Event tech writer and blogger Julius Solaris recently posted on LinkedIn exploring whether events should drop their mobile apps. While Solaris was mainly referring to conferences, the mixed responses from his 46,000 followers can be applied across the live events space, including music festivals, sporting events, and exhibitions.
According to G2, the need for mobile apps at live events is still as strong as ever—nearly 70% of event attendees agree that it's vital for events to offer a mobile event app and 67% of event planning teams are looking to change the software they use to improve the attendee experience.
We’ve worked with some of the world’s leading experiences like PGA, The Jockey Club, and the Royal Highland Show, and we know that an intuitive event mobile app positively correlates with increased NPS scores and boosted attendee spending. So, here are five features every event app needs to have—and if your app doesn’t, it’s not going to be a hit.
Digital ticket sales are growing rapidly year on year, partly due to the rise of mobile applications and online ticket booking platforms. Although a paper ticket is often seen as a memento of an event, four out of five guests actually prefer digital tickets.
Implementing digital tickets and a mobile wallet is a top priority for organisers looking to invest in an app. And it’s no surprise, digital tickets:
Crucially, digital tickets also allow you to collect valuable attendee data, helping you understand the buying demographics for particular events, the most popular seats, and what makes attendees more likely to come back in the future.
At live events with a pre-determined schedule, unforeseen delays can be extremely irritating. Attendees feel like they’re in the dark and start to get impatient. From an organiser’s viewpoint, communicating changes to thousands of people isn’t easy either.
An event app opens a channel of communication between you and your attendees that you can use strategically to manage expectations and keep everyone informed. If you’re hosting a music festival for example, you can provide real-time updates on show times, and let music-lovers know if a certain band will hit the stage later than expected.
This same method goes hand-in-hand with your marketing strategy, giving you a direct channel to advertise discounted F&B and merchandise, as well as offers on future tickets.
Engagement is critical for event success. If attendees aren’t engaged with what’s happening in front of them, they’ll feel like they haven’t gotten the most out of their ticket price. With mobile tech, you can provide your attendees with a direct link to the action, such as a live scoreboard for sports events.
Take The Jockey Club as an example. They were looking for ways to increase accessibility for social race-goers who were new to the sport. They knew that to keep this group engaged, they needed to get them right to the heart of the action. After rolling out their new mobile app to 14 locations ahead of the 2024 season, race fans raved about the interactive racecard feature, ensuring they didn’t miss any of the high-octane racing.
Navigating an event is often quite an overwhelming experience for attendees. It’s a totally new venue, with a lot of stimulation trying to grab hold of their attention. A map can help them make sense of a new space, and help them get more out of their day.
Many events offer static digital maps in a downloadable PDF or as a direct link to a webpage. But, this is unengaging and dated. Interactive digital maps with wayfinding capabilities allow guests to fully understand their surroundings using recognisable points of interest. And if they’re on the hunt for more information, they can open up the points of interest to learn more about individual facilities.
It’s familiar, easy to use, and takes individual needs into account, helping guests with mobility issues find the easiest route to parts of your venue.
Today’s guests expect to be able to order food and drinks directly from an app, and events are no exception to this rule.
During a packed day, it’s tricky to find time to eat. And when you do find a slot in your schedule to grab a bite, it often ends up filled by long queue times at food trucks and bars because everyone else had the same idea. When you get to the front of the queue, you’ve got to make a quick decision based on the limited information about menu items and allergens.
Contactless and mobile ordering specialists Yoello described food ordering through an app as ‘the perfect match for live events and festivals’ and we’re right there with them. Mobile food ordering works well for large open venues for a few reasons:
So, should we be dropping event apps? Definitely not! Event apps are packed full of more features than ever before and their usage leads to positive outcomes for both attendees and organisers.
This year’s events season is fast approaching, so there’s no better time to roll out a mobile app at your events. With the Attractions.io platform, you get all of the features listed above in one complete package. Ready to take the next step? Book a zero-obligation discovery call with our experts.
