TOP10
IDEAS
THAT
INNOVATE
PLANNER’S
PORTFOLIO:
IDEAS FOR FUN
BREAKS
ENGAGE
ATTENDEES
UNDERSTANDING
UBER
TOP 25
COST-
CUTTING
TIPS
LESS FUSS, MORE
IMPACT FOR
YOUR EVENTS
apps to revitalise
and transform
events
Apps
T H E E V O L U T I O N O F B U S I N E S S E V E N T S
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2016
mcmag-asia.com
MEETINGS AND CONVENTIONS

20 Jan-Feb 2016meetings & conventions • mcmag-asia.com
With smartphone usage taking off like a rocket,
mobile capabilities have taken on phenomenal
possibilities, with none as versatile as that for apps.
In the meetings arena, apps development has been
enjoying impressive growth; we take a look at
10 innovative apps that could transform your event.
App&
AwayApp,

FEATURE | 10 TOP APPS
Jan-Feb 2016 21meetings & conventions • mcmag-asia.com
sia is a mobile-first market. Five of the top
10 countries with the highest smartphone
penetration rate in the world are located
here. More than two billion people in
Asia Pacific will be using smartphones in
2019 [Forrester Research, Inc, 2015]. Event
professionals in Asia should respond to the
exploding growth of smartphones with a smart
mobile strategy.
Is Mobile in Your Marketing Mix?
Event apps can be a huge time saver for
attendees who are planning their events. With
a well-designed app, you can provide them
with more than just the agenda, exhibitor list,
and floor plan. Unlike a printed brochure or
a promotional USB stick, the event app can
be updated with real-time content and is a
platform to connect attendees with speakers
and exhibitors.
Consumers are increasingly discerning
about the apps they download and use. They
will delete an app if it is hard to use and does
not add value. The Event Manager Blog team
tracked more than 100 event apps in the 2015
edition of The Event App Bible. How do you
know which app is right for you?
Corbin Ball, CMP, CSP, DES, Meetings
Technology Analyst, CorbinBall.com, said:
“It depends. One size does not fit all.
There is such a wide variety of events and
event goals. Meeting apps are like Swiss Army
Knives – there are many tools that they can
provide. In general, ease of use/navigation
should be a key criterion. I like features that
increase engagement: networking, polling,
second screen, and gamification. However, I
also like the ability to eliminate paper through
interactive programmes, etc. Also, good
analytics can be a goldmine of information for
event planners (every touch is trackable).”
What’s in an Event App?
Event apps typically offer standard features
like personalised scheduling, floor plan, maps,
speaker profiles, social media integration, and
attendee profiles. You can expect bells and
whistles such as push notification, gamification,
in-app chat, live polling, and analytics with
custom apps.
Most event apps are divided into two
kinds – native apps and web-based apps.
Native apps can function offline and access
the smartphone’s hardware, for example,
camera, GPS, and speakerphone. Web-based
apps are quick to deploy and do not need to be
downloaded on the user’s phone.
WORDS MONICA LI
Meeting apps are
like Swiss Army
Knives – there
are many
toolsthat they
can provide.
CORBIN BALL, CMP, CSP, DES,
MEETINGS TECHNOLOGY ANALYST,
CORBINBALL.COM
It depends.
One size
does not
fit all...
PHOTOS:©ISTOCKPHOTO

FEATURE | 10 TOP APPS
22 Jan-Feb 2016meetings & conventions • mcmag-asia.com
DO YOU
KNOW?
+ Asian consumers
spend hours on
their smartphones
every day (more
than three hours per
day in Hong Kong,
India, Indonesia and
Taiwan).
SOURCE: GOOGLE/TNS
AUSTRALIA, MOBILE APP
USAGE IN APAC, JUNE 2015.
+ 57%of
millennials believe
technology can
never replace face-
to-face meetings to
get business done.
SOURCE: GBTA BUSINESS
TRAVELER SENTIMENT INDEX
01
How Do I
Get Started?
02
03
04
05
Prepare an event app brief. Be sure
to include goals and objectives, target
audience, timeline, budget and resource
allocation. Giving your developer a good
brief is critical to the success of your app
design. As the famous saying goes, ‘If you
fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”
Shortlist your vendors. Get referrals from other event
professionals. Meet with app developers at events such as Asia-
Pacific Incentives and Meetings Expo (AIME). Schedule demos
online with vendors such as EventMobi and DoubleDutch. The
Event App Bible is also a great resource to compare, evaluate
and understand event apps.
Build the app. For a web-based event app, it
could be as straightforward as uploading your
content. Branded apps offer more customisation
and that requires you to work closely with
the developer to fine-tune user interface and
graphics. Remember your app has to be tested
for quality before it can be made available in
Apple’s App Store and Google Play.
Promote the app. Here’s what Corbin suggests for
making your app easy to find on-site. “Provide signage
on-site to promote the app. Good locations for signage
include the entrance, your show information booth, and
at your interactive kiosk version of the app.”
Analyse the data. User downloads only tell part
of the story. App data can be used to capture event
effectiveness and attendee behaviour. Event apps with
smart analytics can help you improve on your event real-
time. For example, if a popular session is filling up, you
can schedule a repeat session and send push notifications
to the attendees.
What Makes a Killer App?
“The main goal of event app users
is to plan their sessions; everything
else is secondary…Attendees are the
event app users, not the organisers
or the sponsors. A killer event app
must allow users to easily build their
schedules,” said Silke Fleischer, CEO,
ATIV Software
“There are several factors that go
into making a killer app for a meeting
or event. First and foremost, the best
apps are ones that answer a specific
need or requirement for attendees.
It isn’t just doing something cool.
The app must share information
that attendees want or need without
jumping through a lot of hoops,” said
Alec Sonenthal, director of technology
development, Centium Software
“Adoption by the event attendees
is the key to becoming a killer event
app. Without adoption, it really does
not matter what “cool” functionality
you offer to the attendees since few
will use and see it,” said Jan Sysmans,
head of international marketing,
DoubleDutch.
Future of Event Apps
It is impossible to ignore the global
penetration of smartphones. Event
apps are here to stay. The question
for the event professional is not if
you should use event apps but how
to make it work for you. And no
doubt, there will be millennials in the
workforce who will influence mobile
technology acceptance.
PHOTO:©ISTOCKPHOTO

Jan-Feb 2016 23meetings & conventions • mcmag-asia.com
1. Social Networking:
Post, Share, Like Your Event
DoubleDutch creates branded mobile
event apps that facilitate social
interaction between attendees and
your content. Collaboration and real-
time messaging transform passive
attendees into active participants and
help shape the tone of the event.
KEY FEATURES:
• Cross reference social contacts with
registered attendees
• Share links, photos
and videos on social
media including Twitter/
Facebook/ Pathable
• Direct messaging that
puts attendees in touch
with each other and
connects event organisers
with team members for
better customer service
2. Gamification: Turn Your Event
Into a Fun Experience
EventMobi’s event app includes the
agenda, speakers and session profiles,
maps and location information, social
media tools and rich participant
profiles so that attendees are prepared
for their onsite experience. The
gamification feature allows planners to
create games around their events.
KEY FEATURES:
• Custom-design challenges
with relevant incentives
• Drive foot traffic to exhibitor
booths with check-ins
• Help attendees retain
concepts by awarding points
for answering quizzes
3. Analytics: Turn Data
into Actionable Insights
QuickMobile’s app offers
more than an agenda and
a list of attendees. Event
The Countdown
Here’s a list of 10 event apps to help event professionals do what they do better.
Apart from event-specific apps, I have included operational apps to streamline
event management for busy event professionals.
analytics capability enables event
professionals to measure ROI and make
data-driven decisions. QuickMobile
helps clients define success metrics and
point them to the right data.
KEY FEATURES:
• Gather mobile insights before, during
and after the event
• Analytics dashboard to reveal trends
and patterns more quickly
• Create powerful reports for your team,
exhibitors and sponsors
4. Business Networking:
Connections with a Swipe
Jublia is a made-in-Singapore
start-up that is making a mark
on the world stage. Jublia offers a
networking ecosystem platform for
event organisers to enable business
matchmaking. The MATCH app
curates the list of delegates based on
one’s business matching needs, and also
schedules meetings effortlessly.
DoubleDutch helps attendees
discuss topics in real time
QuickMobile app
insights tell you
where to focus your
resources on

FEATURE | 10 TOP APPS
24 Jan-Feb 2016meetings & conventions • mcmag-asia.com
KEY FEATURES:
• Attendees can search and reach out to the
people they want to meet at the event
• An unified meetings list for users to manage the
rescheduling and cancellation of meetings
• Data-driven customer insights to quantify the
ROI of business meetings
5. Event Discovery:
Reach a Global Market
Headquartered in India, 10Times.com is a
hugely successful directory of business events.
Through the 10Times app, users can find events
based on relevant interests and connect with
people from their industry. By uploading your
event on the app, you can promote it to over 20
million users around the world.
KEY FEATURES:
• Manage, sell event tickets and promote your
event
• Visitor management system lets you see who are
attending the event
• Send timely event updates to attendees
6. Event Management:
Planning is a Breeze
EventsAIR by Centium Software provides a
powerful cloud-based organiser app for on-
the-ground management tasks that include
real-time run sheets, on-the-spot reporting, full
attendee database access, and a powerful alerts
and communications environment.
KEY FEATURES:
• Multiple dashboards for staying up-to-speed on
numerous events
• Organise agendas, venues, travel, catering,
speakers, audiovisual requirements,
entertainment, schedules, event personnel and
more
• Communication platform for confirmation
emails, marketing emails, automated follow up
and extensive targeting filters.
7. Interactive Conference Programme:
Conference Guide at Your Fingertips
EventPilot by Ativ Software is a robust
interactive conference programme
Native Apps Versus
Web-based Apps?
Mobile websites for
events are instantly
available to event attendees, via browsers
across PC and mobile platforms. On
the other hand, mobile apps require the
attendee to first download and install the
event app from Apple’s App Store and
Google Play, which could be a significant
barrier between initial engagement and
access to event content.
TAN JIE HAO, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, MICEPAD
MATCHMAKER
+ “We position
ourselves as
specialists in
business matching
for events with real-
time data analytics,
and we make sure
that we are very
good, and maintain
top-of-mind recall
with our clients.”
– Errol Lim, COO,
Jublia.com
Jublia is an all-in-one business matching eco-system
Micepad generates
ideas from attendees

Jan-Feb 2016 25meetings & conventions • mcmag-asia.com
app that can support complex scientific
and medical meetings with thousands of
presentations. Using this native app, attendees
can take notes, send messages, find rooms and
highlight exhibitors they want to see on the
expo map.
KEY FEATURES:
• Location-based alerts and notifications with
iBeacon and GPS technology
• Offline PowerPoint viewer with slide-based note
taking and unique slide sharing on the mobile
app via email, Facebook, or Twitter
• Sponsorship options ranging from rotating ads
to special sponsor listings with Web and
media links
8. Attendee Engagement:
Listen to Your Audience
Attendees no longer have to wait for a mic
wrangler or walk up to the mic stand to make
a query. They can also participate with text
commenting and live polling. Crowd Mics
powers audience engagement by turning their
phones into wireless microphones.
KEY FEATURES:
• Audience can speak into their mobile device and
be heard on the sound system
• Moderators can control Crowd Mics and
facilitate Q&A
• Questions and comments can be projected on
a screen
9. Smart Polling:
Energise your audience
Micepad is a customised application to
crowdsource questions and generate
ideas. Attendees can ask and vote for their
favourite questions to be answered. Audience
engagement levels are kept high with
MOST
COMPELLING
REASON TO
USE MOBILE
APP
#1 Improve
communications
#2 Improve engagement
of attendees
#3 Facilitate networking
among attendees
SOURCES: NORTH AMERICAN,
EUROPEAN, ASIA-PACIFIC, CENTRAL/
SOUTH AMERICAN AND KEY SUPPLIER
SURVEYS FROM AMERICAN EXPRESS
MEETINGS & EVENTS, AUGUST 2015.
interactive game-show like features such as
live polls and snap quizzes. Networking is
also made easy via the app’s built-in private
messaging system.
KEY FEATURES:
• Synchronise presenters’ slides and allow
annotation
• Capture real-time feedback, messages and poll
results
• iPads with pre-loaded Miceapp available
for rental
10. Ticketing: Effortless Check-ins
Peatix is Japan’s answer to EventBrite. With
Peatix, you can create event
pages and sell tickets online
with your mobile device. Apart
from QR code and manual
check-in, Peatix came up with
a patent-pending ColorSync
technology to check the validity
of the attendee’s ticket by
comparing the flashing colours
on the organiser’s smartphone
and the flashing colours on the
attendee’s smartphone. This
innovative technology allows
event organisers to check-in
hundreds of attendees in a matter of minutes.
KEY FEATURES:
• Event promotion through Peatix search
• Paperless ticket service
• Track ticket sales and page views 24/7Crowd Mics encourages your audience to speak up
Create paperless events with the EventPilot conference app
+ “App insights tell you
where to concentrate
your resources. They
help reveal what works
and what doesn’t so
that you can adapt
the current event and
apply your learning
to future events. You
will know which topics
people like and don’t
like, where they like to
spend their time, who
the influencers are, and
more.”
– Julie Bevacqua,
chief marketing officer,
QuickMobile
Peatix reinvents attendee
check-in experience