Digitalization has affected everything, including the market of the organization of various events. Booklets and paper programs are a thing of the past, today everyone wants to have the necessary information at hand without unnecessary pieces of paper. And the duty of every business is to meet the needs of its audience. In this case, we’re talking about mobile applications for organizing events that help to achieve this goal.
How to create an event app
The process of creating an application from a business point of view seems quite simple. One shall just find a competent contractor and explain the essence of the project to him, and then wait a bit, answering the questions along the way. But the problem lies precisely in the essence of the project. It must be carefully considered before starting the development.
Decide what you need the application for, what goals you want to achieve with it, what tasks it should solve. This will help to form the concept of the future application. Then you shall carry out market research to determine the level of interest for such a product. You also need to understand what is the market demands for it. And after that, you can clearly define what your application should be in order to set an unambiguous task for developers.
However, at the marketing analysis stage, many development companies, including Wezom, provide their services. And also you can count on advice on all issues regarding your application. So, you shall not get scared of generating an idea and establishing a strategy.
In addition, we’ll try to assist you as much as possible as well. We’ll speak about the main advantages and goals of developing an event application, the most popular features, as well as the development stages.
Benefits of event planning apps
Nothing in this world happens randomly. Everything that people have come up with was designed to make life easier and receive certain benefits. The event app is no exception.
First of all, applications for events help the organizers themselves. This is a platform where you can and should publish all the information about your event so that all visitors know about it. And it’s also a convenient solution for attracting a larger audience. Organizers can keep track of the number of registered participants, see their preliminary questions and answer them. And also to be sure that none of the registered audience misses the event by accident.
As for visitors, the mobile application for conferences and other events is a great way to take care of everything at once. Firstly, visitors are always aware of the time and place of the event, moreover, they can always see all the relevant information, because they have it at hand.
Secondly, the application allows you to get acquainted with the program of the event and plan your activities, prepare possible questions, get acquainted with the speakers, and not carry a bunch of information papers. Also, the audience can obtain various reminders of the event in advance and learn about other activities of interest.
Mobile app features for your event
To maximize the features and benefits, you need to implement the right set of functionality into your event management application. Of course, this set may vary depending on your goals and needs, but keep in mind that primitive functions won’t be able to provide a good user experience, and an excess of functions is likely to confuse users. Both options can decrease the popularity of your application, so the choice of functions should be approached wisely.
We’ve made a list of the most popular and useful features that applications for organizing events shall have. Let's look at them in more detail.
Geolocation
Geolocation is an important element that allows your visitors to find the location of the event. This is especially true if your event is held not only in one city. However, in large cities, this function will also be relevant. Maps integration will not only show users where to go but also will pave the most optimal route.
Scheduler
For many modern people, planning their time is very important. Provide a calendar for your event so that users always remember the date and time of the event. It’s also advisable to carry out regular reminders a week, a day, and an hour before the event. Or allow users to set a reminder at a convenient time. Integration with Google calendar or any other popular scheduling service will be a good idea that users will appreciate.
Regular automatic updates
It’s important that new events are added to the application in advance, and old ones leave the feed in a timely manner. Keep the information in the application always up-to-date, and display only the latest events. However, you can leave the option to view attended events if there are any important additional materials.
Integration with social networks
The ability to leave and read reviews, as well as share events with friends is very valuable. Many people listen to the advice of their acquaintances, friends, and especially relatives. And mentioning your event on social networks will help expand your audience reach and attract even more visitors to your event. Moreover, you can provide the opportunity to read reviews on social networks through your application, or, for example, using hashtags. It all will help users decide how interesting the new event will be for them.
Additional content
An app is a great way to provide users with as much information as possible. So, you can publish additional bio details about the speakers, provide a schedule of the event, make it possible to ask questions before and after the event. This will allow you to select interesting questions in advance and prepare answers to them, as well as devote some attention to those who would like to know something, even with a limited time of the event. You can also enable event participants to take notes during the event to capture the most important moments, as well as communicate with other participants before, during, and after the event.
As for the functions of the application for events, there’s a huge scope for imagination and development. But, as we have mentioned, it’s important not to overdo it. It's a good idea to start with the most important features, and gradually add new features based on your users' feedback. This way, you won’t waste extra resources on creating unnecessary functionality, and you’ll be able to provide your audience with everything they need.
Stages of developing an application for organizing events
When you have decided on the main concept of your future event management application, it's time to turn to the contractors for the development. What stages of work are waiting for you, what you have to do, and what to get, let's take a closer look:
- Selecting a contractor. It’s a very important stage because, among multiple offers on the market, you need to choose one company whose experience, approach, and values will impress you, so you could cooperate fruitfully. Do not rush to choose, carefully study all the offers and compare them. Don't be afraid to ask potential partners for more information. As a result, you will find the company with which you can comfortably cooperate and get an excellent result.
- Market research. Not all companies carry it out, but we prefer to do it in order to get an accurate assessment and understanding of what we’re developing the product for.
- Strategizing. It’s necessary to think over the further development and promotion of the product right away because it’s important to prepare some tools for this at the very initial stage of development. As a result, you get a detailed roadmap of your product, which will help you move in the right direction in the future and coordinate all actions accordingly.
- Prototyping. At this stage, the development team creates a schematic prototype of the future application in order to think through and take into account all the elements and their interactions. This stage helps to see the full picture of the future application and evaluate its convenience and viability in general.
- Design. At this stage, visual solutions for the application are created according to all your requirements.
- Development. Programmers create the client and server parts of the application, integrate all the necessary services, and assemble the application together.
- Testing. This stage actually rarely starts after development, more often it’s carried out in parallel, starting with the formation of the strategy, to ensure the quality of work at each stage.
- Launch. Once a product is made, tested, and adjusted as needed, it can be brought to the market, by being uploaded to app stores, and promoted as planned.
- Support. We provide our customers with technical support since the initial stage of active work with the application is always difficult and questions or problems may arise. We eliminate everything and train the customer team, making sure employees have the necessary skills to work with the product.
- Further development. It’s very important to not stop after the release of the application but to collect feedback and improve your digital product, refine the features and add new ones, ensuring it meets user expectations.
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