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Smartphones at Meetings: The Way to Engage Attendees Now
(Corporate Meetings & Incentives Via Acquire Media NewsEdge)
By Alison Hall
Interactive technology at events is changing by the minute, so
writing an article about the latest and greatest is risky at best.
But we’ll give it a go, with the help of André Mika, senior
vice president, digital creative, at event marketing agency TBA
Global. Hot at the moment? Location-based services and QR
codes.
See and Be Seen
Location-based
services use the GPS in your smartphone to know where you are,
and to offer you information based on where you are. Here’s a
conference-related example: You’re walking down a hallway
past 10 breakout rooms. Point your smartphone at a room and it
tells you who is in that room. Go in, and now the meeting planner
knows you’re there, so she sends you a note: Do you want to
download the PowerPoint presentation from this session? Or
don’t go in, because you see that your colleague is already
listening to that session, so it would be better to attend the
session across the hall.
We should probably stop right there. What if you don’t
want people to know you’re at a particular breakout session?
Or in the bathroom? Or at the bar?
“The meeting app has the geo-locator, and you can turn it
on or off,” Mika says. Attendees can choose to be seen or not
seen, or seen just by a certain network of other attendees.
A Tiny Code, A Ton of Impact
Have you scanned a QR code yet? Have you
scanned one lately? (QR stands for “quick response,”
and the codes are small black-and-white graphics, similar to bar
codes, that are readable by mobile phones. Point your smartphone at
the code, and you get some piece of information or a link.)
“People don’t realize how much information a QR code
can trigger,” Mika says. Here are some of the
possibilities:
Give the person who scans the code a calendar link and have an
event entered automatically into their iCal or Google calendarEngage in e-commerce by sending the user a “buy
now” linkLaunch a YouTube videoSend contact information via a virtual business cardLink to social media for example, automatically post a
photo at a user’s Facebook page or send an article link to
the user’s LinkedIn pagePut up a QR code outside a breakout room, and when users scan
it, they can receive the session presentation, speaker bio, link to
an evaluation form, sign up to receive more information, or join a
LinkedIn group on the session topicUse a QR code to earn revenue for your organization while you
make attendees’ lives easier. For example, you get a company
to sponsor free Wi-Fi for attendees. The company provides a QR code
that takes an attendee directly to the Wi-Fi connection. The
sponsor’s payoff could come either from ads that users see
when connecting to the Wi-Fi or through collecting contact
information from users.Add competition or entertainment to your event. A client
recently asked TBA Global to create a game that was “light
and fun and would keep people playing” during the conference,
Mika says. So TBA Global is setting up an entirely QR-based game
with 27 QR codes throughout the venue. Every time an attendee scans
one, Mika explains, he or she is playing the game and also getting
brand messaging from the sponsor.All of these new options for interactivity along with the
evolving use of meeting apps will change the way meetings are
planned, Mika says. Here’s one example: With thousands of
people in a room for a keynote presentation, you might not plan a
Q&A segment. If you do, you have to accept that aggravating
lagtime while the questioner gets to a microphone or waits for one
to be passed around.
Well, how about allowing an attendee with a question to open
your meeting app and simply touch “Join Q,” which then
launches the FaceTime video call system? The questioner appears on
the screen at the front of the room and asks his question.
“Now you have something incredibly interactive even in a
17,000-seat arena,” Mika says. Your screen can also include
attendees’ (moderated) comments in a crawl or ticker, so
you’ve got new information constantly appearing.
“It’s up to meeting planners to rethink how interactive
they want their meetings to be.”
The Buildup
Those are some of the things that may soon be happening on site at
your conference. And if you are thinking holistically about
attendees’ digital experience at that event, you’ll
collect these and other tools in a mobile meeting app. The key to
meeting-app success is an early launch that starts the buzz.
“We think meeting apps must be launched way before the
meeting,” says Mika. Two months before, he suggests, so that
attendees have time to download the app and create their profiles,
start discussions with each other, and promote the event to their
own social networks. “A good meeting app should give
attendees an easy way to share that they are attending your
event,” he says, “and should provide an easy way for
you to get feedback so that you know their burning questions and
what is most important to them, and can start creating a bond with
them.”
He also suggests that a successful meeting app will allow users
to create not only a conference schedule but a personal schedule.
You want them to be able to organize their conference sessions as
well as their personal appointments, and to link to tools such as
OpenTable for restaurant reservations. The bottom line:
“Attendees have to find your app useful, not a one-way
broadcast.”
The goal in all of this, Mika says, is to take live events,
extend them, and make them digitally connected. And not just among
attendees. “The attendees promote the events themselves by
posting on their Facebook pages. But it’s not these posts
that have the impact,” he explains. “It’s the 550
Facebook friends who re-post. It’s the spread of the
information. The reach is the network, so the challenge is how to
get past the first level. Good content means you have a good chance
to go viral.”
Mika and TBA Global’s new “experiential
digital” team, which includes Gi-Gi Downs, vice president,
digital creative; Shawn Busteed, vice president, programming and
technology; and Ty Braswell, lead digital strategist of mobile and
apps, are focused on that challenge. “TBA Global has always
done digital,” Mika says. “But it was inserted as an
element in a live event. Now we’re acknowledging that it is
not just an element. It’s more.” Get the whole story at
the TBA Global
Web site.
One last thing: Just before this article was posted, Fast
Company posted an article called
“Augmented Reality Kills the QR Code Star.” As we
said: Things. Change. Fast.
© 2011 Penton Media
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