New useful event apps

In the event industry the use of technology is increasing. From meetings to exhibitions, event planner are using new technology to attract more people and to interact with them. Mobile applications for example have and will transform how events are managed.

More than 300 mobile event applications are available online. Event professionals have many choices regarding their conferences or events. They can find simple applications like an agenda or advanced one to create audience engagement during a conference.

Corbin Ball, international speaker, consultant and an expert when it comes to technology is reviewing in his article six new applications related to the event industry:

• ·       InitLive
• ·       ATIV Software
• ·       BlueStone Nexus
• ·       Listly
• ·       Conferences.io
• ·       Eventbase

InitLive for example is really attractive and easy to use (see videobelow). This cloud-based application helps event managers manage staff and volunteers. They can see checking and last minute schedule or even communicate with everyone before, during and after the event. The product is not on the market yet but has already been tested with a reasonable pricing. As a student you can get 25% discount.

All of these events tools are created to help meeting professionals to have a more effective event. Indeed professional applications have strong features with a wide range of tools and design.

Before the event, event managers can use those applications to obtain a quick and efficient registration check-in procedure. During a conference, with applications like ATIV Software and Conference.io attendees can now interact with a speaker, ask questions, vote for question and receive all the slides with notes. Regarding the Networking as it is an important goal when organising an event, applications like eventbase or BlueStone Nexus is helping delegates to create a network with other delegates. BlueStone Nexus is using the mobile phone to capture business card information in order to create an exchange between professionals. Eventbase is using the Beacons technology which is the new must have in the event industry. This app can put in your area of interest and know who is around you from 1 to 5 meters. The delegates receive a notification when a delegate share the same interest. This encourage people to meet and talk to each other.

These applications are just a few of many great other applications. They bring people together, add simplicity and fun in the event industry. They are the future! Don’t be afraid to use them!

Camille Salomon & Anthony Calzi

Sources:

http://www.corbinball.com/article2/36-mobile-and-wireless-technology/178-six-novel-and-useful-event-apps
http://www.initlive.com/

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Crowd Mics: the live-event app

aztechbeat.com

Crowd Mics is a smartphone or tablet app created by the Holladay’s brothers in February 2014. You know how it is difficult during a meeting to have the microphone. As an attendee, we may be shy to talk in front of a large audience. As an attendee in a large meeting room, you may have difficulties to hear the other attendee asking a question to the speaker. Crowd Mics can help you solve this problem.

Crowd Mics changes your smartphone into a microphone. The app uses the meeting room’s sound system and the internet network to make it useful. It is very convenient and easy to use. Every attendee can use their own smartphone to talk to the speakers and interact with the other attendees.

crowdmics.com

Another convenience through this app is that the attendees can also text their questions to the speakers and it appears directly to their smartphone, tablet or to the connected meeting screen. It makes all the attendees participate and at the end everyone could enjoy the interactivity of the session.

Moreover, thanks to this app, the audience can poll the speakers. The attendees can directly give to the speakers a real interaction to their audience. It is, in some way, a win-win situation. The audience can participate incognito and make the session more attractive. It is also profitable for the speakers who can feel the positive atmosphere of the audience and can measure immediately if their topic, speech is interesting and attractive.

aztechbeat.com

In term of pricing, you will find on their website, different pricing package. It will be free for less than 20 participants to your meeting. It allows you, as meeting planner to test the app, at your office for an intern meeting and present it to your colleague, as an example. Then you may choose between different package for large events or for your company.

Besides, for event planner’s point of you, it allows them to measure the satisfaction of the attendees and a quick feedback from their orator. In some words, it makes everyone connected and interacted to the event.

Sources:

crowdmics.com/

www.azcentral.com/

http://www.bizbash.com/new-app-turns-smartphones-into-microphones/new-york/story/28005/

Meetings and social media: 4 challenges to consider

Nowadays, there is a new trend based on social network such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: the fans and the followers post photos, share news and comment on status updates. They are really involved in the image and communication of brands and for events, feedbacks and reactions on live are also critical elements for event planners to control.


The social media landscape has become essential in order to build a strong community of attendees, promote an event and communicate afterwards about its outfalls.

Scott Stratten, the President of Un-Marketing helped meeting professionals at the Convening Leaders 2015  understand some of the leading reasons why their organizations are struggling in the social media race (for further information, please visit their website ConveningLeader).
According to him, four characteristics and trends about Social media may explained why Event organizers face troubles on the virtual world.

 

 1: People don't want; they Really want

Stop failing in catching attention. Consider using emotions when talking to an audience.

Wondering why no one is bothering to like all those reminders about the early bird registration deadline? Because they all feel like promotional billboards, and promotional billboards do very little to inspire attendees. You have to make it awesome.

“Nobody shares mediocre,” Stratten said. “People spread emotion. We share something really funny or really sad or something that makes us really angry.”
In deed, to make a difference in the multiplicity of information, powerful emotions are the only way to distinguish among others. Remember that on-line users are bombarded with posts that cover everything from what their friends ate for breakfast to sponsored advertisements to pictures of someone’s new baby. Translation: the social media world is very crowded. If you want to stand out from the noise, do something worth your attendees’ time. Make them stop, listen and turn the volume up to make sure other people hear the message.

2: Give voice to your online community

While your communications department can write, revise and refine a press release, social media is the opposite.

“It’s not the brand telling the story,” Stratten said. What communication could be stronger than the one made by convinced attendees? In contrary to a marketing campaign led by the brand, noise emerging from the reactions of people is much stronger and more able to promote company's values.

Organizations can attempt to start the conversation, but the online community members will be the ones who determine its direction.

“Don’t ask them to retweet or to share,” Stratten added. “Put your messages out into the world and hope that they’re worth talking about. Hope the story is good enough that your audience will do the work for you.”

3: Be awesome and not negative!

 

Social media can be a great outlet for sharing good stories and positive reviews, but these channels also act as a platform for voicing frustrations. Be careful not to find your own media platform turn against you to become a bad promotion. When attendees complain about the lack of gluten-free food options at lunch or the temperature in the general session  it’s up to the meeting team to make sure each user’s complaint receives attention. Even facing serious complaint, one should react confident and awesome so that a complaint turn into a memorable story.

4:  #BeReactive

The time lapse between a complaint and its answer is sometimes more important than the actual content of the answer. If an attendee posts an angry tweet at 10 AM, someone needs to reply by about 10:01 AM — sooner, if possible. Being reactive is essential in this rapid-response business environment, “The speed at which we reply is almost more important than what we reply with,” Stratten said.

This carries serious implications for any meeting team that creates a specific hashtag for a conference and asks attendees to use it throughout the conference. A hashtag is a good idea under one condition: a staff member must be constantly monitoring it throughout the conference to respond to questions, needs and negative comments. In deed, whenever you give access to a platform where meet live reactions, tweets and comments, you also need to allocate a representative of the event that may be able to answer to questions, complaints and limit damages in case of hot debates.

“Don’t have an event hash tag if you’re not following it in real time,” Stratten said.

We know how influential, uncontrollable and wide the social media networks are today and for meeting professionals as much as others, they are an undeniable part of the success or failure of a company/event. From the promotion, the on-going and the outfalls of an event, social media are an efficient way to communicate and share; it is also a slippery slope because company may have chosen the brand, they have not so much control on their image.

Source