One of the biggest turn offs for me at events is the attendee mobile app. I’ve used them all at the events I’ve attended, Whova, EventMobi, Cvent, SwapCard, and more.
They all suffer from the same problem. Too much noise from unsolicited chat messages!
It’s so bad, especially at large exhibitions that I just don’t download them anymore and rely on just turning up and finding my way around using the various digital agenda screens.
Don’t misunderstand, I am not dissing the aforementioned providers. It’s just how its used at events.
Event Mobile Apps Are Abused
There are 3 types of people that use chat in event apps.
- Legitimate exhibitors who are trying to canvas attendees.
- Disguised exhibitors who are attending as attendees and are there as floor pirates.
- Like minded attendees that genuinely want to connect just to learn from each other.
As soon as you login to the app you’re going to be bombarded with messages of people ‘wanting to explore synergies‘ or ‘would love to chat to discover more about what you’re up to‘ 🙄
It’s compounded when the event also creates social forums for different purposes. You end up having 1,000’s of unread messages and bombarded with app notifications.
It makes using the app for any other purpose like finding out what’s on, or important information about access and travel etc. really hard to find.
I get the sentiment of what event mobile app chat is about. But left un-policed, it really puts a downer on the event even before its started!
Are Event App Chat & Social Features Required?
Ok, so my opinion above is based on my own feelings when I am in ‘attendee’ mode. That doesn’t mean that others feel so passionately about it.
Putting my event organizer head on now, I would say that there are benefits for having an event mobile app that can support direct messaging and social networking. But only if you:
- Absolutely believe your event needs it
- You moderate and control it
First, I think a lot of organizers think they must have this feature baked into their event platform because they get pressure from exhibitors to enable attendee outreach.
In reality your event may not even need the feature. If your event is relatively small, in a confined space where your attendees are captivated, then arguably the feature isn’t needed as everyone will meet everyone in-person anyway.
By having it, all you’re doing is prioritising exhibitor desires for early contact at the expense of attendee satisfaction.
However, if you’re running a large expo over multiple exhibition halls and days with lots of events going on, then the social networking aspect of an app could be valuable when properly moderated.
Be sure when enabling it that you’re committed to managing it.
From experience, as soon as you unlock this feature, your exhibitors will get excited. Back in 2020 when I explored this for the very first Commsverse I thought it was a great idea. I spent time setting up social groups for different purposes.
As soon as I gave access to exhibitors and attendees it became facebook. Every other post was just an advert for something.
Very little conversation happened within the topic that the group was meant for.
As the event went on and towards the final few hours, the level of spam increased exponentially as exhibitors aggressively promoted themselves in every group going.
Even worse were the floor pirates.
You as an event organizer have a duty of care to protect everyone at your event and this extends to social activity on your chosen event app.
You need to actively moderate it with your staff. Delete inappropriate posts, warn users, and even ban them if needs must.
Otherwise your attendees will just delete the app and you may as well not have subscribed to it in the first place.
How To Make Event App Networking That Works For All
Over the past 4 years I have spent hours talking to exhibitors and attendees on what they prefer from an event app.
Overwhelmingly attendees just want a mobile app that allows them to find their ticket, browse the schedule, and find important information. They don’t want to be bombarded with messages.
Exhibitor staff who are physically attending your event do want the opportunity to connect with attendees and have long lasting conversations.
Remote exhibitor staff like marketing want to market and any communication surface is a potential platform.
The Just Attend mobile app brings what I feel is balance and offers everyone the best experience and opportunity possible without over stimulating the attendee.
We don’t have in-app chat. Direct messaging is not planned for the app. Even if we created a message firewall where the attendee must confirm acceptance leads to an unwanted list of ‘friend requests’ and message indicators.
Instead, we have a feature called ‘Connect‘.
With connect attendees can search for the person they want to connect with by name, or scan their attendee badge if using our badge printing solution.
They can then send their contact card details to that attendee via the app. Think of it as you sending someone your digital business card.
The contact can then choose themselves if they want to share their digital business card back with you. If they don’t, then future contact with that attendee is down to them to initiate with you.
If someone has shared their contact card with you, then you’ll be able to initiate a conversation with them.
We’re aware that most conversations outlast the event and will soon turn to off-platform email anyway, so rather than build a complicated chat function, the start conversation button launches their default mobile email client and opens a new email to you.
After that, you continue your conversation via your email address and not Just Attend.
This feature keeps the app clear of unwanted notifications and message spam whilst giving attendees the power to decide to contact exhibitors who’ve shared their contact card, or not.
As the sharing is not mutual, this effectively stops any floor pirates from poaching attendees away from paying exhibitors.
For exhibitors who want to capitalize on their newly acquired leads via the app, they can do the same. Once they have scanned an attendee as a lead, they can open an email conversation with them directly from their business email account.
This removes the obstacles for easy post event follow up and having to switch conversations from one app to another, especially when its hotting up.
There is nothing worse than having half of the conversation in the event app and the other half in your inbox!
