Mobile event apps have become an important, and often expected part of the conference experience. When paired with online conference materials, you provide the perfect combination of usability and accessibility for your event content.
One question we get from customers is whether it’s necessary to offer both a mobile app and web-based access to the event schedule and session content. The answer depends upon your attendees, their preferences, and how they use technology. But it’s also important to understand that a mobile event app doesn’t replace online conference materials. It complements them.
Here are five reasons to keep your online conference materials
1. Web and mobile content serve different purposes
When attendees view your event schedule and session content online before the conference begins, they are usually starting to plan their event experience—including making the decision whether to attend. After they conference, they will usually hop online again to revisit favorite papers and presentations.
Conference apps, meanwhile, help drive the on-site event experience. Attendees use them to navigate the event schedule and logistics, and connect with other attendees. Event organizers use them to provide timely updates to attendees, increase engagement, and promote sponsors.
2. Online conference materials have a longer shelf life
Some attendees may start using an event app during the days before a conference begins to scope out other attendees and make appointments. But the majority of an app’s usage happens during the event. And most attendees don’t return to the app after returning home.
Online materials are viewed days, weeks, and even months after the conference wraps up. Attendees will revisit learning concepts from sessions they attended, and use it as an opportunity to seek out content from sessions they weren’t able to attend.
3. The online platform provides increased exposure for event sponsors
One of the benefits of having both a mobile app and online conference materials is you have an additional place to promote event sponsors and exhibitors. Within your online proceedings website or platform, include your sponsors’ banner ads, videos, company descriptions, logos, and other promotional materials. And because everything is online, you can easily track and measure engagement for each sponsor.
4. Online content can be discovered by search engines
To access content in the app, an attendee has to already be registered for the conference. But what about those that haven’t registered yet? When you put your event content online, you increase the opportunity for it to be picked up by search engines and served to prospective new attendees who are interested in these same topics (as long as the content has been search-engine optimized, of course!). You can still restrict access to content, like full technical papers, so that only registered attendees can view them. Just make sure your conference and session descriptions are on pages that can be crawled by search engines.
5. Online conference materials can become a source of non-dues revenue
Think beyond this year’s event. Start building a multi-year library of online conference proceedings and charge members or non-members for access. You can select who gets to see what content from recent or past events and start building a new source of non-dues revenue for your organization.
Mobile app vs. online conference materials shouldn’t be an either/or scenario. They both serve very different purposes. Together, they can increase the value of your event for attendees and beyond.
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