by Patrick Payne
I woke up confused and panicked. The lady sitting next to me nudged my shoulder just in time for question period. Startled, I looked from side-to-side wondering what had just happened – and soon I was overcome with a sense of dread. I had fallen asleep during the session.
From the very beginning, my session experience started off on the wrong foot. I opened the printed event guide and looked up the location of the session, but something wasn’t right: the session room was completely empty. A security guard approached me to inform me that the room had changed. I was on the wrong side of the convention center. I raced across the building and found the lecture hall in minutes, but it wasn’t fast enough – I had missed the first 10 minutes of the presentation and other attendees had already snatched all of the printed materials. I took my seat at the back of the room and strained over the heads of others to see the presentation slides. That is the last I can remember.
From the very beginning, my session experience started off on the wrong foot. I opened the printed event guide and looked up the location of the session, but something wasn’t right: the session room was completely empty. A security guard approached me to inform me that the room had changed. I was on the wrong side of the convention center. I raced across the building and found the lecture hall in minutes, but it wasn’t fast enough – I had missed the first 10 minutes of the presentation and other attendees had already snatched all of the printed materials. I took my seat at the back of the room and strained over the heads of others to see the presentation slides. That is the last I can remember.
Before I knew it, the session had ended and everyone had bolted out of the room before I could find out what I had missed. I decided to fill out a session evaluation form based on my short experience, but couldn’t; the form was included in the printed materials that had disappeared before I arrived.
This story relayed to me by a friend and associate that recently attended a conference made me realize that the way we have been running sessions for decades needs to change. Sessions need to do more than just keep us awake. They need to be inspiring, engaging, interactive and a lot more convenient. Despite his semi-conscious experience, the good news is that more and more event organizers are making big changes to the way we’ve been running sessions for so many years. They’re embracing mobile technology to capture their audience’s attention right in the palm of their hands, and they’re making a huge difference. So if you’ve ever found yourself walking out of a session struggling to remember what you have just learned, read on. Here are 15 ways a mobile event application can turn a session into a dynamic interactive experience and help you get the most out of your next session experience:
1. Find sessions that are relevant to you: Have you ever discovered that you missed a session that was relevant to you? A mobile event application provides more ways to track down all of the sessions that you should be attending. You can quickly search for sessions by name, view them listed by track or quickly flip through a scrollable event schedule organized by date and time. Often times you’ll find a relevant session when you least expect it, like when you’re browsing speaker profiles that provide links to each speaker’s sessions.
2. Never forget a session: Mobile event applications provide calendar functionality that helps you organize your own personal event schedule. The moment you find a session that you want to attend you can instantly add it to your personal schedule with the tap of a button. If there’s a conflict, the mobile application should tell you right away.
3. Always come prepared: Sessions are always more meaningful when you arrive well versed on the subject matter – or at least have a chance to give it a moments thought. Mobile event applications make it convenient to access session collateral before you attend, whether it’s a PowerPoint presentation or PDF, and refer back to it after you’ve gone home.
4. Purchase a ticket: Some events require advance purchase of tickets for attending sessions. Rather than waiting in line to make a purchase, attendees with mobile devices can easily purchase tickets using a credit card and flash their electronic ticket at the front door.
5. Find your session: A clear map of the venue makes all the difference when you’re trying to find your session. Many events are now going the extra mile to include interactive maps that instantly map session locations and trade show booths on your mobile device to help you find your way. If there’s a change to the session location, the new location is instantly updated by the event organizer along with an alert to let attendees know.
6. Check in at the session: Checking in at a session with your mobile device can provide a multitude of benefits. Some event organizers use social media such as FourSquare to let attendees check in and later share feedback and stay in contact with one another. Others provide a scannable QR code for checking in, giving the speaker (or everyone) access to who is attending and any session-specific collateral, session evaluations and invitations to other related sessions.
7. Take notes and share with others: Mobile event applications come with note taking features built-in. That means you can select a session on your mobile device and instantly start taking notes with the tap of a button. When you’re finished, you can save your notes and email them to others to share what you’ve learned.
8. Participate in live polls: Staying actively engaged and participating in sessions does more than keep you awake – it helps you learn. Live polls on topics of interest allow all participants a chance to participate using the mobile event application and view the results in real time.
9. Submit questions: With a mobile event application you’ll never have to wait until the speaker is finished to ask a question. Just enter your question on your mobile device and tap the submit button. Your question will be sent to a moderator who prioritizes all of the audience’s questions and gives the speaker access to them during the presentation. Questions can even be projected onto a screen to share with the audience, helping to make the session more interesting and engaging.
10. Exchange contact information: Chances are you’ll be sitting next to someone you will want to keep in touch with at your next session. Mobile event applications help you exchange contact information with others using various technologies, such as scanning QR codes on nametags, using near-field communications technology or simply sending a quick email using the application messaging feature.
11. Provide feedback at your leisure: Many speakers receive minimal feedback after a session because attendees are required to scribble on a paper form (usually with very little time) before they leave the room. Now with mobile event applications attendees can fill in session evaluations at their leisure and be sure that their feedback will get back to the speaker. Speakers and event organizers can also send out friendly reminders to attendees to fill in their session evaluations and thank them for attending.
12. Download post-session material: A mobile event application becomes invaluable when speakers choose to share their slide presentations and other session-specific documents after their sessions are over. That means that attendees can often gain access to materials that are not only prepared by the speaker but also those generated by the audience during the session, such as results and analysis of polls and surveys from the session.
13. Tell others what you think: After your session is over you can use a mobile event application to share your thoughts, comments and praise with a wider audience than those who attended the session. Not only is it possible to tweet to the conference Twitter feed and post Facebook messages to the conference Facebook page, many event organizers display the Twitter feed right on the home page of the application. In addition, some organizers are incorporating ‘mobile gamification’ to encourage sharing of information amongst attendees, awarding points to those who tweet, post Facebook messages, check in at sessions and perform a variety of other participation-driven tasks.
14. Build your network: In the past, the end of a session meant the end of the learning and group interaction that took place during the session. With mobile event applications, the end of a session is just the beginning: attendees can now keep in contact with one another via built-in messaging, phone directories, and social media, making it easy to plan post-session get-togethers with the people you just met. Groups can cue up a time, make a reservation in a hotel restaurant or lounge and exchange ideas using the application – and who can resist taking a group photo and uploading it to the conference mobile application photo gallery?
15. Watch the session again and share with others: No matter how much you prepared, participated and networked with others at a session, you may still need to refresh your memory after you go home. Many event organizers now take audio and video recordings of sessions and post them on the mobile event application, making it much easier to review what you’ve learned and share your experiences with your colleagues who remained back in the office while you were out networking and having fun.
This story relayed to me by a friend and associate that recently attended a conference made me realize that the way we have been running sessions for decades needs to change. Sessions need to do more than just keep us awake. They need to be inspiring, engaging, interactive and a lot more convenient. Despite his semi-conscious experience, the good news is that more and more event organizers are making big changes to the way we’ve been running sessions for so many years. They’re embracing mobile technology to capture their audience’s attention right in the palm of their hands, and they’re making a huge difference. So if you’ve ever found yourself walking out of a session struggling to remember what you have just learned, read on. Here are 15 ways a mobile event application can turn a session into a dynamic interactive experience and help you get the most out of your next session experience:
1. Find sessions that are relevant to you: Have you ever discovered that you missed a session that was relevant to you? A mobile event application provides more ways to track down all of the sessions that you should be attending. You can quickly search for sessions by name, view them listed by track or quickly flip through a scrollable event schedule organized by date and time. Often times you’ll find a relevant session when you least expect it, like when you’re browsing speaker profiles that provide links to each speaker’s sessions.
2. Never forget a session: Mobile event applications provide calendar functionality that helps you organize your own personal event schedule. The moment you find a session that you want to attend you can instantly add it to your personal schedule with the tap of a button. If there’s a conflict, the mobile application should tell you right away.
3. Always come prepared: Sessions are always more meaningful when you arrive well versed on the subject matter – or at least have a chance to give it a moments thought. Mobile event applications make it convenient to access session collateral before you attend, whether it’s a PowerPoint presentation or PDF, and refer back to it after you’ve gone home.
4. Purchase a ticket: Some events require advance purchase of tickets for attending sessions. Rather than waiting in line to make a purchase, attendees with mobile devices can easily purchase tickets using a credit card and flash their electronic ticket at the front door.
5. Find your session: A clear map of the venue makes all the difference when you’re trying to find your session. Many events are now going the extra mile to include interactive maps that instantly map session locations and trade show booths on your mobile device to help you find your way. If there’s a change to the session location, the new location is instantly updated by the event organizer along with an alert to let attendees know.
6. Check in at the session: Checking in at a session with your mobile device can provide a multitude of benefits. Some event organizers use social media such as FourSquare to let attendees check in and later share feedback and stay in contact with one another. Others provide a scannable QR code for checking in, giving the speaker (or everyone) access to who is attending and any session-specific collateral, session evaluations and invitations to other related sessions.
7. Take notes and share with others: Mobile event applications come with note taking features built-in. That means you can select a session on your mobile device and instantly start taking notes with the tap of a button. When you’re finished, you can save your notes and email them to others to share what you’ve learned.
8. Participate in live polls: Staying actively engaged and participating in sessions does more than keep you awake – it helps you learn. Live polls on topics of interest allow all participants a chance to participate using the mobile event application and view the results in real time.
9. Submit questions: With a mobile event application you’ll never have to wait until the speaker is finished to ask a question. Just enter your question on your mobile device and tap the submit button. Your question will be sent to a moderator who prioritizes all of the audience’s questions and gives the speaker access to them during the presentation. Questions can even be projected onto a screen to share with the audience, helping to make the session more interesting and engaging.
10. Exchange contact information: Chances are you’ll be sitting next to someone you will want to keep in touch with at your next session. Mobile event applications help you exchange contact information with others using various technologies, such as scanning QR codes on nametags, using near-field communications technology or simply sending a quick email using the application messaging feature.
11. Provide feedback at your leisure: Many speakers receive minimal feedback after a session because attendees are required to scribble on a paper form (usually with very little time) before they leave the room. Now with mobile event applications attendees can fill in session evaluations at their leisure and be sure that their feedback will get back to the speaker. Speakers and event organizers can also send out friendly reminders to attendees to fill in their session evaluations and thank them for attending.
12. Download post-session material: A mobile event application becomes invaluable when speakers choose to share their slide presentations and other session-specific documents after their sessions are over. That means that attendees can often gain access to materials that are not only prepared by the speaker but also those generated by the audience during the session, such as results and analysis of polls and surveys from the session.
13. Tell others what you think: After your session is over you can use a mobile event application to share your thoughts, comments and praise with a wider audience than those who attended the session. Not only is it possible to tweet to the conference Twitter feed and post Facebook messages to the conference Facebook page, many event organizers display the Twitter feed right on the home page of the application. In addition, some organizers are incorporating ‘mobile gamification’ to encourage sharing of information amongst attendees, awarding points to those who tweet, post Facebook messages, check in at sessions and perform a variety of other participation-driven tasks.
14. Build your network: In the past, the end of a session meant the end of the learning and group interaction that took place during the session. With mobile event applications, the end of a session is just the beginning: attendees can now keep in contact with one another via built-in messaging, phone directories, and social media, making it easy to plan post-session get-togethers with the people you just met. Groups can cue up a time, make a reservation in a hotel restaurant or lounge and exchange ideas using the application – and who can resist taking a group photo and uploading it to the conference mobile application photo gallery?
15. Watch the session again and share with others: No matter how much you prepared, participated and networked with others at a session, you may still need to refresh your memory after you go home. Many event organizers now take audio and video recordings of sessions and post them on the mobile event application, making it much easier to review what you’ve learned and share your experiences with your colleagues who remained back in the office while you were out networking and having fun.
Patrick Payne is co-founder and CEO of QuickMobile, a company that develops mobile meeting applications for conferences. To speak with someone about creating a mobile app for your conference, call 604.875.0403 or visit quickmobile.com.
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