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Quick answer: The 11 must-have mobile event app features are easy navigation, networking, social media integration, language translation, event promotion, push notifications, gamification, live polls and surveys, sponsorship tools, technical support, and event analytics. Together they keep attendees engaged, sponsors visible, and organizers informed before, during, and after your event.
A well-designed conference app makes your event run more smoothly, improves attendee satisfaction, and boosts exhibitor results — a poorly designed one is just another headache. The difference lies in how the app is built and the features it includes, so our event platform pros have put together this guide to the essentials for your mobile event app.
Not sure where to start with customizing your event app? These 11 features are the ultimate musts, so use them as a checklist when building out the structure of your app.
Your mobile event app needs a user-friendly navigation experience. That means an intuitive menu, so users can quickly find the information or features they are looking for, and an app that loads fast and runs smoothly.
Navigation is the foundation of your app and its success. A positive user experience in the app leads to a more positive impression of your event overall — and that is key to building a base of loyal attendees for future events.
Networking is one of the top reasons professionals attend events, so your app should make connections effortless. One of the best functions of an event networking platform is a quick way to exchange contact details — for example, a built-in QR code scanner.
You can also use the app to spark conversations. Pop up prompts throughout the event with tasks like "find someone from a different state and collect their contact details within the next two hours for a chance to win a prize."
Social media integration lets attendees, presenters, exhibitors, and organizers post about the event straight from your event app and other online event platforms. That visibility acts as advertising for future events and boosts engagement by sparking conversations online. Remember, great event networking happens digitally too, as attendees connect on social media while discussing the event.
Translation features make your event accessible to international audiences, which helps you attract as many attendees as possible. Long common on virtual conference platforms, they belong in your mobile event app too — including automatic translation services that translate all in-app content into various languages, with subtitles for supplementary videos.
As you promote your event, advertise that you will accommodate speakers of other languages. International audiences are far more likely to register when they know they will get the same content and a similar experience to native speakers.
Your event app can help you promote your event before and during the live dates. If participants download the app when they register, you can push out notifications that build excitement — announcing surprise guests or fun social gatherings, for example.
You can also use the app to send incentives that encourage referrals, such as a drawing entry for a prize for every new registrant someone refers.
Push notifications keep attendees involved throughout the event, which makes your app a core piece of audience engagement software. Use them to announce last-minute perks — "come to the Exhibitor XYZ booth any time today for a free t-shirt!" — and to remind participants about special offers and features.
From a more pragmatic perspective, push notifications are also the best way to handle emergency changes: a broken elevator, a room switch for a presentation, or any other last-minute alert attendees need to see.
Event app gamification is one of the most effective ways to boost attendee engagement. Gamification means adding game-like features to your event: a points system that rewards attendees for completing tasks, with prizes at different levels, or actual games like a bingo card of event activities.
It adds fun to the occasion while nudging attendees to try sessions, booths, and features they might otherwise skip — and a mobile event app opens the door to far more types of gamification than paper and pens.
Live polls and surveys make presentations more interactive at conferences and meetings — and the more involved the audience is, the more they take away and the higher your attendee satisfaction will be.
A presenter can ask how many people know a topic or have completed a certain type of project, then tailor the session to the audience's expertise. Polls can also reveal how common a belief or misunderstanding is, or generate ideas from the room. With polling built into your event app, attendees answer directly on their phones and the results feed back to the presenter in real time.
A strong event app serves exhibitors and sponsors as well as attendees, through two kinds of features: in-app sponsorship perks and convenience tools. A certain level of sponsorship could earn a sponsor the ability to send a push notification advertising their services, or a special offer on a dedicated page of your app.
Convenience features matter just as much: give sponsors a way to track the contacts they collect and statistics like booth visitors, meetings booked with attendees, and clicks on their offers.
No matter how well you plan and test your event technology, glitches will come up — and attendee satisfaction usually depends more on how you deal with issues than on the issues themselves. Build technical support into your app: a chatbot can handle the most common questions, while live chat connects attendees to support representatives for more complex problems.
To go further, offer general customer support through the same live chat. Canapii backs its platform with 24/7 support, so help is on hand whenever and wherever your event runs.
Every event should be a learning experience for the next one: what went well, what could improve, and how to generate more interest, engagement, and revenue next time. Event analytics built into your app can track clicks on app pages, sessions and booths attended, and even which areas of your venue drew the most visitors.
Take it a step further by running post-event surveys through the app. Feedback from attendees, presenters, and exhibitors gives you critical insight into creating a better experience next time.
You do not need to hire engineers and build an app from the ground up. Canapii's feature-packed mobile event app gives you every feature above and more, with customizable options and integrations to fit your purposes, and it connects seamlessly to Canapii's online event platform for desktop use. The platform has powered 2,000+ events for 300,000+ attendees across 45+ countries since 2020, and scales to events of 10,000+ attendees.
The essentials are easy navigation, networking, social media integration, language translation, event promotion, push notifications, gamification, live polls and surveys, sponsorship tools, technical support, and event analytics.
An event app improves the experience end to end: it makes information easy to find, keeps everyone informed through push notifications, facilitates networking, boosts engagement with gamification and live polls, and captures the data organizers need to improve future events.
Sponsors gain in-app perks such as sponsored push notifications and special offer placements, plus tools to track the contacts they collect, booth visitors, meetings booked, and clicks on their offers.
No. Instead of a lengthy development process, you can use a proven, customizable platform like Canapii, which is ISO 27001 certified and GDPR compliant and includes all 11 must-have features out of the box.
Canapii's event app puts this whole checklist in one place and can transform your next event. To learn more, schedule a Canapii demo today.