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by Madison Frye on October 10, 2024
In today’s fast-paced event planning world, ensuring seamless experiences for attendees and exhibitors is crucial. Mobile apps play a significant role, offering essential tools for event navigation, content engagement, and attendee participation. In a recent on-demand webinar, Map Your Show (MYS) and AVIXA discussed how their mobile app strategy boosted InfoComm, one of the world's largest audiovisual (AV) industry shows.
This webinar is hosted by Justin Post, VP of Sales at MYS, Willie Wolfman, Exposition Account Services Specialist at AVIXA, and Taryn Porter, Senior Director of Exposition Account Services at AVIXA, offered valuable insights on app adoption, pre-event strategies, exhibitor engagement, and post-event analytics.
Watch the Full Webinar:
The Scope of InfoComm
InfoComm, a flagship event for AVIXA, is massive in scale. Taryn Porter shared key figures from the 2024 event held in Las Vegas: over 36,000 registered attendees, 835 exhibitors, and over 400,000 square feet of show floor space. “We were thrilled with the show,” Taryn said. “We were also up 19% with our exhibitor count… and went up 14% in net square feet sold.” Given the size of the event, a well-designed mobile app became critical for attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors alike, enabling easy navigation, enhancing engagement, and providing real-time updates.
Increasing App Adoption
One of the primary goals for the AVIXA team was increasing mobile app downloads. According to Willie Wolfman, their goal was to approach 100% app adoption, though they recognized that wasn’t entirely realistic. Still, InfoComm achieved an impressive 50% adoption rate, with over 14,500 downloads—a significant increase from prior years.
To achieve this, AVIXA employed a multi-faceted strategy. “Any communication that we put out once the app is live has a reference to the app,” Willie noted. “Even if they don’t download it before they go onsite, they’ve been exposed to it so much that once they get onsite, we feel they’re more likely to download it.”
In addition to constant email and social media reminders, AVIXA also employed paid ads. “We ramp up online presence on Google and YouTube shortly before the show,” Willie explained, noting the importance of increasing advertising efforts in the final three weeks leading up to the event.
Onsite, attendees were continuously reminded to download the app. Taryn added, “You absolutely cannot even do anything—maybe even go to the water fountain—without getting a QR code put in your face to download the app.”
Key Features for Attendees
The InfoComm mobile app displayed several key features that attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors loved. One of the most important was navigation tools. With more than 400,000 square feet of space to explore, attendees used the app’s interactive floor plan to find exhibitors, sessions, and key areas with ease.
Show planner and scheduling tools also became essential. Attendees were able to personalize their schedules and favorite sessions and bookmark exhibitors, ensuring they could easily access all event details. “Education students were the earliest adopters,” Willie mentioned, “and they relied heavily on the calendar to navigate sessions and changes.”
Another major feature was session surveys. AVIXA integrated surveys directly into the mobile app to collect attendee feedback. “Instead of having attendees give us feedback to a third party, we were able to collect it through the app, which led to a higher response rate,” Willie said.
Push Notifications for Engagement
Push notifications are a powerful feature for boosting engagement, but as both Taryn and Willie pointed out, they’re also something to use wisely. AVIXA kept the number of push notifications from show management to a minimum to avoid annoying attendees. “We are very strict on that,” Taryn explained. “We try not to go over six a day, and eight is the max on our busiest day.”
From a sponsorship standpoint, push notifications provided excellent brand visibility. However, AVIXA made sure notifications had clear calls to action. “The most clicked ones always mention free lunch, happy hour, or a prize,” Willie explained. “We offered free beer one year, and that was by far the most clicked notification we ever had.”
Real-Time Updates and Post-Event Analytics
The mobile app also provided real-time updates during the event. Whether a session changed locations or a speaker was swapped, the AVIXA team could push immediate notifications to attendees. This not only kept attendees informed but also allowed exhibitors to pivot and engage attendees more effectively.
Post-event, the app’s analytics offered valuable insights. The AVIXA team tracked app downloads, adoption rates, and feature usage to measure success and inform future event strategies. “Most important stat is obviously the downloads and comparing it to our total registrants to see the adoption rate,” Willie shared.
The analytics also revealed when marketing efforts were most effective. “We’ve been able to see that no matter when we’ve started marketing, the three weeks prior to the event are when people really start downloading the app,” Willie said. This insight allows AVIXA to focus its promotional efforts where they’ll have the most impact.
Continuous Improvement
Looking forward, both Willie and Taryn are focused on improving the app even further. Willie, reflecting on the experience, said, “Every year I say I want to start earlier, and every year I do—but I still want to get started even earlier.” His advice for others developing an event app? “Start conversations with your internal teams early and involve all stakeholders. Testing is also critical.”
AVIXA does extensive testing across devices to ensure the app works seamlessly for everyone. A soft launch of the app is often deployed so that any bugs or issues can be addressed before attendees begin using it en masse.
Conclusion
The MYS x AVIXA webinar offered a comprehensive look at how mobile apps can enhance the success of events. From driving attendee engagement to providing real-time updates and gathering post-event insights, mobile apps have become an indispensable tool for event organizers. For InfoComm, the mobile app not only improved the attendee experience but also allowed exhibitors to showcase their offerings more effectively and sponsors to gain valuable brand visibility.
If you’re looking to elevate your event experience, consider integrating a mobile app into your event strategy. As AVIXA’s experience shows, mobile apps are a key component of modern event planning, enabling organizers to connect with attendees and exhibitors in ways that were once impossible. For more information on adding a mobile app to your next event, contact us at Map Your Show below.