About NABC: The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) is a community of 5,000 college and high school basketball coaches across the country. From networking to advocacy, the NABC ensures coaches’ voices are heard, especially when it comes to critical NCAA decisions.
Their annual convention gathers more than 3,000 coaches alongside the NCAA Men’s Final Four. With ample clinics, speakers, special events and peer to peer connections, the event demanded a mobile app the team could depend on.
Who We Spoke To:
Eric Wieberg, Director of Communications & Digital Media
Mark Heatherman, Senior Director of Events
The Problem: An Overcomplicated App That Didn’t Fit the Team
The NABC had been using a mobile app for their convention since 2012. But over time, the app had grown bloated and cumbersome to use. It was also far more expensive than it needed to be.
“It wasn’t what we needed, and definitely not what we wanted to keep paying for,” said Mark, NABC’s Senior Director of Events.
The old app was rife with features the team didn’t need, but lacked ones they considered essential, like push notifications. This was a huge shortcoming when dealing with erratic schedule updates at a live event. “We’d have last-minute speaker or room changes, and we couldn’t notify attendees in real time. That alone was frustrating.”
Beyond the event, the NABC juggled a host of disconnected tech tools. The idea of consolidating or integrating their software was appealing, but seemed out of reach.
How MobileUp Solved the Problem
The NABC was dealing with a tighter event planning timeline in 2025 than they were used to; this made them gun-shy about moving to a new event app. However, when Mark came across an email from MobileUp, something clicked. The app was clean, aligned with what they needed, and came in at a much better price point.
The MobileUp team could get the job done seamlessly, despite the time crunch. With that, the NABC was sold.
“The onboarding call took longer than it took them to build and design the app. Within 30-45 minutes, everything was up there… It really couldn’t have been easier to get it up and running,” the pair said.
MobileUp’s specialization in associations was also a huge selling point. The event app wasn’t built for just any audience; it was tailored to their market, with their needs uniquely in mind.
A Distinctly Human Customer Service Experience
The duo raved about MobileUp’s team. “From start to finish, they’ve always been very positive and responsive. Having a real person to go to is incredibly helpful, as opposed to submitting a support ticket and waiting 3 days.”
Every time they needed help or got stumped, they relished the ability to get such a quick response from their account executive. “It’s just reassuring to have a name you know you can reach out to. It’s more personal and human.”
The Result: A Better Experience for Staff and Members
Once the app went live, the difference was immediately clear for both staff and attendees. “It’s opening our staff’s eyes to what an app can really do. Before MobileUp, it was mostly just scheduling,” they said.
- Notifications Transformed Communication: Push notifications enabled real-time updates, letting the NABC team communicate instantly with coaches. This is one of many ways the app made a better impression on attendees. No more frantic email blasts or hoping people saw an update.
- Consolidated Digital Member Cards: NABC currently pays for a separate service to provide digital member cards to attendees. Once they transition to the year-round MobileUp solution, this will be yet another feature that comes with their MobileUp app.
- Additional Revenue Stream With Sponsor Branding: They prized the ability to add sponsor branding to the app. This is an enticing feature for potential title sponsors, and all but cancels out the cost of the app.
- Stronger UX: The user experience managed to be both simpler and more sophisticated than their previous app partner, preventing redundant tasks.
- Seamless Branding: Customization was superior, enabling seamless and consistent branding across the app. Clear image specs were appreciated, because the team didn’t have to spend 15 minutes hunting down that info in some knowledge base.
- Easy Content Uploads: Content uploads were considerably easier with MobileUp thanks to their bulk spreadsheet imports. This was something the NABC hadn’t had in the past, saving tons of time. The tool spared them the tedium of individual uploads for things like schedules and room assignments.
Standout Benefit: On the app, members are always reachable, regardless of phone or email changes. The nature of their industry means that coaches change jobs often, and every year their cell phone number and email could change, if it was university provided. Coaches rarely remember to update their number/email with the association. Having a mobile app completely circumvents this problem.
Ultimately, switching to MobileUp didn’t just improve the member experience. It cut costs, saved staff hours, and freed the team from wrestling with bad UX.
NABC’s Message to Others Considering a MobileUp App:
“I don’t code. I don’t have a software developer or graphic designer on staff. We have limited internal resources both financially and personnel-wise. Because of MobileUp, that doesn’t come across in the app experience for our members. It’s a professional, high-quality, visually appealing user experience. Much more high tech than what we could build on our own, or other apps that would’ve required more developer resources.”
“You won’t regret it. It’s so straightforward, so simple, and saves so much time. And at that price point, to get something so simple and professional looking, there’s really no downside.”
Ready to Get Your Own MobileUp App?
MobileUp helped NABC do more with less.
They just needed a partner that understood associations, and delivered.
Want to see what MobileUp could do for your event or membership? Let’s chat. It all starts with a brief demo. Or simply reach out with any questions you have, and we’ll get them answered. It starts by clicking below to request a demo or learn more.
