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Quick answer: An event app puts your schedule, content, networking, and updates in every attendee's pocket. The main benefits are deeper audience insight, new revenue streams, instant communication, lower print costs, meeting attendee expectations, real-time analytics, a better attendee experience, competitive differentiation, consistent branding, centralized content, and stronger data security.
An event app is a mobile application that puts your entire event in your attendees' pockets: the agenda, speaker and sponsor information, venue maps, networking tools, live content, and push notifications. For organizers, it doubles as a communication channel, a revenue tool, and a rich source of real-time event data.
In the past, events were highly targeted at one type of attendee, and organizers used a standard marketing message across every promotion. Attendees are now far more discerning. With Gen Z entering the workforce, economic shifts, and a growing abundance of online resources, marketers are focusing on individualized messaging for multiple personas rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. An event app helps you understand your guests: why they decided to attend, what they expect to get out of it, and which content they engage with. As you learn more about your audience and their priorities, you can tailor your event activities to match.
Your event app can boost revenue in several ways, starting with sponsorship value. You can sell banner ads as part of your event marketing packages, and sponsorships become more valuable when sponsors appear in an in-app directory that links to their websites or landing pages. Sponsors may be willing to pay for more exposure or larger ads, which also increases your revenue.
You can also enable in-app purchases, letting attendees upgrade their experience or snag special deals during the event, and the event feed is a prime place for affiliate links and offers. And if you plan on using the app for future events, it becomes a powerful marketing tool: send notifications to previous attendees to advertise what's coming next, saving marketing spend with a ready-made audience.
Ease of logistics is one of the key reasons organizers implement an app. There's no easier way to share information before, during, and after the event: one message reaches all your attendees, or just a segment of your list if it's exclusive. Since most people carry their smartphones with them everywhere, your message is far more likely to be received in a timely manner.
When your communications go digital, you save big on print marketing fees. Sending updates, announcements, flash sales, and special offers through the app means no printed flyers or hardcopy maps of the exhibit hall. Most print collateral expires the moment the event ends and heads straight to the landfill - but content preserved in a digital app stays available for attendees to refer back to after the event concludes, so it keeps working for you, completely waste-free.
Here's a simple reason to implement an event app: your attendees expect one. A few years ago, event apps were considered nice to have. Now attendees expect them just as much as they expect an event to have a website and social media accounts. They rely on the app to find their way around, keep tabs on the schedule, connect with other attendees, and share their experiences during the event. Done well, the app makes the entire event more accessible - even for people who aren't there in person - and attendees who enjoy the full experience are more likely to return, and maybe bring a friend.
Event analytics has become just as essential as website analytics. In the past, collecting event data was limited and mostly manual: comparing attendance against sign-ups, sending feedback surveys, taking headcounts during sessions, or checking the P&L statement. It required lots of help and left plenty of room for error. Event apps have changed how you analyze success: see which content gets the most traction, find your most engaged attendees, and uncover their priorities. With Canapii, you get real-time analytics and insights so you can make adjustments as you go, cut costs, or drive more revenue using your event's unique data.
Your event isn't about you - it's about your attendees. The event app becomes their go-to for self-serving questions, concerns, and needs: learning about speakers and sessions, managing their time, and personalizing their experience. The interface matters just as much. Features are useless if attendees struggle to use them, so the app should be well designed for any user to navigate and take full advantage of everything on offer.
Thanks to virtual and hybrid technologies that allow remote attendance, more people are attending more events than ever before - which makes for stiff competition among event hosts. Even though many attendees expect an app, not all events offer one. Launch yours before the event starts and encourage downloads early: it gives attendees time to get to know your brand, event, and speakers, and helps you make a strong first impression in your niche.
Nothing sets the tone for an event like your brand. From logos and colors to the overall ambiance, an event is a golden opportunity to show people what your company or organization is all about - and your custom event app should match. Deploy the same graphics you use on printed materials to create a consistent look and feel. Branded events establish trust, increase event recall, and foster positivity, and even with a ready-made app like Canapii, you can include your logo and branding elements so the app looks like an extension of your brand, not ours.
Event apps thrive on content. Beyond interactive maps and sponsor directories, they offer plenty of ways to create and share content with event goers: helpful blog articles in the days leading up to the event, important updates, and sponsor and speaker highlights on the main feed. Other opportunities include:
Posting event videos before, during, and after the event
Encouraging users to share their own event content
Making sessions available on demand
Asking for user feedback
Hosting discussions with speakers and other attendees
The app acts as a centralized anchor for all of your content, including user-generated content. Instead of scattering it across social media, your website, landing pages, and email blasts, you can direct everything to the app - saving time and freeing up resources for the rest of your event.
Attendees increasingly care about the content they share online and how businesses handle their data, and that concern extends to the events they attend. Unlike typical event collateral, all of your event content can live within the app, protected by security features such as user authentication that delivers content only to registered users. Permission-based communications keep data secure while adding a level of exclusivity to your event. Canapii's platform is ISO 27001 certified and GDPR compliant, so attendee data is protected to a recognized standard.
An event app is a mobile application that gives attendees everything they need for an event in one place: the agenda, speaker and sponsor information, maps, networking tools, live content, and notifications. For organizers, it doubles as a communication channel and a source of real-time event data.
Yes. Event apps have moved from nice-to-have to expected, in the same way attendees expect an event to have a website and social media accounts. Attendees rely on the app to find their way around, follow the schedule, connect with other attendees, and share their experience.
You can sell banner ads and sponsor directory listings, enable in-app purchases and experience upgrades, and post affiliate offers in the event feed. If you reuse the app for future events, push notifications to previous attendees become a low-cost marketing channel.
Building from scratch gets you an app made to specification, but it takes significant time, budget, and trial and error. A ready-made platform like Canapii delivers the same result faster: customize the branding, features, and integrations while the infrastructure is already built and maintained for you.
Event apps keep content within an authenticated environment, so only registered users receive event communications. Canapii is ISO 27001 certified and GDPR compliant, and permission-based communications keep data secure while adding a level of exclusivity to your event.
Canapii's mobile event app is ready for your finishing touches: add your brand, choose the features that matter, include your favorite integrations, gamify your event, and engage attendees at every opportunity - without the time, cost, and hassle of building a custom app. Get in touch today for a demo.