Mary MacGregor joined BI Worldwide (BIW) in January of 2013 as corporate vice president – event solutions. She comes to BIW after serving as the leader of business development, events and marketing for other major third-party organizations. In her current role she is responsible for all operating areas of the BIW Event Solutions Group including purchasing, design, delivery, group air, individual incentive travel, onsite operations, technology, communications and merchandise. She leads a team of more than 175 industry professionals who deliver memorable experiences and measurable results for their customers. In 2011, Mary served as global president of Site (Society of Incentive & Travel Professionals). For more information, visit BIWorldwide.com or contact us at info@biworldwide.com.

It’s no secret that it’s all about mobile in today’s fast-paced, global business environment. According to a survey conducted in June 2013 by Qualcomm:

• 76 percent of respondents said they are constantly connected to mobile technology.
• 29 percent said their mobile phone is the first and last thing they look at each day.
• 37 percent check their mobile device every 30 minutes or less.
• 34 percent believe they could only go a few hours without their mobile phone.

In a study conducted by Foursights Workforce, global information workers in 17 countries reported that:

• 52 percent use a combination of three different smart devices — PCs, tablets and smartphones — to do their jobs.
• Of these, 14 percent actually use six or more devices.
• 25 percent ONLY use a tablet or smartphone to conduct business and never access a PC or Mac.

IDC Technologies reports that by 2015 it is projected that 81 percent of U.S. cell users will have smartphones, and PC usage will continue to erode.

Mobile Is Mandatory

It only makes sense then that you must communicate with your meeting and event participants in a mobile-friendly environment. While most business professionals still do have computers, they increasingly rely on — and actually prefer — to use mobile devices as their primary form of communication.

Busy businessmen and women need event information they can access in multiple ways: from their home or office computers, tablet devices and smartphones. Having everything needed to get ready for and participate in your event available in a mobile-friendly format is no longer a wish; it is a requirement.

Event attendees do not want to lug a file folder full of itineraries, reservation confirmations, travel instructions and destination maps with them when they travel on increasingly crowded flights. Nor do they want to stuff the requisite three-ring binder, guidebooks and product literature into their carry-ons for the flight home.

Mobile Is the Only Way to Go

All of your important pre-event interactive communication and registration can be easily handled by a well-designed event planner’s mobile-friendly Web-based platform. Good planners also will support onsite communication with a convenient app. A wide range of event planning logistics can be handled efficiently by mobile-friendly platforms. A best-in-class mobile-friendly platform will provide:

• Cross-platform functionality. It must run on PCs, tablets and smartphones using Windows, Apple and Android operating systems.
• Communications tools. Participants should be able to find everything they need to know about the event, hotel and host location from their preferred device. A good platform will let you display photos, show video, have a countdown clock and weather widget, and accept links to hotel, airline, destination and other related sites.
• Social networking. You’ll likely want to use social media sites for some of your event communications and give participants the ability to share the event with their networks.
• Registration tools. Make sure you can create a registration questionnaire that can be tailored to your specific event requirements. Some platforms have standard templates that don’t necessarily give you flexibility to get the information you need for your event. Other important considerations may be the ability to make roommate assignments, accept credit card payments and pre-load data from previous events.
• Information exchange. From their preferred device, participants should be able to respond to surveys, respond to requests for information, schedule themselves for meetings, meals and other activities, and ask specific questions of you.
• Data transfer. If you’ll be distributing content at your event, make sure your participants can download documents in a variety of formats including Word, PowerPoint and PDF. This functionality alone can save you a tremendous amount of money in printing costs and help your conference leave a smaller carbon footprint.
• Analytics. As you plan your event and later look at post-event numbers, you’ll want to be able to generate reports on attendance, participation, costs and other key metrics. Look for technology that gives you the reporting capabilities you need.

There are many event planning technology platforms and apps to choose from if you are doing everything on your own. A quick Google search or search in your device’s app store will give you many options. If you are working with an event agency, they should have flexible and comprehensive mobile-friendly Web-based platforms and onsite apps available as part of their services to you.

BI Worldwide uses an exclusive EngageNGo™ mobile-friendly Web-based platform for pre-event interaction communications and our Engaging Meetings™ app for onsite communications with our clients to help get maximum impact from their meetings and events.

EngageNGo offers:

• Mobile-friendly functionality on multiple operating systems and devices;
• Secure access with single sign-on capabilities;
• Interactive and dynamic participant communication including video;
• Customizable registration portal with credit card payment capabilities;
• Ability to conduct surveys to facilitate event planning;
• Social-networking interfaces;
• Reporting and analytics to help with post-event debriefings.

Engaging Meetings provides:

• Schedule information;
• Speaker bios;
• Attendee roster;
• Sponsor information and links;
• Event documents (go paperless!);
• Links to social networks.

It’s certainly an understatement to say that planners have a challenging job meeting attendee expectations in the face of rapidly changing mobile technologies. But the right event technology platform not only will do all the heavy lifting, it will facilitate the optimum outcome for your meetings and events. C&IT