Approximately 80-90% of the population within the U.S. is utilizing mobile phones to communicate, surf the web, use social media, using maps to find restaurants and much more. You can no longer ignore today’s mobile phone user if you are an Event, Meeting or Conference Planner! Mobile users are in general sophisticated, tech savvy and are drawn to events that let them leverage their mobile phones through an event app.

Here are ten ways to leverage Mobile Phone Apps for your Event:

1) Integrate your corp logo to drive strong brand awareness.

2) Use the Mobile App as a revenue generator by charging your sponsors, speakers and vendors to have a presence within the Mobile App and of course to leverage fixed costs for marketing materials and distribution of same.

3) Let you vendors and sponsors connect directly with your attendees and generate leads in real time.

4) Use a Mobile conferenc App to engage with your attendees and to connect leads for your organization, which can even be leveraged during the event by offering special promotions and break out events (that generate incremental revenue).

5) Reduce your carbon footprint and be certified as a “green” organization.

6) Boost and keep track of event attendance using Mobile Apps – offer a special promotion right within the app to drive revenue, connectivity with a vendor and/or a breakout event within your conference.

7) Leverage the Mobile event App to enable your Attendees to download content digitally, which saves significant marketing costs.

8) Integrate speaker’s bios and backgrounders within the Mobile App and your Event Schedule and offer special deals or promotions within the app for your Attendees.

9) Use a Mobile App to stay connected with the attendees after the event – once they have registered and downloaded the app use this information to send them emails that can be used to garner information to improve your next event via a survey and/or a permission email that asks them if you can continue to connect with them.

10) Integrate Social Media Apps (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest) and or processes within your Mobile Application, depending upon the features offered by your mobile app vendor. Ask them for event app gamification to further enhance your promotion efforts. In some cases you may not need this level of functionality or capability if this is your first Mobile App enabled event. In most cases it’s better to utilize a crawl, walk, and run strategy for mobilizing an event. Don’t bight off more than you can chew and/or easily integrate with your Event.

Mobilising events is a great way to make you event a success. Event management becomes a lot eesier if you have an mobile event app to mobilise you event. It helps you keep connected to the attendees as well the oragniser from your mobile. Below are six key metrix that will help you mobilize your event:

1. Understand the audience

Have an in-depth understanding of your targeted audience and a strong grasp of what type of capabilities your venue has in place. As an example, if you are going to leverage mobile for your attendees you want to ensure they can easily access and utilize your Mobile App, Wi-Fi usage and the facilities provided by your venue. If some portion of your attendees are from outside the US, they may have a difficult time accessing Wi-Fi, which in turn limits their usage of any and all mobile applications.

2. Update information on the go

One of the great benefits of a conference app is updating it in real time. But, you need to make sure you are comfortable using and updating your Mobile App and that the interface conveys information that can be easily grasped by the attendees. When you are choosing a Mobile App vendor have a check off list of functionality you think will provide the type of functionality and usage your attendees will need.

3. Socialise with your app

Have a good grasp of the type of social media your attendees prefer and make sure these are integrated with your mobile app; or not, if you don’t feel your audience will use social media during your event. If your event is just a few hours or one day, integrating social media with your mobile event will probably not be needed.

4. Promote your app

If you are using a Mobile App it will be critical to promote it prior to the event. Communicate with your attendees and ensure they know how to download the event App and how to use it prior to and during the event. Don’t assume your attendees will want to or have an interest in spending a lot of time using a Mobile App – make it easy to access the app and use it. Complex instructions are not a good idea!

5. Be  practicle with you app

Have realistic expectations for your first Mobile App enabled event. Start off with a mobile app that has basic functionality; i.e. an event guide for your attendees that is easy to understand, that supports all major platforms (Android, iPhone, Blackberry), showcases your sponsors within the App, links to a registration page, lists all speakers and may even incorporate banner ads (to drive incremental revenue for you).

6. You can monitise your event app

Don’t think about a event planning app as a fixed cost, think of it as a revenue generator and cost reduction vehicle. By incorporating a Mobile App you will significantly reduce your overall marketing costs by going digital with all and you will have the ability to sell sponsorship promotions within most Mobile Apps and/or other types of advertising. Think about renting a iPad as an example to event attendees that will have your Mobile App pre-installed as well as sponsorship promotions.

Today’s mobile or smartphone ready individual presents opportunity and challenges to an event planner. A well planned event is focused on bringing people together, with a unifying focus and goal and engaging your attendees with digital (preferably) content that they can and will share with others.

In 2011 sales of Mobile phones overtook PC sales for the first time – there are over 5.3 billion mobile phones worldwide and 600 million of these users are also accessing the internet. Mobile phones have become an integral part of Event Planning, you need to understand how to capture the attention of mobile phone users!

Driving Engagement with Mobile Enabled Attendees

You may have put a great deal of hard work into your event. But, mobile phone users may be busy sharing pictures, using social media to talk about your event (or for other purposes), playing games, emailing, texting, mapping the event or where to go after or during the event, etc. So an event app that allows attendees to share the event on social media will be areat boost for the evenet.

So, it behooves you to think about how you can incorporate a mobile strategy with your event to keep your attendees engaged and/or leverage technology. Not only will a mobile event app cut paper and branding costs, it will also engage your attendees and enable you to communicate with them using mobile technology; i.e. QR codes, SMS reminders, post/share networking events, special breakout meetings, pictures and images from the event – all of these activities help to drive engagement with your attendees.

Planning and Optimizing your Next Event

One of the best ways to leverage today’s mobile enabled attendee is to ask them what they are looking for when they attend your next event. Query them about specifics; do they want to use a event planning app for your next event and if so, what type of functionality are they looking for? Should it be integrated with social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.) and what type of integration are they looking for.

Also, don’t forget about your sponsors and speakers – you can leverage sponsors by integrating sponsorships with a white label event app that generate incremental revenue for your event and that also help to engage with your attendees. And, many of your presenters and speakers may want to promote their books, seminars and their own events – this creates an incremental revenue opportunity for you as well.