Getting Mobilized
for Meetings and events
March 2011
How to Create a Mobile
Strategy that delights
Your Attendees and Exhibitors
and Helps You Meet
Your business Goals
A SwiftMobile White Paper for
Meeting Professionals International
www.swiftmobile.com • www.mpiweb.org
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Getting Mobilized
for Meetings and events
There has never been a faster growing medium than
mobile—not TV, not radio, not even print.
According to technology writer Tomi Ahonen, “At the
start of this year we had 4.6 billion mobile phone subscriptions on the planet, for a population of 6.8 billion
people. That is literally a mobile phone subscription for
two out of every three people on the planet. There are
more people with mobile phones than have access to
running water. More mobile phone subscribers on the
planet than use a toothbrush…mobile has spread so
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Getting
Mobilized
for Meetings
and events
about SwiftMobile
SwiftMobile helps organizations
develop mobile strategies and also
builds mobile app programs for
events and meetings, convention
centers and other large venues.
SwiftMobile’s customers include the
Massachusetts Convention Center
Authority, Georgia International Convention Center, the Direct Marketing
Association, the American Library
Association, the American College of
Opthamalogic Surgeons, and SAP.
In 2010, SwiftMobile was selected
a Gartner Group “Cool” Company.
Kathleen Gilroy, Ceo
Kathleen is a serial entrepreneur
who has founded successful start-up
companies in mobile, e-learning and
satellite technologies. A popular
speaker and the author of several
white papers, Kathleen has also
worked as a meeting planner and
has produced large events for the
Harvard Business School, the Union
of Concerned Scientists and enterprise clients. She is a graduate of
Stanford University.
kathleen@swiftmobile.com
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rapidly that there was a mobile phone for two
thirds of the planet at the start of this year,
and will be 75 percent of planet Earth’s population by the end of this year.”
Ahonen has coined the term “Seventh of the
Mass Media” to describe mobile phones (the
other six are print, recordings, radio, television, film and the Internet).1
And it is, in fact, a new medium. If you think
about mobile not so much in terms of hardware and apps, but rather in terms of an entirely new communications channel, you can
begin to see the opportunities for meetings,
conventions and trade shows. As Ahonen
points out, mobile offers the best of all other
forms of mass media and makes it personal
for each person. With mobile, you have a
channel with which to interact with your
attendees, deliver advertising in context and
enrich the event experience for your attendees, exhibitors and advertisers. Mobile is the
only mass medium that is truly one-on-one,
the only one that passes the “pocket” test—
what other devices are you willing to carry
with you at all times? Especially important for
ROI, mobile is the only medium that can offer
Mobile is the only
mass medium that
is truly one-on-one,
the only one that
passes the “pocket”
test—what other
devices are you
willing to carry with
you at all times?
In the meeting and
expo environment,
there is no more
reliable communication medium—
it’s the only one
available to your
attendees while
they are walking the
trade show floor.
accurate and measurable data about its
reach. In the meeting
and expo environment, there is no
more reliable communications medium
—it’s the only one
available to your
attendees while they
are walking the trade
show floor.
The ubiquitous
mobile phone is
evolving, adapting
and learning new
tricks. It has become
“smart.” In a 2010
study, comScore
reported that 53.4 million people in the United
States now use a smartphone. That’s about
one in every four mobile phone users in the
country—and that number is growing rapidly.2
Among attendees at conventions, events and
meetings, that number is already much higher.
Like the laptop, the smartphone is now stan-
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Getting
Mobilized
for Meetings
and events
M.f. badger, Marketing
Mari has worked with nonprofits and
start-ups for over 25 years in helping
them to refine their mission, strategy
and brands. Her experience includes
technology, B2B, trade shows and
meetings, and education. She is part
of the SwiftMobile core team and a
graduate of Princeton University.
mari@swiftmobile.com
about Mpi
Meeting Professionals International
(MPI), the meeting and event industry’s largest and most vibrant global
community, helps our members
thrive by providing human connections to knowledge and ideas, relationships and marketplaces. MPI
membership is comprised of more
than 23,000 members belonging to
71 chapters and clubs worldwide.
For additional information, visit
www.mpiweb.org.
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dard issue. Companies buy them for their
employees. Individuals are buying for themselves. And no one leaves home without it.
A 2010 survey of 1,000+ business travelers conducted by
Deloitte reported that 48 percent of respondents owned a
web-enabled smartphone.
However, business travelers
who are 18 to 29 years old, or
with an income of more than
$150,000, were far more likely
to own one (84 percent and 63
percent, respectively).3
In certain vertical markets, smartphone use
already exceeds 80 percent. Medical professionals, lawyers, real estate professionals and
sales professionals are all heavy users of smartphones.4
Efficient and reliable, our smartphones do
much more than make calls. They allow us
to satisfy our most impulsive desires for
information, for different degrees of social
connection, for entertainment, for advice.
The smartphone fills a gap, solves a problem,
scratches an itch. While most of us don’t
expect to create a report on our phones—our
laptops and desktops meet that need—we
increasingly ask our phones to perform
other kinds of magic.
In the meeting world, new apps
come online every day to help
plan sessions, organize show
floors, sell advertising, track
leads and register attendees.
We have smartphone ways to
track contacts, track buzz and
text our colleagues. We are
learning to see our smartphones
as true personal assistants, ready to
jump in to do whatIn the meeting
ever we need.
world, new apps
come online every
The past two years
day to help plan
have been among
sessions, organize
the worst of the
show floors, sell
worst in the meetadvertising, track
ing and event
leads and register
industry.
attendees. We have
Oxford Economics
smartphone ways
has reported that in a
to track contacts,
2009 survey of 400
track buzz and text
corporate executives,
our colleagues.
51 percent report
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Getting
Mobilized
for Meetings
and events
disclaimer
This White Paper is for intended for informational purposes only and represents the opinion of the authors only. The White Paper is
provided “as is” and the authors, SwiftMobile
and MPI make no warranties, expressed or
implied, as to the information in this document,
including warranties of noninfringement, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
In no event shall SwiftMobile and MPI be liable
for any indirect, special, consequential, or incidental damages, including, without limitation,
lost profits or loss or damage to data arising
out of the use or inability to use this document,
even if SwiftMobile and MPI have been
advised of the possibility of such damages.
No part of this document may be reproduced,
stored in or introduced into a retrieval system,
distributed or transmitted in any form or by any
means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose,
without the express written permission of
SwiftMobile, Inc.
SwiftMobile may have patents, patent
applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other
intellectual property rights covering subject
matter in this document. Except as expressly
provided in any written license agreement from
SwiftMobile, the furnishing of this document
does not give you any license to these patents,
trademarks, copyrights or other intellectual
property.
© 2011 SwiftMobile, Inc. Cambridge, MA.
All rights reserved. Please contact us at
info@swiftmobile.com if you wish to reprint
any of this document. We may be willing to
grant our permission, if you ask. :)
decreased business travel by an average of 35
percent. Meetings and events need to find
ways to enhance the value for attendees.
This is not the time to fall behind.5
By the end of 2012, we believe
that offering mobile apps for
meetings, conventions and
events will be standard practice. It’s happening now—
faster in some communities
than in others. Mobile apps
will change—and are already
changing—the business of meetings
for organizers, attendees and sponsors.
How does a meeting planner make decisions
about the value of this investment? What
constitutes an effective mobile strategy and
how should that investment be measured?
In this white paper, we’ll look at
what the meeting and event
professional needs to create an
effective and valuable mobile
program and take a close
look at what mobile can
mean to your customers—
meeting attendees and
exhibitors.
Developing a mobile strategy for
your events is the best means to meet
the changing expectations of attendees and
increase the value of your event for exhibitors
and advertisers.
1
Tomi T Ahonen, “Everything you ever wanted to know about mobile, but were afraid to ask,” Communities Dominate Brands, May 28, 2010. http://bit.ly/asK0gE (accessed
February, 2011).
2
comScore, “comScore Reports July, 2010 U.S. Subscriber Market Share,” comScore, September 15, 2010. http://bit.ly/au6uRU (accessed February, 2011).
3
Deloitte, “New Deloitte Survey Finds Business Travelers Anticipate More Trips in 2011,” Deloitte, November 9, 2010. http://bit.ly/e2I5x3 (accessed February, 2011).
4
Mark Lyall, “Smartphone use among US physicians accelerating rapidly,” Healthy Living, July 27, 2010. http://bit.ly/byl6vJ (accessed February, 2011). See also “ABA
Technology Survey reveals increase in smartphone use,” iPhone J.D., August 2, 2010. http://bit.ly/9aq3JR (accessed February, 2011), as well as Katie Lance, “Future of Real
Estate Marketing Realtors and Smartphones - 2010 Survey Results,” Future of Real Estate Marketing, June 14, 2010. http://bit.ly/aOYMVa (accessed February, 2011).
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Oxford Economics USA, "The Return on Investment of U.S. Business Travel," http://bit.ly/4qoPCdf (accessed February, 2011).
g e t t i n g
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smartphones.smart meetings.
Why it Pays to go mobile
They’ll squeeze themselves and their overstuffed carryons into the back row seats of a full plane. They’ll eat bad
sandwiches and watch bad TV in a hotel that might have
bedbugs. They’ll miss family events and pack the wrong
outerwear or shoes. Travel is a hassle. Traffic is a hassle.
And a down economy has not been helpful.
Many forces are conspiring to make your meeting attendees stay home. From the tighter budgets, to new virtual
meeting tools, to climate change—there are good reasons
for users not to go. But the meeting business is not going
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g e t t i n g
smartphones.
smart
meetings.
Why It Pays
To Go mobile
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m o b i l i z e d
f o r
“Events commonly
involve business
travelers visiting
unfamiliar cities
with common questions: Where is my
hotel? Where is the
convention center?
Where is that
restaurant? What
is that building in
front of me? Which
way is Hall A?
Questions now
commonly asked
Here Come
of the concierge,
The Apps...
the bellman or the
person on the
Meeting industry
street will soon be
consultant, writer and answered with new
technology tools in
speaker Corbin Ball
much
more robust
has predicted that
ways with signifimobile technologies
cant
applications to
will be used to
meeting planners,
enhance the attendee
meeting venues
experience at events,
and CVBs.”
trade shows and
meetings. “Events commonly involve business
travelers visiting unfamiliar cities with common questions: Where is my hotel? Where is
away. People continue
to value the education, the overall
experience and the
important face-to-face
networking opportunities that meetings
and events provide.
Somehow, they’ll get
themselves to your
meeting. It had better
be worth it.
m e e t i n g s
a n d
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the convention center? Where is that restaurant? What is that building in front of me?
Which way is Hall A? Questions now commonly asked of the concierge, the bellman or
the person on the street will soon be answered
with new technology tools in much more
robust ways with significant applications to
meeting planners, meeting venues and CVBs.”1
As of early 2011, over 100 large U.S.
events offered their attendees a smartphone app to enable them to get information about the event through their
mobile devices while they are on the
go. These event apps currently run the
gamut. Some only work on iPhones, others
run on multiple platforms. Some are mobile
Web only, others are native or hybrids. Some
are designed primarily to enhance social networking. Other apps focus on navigation of
the trade show floor; others are vehicles for
advertising. Some offer unique content while
others simply offer repackaged Web content.
They are simple or complex, elegantly designed or clunky, highly customized or fairly
standard.
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smartphones.
smart
meetings.
Why It Pays
To Go mobile
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Most share a few basic features:
• One or two screens with basic event details.
• A schedule of speakers and events. Sometimes this
schedule is searchable. More advanced apps might
also include a speaker profile so that the user can
learn more about who is presenting. Some session pages are even
more sophisticated with socialnetworking features and more.
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individual exhibitor pages, premium pages with
social networking features, product literature downloads, Web links or exhibitor ads.
• Advertising, usually banner ads or sponsorships,
that is contextual. More sophisticated apps may also
offer interactive advertising, push advertising, SMS
or full-page interstitial advertising. Some offer analytics that measure the effectiveness of advertising.
• Social-networking features including integration
with Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Some are
“favorite,” or bookmark or
more private or secure than others, and some allow
select a session so they can
event and meeting planners to customize how the
find it again later.
app will manage and share personal data—always an
to help visitors navigate
exhibitor booths. The
quality and resolution of
these maps varies greatly.
Some are integrated with
third-party mapping
services. Some are customized for the smallscreen environment. Some
have fantastically precise navigation features.
• A directory of exhibitors, sometimes searchable by
name or booth number. A few also offer other search
parameters, such as by type. Some apps also have
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a n d
Some apps allow users to
• Trade show floor maps
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issue for the event planner.
For some meetings, this basic set of features
will certainly provide value. Others may want
or require more. We should also add a word
of caution—not all mobile app developers
address more than one major phone platform
—a significant drawback for many meeting
planners. One-platform approaches may be
good for getting a feel for what mobile means.
But because people use different kinds of
phones, one-platform approaches don’t provide
real value for users, advertisers or exhibitors
at most large meetings. Some developers will
suggest a mobile Web alternative, but for many
meetings this will never be an adequate solution.
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smartphones.
smart
meetings.
Why It Pays
To Go mobile
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f o r
Apps can do more. A lot more. While some
event apps only do those things described
above, others include features and content
such as local travel information, flight times,
restaurant menus, shared photo galleries, a
way of seeing who is attending which session,
the ability to “favorite” or contact exhibitors
as well as sessions and more.
Additional features may also
come with additional costs.
Meeting planners need to ask:
What features matter most to
your attendees? Is it enough to
build for just one device? Will
this level of development meet
the goal of enhancing the event
experience? Will attendees’ levels of use provide enough value
for advertisers and sponsors?
Is it worth doing?
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What Smartphones—
And A Smart Mobile
Strategy—Can Offer You
When carefully planned, a mobile strategy
can provide valuable benefits and even return
two or three times the cost of development in
the first year. However, those aren’t the
Additional features
may also come with stories you typically
hear. Instead, if you
additional costs.
ask around, meeting
Meeting planners
planners will tell you
need to ask: What
how their app didn’t
features matter
really work, how the
most to your attenassociation could not
dees? Is it enough
to build for just one sell advertising or
how nobody downdevice? Will this
loaded it.
level of development meet the goal
Why the gap? Right
of enhancing the
now many organizaevent experience?
tions seem to be
Will attendees’
“jumping on the
levels of use probandwagon” creating
vide enough value
apps just to have
for advertisers and
apps. While there’s
sponsors? Is it
certainly value in not
worth doing?
g e t t i n g
smartphones.
smart
meetings.
Why It Pays
To Go mobile
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appearing to be left behind, an app alone is
not a strategy. A string of negative user reviews
in the app stores, low rates of download or
use and lack of attention can overshadow the
initial excitement and sour advertiser and
exhibitor interest for future efforts. Just as
running a single banner or print ad
for your event is bound to produce
disappointing results when compared
to the results that are possible through
an integrated marketing strategy,
the same is true for mobile apps.
While the risks of jumping on are
low, meeting and event professionals should recognize that by
integrating mobile apps into your
overall event goals, you could
achieve exceptional results.
To achieve real success, most
meeting planners will need to
be committed to doing more
than just creating a one-platform app and offering it to
attendees. Planning for a
mobile component to your
meeting means thinking creatively
about how to use the technology to enhance
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the meeting for attendees, add new revenues
and reduce costs. Mobile’s benefits are real
and measurable and with smart planning,
mobile can produce outstanding returns.
mobile can Provide more up-to-date
information about the event, sessions
and schedule and make it easier for
attendees to choose among options.
Mobile apps can be more successful than
paper directories at presenting session information that is accurate, searchable and current.
Provided that the process includes being able
to change content through a content management system, any last-minute changes to a
schedule or exhibitor directory should be easy
to make.
mobile can enhance an attendee’s
ability and desire to participate in the
meeting and to network with others.
By planning to include several ways for your
attendees to communicate with others inside
the app, you can increase opportunities and
quality of interaction. Some apps can integrate Twitter into the session page, allowing
people to share ideas and ask questions during a sessions, while others can also provide
g e t t i n g
smartphones.
smart
meetings.
Why It Pays
To Go mobile
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speaker profiles and make it easier for attendees to connect directly with your speakers
through e-mail or social media during the
event. People who may be naturally passive
or hesitant to ask questions in a meeting often
find it much easier to interact virtually or on
a mobile device. In-app chat, e-mail, direct
messaging, a shared event “wall” or other
kinds of shared content are all
ways to support attendees’ desire
to learn.
mobile can make an event
greener.
One obvious way that mobile apps
can be part of a green strategy is
by reducing the need for a printed
directory. Many event catalogs and
directories are more than 150 pages,
and the production costs are enormous, from the cost of paper and ink,
to the cost of shipping to the event site
and then to recycling or throwing in a
landfill. While some events already
offer a PDF version of the event catalog,
this approach doesn’t go far enough and
adds an extra hassle for the attendee who
must now print it out, carry it around and
then dispose of it. A mobile catalog takes
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“green” a step forward with a serious reduction in waste. In addition, event planners can
often save enough on a printed directory to
more than offset the costs of development.
mobile offers neW revenue streams.
Some meeting planners may be reluctant to
give up income from printed directories.
Others have found that selling display ads is
not as easy as it used to be. At many meetings,
attendees report that they strongly dislike
carrying the directory around with them and
express concern about the waste. And while
overall advertising budgets are decreasing,
especially for print, mobile advertising budgets are rapidly increasing. Many event apps
can include banner ads, sometimes with links
to an advertiser website. Sponsor branding
and exhibitor listings and premium pages
offer further opportunities. Apps can also
include local area maps with details of advertiser parties. Promotions, coupons and special
invitations can also be integrated into the
app. With careful planning, exhibitors can
even have a stronger presence with the trade
show audience before and after the event.
Some meetings are already seeing significant
income from this new mobile inventory.
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Why It Pays
To Go mobile
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mobile can be interactive.
As a medium, mobile is designed to be interactive, and interactivity is a potent way to
enhance the event experience. From integrating in-app advertising with digital signage, to
using online chat to connect with exhibitors,
to contests or polling, to using integrated
location games, to supporting live event
experiences, apps can add new layers and
new degrees of interaction that help attendees learn more, network with each other,
make exhibitor connections and simply increase their enjoyment of
the event experience.
mobile adds buzz.
Useful apps designed for sharing make it easy
for attendees to amplify publicity for ideas,
product launches, special appearances and
other aspects of your meeting or conference.
They can give your organization a boost when
it comes to thought leadership. By themselves,
mobile apps are also still novel enough to give
people something to talk about and to share
with others. A smart event app is worth sharing—worth sending a link about, or showing
to someone on the plane, or demo-ing to colleagues over dinner. An app that performs
poorly, on the other hand, is quickly deleted.
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mobile can be a powerful brand
experience.
The impact of a positive experience with your
brand is often not fully appreciated. If your
app performs well, meets peoples’ needs and
delights your users, those positive feelings
become strongly associated with your organization. In many surveys, we have seen users
leave a meeting with a more positive view of
the hosting association or sponsor. A great
app that does its job conveys leadership and
quality in areas that have nothing to do with
mobile. Exhibitors benefit. Sponsors benefit.
Associations build brand equity. At the same
time, a disappointing experience can hurt the
brand. A recent Harris Interactive study
showed that while good apps are likely to
strengthen a loyal following, bad apps can
damage a brand’s reputation.2
mobile can extend the event
experience.
The meeting planner can plan to have the app
available before a meeting and then use the
app to build interest, add value to exhibitors
and even up-sell special events associated
with the meeting. Apps can be designed to
help visitors plan their event experience even
before they land in the event city. Likewise,
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Why It Pays
To Go mobile
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apps can be designed to add “post-event” value
by creating channels for exhibitors and attendees to reconnect, request proposals or marketing materials and share notes and observations.
mobile is measurable.
Most mobile apps include some kind of
analytics tool. A small piece of code
inside the app records and reports how
attendees are using the app. Smart developers will use this data to improve
the app on an ongoing basis and
provide you with insights that you
can use to enhance your meeting
or event and to refine your mobile
strategy. This data can also be
extremely valuable for advertisers
and sponsors.
So how do you take advantage
of the benefits that mobile
can offer and plan a mobile
app strategy for your next
event? Start by planning for
your apps to become indispensable to your attendees. From
what we have seen, that is the surest
path to success.
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Think about what would benefit your attendees the most. In app stores and app marketplaces, search keywords such as “conference,”
“congress,” “meeting” or “trade show” and
“test drive” a few of the apps that are available. By exploring apps firsthand, you can
quickly see what’s standard and what’s not,
and you’ll discover other possible features
that your attendees might value.
Your first goal should be to identify features
and content that will be indispensable to your
attendees: What are their needs as business
travelers trying to network and navigate in a
large unfamiliar venue in a city they do not
know? What concerns do they have? How can
your app reduce some of the challenges of the
experience and enhance some of the benefits?
Every meeting and event professional
knows that a positive attendee experience is critical to success. Many factors
influence the quality of the meeting experience
—and not all of them can be controlled or
planned for. Travel is one of those factors.
Pain, hassle, headache—whatever you call it,
business-related travel is part of the meeting
experience.
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Why It Pays
To Go mobile
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It should be no surprise, then, that among
business travelers, smartphone use is nearly
ubiquitous. The smartphone is the most reliable connection to the business traveler’s
office, colleagues, friends and family—easier
to use and carry than a laptop, more robust
than a regular cell phone, PDA or GPS device.
The smartphone is already indispensable to
your attendees. Your app has to achieve that
same status. By focusing on the needs of your
attendees, you are more likely to choose a
development process that will lead to success.
Obviously what works for comics or game
conventions might not be as popular among
surgeons or homebuilders. Whenever possible, apps ought to serve their unique communities.
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The happier attendees are at a meeting,
the happier exhibitor and sponsors
are, and the more likely it is that your
stakeholders will come back to your
meetings in the future. If you can enhance
the attendee experience by reducing the
hassles involved in navigating a new city or a
large show floor, if you can provide better and
more accurate information about your event
program, if you can pave the way for better
networking, lead capture and interaction with
your speakers, if you can create buzz about
your event, promote your ideas and create
excitement about what’s happening in your
industry or field, why wouldn’t you? While
simply having an app is a huge step for some
events, the benefits that are available to the
meeting planner who is willing to use this
new medium can be significant.
Corbin Ball, “High-Tech Mapping and Way Finding for the Events Industry,” Meeting Professionals International, 2007. http://bit.ly/g9K7wa (accessed February, 2011).
Harris Interactive, “New Study Finds Mobile Application Users Prefer Usability and Good User Experience over Brand Names Alone,” Effective UI, November 10, 2010.
http://bit.ly/ackRP1 (accessed February, 2011).
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Case Study: ASCRS
After experimenting with mobile apps at their 2010 annual
meeting and producing the first mobile apps for a major
medical conference, the American Society of Cataract and
Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) is now looking to mobile to
reduce their use of paper. For its 2011 annual meeting in San
Diego, the ASCRS plans to eliminate the 300-page program
book it distributes to its 13,000 attendees. Instead, the program
will be available in mobile apps for the iPhone, BlackBerry,
Android and iPad.
Richard Blacklock, the director of marketing for ASCRS says,
“about 80 percent of the ASCRS members currently own and
use a smartphone.” For the small number of people who don’t
have smartphones or iPads, the ASCRS plans to make its program available online and offer a printed, abridged version at
registration. “We may use FedEx/Kinko’s at the San Diego
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Convention Center to offer a full version that can be printed on
demand,” Blacklock added.
Advertising and sponsorships will now begin to migrate to the
phone along with the eyeballs of the attendees. In 2010, the
ASCRS sold a single sponsorship that paid for the development of its sophisticated mobile program.
Blacklock estimates that in 2011, “the ad dollars should shift to
mobile and the abridged printed program.” ASCRS will be able
to offer its sponsors and advertisers a number of attractive
mobile sponsorship and advertising options including app
sponsorship, banner ads and premium exhibitor listings.
“We want the mobile apps to make a contribution to our cost
of running the ASCRS meeting,” Blacklock said.
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smartphone nation
Planning for mobile success
Which Phones Are People Using?
3.9%
Consumers have a variety of choices when it comes
HP
9.0%
Microsoft
to smartphones, but three brands currently
dominate the U.S. market: Apple iPhone,
33.5%
Google-powered Android, and Research In
RIM
(BlackBerry)
26.0%
Motion’s BlackBerry. Other players include
Google
(Android)
devices that use the Microsoft Windows 7
25.0%
and HP Palm platforms. For meeting planners
Apple
responsible for developing a plan for mobilizing
their next event, the fact that there is no single system
has important consequences.
top smartphone
Platforms
(Nov. 2010,
US Smartphone
Subscribers,
Ages 13+)
Source: comScore MobiLens, November, 2010
http://bit.ly/au6uRU
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g e t t i n g
smartphone
nation
Planning
For mobile
Success
m o b i l i z e d
f o r
A major challenge for a meeting
planner is deciding which phones to
support. That decision is best made by
determining which phones your attendees
use and asking what features are important
to them. The question of which phones your
attendees are using should drive your decision
about development. Each of the four major
platforms poses a different set of development
challenges. As we discuss in a later section,
a mobile-web approach may allow a wider
variety of phones to access content in the app,
but usability will be negatively affected.
Will a single platform come to dominate? Not
in the near future. Smartphones are evolving
rapidly. We can expect to see more change
before we see standards.
Focusing On Attendee
Experience Will Help
Ensure Success
There are four steps to developing a successful strategy for your mobile app program:
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m e e t i n g s
1
a n d
e v e n t s
PEOPLE
The successful mobile
strategy starts with a
close look at your attendees and exhibitors—
Who are they? Why are they
attending? What phones and apps do they
use? Understanding your attendees—their
needs as business travelers, the way they use
mobile currently, and the kinds of devices and
phones they use is critical to developing a
program that works. You’ll be able to choose a
plan that meets more of your visitors’ needs.
When a mobile project fails, it is often because somewhere in the process the user’s
needs were lost or de-prioritized in the process.
When working with a developer, the meeting
planner’s role must be to add the voice of the
customer. It’s easy to make decisions about
features or design because they are novel and
exciting—it’s harder to devise an app that is
focused on delivering value and not just sizzle
for your event attendees.
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smartphone
nation
Planning
For mobile
Success
ANDROID
iPHONE
BLACKBERRY
iPAD
Android is an operating system
developed by Google. Android
runs on dozens of different
devices (there is even an
Android television). Device
manufacturers often tweak
the operating system to optimize it for a particular phone
or network. The growing number of Android-based devices
have differing hardware
capabilities. Android apps
are available in the Android
Marketplace and often directly
from developer websites.
The phone interface is built
around the device's multitouch screen and a virtual
keyboard. Users can find
apps that enhance the
phone’s capabilities or provide entertainment at Apple’s
iTunes App Store.
BlackBerry is a line of phones
manufactured by Research In
Motion, Inc. There are more
than 55 models of BlackBerries in use in North America.
Older BlackBerry devices
have an interface designed
around a track wheel, track
ball, track pad and keyboard.
Newer BlackBerry phones
have a touch screen.
Tablets offer different usability
challenges from those of
smartphones and need different types of apps. We predict
that iPads (and, soon, other
tablets) will be increasingly
popular at meetings because
they make sharing rich content easy. But business travelers will still carry smartphones
because the two devices
meet different needs.
The increasing popularity of
Android and the relative
simplicity of publishing an
Android app also has a downside. Anyone can publish an
application to the Android
Market. Many Android users
complain about spam apps
and malware, but new marketplaces, reviews and other
services will evolve and
overcome some of these
challenges.
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Apple’s approval process for
apps is extremely strict, but
even with very strict quality
controls, the iTunes store has
over 300,000 published apps,
and users have downloaded
more than three billion of
them. While Apple may have
developers gnashing their
teeth, Apple’s users find app
management in the iTunes
App Store a breeze.
As of September 2010,
BlackBerry App World has
10,000 apps. As with Apple,
apps must be submitted to
BlackBerry App World and
undergo review for content
suitability and technical performance. Users can also
download and install BlackBerry apps directly from a
vendor’s website.
iPad apps can also extend
the meeting experience and
offer some meetings the
opportunity to tap into new
revenue streams by capturing
meeting content. Look for
more tablets to show up on
the exhibit floor. They are
superb media players, presentation devices and product
demonstration tools.
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nation
Planning
For mobile
Success
2
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GOALS
e v e n t s
exhibitors and sponsors. In addition, the more well
known an event is, the easier it is to book speakers
and appearances. Speakers are more likely to value
• Reduce costs. Reducing meeting costs can improve
• Grow attendance and improve your customer
• Reducing carbon footprint. A key goal for the indus-
an event, too, when they see their ideas being promoted and discussed.
profitability. A mobile apps program can help reduce
costs of paper, printing, shipping, Wi-Fi charges,
waste management and more.
retention rates. Mobile has the potential to improve
try is to reduce solid waste. Mobile apps that include
the quality of the meeting experience through better
a digital directory of exhibitors and sessions can
information, better networking opportunities,
help meeting planners dramatically reduce paper,
increased interaction, reduced hassle/pain and
printing, shipping and waste.
to extend the shelf-life of events, it can also serve to
promote events to those most likely to attend them
in the future.
• Increase revenues through advertising, exhibitors
and sponsorships. To do this, events typically need
to be larger or more popular among the target
audience. (Or have a highly desirable small target
audience.) And the event itself has to create an
atmosphere that encourages attendees to engage
in business decisions.
• Achieve greater “thought leadership.” Highly respected events tend to be better draws for attendees,
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a n d
Step two involves defining objectives. Your business goals probably include
at least some of the following objectives. A mobile program
has the potential to have a positive effect on
all these goals.
increased overall enjoyment. When mobile is used
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By aligning your business goals with the
opportunities the mobile medium offers, you
will have a framework for developing apps
that will be realistic, meet attendee needs and
deliver on your business goals. Many guides
will suggest that at this point you are ready
to define the requirements for your app. We
encourage you to be flexible. The developer
you choose should be able to help you refine
your list and introduce new ideas to you.
Phones, platforms and possibilities change
daily and a good developer will be able to
both guide you and assure you get the best
value for your efforts and investment.
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Planning
For mobile
Success
3
m o b i l i z e d
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PLANNING
Step three is about
planning. Most meeting
planners today are feeling
pressure to integrate a
mobile program into their events
quickly, and many are looking to develop
apps within three to six months.
While this is more than adequate for app development, this timeline doesn’t support the
kind of programmatic integration that produces the best returns and maximizes benefits.
Therefore, we recommend that the meeting
planner think about a two- or three-year plan.
This does not mean, however, that you should
necessarily sign a multi-year agreement with
a mobile developer. We recommend that
meeting planners sign a one-year agreement
for the first year, as it is important to know
if the relationship will work for you and if
the approach advocated by your developer
produces the results you expect.
Along with developing your apps, your mobile
strategy should ultimately include the following:
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• A plan to build awareness and demand among attendees so that they will know to download your apps,
particularly at the point of registration.
• A process for brainstorming mobile-based ideas that
enhances and/or extends the meeting experience for
attendees and exhibitors.
• A plan to support your users as they learn to use the
apps and a process for assessing user satisfaction
that feeds ideas and concerns back into the development process.
• A plan to integrate new mobile inventory into advertising, sponsorship and exhibitor sales activities and
related marketing communications.
• A plan for creating unique in-app interactive marketing opportunities with exhibitors and sponsors.
• A process for including the app in efforts to enhance
publicity, press and thought leadership before,
during and after the event.
• An approach for developing and reporting key
metrics and ROI for the organization as well as for
its advertisers and exhibitors. Describing what
“success” will look like and sharing that with your
team can be extremely useful in helping to align
efforts, resources and goals.
• A discussion of who in your organization will be responsible for the mobile program and how it will be
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deployed in event marketing, collateral, related web
and content development, social media, publicity
and exhibitor sales, etc. A mobile program is a crossorganizational project, and your team will need to
reflect that.
• A budget and allocation of other resources, including
training resources, to help sales people sell new
mobile inventory.
• A desired timeline for completing an initial pilot
program which may include one or more apps.
This is a lot to ask of a meeting planner in
year one.
For a first effort, assuming the meeting planner hosts one or two large events each year,
simply building a great set of apps and making them available should count as a success.
Many meeting planners will not be able to develop apps, sell advertising and sponsorship,
and successfully promote the apps in the first
year. New mobile inventory will need to be incorporated into your organization’s exhibitor,
sponsorship and advertising sales strategy,
process, and sales and marketing materials.
Your first event should be regarded as a
“capacity-building” effort—a way for your
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m e e t i n g s
a n d
e v e n t s
The developer you
choose should be
able to help you
refine your list and
introduce new ideas
to you. Phones,
platforms and possibilities change
daily, and a good
developer will be
able to both guide
you and assure you
get the best value
for your efforts and
investment.
team to learn about
mobile technologies
and test ideas. If you
are seeking to develop
new revenues in the
first year, we encourage you to include a
goal of selling at least
a few mobile ads,
premium exhibitor
pages or a single
mobile sponsorship
to a sophisticated
partner—even packaging it with other
opportunities—
rather than pursuing a full-on sales effort
with all your exhibitors. An exclusive “mobile”
sponsorship will appeal to a sponsor who
understands the unique benefits of mobile
interaction and contextual advertising.
In year two or during a second event, we recommend promoting the app more intensively
to attendees to increase use, integrating it into
event marketing materials, making it available
at the point of registration and even exploring
a “green” messaging approach around the
apps to help drive use. The second event is
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also a good chance to take the next step to
include mobile opportunities in sales and
marketing efforts and materials, test creative
ideas for using this new mobile capability
during the event, add new phone platforms
and enhance exhibitor opportunities.
In year three (or during a third major event),
we recommend adding greater value to both
exhibitors and attendees and planning for
new or updated features. The third year could
be a great time to test check-in features, QR
codes, augmented reality for exhibitor displays or other kinds of advanced features.
After each event, it is important to review
your total plan to be sure you are steadily
increasing the number of users, advertising
revenues and exhibitor participation.
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4
a n d
e v e n t s
TECHNOLOGY
AND
DEVELOPMENT
Finally, step four of
your plan should focus
on choosing a development
approach. Mobile technologies are changing
rapidly—with every new phone there is a new
platform. Every day, new APIs, widgets and
standards add new possibilities and create
new demands. It is important to choose
a development partner who has deep knowledge of the industry and can advise you.
App development is neither particularly
costly nor time intensive when compared to
other line items in a meeting budget. Focusing too much on how something is achieved is
a distraction that can cause you to lose sight
of the goal of enhancing attendee experience
and creating more value for your event.
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Case Study: The Massachusetts
Convention Center Authority
The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority (MCCA),
which runs the Boston Convention Center and the Hynes Convention Center, is the first major authority in the world to make
mobile applications available to every meeting that walks in
the door. “We saw the tsunami coming,” said director, technology business development Mark Michaud. “Boston is a center of innovation for mobile technology, and our vantage point
told us that this was going to be a game changer for the event
business. We wanted to be first out of the gate to offer the
benefits of a mobile strategy to our meeting planners.”
The MCCA has partnered with SwiftMobile to develop a comprehensive set of venue apps. These apps are native for all of
the major platforms including iPhone, iPad, Android, and
BlackBerry. “By building these native venue apps, we can offer
a sophisticated mobile solution to all of our meetings,” Michaud
said. “We start with local content, maps of our venue and the
city of Boston, local transportation information and general
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information about the venue—and then make it available to
all of our event planners who then add their event’s unique
content. There is a version for every price point.”
Meeting industry analyst Corbin Ball sees the native venue
model as ideal for smaller meetings. “With the apps Boston
has created, the event producer gets a very high-value app at
a low cost. Many more venues will be offering this type of
mobile service in the near future.”
Boston keeps innovating. The MCCA is now launching a version of its app on large interactive kiosks. “This idea was suggested by one of our customers,” Michaud said. “Visitors will
have access to a version of the myBCEC iPad app that they
can touch and interact with on a 46-inch plasma screen. This
will help promote the apps and also give us new real estate
for featured event sponsors.”
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e v e n t s
Choosing an approach
to development
Putting attendee needs first
App development can and should be a creative process
where your event and attendees are the focus, not the
technology or the medium.
While many experts will advise the meeting producer to
create a clear RFP with specific technical requirements,
remember that mobile is rapidly changing and good
developers are constantly adding new capabilities and
skills. In the mobile world where things change so quickly,
we are all “early adopters,” even if we’ve been using
smartphones for years.
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g e t t i n g
Choosing an
approach to
development
Putting
attendee
Needs First
m o b i l i z e d
f o r
We advise you to use your list of features as
a starting place and to remain flexible. As
you consider vendors who can deliver on the
features you want, you can narrow down your
choices by answering the following:
• Which phone platforms matter most to your audience?
• Will you be paying for wireless Internet service
m e e t i n g s
a n d
e v e n t s
asks your prospective developers what they
could do with $20K and three months. Offer
scenarios with budgets of $10K or $30K. (For
small meetings—fewer than 1,000 attendees
—start at $1,000 and go to $5,000.) The developers’ responses will offer a better starting
point for negotiation and understanding of
how the developer thinks.
throughout the venue and is that service truly available everywhere your attendees will be in the venue?
Nothing frustrates users more than not being able
Apples to Apples: What
Variables Affect Pricing?
to load the app.
• Will you be selling advertising, sponsorships and
exhibitor pages?
• Do you need an interactive trade show floor map?
• What are your expectations and needs around
social networking features, and what are your
privacy concerns?
• Which two or three business goals would you like
to focus on most?
Encourage a small group of developers to
bring their expertise and imagination to the
table. As an alternative to a traditional RFP,
you may get more useful proposals if your
request simply presents your business goals
and desired features for a mobile program,
describes your event and attendees, and then
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Many variables affect the price of a mobile
program. Some consultants are adamant that
you should never pay more than $30K for an
app.1 Certainly, for mobile Web and even
some hybrid approaches, this makes lots of
sense, but it’s not realistic if you are concerned
about usability
and require native
development. If
you are seeking
high performance
on multiple phone
platforms, if want
to integrate special
features that will
have great appeal
to your specific
g e t t i n g
Choosing an
approach to
development
mobile Web apps, smartphones and Wi-fi overload
The New York Times recently
reported on the “Wi-Fi overload
phenomenon that
regularly interrupts speakers
at large events
who can’t get
online.” As the
Times noted,
Wi-Fi was not
designed for large
venues and thousands of people
armed with smartphones, laptops,
iPhones and iPads.
“Wi-Fi is meant for
homes and other small
spaces with more modest Internet demands,
says Ernie Mariette,
founder of Mariette
Systems, which installs
conference Wi-Fi. “You’re
asking a technology to operate
beyond its capability.”1
continued
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f o r
audience, if you want to to engage with more
sophisticated sponsors or use the unique
medium of mobile to enhance the event experience, or if you want to extend the shelf-life
of your event, development may cost more.
Mobile apps have a lot more potential than
serving as mere event accessories—they really
are a new channel for engagement
and communication.
A $10–$15K app may save you
money in the short run, but may
not be the best investment you can
make when you measure it on a
“per-user” basis or when you
consider the impact of ignoring
sponsors, exhibitors or attendees
who may be interested in your
apps, or when you consider the
risks to your brand with a poor
user experience. It’s critical to
keep your business goals in
mind and to understand the
potential of this medium.
The strategy we recommend is to
aim for apps that provide the best usability
to the most potential attendees. If resources
are an issue, limit features to those that serve
m e e t i n g s
a n d
e v e n t s
specific business goals. Better usability, more
users and high rates of use don’t just mean
that your app is enhancing your event, these
also make your apps much more appealing to
sponsors and exhibitors.
The following are some of the many variables
that can affect pricing and quality:
• Operating platforms. A set of native apps that runs
on the four dominant mobile systems will be more
expensive than a single iPhone app that just runs on
the iPhone. This is sometimes true for mobile Web
apps, despite the fact that all that is usually required
is a link. To meet the needs of your attendees and
save money, you may decide on a hybrid approach
and use native for certain platforms and mobile Web
for others. We recommend, however, that for the
highest usage rates and best return on your investment, that event planners develop apps natively for
any platform that represents 25 percent or more of
your attendee audience.
• Mobile Web vs. native. Mobile Web approaches may
appear cheaper at first glance, but meeting planners
should carefully weigh the additional costs of providing testing and supporting wireless connectivity
throughout the venue. Mobile Web apps do not
deliver the usability of native apps and may not be
as appealing to sponsors and exhibitors—or users.
g e t t i n g
Choosing an
approach to
development
m o b i l i z e d
f o r
• Graphics. Optimizing logos, branding and floor
Smartphones now represent 1 in 4
cellular phone subscribers…And,
even if a smartphone is not connected
to a Wi-Fi network, it constantly emits
signals that create background noise.
Too much of this noise will overload
a network and make it impossible for
users to get online. Add to the smartphone users all of the laptop users,
as well as those using various other
Wi-Fi enabled devices, and a Wi-Fi
system with limited coverage or
bandwidth easily can become
clogged and overwhelmed. Ensuring
all of these devices have a fast and
reliable Wi-Fi connection requires a
robust network and sufficient bandwidth that can support hundreds or
thousands of users simultaneously.
Even if the facility has installed a
robust network to accommodate the
growing Wi-Fi demand, meeting
planners still need to know what
continued
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e v e n t s
• Attendee/speaker/exhibitor profiles. There may be
additional charges for pre-loading these profiles or
designs for start screens or other functionality, can
integrating with an attendee database.
smartphone screens may not provide an adequate
A recent blog post in Trade Show
Network News goes further.
The author Mark Haley writes:
a n d
maps, as well as creating and optimizing original
add to costs. Graphics that are not designed for
mobile Web apps, smartphones
and Wi-fi overload
m e e t i n g s
user experience.
• Interactive exhibit floor maps. Making show floor
maps that are easy to use, searchable and interactive
• Service and support. Some developers do not offer
service and support once your apps are live unless
something is not working. Providing support during
the event can help you to ensure that your attendees’
needs are met.
may also increase costs of development. Maps with
even greater interaction can add significantly to costs
of development. Meeting planners need to consider
the needs of their attendees in making these decisions.
• Exhibitor pages and listings. Tiered options may
cost more. Search capabilities may also add to costs.
• Social networking. In-app, customized or Webbased social networking features may require
custom privacy controls.
• Additional features and integrations. While you
may not need these capacities in year one, you may
want to try something new in year two. A multi-year
agreement may lock you out of these options.
• Sophisticated advertising inventory and support.
There may be additional charges to integrate and
support ads and promotions, manage that content
and provide analytics. Some developers may limit
the number of ads you can sell.
Development costs can be offset by the
following:
• Savings on printing. Printing can cost tens of thousands of dollars for a large program. These costs
have traditionally been offset by sales of ads. While
moving this content to mobile may not yield the
same returns in the first year, over time advertising
revenues should rise quickly.
• Savings on Internet access. Providing Internet
access throughout the venue for your event may not
be necessary, since most attendees no longer carry
laptops.2 High-speed wireless Internet access is not
needed for native apps, but it is needed to support
mobile Web and hybrid solutions.
• Advertising. Apps that offer monetization opportunities can allow event planners to recoup their initial
investment (and more) through the sale of sponsorships, banner ads and premium listings.
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development
m o b i l i z e d
f o r
• Self-service data entry. Some developers allow you
saving technique. But this strategy shifts costs from
the developer back to your organization and typi-
level of services to order for their
event. An event’s audience changes
daily in terms of number of users,
location of users and intensity of
usage. There is no standard network
configuration for a convention center
or meeting complex.2
When it comes to mobile apps, the
solution is not necessarily more WiFi. Meeting planners already know
that providing venue-wide Wi-Fi is
extremely costly. One of the major
line items in any meeting budget is
already Wi-Fi access which increasingly does not meet attendee needs.
But smartphone apps, if they are
native, can be part of the solution—
not part of the problem. Native apps
do not need WI-Fi to deliver information and may be a far better and less
expensive way serve your attendees
needs at large events—and even
eliminate some of that traffic.
continued
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e v e n t s
Approaches and Agreements
to enter and maintain your own session information,
maps, exhibitor ads, attendees, ads, etc. as a cost-
mobile Web apps, smartphones
and Wi-fi overload
m e e t i n g s
cally requires some training.
• Data integration. Registration, session, exhibitor
and other data can all be integrated into your apps.
Data integration does require an initial investment
but can result in significant savings over time.
• Multi-year licensing. First-year costs can be amortized over a multi-year license, but be wary of locking yourself into a set of features that may not meet
your needs the following year. For a meeting just
getting started in mobile, a one-year agreement
makes more sense. If all goes well, you may find it
easy to change that agreement to a multi-year deal.
• Revenue sharing. Many developers offer revenue
sharing on advertising, exhibitor pages and sponsorship as part of their licensing agreements as a way of
keeping upfront costs low. Because these developers
have a stake in the performance of your app, they
may be more invested in ensuring that your app
performs to expectation.
As you begin to talk with developers, you will
find that event apps generally fall into the
following classes:
“Customized Commodities”
$1,000-$25,000
There are dozens of companies that will
inexpensively produce one-off, mobile Web,
hybrid or even simple native apps for events.
These are rebuilt for each event and, except
for content, are generally not customizable
beyond an established framework without
additional charges. The event producer will
likely incur additional charges for adding
platforms, whether mobile Web or native.
For these apps, agreements will offer a flat
fee, though some have a variable fee based
on the number of downloads or attendees.
Native apps and apps with more features may
also require revenue-sharing agreements if
you want to include advertising or want to
charge users for the apps.
g e t t i n g
Choosing an
approach to
development
mobile Web apps, smartphones
and Wi-fi overload
1
Verne G. Kopytoff, “Wi-Fi Overload at HighTech Meetings,” The New York Times, December 28, 2010. http://nyti.ms/fu2SCQ (accessed
February, 2011).
2
Mark Haley, “Keeping an Event Connected,”
Trade Show Network News, January 10, 2011.
http://bit.ly/fbNZun (accessed February, 2011).
m o b i l i z e d
f o r
natives and Hybrids
$7,500 to $50,000
When developing native and hybrid apps, the
meeting planner and the developer start with
an established framework for features and
content. They may then choose to add additional features or content, customize features
that are already built, such as social networking features, privacy controls, enhanced
exhibitor pages and special speaker profiles.
The major benefit to this approach is greater
flexibility in adapting an app to the culture of
the event and the needs of the meeting planners. What works for surgeons may not be
what works for fans of manga. With hybrid
solutions, there may a combination of native
and mobile Web features for content, or event
planners may develop natively on some platforms and use mobile Web for others. Or they
may choose to offer iPod Touches or iPads to
all attendees and build just one kind of app.
The event planner may have the option of
adding new content for future events or new
functionality such as social games. Most apps
in this category include advertising and sponsorship. In this model, agreements will usually
include and initial licensing fee, development
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m e e t i n g s
a n d
e v e n t s
The major benefit
to this approach is
greater flexibility in
adapting an app to
the culture of the
event and meeting
planners. What works
for surgeons may
not be what works
for fans of manga.
costs associated with
custom features and
revenue-sharing.
In the long run, this
approach may be
more cost effective
than options with
lower initial costs,
especially if an
organization has
multiple events over
the course of a year or has an audience that
predominantly uses just one type of phone.
bespoke apps
$50,000-$100,000+
A third model is total custom development.
This is the most costly and time-consuming
approach. Bespoke apps are typically produced in support of a major branding initiative, enterprise meeting or in situations where
security is a major issue.
This approach is ideal for the organization
seeking to make a big splash with a mobile
effort or require custom integrations with
third-party Web services. Custom branded
apps can be highly effective marketing communications.
g e t t i n g
Choosing an
approach to
development
Putting
attendee
Needs First
m o b i l i z e d
f o r
Piggy-back apps
$0-$25,000
Some venues, such as hotels, convention centers and other venues, are developing mobile
programs that allow event producers to add
their content to a sophisticated venue-level
app framework. This approach offers event
planners a substantial head start. In
this model, venues offer their mobile
framework as a service to event and
meeting planners, much like they
offer digital signage, Wi-Fi and other
services. The event producer provides his/her session information,
speaker profiles, show floor or
branding, depending on the level
of customization desired to create
the customized app.
For attendees, this approach
offers significant benefits that
can enhance the event experience. Venue-based apps are
native and often have much
more local information in-app
(maps, public transportation,
hotel and restaurant info,
local advertising, flight info, etc.)
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www.swiftmobile.com
m e e t i n g s
a n d
e v e n t s
specifically designed for the business traveler;
they also offer superior maps and graphics
and work on multiple platforms. The number
of venues offering this service is small but
growing. Events scheduled at venues with this
service are able to offer high-quality mobile
apps at a relatively low cost. Agreements vary
based on length of event and desired levels of
custom-ization and branding. Revenue sharing is common.
diY
$500-$1,000
Last but not least, you can make your own
mobile Web apps, which very small meetings
might want to consider. To do this, you
simply need to organize content around RSS
feeds—a blog, a Twitter feed and a calendar,
for example. There are solutions for most
platforms. AppMakr for iPhone or App
Inventor for Android are two popular and
reliable options.
g e t t i n g
Choosing an
approach to
development
Putting
attendee
Needs First
m o b i l i z e d
f o r
Usability, Quality and the
Costs of Venue-based Wi-Fi
While a mobile Web
approach is frequently described as
less expensive than
native development,
this is not the case
when you consider
the additional cost
of providing wireless Internet access
throughout a large
venue. At large
convention centers,
the cost of wireless
access can exceed
$50,000.
NATIVE
• Content lives on the
phone
• Does not require a
constant Internet or
cell connection
• Separate development
for each platform
• Faster and more
responsive
• More sophisticated;
faster search is possible
• Graphics such as maps
look and perform better
• Better integration with
phone hardware and
operating systems
which means better
overall performance
and more “phone-like”
features”
Few venues serve
• “Sexier” user
experience
up free Internet. If
you are not already
planning to buy wireless Internet access, it
may not make sense to buy it just to support a
mobile app. Many meeting planners are questioning the cost of wireless service at large
events. Some already provide Internet access
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m e e t i n g s
a n d
e v e n t s
in just a few key areas. Exhibitors are mostly
unaffected by this decision as they typically
pay for hardwired Internet access on the
show floor. The
cost of venue-wide
MOBILE
WEB
MOBILE-WEB
wireless access
• Content lives on the
web in a CMS
needs to be a factor
• Requires constant
in assessing the
Internet connection or
the app is unusable
value of a mobile
• Easy to develop for
Web approach.
multiple platforms
• Slower and less
responsive
A purely mobile
Web app has no
• Users can only use
Web-based search
content when there
• Graphics typically load
is no Internet conslowly and may not be
mobile-optimized
nection. For many
• Not typically
users, this one
well integrated into
phone hardware and
frustration will
operating systems;
mean they will
more like a website
never launch the
app twice. Apps
• Less “sexy” for users
that use a mobile
Web-only approach
depend on consistent, venue-wide, highspeed Internet access, no matter how many
people are logging in, or they simply don’t
work. Even when they do work, mobile Web
apps make users must wait as each page loads
g e t t i n g
Choosing an
approach to
development
Putting
attendee
Needs First
m o b i l i z e d
f o r
from the Internet. Usability shows that they
offer a slower and less satisfying user experience than native apps do. For example,
usability expert Jakob Nielsen is unequivocal
about smartphones: “In our iPhone usability
studies, users strongly prefer using apps to
going on the Web. It’s simply too painful to use most
Websites on the small
screen. (Mobile-optimized
sites alleviate this issue,
but even they usually have
worse usability than
apps.).”3 A purely native
app, on the other hand,
does not need an Internet connection to work
and typically deliver
superior performance.
HTML 5, a new Web
standard, will enhance the mobile
Web experience for
the user, at least to some degree, but
mobile Web approaches still won’t fully integrate with popular on-board hardware and
software features. HTML 5 will mean major
improvements for video, games and advertis-
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m e e t i n g s
a n d
e v e n t s
The quality of the
user experience is
critical if you want
people to use your
apps, or if you want
to sell advertising.
A poor experience
is not meaningless
—it can be risky
and, according to
usability research,
and even brand
damaging.
ing. It allows for some
limited caching,
which means the very
small apps could
theoretically work
offline, but HTML 5
is unlikely to improve
mobile Web significantly enough to
make it competitive
with a native experience.4 The quality of
the user experience is
critical if you want
people to use your apps, or if you want to sell
advertising. A poor experience is not meaningless—it can be risky and, according to usability research, and even brand damaging.5
Some developers downplay the differences
between native and mobile Web, so we
strongly recommend that you test apps for
yourself and assess the differences between
the native experience and the mobile Web
experience first-hand. Video demos are not
reliable since they do not provide a real-time
experience.
g e t t i n g
Choosing an
approach to
development
Putting
attendee
Needs First
m o b i l i z e d
f o r
Best of Both Worlds?
Some event producers have found a way to
circumvent the platform dilemma and win all
the benefits of
native by simply providing
attendees
with preloaded iPod
m e e t i n g s
a n d
e v e n t s
Touches (see case study on page 33). The
iPod Touch is a device with all the features
of an iPhone—except the ability to make and
receive phone calls. Such an approach gives
users an experience with a superior handheld
device while creating dramatically higher use
and much excitement among attendees. We
expect to see similar mobile programs using
iPads and iPod Touches in the future.
1
Michael J. Shapiro, "How Meetings Benefit From Today's Technology," Meetings
and Conventions, January 1, 2011. http://bit.ly/hRtyfX (accessed February, 2011).
2
A February 2010 survey published by iPass found that 63 percent of enterprise
employees said they would rather use a smartphone than a laptop as their primary
mobile device. “Survey finds smartphones preferred to laptops as enterprise mobility platform,” Mobile Workforce Report, February 25, 2010. http://bit.ly/f8vEoK
(accessed February 2011).
3
Jakob Nielson, “iPad Usability: First Findings From User Testing,” Jakob
Nielsen’s Alertbox, May 10, 2010. http://bit.ly/bcwcRx <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/ipad.html> (accessed February, 2011).
4
5
To see HTML 5 in action, visit the Apple store on your mobile device.
Harris Interactive, “New Study Finds Mobile Application Users Prefer Usability
and Good User Experience over Brand Names Alone,” Effective UI, November
10, 2010. http://bit.ly/ackRP1 (accessed February, 2011).
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www.swiftmobile.com
g e t t i n g
m o b i l i z e d
f o r
m e e t i n g s
a n d
e v e n t s
Case Study: American Association
of Neurological Surgeons
Medical Associations are emerging as early adopters of green
meetings. In 2010, the American Association of Neurological
Surgeons (AANS) provided all of its medical attendees with an
iPod Touch pre-loaded with an app that included session
information, clinical guidelines, podcasts, and poster presentations for its annual meeting. According to Betsy van Die,
AANS director of communications, the idea for the initiative
came from a member neurosurgeon, Dr. Michael Oh, who had
attended a Canadian film and television meeting delivered via
the iPod Touch. “We surveyed our members and asked them
how they would feel about a paperless meeting via an electronic platform,” van Die said. “The response was very favorable.” To get started, the AANS set up a task force headed up
by Dr. Oh and Ron Engelbreit, AANS deputy executive director and set about answering the question, “How do you offer
the same depth of information in a 165-page program book on
an iPod Touch?”
The resulting app, developed by Parliant Corporation, was
downloaded onto 3,300 iPods before the start of the conference. To help cover the cost, the AANS sold mobile sponsorships and message blasts. “We always had a very active
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sponsorship program,” van Die said, “and we were able to
enhance this through interactive sponsorships on the iPods.”
Sponsors bought banner ads and electronic message blasts
that van Die managed via an on-site system set up by Parliant.
“We could target specific segments of the audience for the
messages within our closed network.”
The app was a smash with AANS attendees. To assist users,
the AANS deployed “support marshals” who were identified by
their arms bands. “We were worried about our older members
who may not be as tech savvy,” van Die said. “But one of our
older members who was also a past president thought it was
the coolest thing he had ever seen.” Attendees were given a
neck pouch to carry their iPods and a wall charger so that they
could recharge their iPods at the end of the day.
The AANS is planning to use mobile devices for its 2011 meeting in Denver. “Only three percent of our survey respondents
did not think that it was worth doing,” Engelbreit said. Going
forward, the AANS will make some changes to the features—
the most requested change was note taking within the app—
and ask attendees to bring back their iPods in 2011.
g e t t i n g
m o b i l i z e d
f o r
m e e t i n g s
a n d
e v e n t s
design, build, deploy, assess
the Principle of “Usability first”
Once you’ve selected a developer, the next step is planning
your apps. The development process often includes the
following activities: design, content development, a
privacy plan, testing, marketplace submission and
deployment. You also have to plan to support the app
while in use and will want to report on its performance.
Design
Smashing Magazine, a leading design and graphics
resource, has identified several design principles that are
critical to mobile. These principles can be helpful as you
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g e t t i n g
design, build,
deploy, assess
The Principle
of “Usability
first”
m o b i l i z e d
f o r
evaluate apps and developers and as you work
with the developer to design or customize
your own apps. (A showcase of beautifully
designed app screens accompanies the article
—worth a look!)1
simple options
Mobile navigation has to be limited to
just a handful of choices. This isn’t just
because of a small screen size. In the
meeting and event context, people
use apps for very specific reasons—
they are also usually on the go and
need information ASAP. Apps
should make it as easy as possible
for users to find or do what they
want.
White space
A crowded design is too hard
to read. White space can help
options stand out.
fewer images
Consider that for many
people, the whole point of a
mobile device is quick access.
Images slow apps down starting at the
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m e e t i n g s
a n d
e v e n t s
point of download, to launch, to in-app navigation. Mobile is getting a little faster—resolutions and devices are improving, and
phones are increasingly able to deliver decent
video and photos. But images should still be
used sparingly. Our advice is to use images
only in those parts of the app where you know
the user is not expecting speed or important
information—ads, for example, photo galleries and slide shows, etc.
subdomains instead of .mobi or
separate domains
Subdomains help the event planner manage
branding and avoid confusing users.
Prioritized Content
Anyone who has developed for the web knows
that writing for a website is very different
from writing for print. Writing successfully
for mobile is also a totally different activity.
Mobile content needs to be ruthlessly concise,
precise and highly structured. It is much less
forgiving than the web. Unless it has been
written specifically for the mobile environment,
most user content, from speaker profiles to
exhibitor content, will need to be carefully
revised or rewritten.
g e t t i n g
design, build,
deploy, assess
The Principle
Of “Usability
first”
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m o b i l i z e d
f o r
m e e t i n g s
a n d
e v e n t s
Usability
Creating Your Content
In the mobile environment, a superior
user experience is pure gold. It’s easy to
get distracted by beautiful graphics and flash
animation, but, in the end, usability is what
your attendees value most. As you look at
apps and evaluate different
approaches, it’s worth focusing on how usable the app
really is. To do this, create a
list of 12-15 task scenarios that
you expect an event app to
support. Choose tasks that will
be typical among your attendees,
such as e-mailing an exhibitor or
finding a booth, checking a session location or locating a restroom in the venue. See how long
it takes you to perform these tasks
and how easy and intuitive it is. It’s
ideal to have several people perform
these tasks on different apps and
give each one a rating of 1 to 5 for
ease of use. Combine the ratings to
guide your shortlist. This approach
will help you cut through the hype and
clutter of lesser apps.
Mobile apps contain specialized content—
show logos and branding, a session schedule
and description, speaker bios, exhibitor lists
and/or exhibitor pages, sponsor and exhibitor
branding, show floor maps, booth locations,
registered attendee names and contact information, ads and sponsorship information, etc.
Meeting planners will find that most mobile
app developers—whether they are native
developers or mobile Web—will use a Webbased content management system (CMS) to
manage content for the app.
Gathering all of the content in the correct file
formats can be a time-consuming process and
should be done as much in advance as possible. You will usually be asked to either provide
content in designated formats, or you will
enter the content on your own. Maps, logos
and ads may be handled differently depending on the developer. You may also need to
ensure that graphics are compressed so they
load quickly, and copy is spare and precise
and unambiguously prioritized to meet user
needs. A trouble-free content development
g e t t i n g
design, build,
deploy, assess
The Principle
Of “Usability
first”
m o b i l i z e d
f o r
process will allow your developer to get the
apps into the app marketplaces or delivered
to your users sooner rather than later. You
can then update the apps closer to the event.
The approval process in iTunes in particular
can result in unexpected delays, so you will
need to plan for adequate review time.
Profiles and Privacy
Determining your privacy needs well
in advance is an important part of
the process and should be done even
before you choose a developer. This
is not the place to make a mistake.
Exposing private data can alienate
your constituents and damage key
relationships.
Some apps allow you to create
a directory of your attendees,
speakers and exhibitors. This
directory can be simple and
include only the names of
attendees, or it can be more
complex. It can be totally customized or it can be integrated
with Facebook or LinkedIn. You may also
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www.swiftmobile.com
m e e t i n g s
a n d
e v e n t s
want special privacy controls. You may decide
to pre-load your apps with attendee information or you may decide to let users opt-in.
Speakers and exhibitors can also have profiles
and may have different requirements from
those of attendees. For example, exhibitors
may want to make their e-mail addresses
visible while attendees might not. You need
to consider the needs and expectations of
your audience and work with your developer
to provide the appropriate levels of privacy
for personal information.
Testing
Before your developer submits your apps
to the stores, you will want to test the app.
Actual users who have not been involved in
the development process will give you the
best feedback. Your developer should also be
testing the app on a variety of devices for the
platforms they support.
Testing should be scenario based—once
again, create specific tasks and ask users to
use the apps to achieve these goals. Observe
their actions and take notes of any errors or
g e t t i n g
design, build,
deploy, assess
The Principle
Of “Usability
first”
As soon as your
apps are in th app
stores and marketplaces, it’s appropriate to let your
speakers, advertisers and exhibitors
know, even if your
event is weeks
away. These early
users will help you
discover any
missed errors or
mistakes in the
apps while there is
still plenty of time
to fix them.
m o b i l i z e d
f o r
mistakes or moments
of confusion. Usability testing need not
be time-consuming.
Jakob Nielsen notes
that five individual
tests should catch
eighty percent or
more of any usability
issues.2
Marketplace
Submission
If you are developing
native apps for
iPhone and iPad,
you will have to work
with your developer to manage the submission approval process to iTunes. Android
Market requires no approvals and most
BlackBerry apps are usually distributed by
means of a link that is sent to attendees.
Mobile Web apps will also use a link.
Give yourself plenty of time to manage the
approval process of your apps in iTunes. Not
all apps are immediately approved by Apple—
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m e e t i n g s
a n d
e v e n t s
some are rejected for small violations of
Apple’s rules. You will want to build in at
least a month to six weeks before your event
for the first submission to iTunes.
Deploying Your Mobile
Program and Measuring
Success
As soon as your apps are in the app stores and
marketplaces, it’s appropriate to let your
speakers, advertisers and exhibitors know,
even if your event is weeks away. These early
users will help you discover any missed errors
or mistakes in the apps while there is still
plenty of time to fix them. Incorporate links
to your apps in your event website, pre-event
e-mail marketing and other communications
and include it in any social media efforts,
such as an event’s Facebook page or Twitter.
Regular reminders in these different channels
will help build awareness and drive downloads
of the app. Registration packages, room cards,
displays, on-site signage and walk-graphics
can all be used to build awareness of your
event’s apps. Your developer can give you
reports on download totals by device so you
can assess your progress.
g e t t i n g
design, build,
deploy, assess
The Principle
Of “Usability
first”
m o b i l i z e d
f o r
mobile analytics
Most apps include a small piece of code that
tracks how people use the app. This data can
be extremely useful in assessing performance.
As apps become common additions to most large meetings
and events, you’ll want to use
your analytics to learn more
about your attendees, create
more valuable advertising and
sponsorship opportunities for
your exhibitors, and improve
the app. The data can help you
identify popular sessions, gain
insights into user needs and
attitudes, and track buzz about
the event. If your mobile program is not providing this data,
ask for it.3
m e e t i n g s
a n d
e v e n t s
The team that provides analytics for the event
website should also be tasked with analyzing
the data for your mobile program, although
some developers will also offer this service.
Mobile analytics will provide valuable
quantitative insights which are important but not the full story. Qualitative
information is also important. Surveys,
focus groups, reviews and usability
studies can help you improve your apps
from year to year; a good developer
will help you understand your results
and plan for improvements.
1
Steven Snell, “Mobile Web Design Trends For 2009,” Smashing Magazine, January 13, 2010. http://bit.ly/1xgmQK (accessed February, 2011).
2
Jakob Nielson, “Why You Only Need to Test with 5 Users,” Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, March 19, 2000. http://bit.ly/14L4LB (accessed January 2011)
3
Mari Badger, "Analytics Can Make Your Event Apps Better—and Make You Smarter," SwiftMobile blog series Mobile Apps for Meetings And Events, January 28, 2011.
http://bit.ly/eB3vbO (accessed February, 2011).
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g e t t i n g
m o b i l i z e d
f o r
m e e t i n g s
a n d
e v e n t s
Case Study: DMA 2010 Serves Up
Social Networking With
Privacy Controls
Recognizing that their members were interested in Facebook
as a marketing tool, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
wanted to allow people to use Facebook to connect with
others, while still maintaining some personal privacy and a professional profile. To do this, they designed an app strategy for
DMA 2010 that allowed speakers, attendees and exhibitors to
tap into Facebook to create a unique meeting-specific profile.
Users could then make that profile visible to others at the
event. Attendees could also choose to include an e-mail
address, LinkedIn account, website, blog and other professional information. This careful integration gave users total
control of their personal information and allowed them to turn
on or off a private messaging system. The app also gave users
the ability to add new connections to their Facebook friends or
LinkedIn accounts, making future networking a little easier.
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In addition, the app also included Twitter options. One area of
the app offered a feed of all tweets with the DMA 2010 hash
tag (#dma2010) so that users could quickly and easily stay on
track of messaging from the event participants in one easy-tofollow stream. Users who added their Twitter credentials to the
app were also able to tweet, re-tweet and direct message
others from inside the app.
Data from the app analytics showed that this integrated profile
and directory system, called NetworkMe, was one of the most
popular areas of the app.
g e t t i n g
m o b i l i z e d
f o r
m e e t i n g s
a n d
e v e n t s
sponsorships, advertising,
and exhibitor Pages
the new mobile revenue opportunities
With the growing adoption of mobile apps to support
attendees at meetings and events, there are also new
revenue opportunities. Mobile meeting apps are emerging as a new highly targeted channel where relatively
small investments in brand advertising can pay off with
exposure for new products and services and drive traffic
to the advertiser’s exhibit booth.
The starting place for most apps is the exhibit floor.
Alicia Keith, operations director, retail group, Nielsen
at Expositions oversaw the implementation of a mobile
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g e t t i n g
sponsorship,
advertising,
and exhibitor
Pages
The New
mobile Revenue
Opportunities
mobile advertising and
sponsorship inventory
Meeting and event apps often offer
the following classes of mobile
sponsorship and advertising opportunities. Your developer should work
with you to help you monetize your
app and define your inventory. Many
developers manage the inventory for
a share of the revenues. Others may
charge a fee or include it in their
licensing agreement
1. Branding opportunities on the
start screen. Every time someone
launches an event app, they see the
sponsor’s branding on a start screen.
At some events, people launch their
apps 30+ times a day. That’s a lot
of views. Depending on the app and
the event, buying the start screen
of a high quality app might be more
far valuable than buying a premium
sponsorship for a whole event—yet
continued
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m o b i l i z e d
f o r
app for Nielsen’s large Summer Market Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City.
With 20,000 attendees and 3,000 exhibitors,
“we needed something that would help people
find their way around the show floor,” Keith
reported. “Our attendees bookmarked exhibitors and used the app to manage their
time and find their way around the floor.”
Keith estimates that 27 percent of the show’s
attendees downloaded the application. The
Outdoor Retailer app was sponsored by Ford,
the logo prominently displayed on the show
floor map.
Other apps are focused on in-app advertising
and integrating with check-in apps. At the
DMA2010 show, banner ads for sponsor
Foursquare ran on maps of the show floor as
well as on maps of the local area that located
hotels, restaurants and parties. The native apps
included Foursquare integration. The banner
ads encouraged users to check in on Foursquare.
When clicked, the ads searched the phone
to see if the Foursquare app was installed
(iPhone and Android). If so, the app was
launched and users could view nearby locations, including booths on the exhibit floor,
where they could check in, get messages and
m e e t i n g s
a n d
e v e n t s
win prizes. DMA also created an event page
where 300 people checked in 650 times.
People who checked in were offered discount
coupons and were able to share information
about restaurants and other conference services.
And some sponsors are using mobile to produce new experiential advertising and promotions. At a meeting last summer in Boston,
the MPI New England Chapter along with the
Trade Show Exhibitors Association, International Special Events Society and Professional
Convention Management Association, created
a 90-minute trek on the scavenger platform.
Each location paid $1,000 to be included on
the trek. At one stop, restaurant Post 390,
participants had to find the private function
room and try some hors d’oeuvres. To
complete the challenge, participants had to
submit a photo. They then received a text
message that explained that Post 390 had
three function rooms.
Mobile apps are giving meeting and
event professionals new opportunities
to enhance event revenues. What makes
the mobile medium so interesting to advertis-
g e t t i n g
sponsorship,
advertising,
and exhibitor
Pages
The New
mobile Revenue
Opportunities
mobile advertising and
sponsorship inventory
cost only a fraction of a traditional
sponsorship. A very good deal,
indeed!
2. In-app banner ads (those little
strips on the top or the bottom of the
screen with your name or logo).
Banners are easy and can be programmed for specific pages or may
pop up randomly. Some apps allow
hundreds of banner ads to be included and may offer programmed
placement and timing options.
Depending on the developer, app
banners may need to be developed
for different phones platforms and
may or may not have outbound links.
Unsophisticated sponsors sometimes are willing to pay more for
such links. But a mobile banner ad
with a link that takes the user outside
the app is an example of extremely
continued
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m o b i l i z e d
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ers is that mobile is often more effective than
other advertising media. Research shows that
the mobile medium delivers much better ROI
than many other advertising channels.1
While it is still very
early to draw conclusions about the value
of mobile advertising at
meetings, there is interesting data from the
larger world of mobile
advertising:
Mobile advertising and
sponsorship at a trade
show is contextual. At any
given event, mobile has the
capacity to reach thousands of
people who are planning buying decisions or learning more
about industry products and
trends, reaching them at a time
and place where they are expecting to learn about them. Because
mobile banner ads are contextual, they are
more likely to be effective. A recent study of
mobile advertising at JiWire, showed that
m e e t i n g s
a n d
e v e n t s
nearly half of the on-the-go mobile audience
is more likely to engage with an ad that is
relevant to their current location.2
Mobile banners had a higher
conversion rate than several
online display ad types, and again
performed twice as well as
standard banners.3
Location-based ads tend to
have high response rates,
though relatively few mobile
users have seen them yet. App
sponsorships and other in-app
advertising is often considered
less annoying by mobile users,
who tend to notice such ads.4
Mobile advertising is
measurable. Mobile
metrics provide a data-rich
picture of how and when
users are seeing advertising and
what is driving user interest. Metrics allow
advertisers to test promotions and messaging
and can provide a more accurate measure of
ROI than traditional advertising.
g e t t i n g
sponsorship,
advertising,
and exhibitor
Pages
The New
mobile Revenue
Opportunities
mobile advertising and
sponsorship inventory
poor usability. For the user, it feels
like a mistake because they don’t
want to relaunch an app. By including a link, your app then teaches
users never to click on an advertiser’s ad if they want to stay in the
app.1 Linking out may be a fine technique for some other app, like an
app with tips about laundry, but it is
not appropriate during a busy trade
show. It is better for in-app ads to
drive people to the booth rather than
to a website.
iPads do not have the same kind of
banner ads you see on smartphones.
As of this writing, there are no
proven or established conventions
for advertising on iPads. Your developer should be able to track this rapidly developing area and work with
you to devise a successful “banner”
equivalent.
continued
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m o b i l i z e d
f o r
Mobile advertising is often more “acceptable.” Users view mobile advertising and
promotions more positively because so far
most apps have not allowed advertising to affect the user experience of the app. And when
they do, users simply delete or don’t download ad-heavy apps instead. When advertising
is welcomed and well-timed, it produces better results.5
Tortoise or Hare?
Sponsors are already thinking about mobile
apps—even when the event or meeting planner isn’t. The meeting and event industry has
been slow to realize that they may be leaving
new revenues on the table. Of the 100+
events, conferences, trade shows and meetings produced last year in the United States
where businesses paid for booths, ads in a
paper or pdf directory, their name on a
lanyard, the right to sponsor a sign or kiosk
or e-mail station, the right to host a party or
attend a VIP luncheon or even name a sandwich, only a handful or so offered an event or
meeting app with serious sponsorship opportunities.
m e e t i n g s
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What sponsors are beginning to realize is that
they may not want to wait for the event planner to take offer them mobile opportunities.
If the meeting planner is too slow to realize
the opportunities and present them to sponsors and advertisers, sponsors can and may
take the lead.
Some sponsors are already approaching planners with mobile ideas. Theoretically any
sponsor could build its own event apps and
make them available to event attendees as a
free download if the event or meeting planner
wasn’t interested in taking up the charge. And
why not? A good mobile program can provide
far greater ROI than an equal amount in traditional advertising dollars.
What Works in Mobile
Advertising and Sponsorship
Creating mobile inventory for an event or
trade show is not complex (see the accompanying sidebar), but it does require three
things: 1) rock-solid apps that users will find
indispensable; 2) a sophisticated understanding of the user experience and expectations
and how to incorporate mobile advertising;
g e t t i n g
sponsorship,
advertising,
and exhibitor
Pages
The New
mobile Revenue
Opportunities
mobile advertising and
sponsorship inventory
3. Enhanced exhibitor listings.
Some apps allow for different opportunities for exhibitors: a tiered presence of exhibitors through directory
listings, some sort of booth highlighting on a show floor map and premium individual exhibitor pages with
special features.
Curated, culled or preferred listings
are extremely popular with trade
show attendees. Why? Because
scrolling and search are complicated
on smartphones—no one likes to
search on the phone. Any pre-selected
list becomes very useful and much
appreciated.
Premium exhibitor pages may include branding or ways to connect
with exhibitors (social, e-mail, sms,
Web link, etc). Some of these features make sense (in-app e-mail,
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m o b i l i z e d
f o r
and 3) a willingness on the part of the planner
not only to sell this new mobile inventory, but
also to promote the app effectively among
attendees. Without all three, the value
of your mobile inventory
will be severely limited.
indispensable apps
Event apps need to meet
user needs and they need
to be reliable. If they
don’t, page views and use
rates will be lower, which
means advertising will be
less valuable. Apps that
don’t work when there is
Wi-Fi overload will never be
indispensable. Smart sponsors will alway prefer native to
mobile Web simply because it
is a more effective way to spend
their advertising dollars.
The marginally higher costs of
native development, even across
multiple phone platforms, can be quickly
offset by increased advertising revenue.
m e e t i n g s
a n d
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a smart sales strategy
Whenever possible, it makes sense to include
mobile opportunities as part of package of
opportunities you offer to sponsors
and exhibitors and not to sell them
separately, even though ads and listing can often be added right up to
the day of the event, even in native
apps. This often means planning
in advance and including the
mobile opportunities in proposals
and sales collateral and on the
menu of opportunities you offer
to exhibitors.
The only exception might be
the overall app sponsorship,
which some events have
found easy to sell as a separate opportunity. Sponsoring
the app can include branding on the app start screen,
press mentions, branding
at all points of download, a
sponsor page, a set of in-app ads, etc.
g e t t i n g
sponsorship,
advertising,
and exhibitor
Pages
The New
mobile Revenue
Opportunities
mobile advertising and
sponsorship inventory
e.g.). Some don’t (text messaging)
especially if they end up costing the
user, or annoying the user, take the
user out of the app or fail to meet
user expectations (i.e., link to Web
page that does not work on a mobile
phone). If any of your enhanced exhibitor pages fails to deliver, you’ll be
training the user not to click on other
links.
4. Full screen interstitial ads.
Some sponsors are interested in full
screen ads. But not all apps allow
this—for good reason. Full screen
ads interrupt the user. If a full screen
ad pops up in the app when someone is looking for a bus schedule,
lost and found or a bathroom, you’ll
be training the user not to use the
app at all.
continued
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High rates of downloads
An app strategy that reaches less than 25
percent of your attendees makes it hard to sell
your mobile inventory. Think about which
phones you want to support. It isn’t
enough at most US
events to develop for
iPhone only. iPads
are also increasingly
popular choices at
meetings and building
for the iPhone is not
the same as building for
the iPad. You also need
to think about the fastest
growing platform—
Android. And given that,
according to comScore,
more than 35 percent of
smartphones users are still
devoted to their BlackBerries and that BlackBerry is
still the choice for anyone
needing better than average
security, you may want to
ensure that there are native
BlackBerry options as well.6
m e e t i n g s
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Building for the right mix of phones is only
the first step. Meeting and event planners will
also need to create and carry out a plan for
encouraging downloads. Maximizing the
number of downloads takes work and
creativity. Simply sending out a link
to registered attendees is not an
effective strategy for driving use.
The event planner needs to promote
the app in all communications with
attendees, pre-event and on site.
They need to give attendees good
reasons to download the app and
use it, especially the first time out.
Some might consider incentives to
promote downloads and work
with a sponsor to do that. Finally,
the event or meeting planner
might need to help attendees
download and learn to the apps
for themselves.
An event or meeting planner
can build the best event apps
in the world, but if the attendees don’t know about them and don’t
download it, the sponsor is not getting much
value.
g e t t i n g
sponsorship,
advertising,
and exhibitor
Pages
The New
mobile Revenue
Opportunities
mobile advertising and
sponsorship inventory
One part of an event or meeting app
where it is appropriate for full screen
ads to appear might be in the trade
show floor or exhibitor directory
areas of the app. That’s where they
make the most sense, fit most comfortably into the user experience and
do not necessarily interrupt the
user’s flow.
A word of caution: An app with a
filled with full-screen interstitial ads
will increase the app’s download
time, effect performance and junk up
the app from the user perspective,
making it less, not more, indispensable. Moderation is key.
m o b i l i z e d
f o r
What to Charge
The cost of developing a comprehensive native
mobile app program can be much less than
the cost of a booth at a major event. Add to
that the fact that a good app program can
earn much more than it costs, and it’s hard
to justify the choice of a mobile Web or otherwise limited mobile offering.7
One large event recently charged $25,000
for the formerly white space on the back of an
attendee badge. That ad was probably only
viewed a couple of times by each user. The
splash screen of an event app, however, is
typically be viewed dozens of times a day. For
sponsors, being associated with a high-performing, high-quality mobile app on a top-onthe-line smartphone probably has a much more
valuable halo effect than being associated
with paper, a plastic badge holder and a pin.
Think Outside The Ad
1
Mari Badger, “How to Train Your Attendees
To Stop Using Your Meeting and Event App,”
by SwiftMobile, SwiftMobile blog series Mobile
Apps for Meetings and Events, forthcoming.
http://bit.ly/g2g1hx
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Smart meeting and event professionals will
work with key sponsors to brainstorm and
implement new ideas that take mobile to a
new level and increase engagement.
m e e t i n g s
a n d
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Some meeting and event planners are already
developing highly effective and productive
programs to use the medium to improve networking and navigating, create excitement
and buzz, enhance learning and education,
increase leads for exhibitors and enhance
sponsorship investments. Here are just a few
of the many ways some planners and sponsors
are going beyond the show floor map and a
list of sessions—and this is just the beginning.8
• Using mobile in sessions to seek questions, take
polls, get feedback, etc.
• Integrating mobile with digital signage and kiosks
• Integrating mobile with session graphics
• Integrating with “check-in” apps and creating games
• Encouraging user-created and mobile-ly shared
content
• Mobile-enabled session commenting
• Using QR codes
• Greening the event through mobile
• Sharing of notes, slide shows, product literature and
more
• Deploying mobile to spark flash mobs and meet-ups
in the venue or nearby
g e t t i n g
sponsorship,
advertising,
and exhibitor
Pages
The New
mobile Revenue
Opportunities
m o b i l i z e d
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• Offering mobile party invitations and special
announcements
• Supporting in-app chat between exhibitors and
attendees
• Distributing mobile coupons and promotions from
exhibitors and/or local businesses
• Offering mobile-based incentives, contests and
drawings
m e e t i n g s
a n d
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Any one of these activities or interactions
can be designed to create more value for the
sponsor while enriching the experience for
the attendee. Sponsors who find ways to collaborate with event or meeting planner in
using mobile to go beyond the basics will earn
a lot more value from their sponsorship dollar.
1
Dan Butcher, “Mobile ad campaigns 5 times more effective than online: InsightExpress study,” Mobile Marketer, February 5, 2010. http://bit.ly/aEzyyk (accessed February, 2011).
2
JiWire, “New Report from JiWire Shows Location-Based Ads Drive Mobile Shopping,” JiWire, February 10, 2010. http://bit.ly/fo6vTL (accessed January, 2011).
3
“eMarketer: Mobile Banners Beat Standard Online Ads in Clicks and Conversions,” Financial News, July 7, 2010. http://bit.ly/hwhCnB (accessed January, 2011).See also,
Erik Sass, “Mobile Banner Ads Have Same Brand Recall As TV Spots,” Online Media Daily, Mary 15, 2008. http://bit.ly/eCyoP0 (accessed January, 2011).
4
Paul Skeldon, “Location-based ads starting to drive mobile and high street shopping, US study finds,” Internet Retailer, February 10, 2011. http://bit.ly/hYWkM9 (accessed
February, 2011).
5
eMarketer “Consumers Expect Mobile Ads to Inform,” January 31, 2011. eMarketer Digital Intelligence http://bit.ly/fdrFQl (accessed February, 2011).
6
comScore, “U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share,” comScore Reports, December, 2010. http://bit.ly/eZzKL6 (accessed February 2011).
7
Mari Badger, “Ten Things Prospective Sponsors Should Be Asking About Meeting and Event Apps,” SwiftMobile blog series Mobile Apps for Meetings and Events, January 4,
2011. http://bit.ly/fPLQwy (accessed February, 2011).
8
While these examples are not event-specific, readers can get an idea of how creative mobile advertising can be here: Giselle, Tsirulnik, “Most impressive mobile advertising
campaigns of 2010,” Mobile Marketer, December 29, 2010. http://bit.ly/hhGvep (accessed February, 2011).
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Case Study: Ford Blazes A Mobile Path
At Meetings
Savvy sponsors are realizing the investment in mobile apps is
much more valuable (and measurable) than printed guides
and signage. At the 2010 BlogWorld & New Media Expo, Ford
partnered with Kodak and Pepsi to create Code Trip, an interactive mobile-based contest experience. Contestants started
with a brochure that detailed the “Rules of the Code.” Users
were invited to scan QR barcodes of each brand, via their
smartphones, to obtain the correct answers to contest questions. Prizes included a Kodak video camera and digital picture
frame, a Ford vehicle to drive to next year’s BlogWorld and
two passes to the BlogWorld & New Media Expo in 2011. At
BlogWorld, Ford’s apps allowed attendees to test drive one of
five Ford model cars, donated $1 to a breast cancer charity for
every person who “liked” the Warriors in Pink Facebook page
and sponsored tweets and hosted in-booth cocktail parties to
kick off the auditions for their Amazing Race-like Internet TV
show.
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Ford is taking the lead by showing up at a number of events
with multiple points of contact for attendees. Scott Monty,
Ford’s social media representative, was a popular presence
on stage, at the exhibitor booth and on Ford’s Twitter page.
These activities are a reflection of Ford’s belief in the power of
mobile: “We’re going to see mobile marketing take off,” said
Jim Farley, group vice president of global marketing for Ford.
“Mobile is unique because it is very private; people don’t want
to be annoyed by stupid advertising. It’s more likely in the
future that Ford will be involved in applications. There will be
all sorts of car-related apps, such as satellite navigation, and
we’re going to need product placement in them. I wouldn’t be
surprised if in five years Ford was in the app development
business, integrating our company into the mobile experience.”
g e t t i n g
additional
resources
How To Create
A mobile Strategy
That Delights
Your Attendees
And Exhibitors
And Helps You
Meet Your
Business Goals
m o b i l i z e d
f o r
Corbin ball
Corbin Ball’s newsletters and website offer good current
analysis of technology and mobile trends.
http://www.corbinball.com
swiftmobile blog
SwiftMobile’s blog series Mobile Apps for Meetings
and Events offers in-depth articles on relevant mobile
technology, best practices, app design user experience
and event sponsorships. Recent articles have covered
navigation, mobile Web and Wi-Fi challenges and
understanding mobile analytics.
http://swiftmobile.com/blog/category/mobile-apps-formeetings-and-events/
itunes
iTunes provides the best means to look at mobile
meetings applications. By searching under terms like
meeting, convention, conference, trade show, and
convention center you can find a broad variety of
mobile meeting applications.
android market
A search of meeting, convention, conference, trade
show, and convention center in the Android Market will
also yield a number of applications you can review.
https://market.android.com
directory of mobile meeting developers
Sue Hatch at Meetings.Net has assembled a good
comprehensive guide of developers. http://bit.ly/hErZks
free tools and surveys
SwiftMobile has built a mobile friendly survey tools
that you can use to find out what smart phones your
attendees are carrying. E-mail info@swiftmobile.com
for more information.
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m e e t i n g s
a n d
e v e n t s
Credits:
Written and prepared by:
Mari Badger and Kathleen Gilroy, SwiftMobile.
info@swiftmobile.com
Designed by Cha Rosenbaum
Photography:
iStockphoto http://www.istockphoto.com/
p. 1, 5, 24, 41
Flickr http://www.flickr.com/
Creative Commons http://www.creativecommons.org/
p.15, The CBI http://bit.ly/fjU0wY
p. 23, E. Dubya http://bit.ly/gRzPP8
p. 34, Djibouti http://bit.ly/eQVVUY
Shutterstock http://www.shutterstock.com/
p. 3, 4
All other photos courtesy of SwiftMobile.
http://swiftmobile.com
© SwiftMobile, March 2011. This white paper may
not be reproduced in whole or in part without the
permission of SwiftMobile.