Creating a Custom App for Your Event: 5 Tips and Tricks

man using custom app for conference event

When hosting a large event or conference, keeping your attendees engaged and up-to-date is essential for guaranteeing success. While organizing the event comes with its own challenges, ensuring your attendees have a great experience should be your number one priority.

By embracing technology and creating a dedicated event app, event organizers can effectively manage schedules, facilitate interactions, and provide real-time updates. This approach guarantees attendees remain informed and engaged, contributing to the overall success of the event.
As the event landscape continues to evolve, investing in a branded event app has become an indispensable tool for event planners and associations aiming to deliver exceptional experiences and achieve their objectives.

Why Do You Need a Personalized Event App?

Before you begin developing an app for your next event, you need to understand why it’s necessary to create a customized app in the first place. A branded event app allows you to provide your attendees with real-time updates, schedules, and essential information. It serves as a central hub for participants to engage through interactive features and offers a seamless and user-friendly experience.

A branded app can also enhance attendee satisfaction, foster meaningful connections, and boost overall engagement. Additionally, the app can collect valuable data and feedback, giving you the power to improve it for future events.

In today’s digitally-driven landscape, a branded event app is an indispensable tool that elevates your event’s professionalism and ensures its resounding success with money saved.

5 Tips for Creating a Custom Event App

One of the most important factors for increasing member engagement is using a branded mobile event app with rich and reliable functionality. Having the ability to stay informed throughout the entire event will give the attendees peace of mind and get the most out of their experience.

When designing the ideal app for conferences and events, you need to tailor its features toward two things: communication and efficiency. Without a high priority on these two principles, your event, and the subsequent app, may fall apart. 

Consider the following tips for creating a branded app to help your attendees navigate your event with ease and give you a foundation for even more successful events in the future.

1. Send Push Notifications and Updates

Nowadays, in the fast-paced digital age, the reliance on push notifications has become ingrained in our communication habits. It’s the lifeline that keeps us connected and informed about updates and crucial information. Enabling push notifications and announcements within your event app is not just effective—it’s essential.

This feature is a proactive tool to remind attendees of upcoming and ongoing events, ensuring they are aware of the latest developments. It’s a real-time communication channel that promptly informs participants of any changes in the schedule or important announcements.  

By relying on the effectiveness of instant or scheduled push notifications, you’re not only providing convenience but also enhancing attendee engagement and overall satisfaction with your event experience.

2. Create Live Q&As and Polls

Are you excited to feature various professionals in your industry but are worried that attendees won’t interact or engage with their speeches or presentations? Instead of having your attendees be talked at for hours on end, make them a part of the conversation.

Equipping your mobile app for events with real-time Q&A and polling gives your attendees the power to contribute to various aspects of your event or conference. People who are not in-person can also benefit from this by staying in the loop through the app’s interactive features.

The feedback and responses you receive can also be used to improve your app and events in the future.

colleagues networking with custom app for event

3. Incorporate Networking Opportunities

Incorporating networking features into your mobile app for events can significantly elevate attendee experiences and outcomes. Creating a digital platform that facilitates networking allows participants to easily connect with like-minded individuals, speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors.

Features like attendee, speaker, and exhibitor profiles, as well as direct in-app messaging and aggregated feed systems, can foster meaningful interactions, enabling attendees to expand their professional networks and exchange valuable insights.

This not only enhances engagement during the event but also extends its impact beyond the confines of the physical gathering. Networking within the app encourages collaboration, knowledge sharing, and potential partnerships, offering attendees a chance to amplify their event participation.

Ultimately, a well-designed networking component enriches event value, promotes lasting connections, and contributes to the event’s overall success.

4. Provide Post-Event Ongoing Resources

Ensuring the relevance of your event app even after the event concludes requires strategic planning. First, you should consider extending the app’s use by transforming it into a post-event resource hub. This could involve archiving event content, such as presentations and materials, for attendees to revisit later.

Second, maintain engagement by fostering a post-event community within the app. Encourage attendees to share information, network, and continue discussions related to the event’s topics. Regularly update the app with relevant industry news, insights, or upcoming events to keep users engaged.

If you stay more involved in your attendee’s life, they will be more likely to use your app and return to your events in the future.

5. Collect Valuable Data and Feedback

Assigning check-in and check-out options to any event session (or sessions) can allow you to gain insight into attendance, as well as provide needed Continuing Education (CE) to your attendees.

As each year passes, you should be focused on improving your event and mobile app. Gathering insights from attendees’ survey results, interactions, and experiences will give you valuable information and help you know where to start.

User data reveals patterns, preferences, and areas of engagement, allowing you to fine-tune features and functionalities to better align with attendees’ needs. Additionally, feedback provides direct insights into what worked well and what could be enhanced.

By knowing exactly what your users want and need, you have the potential to enhance attendee satisfaction and provide more resources, solidifying their loyalty to you and your events.

No-Code Membership App Builder

Prioritizing attendee experience and engagement at your next event or conference can give you a leg up in your industry. MobileUp provides a seamless, no-code app builder and is dedicated to helping businesses and individuals alike build in-depth event apps. Request a demo with our team today, and let’s make your vision come to life.