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Registration to reflection: Transforming event lifecycles & elevating attendee experiences with event apps

With over 7 million apps on the market, spanning every niche, genre and industry, we are becoming more accustomed to having our technological needs met in increasingly intuitive ways. As the use of apps expands across the events industry, brands and event planners are capitalising on this growing technology as a way to elevate attendee experiences and optimise every component of the event lifecycle.

To find out more about how event apps can be utilised to achieve these aims, Joe Lindsay, our Head of Website Design & Development, discusses how we are harnessing the power event apps across our experiences, and how others can bring this personalisation secret weapon to their event offering. 

Put simply, the core focus of using technology at any stage of an event is to create a more intuitive, personalised experience for attendees. Apps are an ever-evolving iteration of this growing use of technology, and bring with them a whole host of benefits that enhance the entire event lifecycle. Gone are the days when you can offer the same off-the-shelf experience to all attendees. Everyone is looking for that super star service, and event apps are one of the tools we utilise to offer this. 

The apps that we create at First Event are native to the users’ mobile phone, allowing us to access a lot more features which we can then incorporate back into our event app experience. With features like push notifications and customisable user profiles, we can create communication portals that feel more engaging and dynamic than a traditional event website, and frees us up to get even more creative with how we display our event content. Event apps provide attendees with all of the latest information they need in order to capitalise on their event experience, right there, in their pocket.

One of the most engaging characteristics of an event app is the opportunity it brings for complete personalisation at all levels, enhancing every stage of the event lifecycle in turn. So, where does this end-to-end personalisation begin? For our team, it starts with an in-depth onboarding process with each of our clients.

Personalising an app to fit the event value proposition is something that needs to be considered at every iteration of app design. We carefully evaluate what attendees need from their event experience, and compare the core functionalities being developed for specific events. By making sure that the right functionalities are there to support your event objectives, you can utilise your event app to securely achieve event objectives.

Arguably the most important elevation that an event app can bring attendees is the opportunity for complete customisation of each individual’s event experience. Using conditional logic, we can programme our apps to only show information that’s relevant to each user. We can also give attendees the tools to customise their own event experience through an app, with features like favoriting sessions, customising their agenda, and networking functionalities. These are great for a busy event schedule, and add to the intuitive feel of using an event app, helping attendees feel like they’re really part of the event.

Once the needs of each event stakeholder has been considered and met through design, event apps will then feed and facilitate each stage of the event process, creating a sustainable system of data collection, refinement, and personalisation. These apps are a huge supportive factor in this process, and facilitate a lot of touch points throughout the event experience. When utilised for event registration, the data we collect informs the communications we send out, which informs the personalisation we can make, which refines our delegate management, experience and attendee engagement. With reduced time spent going backwards and forwards collecting the right information, we can instead focus our efforts on improving the event experience itself.

With these optimisations, an event app allows the event experience to be more dynamic, more intuitive, freeing up attendees to focus on their event experience. Event apps aren’t just a tool to be used throughout registration to post-event analysis. They’re an optimisation that can offer a full circle, 360 personalised experience, both for the brands using them, and the attendees looking for that celebrity level service.