It might seem that event apps make bringing people together in one space redundant. A mobile event app allows us to network, chat and message, even if we’re hundreds of kilometres apart. Event apps carry pages and pages worth of information. They can host real-time presentations, live activity feeds and hold speaker Q&A sessions. With so much event activity outsourced to technology, why do we still go through the costly exercise of bringing people together?
In Person
Yes, there’s a whole host of online platforms where we can meet-up, share stories and swap notes. But digital channels have only added to the way we communicate – not replaced the need for face-to-face connections.
Holding a conversation via instant messaging or email is very different from person-to-person. Messaging discussions can be carefully curated for tone and theme. They are efficient and allow us to connect at a distance. However, exchanges tend to be shorter and are easy to interrupt.
In person, ideas and discussions follow a more natural path. It’s easier to detect shifts in tone and intent through body language. Whether we have instant chemistry with someone or need to work harder to find common ground, face-to-face networking gives us more time to get the most out of a conversation.
Bringing people together creates an optimum environment for information exchange. Face-to-face and digital connections are complementary disciplines that work together to enhance networking engagement. It’s entirely possible to conduct relationships online and through event apps, but we’ll always seek out those opportunities to shake someone’s hand.
Crowd Connections
For instantaneous feedback on how your speakers are performing or how excited people are about your sponsor’s brand, watch the crowd. Large groups provide an immediate sense of whether something is working or not.
If a speaker is engaging, the audience will be focused. They’ll ask relevant questions, laugh in the right places and will absolutely not start snoring! Successful sponsors will have a stand humming with excited, chattering attendees jostling for space.
While event apps are great at collating audience feedback – be that through formal surveys or social media feeds – seeing groups in action gives those results a human dimension. Each element acts as a qualifier for the other.
Raving accolades across social media for a certain speaker might be at odds with the live audience reaction. It allows planners to dig deeper, to consider the psychology of the human reaction, and really understand what makes an event app work.
Experiential Delights
Event apps are amazing. No doubt about it. An interactive event app can provide tickets, register your attendees, deliver all their reading material, provide maps, create online games, conduct live polls and produce complex post event analysis. And they can also tell your attendees where the wow factor is.
While we connect online, view live event feeds remotely, watch videos from our sofa, nothing beats experiencing events in person: from lolly bars to circus acts to roaring motorbikes and surprise guests. Being there to see, hear, smell and taste gives people that all important emotional connection to your event.
People come together to be delighted, share the experience, swap stories, exchange ideas and make connections. Digital channels were never designed to replace humans in this regard, only give them new tools to enhance the connections we make with each other.
