Use a Mobile App to Empower Attendee Engagement

If you were to ask most event managers what their greatest challenge is relative to event management, the majority would respond with “attendee engagement.” 

Trust us (we have asked). These event planners do not even hesitate or give their response a second thought. 

For that reason — and all the conversations leading up to it — our team decided it was worth publishing a blog post about how to engage your attendees. Our goal is to offer some fun suggestions and out-of-the-box ideas to help you drive attendee engagement at your next event. 

Of course, a list of ideas — no matter how good they might be — is only as helpful as a plan or tool to execute them. 

That’s why we’ll connect each of our attendee engagement ideas into the common theme of a mobile event app. 

Ultimately, by integrating the right mobile event app with your existing event management strategy, you’ll be able to implement new ideas for attendee engagement with less fuss, and more fun! 

So, let’s take a look at some of those ideas in order to illustrate how a mobile event app is the partner in planning you never knew you needed. 

Engage your attendees with real-time relevance

Attendee engagement has always been a tricky task. 

How do you create ways to engage your audience that aren’t:

  1. A) tired 
  2. B) cheesy 
  3. C) without value? 

Although this question was relevant before the pandemic, certainly the additional challenge of striking the right note with both virtual and in-person audiences has only complicated the answer. 

And we know event planners just love it when the goal of satisfying these distinct attendee types is further stretched by designing ways for them to meaningfully engage each other during the event. 

It’s attendee engagement overload.

Regardless, as an event planner it’s your job to make it happen. 

Here are some popular and proven ways to do it!

1. Get chatty

 By using mobile event app tools like chat and messaging, you can encourage attendees to engage with one another, as well as your content. Sure, there’s one-to-one messaging or group chats, but you can also get super social and organize forums and community threads to get attendees talking about what’s going on at your event and within their industry. Remember, they’re attending to learn something. They have a goal for being there (even if they’re there virtually). Supplying them with innovative and easily accessible tools like chat and messaging features will ensure they’re connected where and when they need (and you need them) to be. Support these connections by creating a unique hashtag for attendees to use when sharing interactions and stories about your event. 

2. Keep it real

And keep your finger on the pulse of what is actually going on, on the ground, or virtually. Leverage live polls, Q&As, and surveys to gain insights into how your attendees are actually experiencing your event in the moment, from moment to moment. A quick show of hands online or a lightning round style live poll gives you data about attendee behavior and your event, overall. 

3. Make it a game

Think about it: When we’re kids, just about everything is a game, a competition, a challenge. The challenges are plentiful enough in professional pursuits, but carefree competition is what’s missing. “Double dog dare” your attendees with gamification, presenting them with quizzes, trivia, and the chance to bag a few prizes in the process. (Pro-tip: Tap your sponsors and exhibitors for free (branded) swag and protect your budget from prize purchases. Your exhibitors and sponsors will see this as a win-win, we assure you).

4. Stay in their face

Okay, don’t be a nuisance but do keep your event offerings top of mind with push notifications and friendly reminders about session start times, games, and giveaways. In all seriousness, most of us welcome reminders about just about everything. Given how hectic most events and expos can become, your attendees will appreciate quick pings to their phones, reminding them that something worthwhile is on their agenda. 

5. Surprise them!

 Sure, push notification reminders are helpful and absolutely nurture attendee engagement. Definitely ensure those are in place. And also consider setting up a few fun surprises, like announcements about incentives, raffles, and even where (or how for virtual attendees) to pick up free swag. Whenever possible, connect these surprises to your event location. For instance, raffle off dinner for two to a landmark restaurant or offer passes to a local museum or other tourist attraction. You can do the same for virtual attendees by incorporating local flair in the form of branded items or content from these vendors and attractions. 

We can guess what you’re thinking… Can a mobile event app really help me manage all of this

Well, only the right mobile event app offers you all these capabilities (and then some). 

Presenting Pathable: the event platform made for event planners. 

What puts Pathable ahead of the pack?

Plenty! However, there are also plenty of mobile event apps on the market that can do much of what’s suggested above to engage your attendees. 

Pathable, however, also offers full on-demand and live video, as well as the space to warehouse additional event content which attendees can access at any time — even after the event is long over. 

Additional features of the Pathable mobile event that help engage your attendees include:

Mobile App Customization

Whatever your audience needs, you can design your app accordingly using Pathable’s widget-based app builder, which helps attendees isolate the event content they actually care about.

Personalized Agenda and Session Schedule

It doesn’t matter if your event is a simple single-track or complex, multi-track expo, all event stakeholders can easily access the event content you’ve created.

Profile + Meeting Attributes 

This is event networking made simple. With this mobile event app feature, attendees are able to see other attendees’ schedules to see when they’re available to meet versus when they’re busy. By using this tool, attendees can schedule one-on-one meetings or book meeting spaces like tables or virtual conference rooms.

Interactive Maps

Returning to our earlier point about alerting attendees to places where they can pick up free swag, the interactive maps feature is a navigational tool, ensuring that attendees know of important locations, as well as how to access sessions and meetings.

At the end of the day (but before the end of your event), you can easily engage your attendees by prioritizing convenience and connectivity. 

Pathable’s mobile event app is simple to set up and allows attendees to register onsite or online. From there, they can scan their own badge, dodging a potentially lengthy in-person check-in process. That covers convenience. 

From a connectivity consideration, between Pathable’s intuitive dashboard, real-time updates, email, and push notifications, attendees are constantly connected to the colleagues and content that they care to engage with. 

Engage your attendees better than ever before by partnering with Pathable and leveraging our mobile event app.

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Improve Attendee Engagement at Hybrid Events

With so many of our daily professional and personal interactions playing out on screens, it can be difficult to drive engagement at hybrid events. Most of us have experienced Zoom fatigue and can probably admit to multi-tasking with the video off during long calls. 

 

But actually, the duration of the call isn’t really what’s at stake — it’s whether you feel engaged with the conversation. If you don’t feel like a stakeholder around the table — whether that table is in-person or virtual – you aren’t going to engage with those in the seats around you. 

 

So, too, is the challenge of driving engagement at hybrid events. Without connection and meaningful content, the presence of your hybrid attendees will, quite literally, fade to black. 

 

Ideally, you not only want to engage those who are attending virtually, but connect them with those who have opted for the in-person experience. 

 

In other words, the challenge of increasing engagement at hybrid events is actually two-fold: Connect your virtual audience with content that keeps them engaged while creating opportunities for virtual and in-person attendees to connect with your program — and each other. 

 

A tall order, but one that can be met with specific features of a virtual platform, including a mobile app designed to enhance attendee engagement. 

 

The following offers you some proven strategies to help you better manage and grow virtual attendee engagement at your next hybrid event. 

Why is attendee engagement critical to your hybrid event?

Before we explore the tools to help you increase engagement among your attendees, it’s important to understand what the attendance and engagement rates typically look like. 

 

Did you know, according to Capterra, that the no-show rate for virtual attendees tops 35%?Complicating that percentage further is the fact that 71% of event planners cite connecting in-person and virtual attendees is their greatest challenge. 

 

Greatest challenge or not, the problem of lackluster attendee engagement needs to be solved sooner than later, given that a whopping 73% of event planners anticipate hybrid events will increase in the future

 

So, what are some strategies to help you better connect with virtual attendees and keep them engaged throughout your event? 

Elevate engagement for attendees at hybrid events

Part of the trouble with virtual attendance can be summed up by the expression, “out of sight, out of mind.” If your virtual attendees feel invisible, they’ll be more likely to no-show or drop out not long after your event launches. 

 

The trick then is to hook them before your event begins and continue to nurture the connection throughout your program, start to finish. 

Pre-hybrid event pro-tips

Before day one, you might consider sending a swag bag of event goodies — just the same as they would collect if they were attending in-person. 

 

We don’t have to tell you that this benefits just about everyone, including your sponsors and exhibitors. Give them the opportunity to “meet” your virtual attendees ahead of time by including branded items in your swag bag. This can help you defray costs of filling the bags with items from outside vendors. 

 

Remember, free swag can simply come down to discount codes and vouchers, too, so you don’t necessarily have to incur the expense of sending physical items to virtual attendees’ residences. 

 

Put the same effort into your virtual presentation as you do your physical floorplan. 

 

Whether that means investing in higher-quality production essentials like AV, lighting, microphones, and camera angle expertise, put yourself in the virtual shoes of your attendees and imagine what a better Zoom experience would look like to you. 

Real-time hybrid event pro-tips

Perhaps the most important: connect virtual and in-person attendees.  

 

Think of the expression, “The more, the merrier.” 

 

That’s the approach you want to embrace when you create experiences for your attendees. In other words, think of how both audiences can show up — even if only on a screen — and share the experience. 

 

You’ll want to start by addressing both audiences at the start of your event, by way of introducing one to the other. 

 

From there, you’ll need to explain how the hybrid component will work for everyone and emphasize ways that in-person and virtual attendees can connect and interact with each other. 

 

Once everyone is clear on how the hybrid program will run, they will all — especially those attending virtually — feel more empowered to engage with their colleagues, as well as your content. 

 

What opportunities can you create for virtual and in-person attendees to interact and engage at your hybrid event? 

  1. Networking. We all know that networking tops the list of why anyone participates in an event, be it in-person, virtual or hybrid. Establish a schedule of breakout and networking events, specifically around certain topics whenever possible. 
  2. Schedule connection via sessions that feature engagement tools, such as polling. It’s a good idea to do this throughout the event to ensure everyone is on the same page… and awake. This can be as simple as requesting a quick raise of hands, and show both audiences as they respond. 
  3. Live chat during demos can help answer attendees’ questions in real-time and cater the demo to their specific needs. 
  4. Request a 1:1 meeting: Allow attendees to sign up on your virtual platform to have a live meeting when it is convenient for them to dive deeper into your organization. 
  5. Complete on-demand and live video: Make sessions available for the whole team. Allow attendees to watch and take notes on their team to provide insightful notes back to their team. 

While we advocate for inclusion between both audiences, there is also a time and place for exclusivity. 

 

What do we mean by this?

 

The goal here is to make your virtual attendees feel seen and, well, special. So, as much as we encourage meaningful connections between both audiences, we also acknowledge that attending an event virtually will never really be the same as being there in person. 

 

While this isn’t necessarily a negative thing, the onus is on you to enhance the experience for virtual attendees, which is why we advise hybrid event managers to offer virtual attendees their own content resources. 

 

This can include specific downloadable content, designed for and delivered strictly to virtual attendees after the event. Or, even better, you can also up the ante by offering online-exclusive communication like Q&A sessions with your hybrid event speakers. 

Put your plan to enhance virtual attendee engagement into action

We know what you’re thinking… sounds great. How in the world do I get started? 

 

It would be impossible to think that any event manager would take on the task of enhancing virtual attendee engagement alone. There are too many details and moving parts to manage successfully, which increases your chances of failure. 

 

Don’t risk it. Instead, consider the event platform made for event planners.

The finer points of Pathable

A hybrid event platform, Pathable was created to connect people to people, no matter where they are. Easy-to-use, end-to-end, and reliable, Pathable offers event engagement reimagined. 

 

For instance, our mobile event app is a proven game-changer for hybrid events, specifically with respect to virtual attendee engagement. 

 

With the Pathable mobile event app, all attendees and event stakeholders can access your event from anywhere. 

 

By using the mobile event app all attendees can access shared engagement experiences, as well as their event content. 

 

This is possible, thanks to specific features of the app, including: 

Mobile app customization

Empower attendees to highlight the event content that is most relevant to them, via a customizable widget-based app builder

Personalized agenda and session schedule

Give easy access to all event content, regardless of whether your event is a simple single-track program or a complex, multi-track conference 

Profile + meeting attributes

Streamline networking by allowing attendees to access each other’s schedules and book private meetings, tables, or virtual meeting rooms

 

Between personalized agenda, easy registration, and real-time notifications and bulletins, virtual attendees will have greater control of their own event experience. 

 

By putting event management somewhat in the hands of your virtual attendees, you’re positioning yourself to increase virtual attendee engagement at your next hybrid event. 

 

Have questions? Need a few more details before you partner with Pathable?

 

No problem!

 

Simply request a demo when you’re ready to elevate engagement at your next hybrid event!

Manage Mobile Event Apps for Enhanced Event Tracking

Of all the event technology that exists today, mobile event apps might be the most helpful. Why, you say? It aids in supporting and streamlining each step of your event process for a successful event.  

  

Between the convenience, capabilities, and cutting edge innovation, mobile event apps are making event planners’ lives easier everywhere. Not to mention enhancing the experience for attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors.  

  

Discover how you can manage mobile event apps for every step of the event process before you embark on your next event journey.  

  

Pro-tip: Pathable’s mobile event app provides enhanced engagement opportunities, in addition to virtual live and on-demand videos.  

  

Both of these provide targeted insights into your event, allowing you to track what your attendees are most engaged with for more strategic future event planning.  

  

Let’s check out more of Pathable’s potential by illustrating how mobile event apps can enhance your event tracking and efforts all around.  

 

 

Without a mobile event app, you’re missing out! 

The reason why mobile event apps are so critical to event management, and event tracking in particular, can be connected (see what we did there?) to the proliferation of personal devices. Smartphones, specifically. 

  

Did you know that, according to Infinum in 2020, “We live in a time when 3.5 billion people are using smartphones – that’s almost 50% percent of the world population. The enormous number has led to a staggering 204 billion app downloads since last year, and brought in more than 120 billion dollars revenue.”  

  

  

Fast-forward to 2022 and smartphone statistics published by Oberlo have grown even more staggering: “In 2022, the number of global smartphone users is estimated at 6.6 billion, marking a 4.9 percent annual increase. It is also 2.9 billion, or 79 percent, more than the number of smartphone users there were in 2016, just six years ago Reports estimate that the number of global smartphone users will continue to increase and hit 6.8 billion by 2023.” 

  

Increasingly, consumers are eager and expect to manage all sorts of personal and professional activities on mobile apps.  

  

In fact, Webinar Care recently updated mobile event app statistics for 2022, including the following:  

  • 60% of smartphone users are using their devices at events 
  • Event app powered events generate 42% more social media impressions 
  • 46% of event professionals plan upwards of 10 events, annually. The cost of an event app is 1.2% of the budget for each attendee. 

  

As an event planner, you can leverage this data to your advantage by tracking mobile app activity to glean actionable insights that will elevate your event planning.  

  

Again, Infinum illustrates the value of mobile event apps to event planners: “From the moment the user installs the app, their actions can be monitored and recorded as in-app event data, such as the record of registration, login, or in-app purchase. By discovering users’ actions, it’s possible to make data-driven decisions that can help bring more users to the app or retain the existing ones and make them happier.”  

  

Before you can analyze these invaluable insights, you must first create an event-tracking plan. 

 

 

What is an event tracking plan? 

Simply put, an event tracking plan shapes your strategy overall. It also shows you what’s working, as well as what isn’t. It requires you to determine what your objectives are to ensure that you’re tracking quality data.  

  

Ideally, you want to create a well-defined event tracking plan that features clear business objectives. It will be linked to an analytics strategy for decision making. All the while, with a detailed scope of the data you want to collect, especially your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). 

  

Once established, you can use your event tracking plan to evaluate the details of your event that will inform your future event plans.  

 

 

Why does event tracking matter?  

When you consider the amount of time and effort you put into planning an event, it makes sense that you’ll want feedback from those involved — attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors — as to what worked and what didn’t.  

  

This information is not only useful, but shouldn’t be isolated to a single event. Rather, you can use the data to determine what is included (and excluded) from any upcoming events.  

  

By tracking activity on your mobile event app you can easily and quickly evaluate your event’s content by assessing how attendees interacted with it.  

  

For instance, you can see how long attendees stayed in sessions and then review which content offerings, like videos, were watched … or even rewatched.  

  

The same goes for downloadable content and in-app purchases.  

  

Sometimes you won’t know how well a particular piece of content performed until after the event.  

  

Depending on attendee’s schedules, for example, they might not have had time to consume every bit of content they wanted. So, reviewing popular activity post-event, lets you know what types of content your attendees, ultimately, found the most valuable.  

 

 

Pre-event tracking tips 

Before your event kicks off, you can utilize your mobile event app to manage both onsite and online registration.  

  

After you set up registration, you can start to promote your event via the app, calling out special attention to sponsors and exhibitors that your attendees will be excited to interact with, whether in-person or virtually. 

  

You can also keep your attendees informed about last-minute changes or additions to your program with real-time updates, as well as email and push notifications.  

  

By including a personalized agenda, accessible on the app, you put attendees in better control of planning how they’ll dedicate their time during the event.  

  

Pathable’s mobile event app is easy to use, featuring a simple setup and intuitive dashboard.  

  

Check out what one of our clients, O’Design Productions and Consulting, had to say about their recent experience, particularly when it came to managing lots of sudden and unexpected changes.  

  

Pathable supported us with a hybrid event that went flawlessly! Our client had many last-minute changes and the Pathable team was able to accommodate us on many occasions!” 

 

 

Tracking engagement during your event 

On the ground — or while attending remotely — mobile event apps make an event planner’s work easier by eliminating traditional and time-consuming processes like event and session-specific check-ins.  

 

Today’s mobile event apps should support in-person badge scanning for quick and contactless check-ins to sessions.  

  

Mobile event apps also make networking easier and faster, which means more meaningful communication and a memorable experience.  

  

With Pathable, attendees can enjoy simplified networking by viewing available and busy times in fellow attendees’ schedules. They can also schedule private meetings or secure a table or virtual meeting room.  

  

The Pathable mobile app even makes it possible to create interactive maps and venue diagrams that help your attendees navigate to meetings and sessions.  

 

 

Increase ROI for your event’s exhibitors and sponsors 

Ultimately, event planners need to opt for a smart mobile event app that supports connections and communication between all involved parties. It should also provide significant value and enhance ROI for exhibitors and sponsors by tracking real-time data.  

  

While this benefits exhibitors and sponsors, certainly, it also makes the life of an event planner that much easier because the pressure is off you to demonstrate the value of the event to these stakeholders.  

  

Right out of the gate, as soon as you launch registration, your mobile event app provides brand recognition and marketing support to your exhibitors and sponsors.  

  

With seamless communication and easy networking, that exposure is even further enhanced, which improves the lead retrieval process.  

  

For exhibitors and sponsors, lead generation is really what these events are all about.  

  

Plenty of event planners would agree: a reported 46% of event managers consider lead generation a top reason to attend events, according to Webinar Care. 

  

When you’re ready to explore the event platform — and mobile event app — made for event planners, consider partnering with Pathable.  

  

The mobile event app provides attendees with the power to manage their event experience while making your work easier in the process.  

  

Our end-to-end solution is a win-win for everyone.   

 

Increase ROI with Mobile App Event Tracking

You might find it hard to get excited about mobile event apps when it seems like there’s an app for everything these days. 

 

Whether it’s your bank, grocery store, or favorite clothing retailer, you can access almost anything and carefully track the details of your day — from caloric intake to steps taken, even the amount of time spent scrolling on social media. With such an arsenal of apps at your disposal, what makes mobile event apps so special, and why should you consider investing in one? 

Short answer? Mobile app event tracking

 

Fair warning: Once you learn what these mobile event apps and in-app event tracking can do for engagement, you’ll wonder how you ever managed to plan an event without one. 

Arguably the best function of your mobile event app is the ability it gives you to track the events that take place within it, which provides you with incredible insights into how your app’s users behave and engage with your content. With this information in hand, you can easily improve your app and the overall user experience. 

 

Sounds confusing?

Good news! It really isn’t. 

 

We’ll break it down for you so you can reap the benefits of better information sooner than later… starting with why mobile event apps are so valuable, followed by an understanding of the insights offered by mobile event app tracking. 

 

Making the case for mobile event apps

Mobile event apps, like Pathable, elevate event management and make it easier than ever to drive engagement and create a memorable experience. As a virtual and hybrid event platform, Pathable’s mobile app is easy-to-use, end-to-end, and reliable. 

For event planners, mobile event apps increase engagement opportunities while also providing virtual live and on-demand videos. 

Consider some of Pathable’s mobile event app features, specifically designed to enhance the attendee and exhibitor experience.

 

Specific mobile event app attendee benefits:

  • Mobile App Customization: Attendees are able to highlight the event content that matters the most to them via the widget-based app builder
  • Personalized Agenda and Session Schedule: All event content, whether from a complex, multi-track conference or single-track program, is easily accessible within the app.
  • Profile + Meeting Attributes: Event networking has never been easier. This feature allows attendees to view the best times to connect with other attendees based on how busy their schedules are. They can even schedule meetings or book places to meet. 
  • Interactive Maps: With Pathable’s mobile event app, attendees can access maps and diagrams to help them navigate to their next session. 

 

Mobile event app perks for exhibitors and sponsors:

The purpose of these unique features is to connect all event stakeholders — exhibitors, sponsors, and attendees — quicker. This requires access to real-time data and support for more targeted networking. 

That’s why Pathable’s mobile event app includes tools like:

  • Real-time exhibitor metrics
  • Interactive trade show maps
  • Lead retrieval (virtual and in-person attendees)
  • Sponsored push notifications
  • Features demos and sessions
  • Brand recognition
  • Instant communication

In addition, event managers can access in-person badge scanning and connectivity, featuring:

  • Simple set up
  • Onsite or online registration
  • Real-time updates
  • Intuitive dashboard
  • The ability to send important updates via email and push notifications
  • Secure and reliable platform
  • Insightful metrics and an intuitive dashboard

Understanding mobile app event tracking

Now that you appreciate how mobile event apps can elevate the entire event experience, let’s dive into mobile app event tracking, specifically how you can use the insights it offers to better manage your next event. 

What does mobile app event tracking mean?

Not to be confused with mobile event apps, mobile app event tracking refers to actions or “events” taken within an app. 

Mixpanel defines an event as “anything meaningful that happens (at a specific point in time) while an app is being used.” 

For instance, an app user might trigger an event when they create their user account, enter their login credentials, purchase something within the app, view video content, and even simply pushing a button can be considered a mobile app event. 

 

Even indirect actions, like receiving a notification — whether that’s an incoming text, a comment on a social post, or credits earned from a subscription membership — are also trackable events because they can provide insight into how the user interacts with your app. 

What can you do with these insights?

Plenty!

Perhaps the most important is the ability to improve your app based on how you see users interacting with certain features and tools. Or not interacting, as the case may be. 

All tracked events are logged in order, meaning each activity log tells a story about your user and their relationship to your app’s functions. 

What these stories really represent is the true story of how your users interact with your app, which you can compare against your expectations for how they might (or how you hope) they’ll interact with your app. 

For instance, you might roll out a new tool or feature that you’re confident your users will love — maybe because they’ve requested it. Whether or not they actually use it is only accessible through mobile app event tracking. If they aren’t using it, you can evaluate why that is. App glitch? Clunky interface? Lack of awareness that this feature even exists? 

With this knowledge, you can enhance your app and, by extension, the user experience because you have accurate information that will help you do so.

What mobile app event tracking means for your bottom line

Ideally, you will use the insights gleaned from mobile app event tracking to make practical improvements to your app. While the ability to make these improvements is helpful to your users, there is a greater purpose in driving event tracking.

The information provided by mobile app event tracking should, ultimately, be used to enhance engagement and better define your future event planning strategy.

For so many event planners, mobile app event tracking has been a missed opportunity, with only 40% of marketers measuring app revenue and only tracking install rates instead.

As AppSamurai explains, “Discovering what users are doing inside your app will help you concentrate your resources on the most efficient channels.” 

By evaluating various types of in-app events, your team should have the information necessary to retarget and re-engage your users in order to realize greater ROI for your efforts.

AppSamurai differentiates the types of in-app events as:

Standard in-app events, typical of most apps, include:

  • Number of opens
  • Registrations
  • Purchases

Rich in-app events, specific to the type of app, which might look like:

  • Tutorial completion rate
  • Purchases
  • Social shares and friend invites

Aim higher with mobile app event tracking

What you need to pay close attention to is not how many users have downloaded your app, but the type of user. Ideally, you want your app to be popular among “high-value users,” those that will make purchases within your app, for example, because these users represent high lifetime value

To attract — and keep! — high-value users, you need to ensure that your app content engages them consistently. 

With mobile app event tracking, you’ll be able to quickly identify which types of content and tools are doing just that, along with those that aren’t making an impact for whatever reason.

Ultimately, leveraging the information accessed through mobile app event tracking allows you to improve your app and the overall user experience. 

Ready to realize better events and increase ROI? 

Pathable makes planning, promoting, and powering your next virtual, hybrid, or in-person event easy. Now that you know how insightful mobile app event tracking can be empower your efforts and learn more about the Pathable platform.

Improve Networking Opportunities at Conferences

Conferences can be a great opportunity for networking, but networking comes with challenges. By making a few simple adjustments, you can improve the entire networking process.  

 

4 practical tips for creating networking opportunities at events 

Interaction, connection, and networking are at the base of all conferences. Your event should always strike up opportunities to let people explore and learn more about other attendees.  

Luckily, there are several practical ways for naturally incorporating networking into your event. 

 

1. Have clear name badges printed for attendees 

In the modern age of technology, nametags can be easy to overlook — despite how helpful they are. Imagine the number of people attending your event. Even if that number is smaller, how will everyone remember each other’s names? Are they going to ask numerous people their names? 

 

Name badges make it easier for your attendees to remember names. Instead of asking several times or forgetting altogether, attendees can easily match a face to a name when they see it repeatedly. 

 

Attendee nametags are also extremely cost-effective and convenient. They are usually inexpensive, easy to make and take seconds for attendees to tape, stick, or clip on. You could use blank badges from a store and let everyone add their name to one — or you could make them more professional and print your own. 

 

If you’re going to print them for attendees, use a format or design that fits your branding, style or vibe. Set the nametags out on a table near the entrance in alphabetical order or in another way that makes sense for your event. Attendees can pick them up on the way in and let the networking begin. 

 

2. Create networking opportunities with your venue’s layout 

You can encourage interaction and networking through your venue’s layout. The location should have a good setup for mingling and conversation to promote the most exchange. 

 

If you have enough room, consider adding standing tables or other areas where people can talk and discuss during session breaks. Another way to encourage networking is to consider how and where you perform breakout sessions. Does your venue have room in the back or off to the side? Create smaller, private spaces to encourage more interactions between individuals. 

 

You should also make your space easy to navigate. Whether you are using multiple rooms or are in a large conference hall, it can be helpful to make each area accessible and simple to find. 

 

Your layout, ranging from seating to breakout areas, should encourage people to interact. 

 

3. Set up deliberate networking sessions 

While your conference probably has stellar speakers, you want to encourage active participation. One way to do that is by using interactive sessions during your event.  

Taking this method can help ease the awkwardness of one attendee directly approaching another out of the blue. You’re offering a less invasive, more user-friendly approach for audience members to learn more about each other. 

 

One example of a networking session is a scenario where small groups of people — likely 10 or fewer — are given a prompt that can be used to facilitate a group discussion. The prompt can be anything relevant to your conference, ranging from general topic discussions to problem-solving challenges, but it should inspire conversation.  

 

Your attendees have less pressure when you provide networking sessions. You give them all the components, and what they do with it from there is up to each individual. 

 

4. Offer opportunities through your event app 

By using mobile apps for networking at your conference, you can offer several opportunities for attendees to interact with one another. Encourage users to download your app of choice to ensure they receive updates and notifications about your event. 

 

Choose an app that offers several options for communication and networking. Encourage users to participate in a live chat or 1:1 session with experts, speakers, or others. Organize a networking event and send them push notifications or emails letting attendees know what to do. 

 

Depending on the app, you might be able to allow attendees to talk to fellow industry members and peers or schedule meetings with other attendees even before the event.  

 

Event apps usually offer more than just basic networking capabilities, too. Your attendees will also have immediate access to the conference schedule can interact with polls and surveys, and find out more information. 

 

Try Pathable to help improve networking at conferences 

Pathable is our innovative in-person and virtual event platform and app. It makes it easy to connect with attendees, provide event information, and host hybrid events. 

 

The Pathable mobile app fosters networking with virtual trade shows, poster sessions, appointment scheduling, breakout rooms, and webinars. If you want to see how Pathable can benefit your next conference, please contact our team today to schedule a demo.