Event App Features 101: A Beginner’s Guide for First-Time Organizers

Planning your first corporate event can be overwhelming. Managing logistics, content, and sponsorships, and the on-site chaos isn’t for the weak. But with the right event tech stack, event planning can become much less daunting and allow you and your team to streamline communication, increase attendee engagement, and deliver an unforgettable experience all around.

From sales kickoffs to industry conferences to incentive trips, this guide will take you through the all of the features you should look for when selecting your event app vendor.

Why The Event App Matters

With the increasing popularity of mobile apps at events, your attendees expect all of the information they need to navigate your event at their fingertips. A custom event app is your attendees’ central hub for their personalized agendas, maps, networking, and in-session engagement which is why knowing what the must-have features are is crucial when shopping around for a new tool.

Let’s break down what features you should be looking for are.

1. Dynamic Event Agenda Builder

An app with advanced features for attendees to create their own personalized agendas gives them the power to really make the experience their own. Does your event schedule app have the ability to filter by track, speaker, or interest, with the ability to bookmark or build a personal agenda? These features can take your event from mundane to a truly personalized experience for your attendees.

Amego offers an event schedule builder that pushes content updates to the app instantly, supports multi-day formats, and can flex to even the most complex enterprise conferences.

2. Speaker, Sponsor, and Session Details

Attendees want to know more about who is leading their sessions. Your event app should be able to showcase speaker bios, session details, and related links. And to take it a step further, having live polling and Q&A capabilities elevates the app experience even more.

With Amego, event organizers can create speaker pages and give session moderators the ability to get attendees engaged during the session all within one app.

3. Event Maps and Wayfinding

Nothing is more frustrating than wandering around a convention center trying to find a session room. Interactive venue maps with pin-drop navigation help attendees move confidently between sessions, lounges, and exhibit areas.

With Amego’s EventsIQ platform, event organizers to natively upload venue maps or integrate with their favorite tools for interactive maps and wayfinding.

4. Networking tools

Aside from programming and activations, attendees go to events for the people. Your attendees crave connection and look forward to events to connect with industry professionals and colleagues. Choose an event networking app that makes connecting easy. Features like attendee profiles, in-app messaging, and meeting booking really elevate how people connect at events.

5. Real-Time Engagement Features

Don’t let the vibe during sessions go dull. Let your event app keep the energy alive with features like live polls, session Q&As, and surveys to make attendees feel involved and encourage them to join the conversation.

Amego’s suite of engagement tools include polls, Q&A, surveys, and even gamification to further incentivize participation throughout your event.

6. Sponsor Visibility

A common misconception is that your app is only for attendees but you can do so much more with the right event app. Dedicated sponsor pages and in-app promotions can drive real ROI for your sponsors further increasing the value of purchasing sponsor packages for your event.

Amego’s conference mobile app lets your event team add value to sponsor packages via various app spotlights and gamification. Add lead scanning to the mix and your sponsors will already be budgeting for next year’s event.

7. Push Notifications

Last-minute changes aren’t what frustrate attendees. It’s the lack of communication. Ensuring your event app has the ability to send push notifications to attendees to keep them informed of changes or even announce giveaways and other activations is a game-changer.

Amego makes it easy to schedule and segment push alerts so the right message reaches the right group.

8. Analytics and Reporting

Event marketers are no strangers to data. How can you consistently deliver the best events if you don’t know what worked and what didn’t at the last event? Choose an event app that captures analytics that give insight into what content landed, what attendees thought of sessions, and how people navigated the app.

Amego’s EventsIQ dashboard helps event organizers optimize events by providing valuable insights from every event.

TLDR;

Having the right event app can make or break your attendee experience. For first-time organizers, the key is finding a platform that’s intuitive, customizable, and built to grow with your needs.

With Amego, you’re getting more than an app that simply checks off boxes. From customizability to personalized agendas to networking and gamification, Amego brings value to event planners, attendees, and sponsors.