If you work with vendors such as MYS to collect all exhibitor information, you may want to simply link to the exhibitor list on their website. While this sounds like an easy option, clients who in the past tried just linking to a website had switched back from that practice to ensure the data is in the app. Importing the data is as easy and creates a better user experience for your attendees, which ultimately makes your event experience more successful.
Why you want to include exhibitor data directly in the app
Unified Search
When attendees use the search in the app, they expect to be able to find all event related details, including exhibitor information. If they don’t, the app appears broken to them which negatively impacts the overall event experience for your attendees.
Enhanced exhibitor and sponsor visibility
When an attendee searches on a keyword and this keyword is in the exhibitor detail view, the global search will return exhibitors in the results. You just created a connection point between a potential client with a vendor. That’s only possible if exhibitors with descriptions are included in the app. (Ensure that MYS includes the full exhibitor description in the CSV they generate)
Offline Access
We hear repeatedly from other clients how the WiFi went out onsite or was slow.
If you run into the same issue or slow overloaded WiFi, your attendees won’t even notice while using the app.
Seamless User Experience
Attendees can access all relevant information without the need to navigate between different platforms, reducing friction and improving convenience.
RouteInside - Indoor Navigation
When attendees use RouteInside, they will be able to use exhibitor booth locations to navigate between the expo hall and session rooms. We have even heard from exhibitors that used RouteInside in the app to find their own booth quickly.
Exhibitor & Attendee Communication
While you can turn off this feature, it’s included in your app: Exhibitor detail view chat - attendees can easily engage in public conversations with exhibitors and reach out directly via the app (assumes that exhibitors have login access to the app)
Analytics
Onsite attendees are more likely to use the native event app than a third party website that only contains partial event data. See https://ativ.me/analytics to learn what exhibitor data is tracked.
Increased Sponsorship Engagement
If exhibitors sponsor any sessions, those sessions are visible from the exhibitor detail view. And vice versa, the exhibitor detail view is linked from the session detail view. We encourage you to include sponsor events into the app. That data does not have to be added to your Abstract Management System, it can easily be added via a Google sheet. Now your attendees can add any sponsor events directly into their personal itinerary.
Coherent trip report
EventPilot automatically sends attendees a “Trip Report” summary email after the conference containing all their notes. If the exhibitor data is included, the attendee’s exhibitor notes would be included directly into that comprehensive personalized report.
If you are including additional sponsorship options on the third party site, you can deep link to each exhibitor's page from the in-app exhibitor details view. This allows attendees to learn more and access the full virtual booth on your vendor's website.
By including the exhibitor data directly in the app, you help meet the expectations of your attendees and increase exhibitor's visibility.