
app content will be adapted to the stakeholder. Not only they can have
access to personalized schedules and advices to who and where to go to,
the content can be adjusted to speakers, exhibitors, sponsors, suppliers
and even planners. The idea is to create distinct app depending on
their specific needs and objectives.
Particularly
in the case of planners, it will be a great tool to measure the impact
and efficiency of events, the attendees satisfaction,etc. They will be
able to use data such as the interaction of one with the content and/or
other attendees to measure the impact of an event. The app will also
become another way of attracting attendees attention during a plenary
session for example, by live polls and live comments.
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Events will have influence even after their occurrence period
People
tend to rely more and more on their mobile during their working and
leisure time. A dedicated mobile app for an event enables the organizers
to share meaningful content with their attendees not only during, but
also before and long after the event. Moreover, this new tendency will
enable communities to create naturally, 24/7, everywhere: connections
are sustained via the app thanks to documents sharing, push
notifications, surveys, message boards etc. As MPI does, mobile apps can
be used to engage with attendees all year-long and inform them about
next events.
Audience Response Systems will become a must-use tool for events
Because
of the massive adoption of tablets and smartphones, the demand for
event apps has increased, as they provide solutions to better perform in
organizing events. The Audience Response Systems are now being
developed a lot on mobile apps. They enhance audience engagement at
events by stimulating attention, conversation and participation of
attendees through app-based discussions and polls. App-based ARS are
easy to use and achieve greater scale : attendees can guide the
conversation in real time, even if they are not physically attending the
event, or too shy to ask a question via a microphone. As they can help
both attendees and organizers of an event in achieving their objectives,
Quickmobile believes ARS will soon become a must-use tool.
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New technologies such as location-based services and wearable computers will slowly be adopted.
There
is a lot of hype about wearable computers, Google glasses, Google pay,
IBeacon location-based service, and any other new technologies recently
emerged. If they could deliver real value to customers by improving
their experience, Quickmobile nuances their success in the events and
meetings industry. Indeed, their adoption is for the moment limited by
price, complex setup, device compatibility, wireless availability or
privacy issues. For the users to appreciate their use, these new
technologies need to be associated to some personalized apps and to a
relevant context of event depending on its nature, objectives and
available technical resources.
But we are not quite there yet.
Quickmobile seem to believe that the benefits of event app are worth the cost and time spent to implement them. But, the firsts on line are yet to be convinced. Indeed, even if professionals spend more and more time daily on their smartphone for work-related tasks, some of them may not be comfortable to use it for else than checking their emails. Moreover, when asked about the obstacles to implement virtual and hybrid events, both hotelier and planners stated the complexity of the technology they have to deal with as one of their main concerns (Amex forecast, 2014). Overall, they may not be as ready as Quickmobile seem to believe...yet.
As future event planners, we are confident that mobile-apps will become crucial and exciting tools in the Mice industry; we also believe that 2015 will not be the year that will see small events and meetings be penetrated by it.
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