For attendees, conferences can be great for product promotion, networking and generating leads, but they can also be an expensive investment in time, energy, and money. As an event organizer, integrating mobile event apps with your conference will make it easier for attendees to quickly connect with the right people. In addition to making it easy for conference goers to network before, during, and after an event, mobile event apps can replace traditional programs, guides, and maps, while adding levels of interactivity that can greatly enhance the conference experience. Here’s a brief look at how mobile event apps can make your life easier and improve the conference experience for your attendees.

Enables Networking

Most of the best mobile event apps integrate nicely with social media platforms. Social media integration helps delegates, speakers, and sponsors connect with each other before, during, and after events. Conference goers can create profiles that link with their Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts, making it easy for others to connect with them and organize meet ups. Social media integration also makes it easy to find relevant background information on other conference goers and speakers, manage contact information, and make the right connections.

Instantly Poll and Survey Conference Goers

Using a mobile event app as opposed to traditional printed programs or guidebooks lets you instantly poll and survey conference goers. Get instant feedback after an event or speech and use the information to improve future conferences or make real-time adjustments.

Real-Time Analytics

In addition to polling and surveying your attendees, you can use real-time analytics to see exactly what your attendees are looking at. Get statistics and usage information, as well as reports and breakdowns based on day, time, mobile devices and more.

Additional Monetization Opportunities

Mobile event apps also offer another channel for event organizers to generate sponsorship revenue. From simple banner ads, to priority exhibitor listings, to mobile coupons – mobile event apps provide lots of additional opportunities to earn money.

Save On Printing Costs and Go Green

Any conference organizer knows that conferences traditionally use up a lot of paper. But these days, virtually anyone attending a conference will have a smart phone. Mobile event apps can replace most of the traditional printed material offered to attendees, allowing you to save on printing costs while helping the environment at the same time. While you’ll still need to the contact information for your local banner printing services, you no longer have to order hundreds or even thousands of programs, brochures, flyers, maps, info sheets and coupons.

Top Mobile Event Apps

With so many mobile even apps on the market, it can be difficult to know which ones to choose for your event. Below are 3 of the top mobile event apps for conferences.

EventMobi

EventMobi is one of the leading mobile event apps. It has a wide range of features, including social media integration, mobile polls and surveys, scheduling features, and real-time analytics. It also offers plenty of ways to generate additional revenue including banner placements, priority exhibitor listings, and mobile coupons. Pricing information must be obtained by contacting EventMobi for a quote.

Guidebook

Guidebook is another popular, feature rich mobile event app. From the standard social integration, to interactive indoor maps, to in-app feedback, presenter/exhibitor/sponsor lists, photo sharing, and to-do lists for attendees – guidebook has a lot to offer event organizers and conference goers. One of the strengths of Guidebook is that it offers lots of room for customization, allowing you to add lots of useful interactive information for your attendees

Guidebook offers a free plan with a limited set of features for small events. If you’re looking to take advantage of Guidebook’s full functionality, pricing starts at $1750 per event and rises to $5000 for large events looking to integrate in-app sponsorships.

Bloodhound

Although bloodhound is a newer entrant into the mobile event app category, bloodhound has a lot of features that make it a great choice for your event. Perhaps the most attractive feature of Bloodhound is that it is 100% free for event organizers. The self serve platform makes it easy to quickly setup your event in Bloodhound, and the app offers social integration, maps, scheduling features, exhibitor lists, event promotion tools, and much more. One of the many cool features of Bloodhound is the ability to offer automatic, real time recommendations to conference goers based on analytics data. Bloodhound has some other interesting features in their development pipeline, so it’s definitely something to consider if you’re looking for a mobile event app that is 100% free.

This is a guest article from contributing writer John Szabo. John is usually writing about personal finance and marketing questions that might be interesting for the public. Now he writes for banner4sale.com, a company specializing in online banner printing solutions and cheap vinyl banners printing. Check it out here: banner4sale.com