2013 Informal Survey about Mobile Event Apps

Transcription

1 Dear Reader, 2013 Informal Survey about Mobile Event Apps By Clay Gibney In October of 2013, I conducted a simple 8 question survey of the ASAE members who were part of the ASAE Technical Community and Meetings & Expositions Section. As a long time survey writer and as someone who is keenly interested in the topic for my own association, I was hoping to get a sense of popularity of the various mobile app vendors, feature sets, costs, and an overall sense of satisfaction of the currently used event apps. The questions that were asked are listed further below, followed by the results. My thanks to all who responded. I hope that once you read the results and see the potential value, we can continue this survey annually. There were 43 usable responses. Given that this topic has some nuance to the subject matter, I did have to make a few subjective decisions in analyzing the results. For example, when asked about the device platforms that a mobile app was written for, a few of the responses indicated a vendor who doesn t provide their app as a native app for Apple or Android., for example, writes their app as an HTML (HTML5) website that will work on nearly any mobile device. However, they do not write a true native app for the iphone, ipad or Android smartphones. There are pros and cons to native vs. web, and the intent of this survey isn t to expound on that approach. However, I had to adjust the survey results to correctly reflect if a vendor s solution was available as a native app on the various platforms vs. being offered as a mobile web solution. Survey Questions Asked 1. For your most recent annual meeting (or the most recent event if you prefer), which vendor from the list below provided your event app solution for you? 2. On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 1 being very unhappy and 10 being extremely happy), please rate your overall experience with your most recent event app from that vendor. 3. In regard to the cost of providing your event app, please rate how you feel about your vendor's total price for your event app. 4. Which of the following mobile platforms were made available for your event app? Apple iphone; Apple ipad; Android; BlackBerry; Mobile web version; Windows 8 Phone 5. Please check-off the major feature sets that your event app had. Page 1 of 7

2 6. How flexible in regard to customization (e.g., choosing color schemes; adding additional fields; tweaking the logic of a feature) would you grade your event app vendor? 7. Rate how tech-savy your typical attendee is at your annual event. 8. Approximately how many attendees were at your last annual meeting (an estimate is fine). Results Total No. of Responses: 43 Average Median Total No. of Attendees (represented by data): Vendor Chosen for Event App 19% 12% 12% 9% 35% 0% 25% 50% Page 2 of 7

3 Overall Rating of Vendor's Solution Satisfaction Re Cost of Solution (1 = very disatisfied; 5 = very satisfied) Page 3 of 7

4 Device Platforms Used (Native App vs Mobile Web) Apple iphone Android 74% 72% Mobile Web Apple ipad 63% 63% BlackBerry 16% Windows Phone Other 0% 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% Page 4 of 7

5 Major Feature Sets in the Event App Conference Schedule details My Schedule / My Agenda Speaker listing / Bio Exhibitor listings w/ descriptions Sponsor logos to generate revenue Real-time updates to content in the app Access to session handouts in the app Twitter integration Reporting / Metrics on usageof app Push notifications to users Search / filter to find sessions Feature to tag/mark favorite Exhibitors Registered Attendees listed in app Option to rate sessions / submit evals Floor map to show session rooms Data sync of "My Schedule" to other Add session to Outlook API or webservice integration to your AMS Gamification features 16% 100% 91% 88% 84% 79% 7 72% 70% % 58% 53% 51% 51% 44% 40% 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% Page 5 of 7

6 Flexibility / Customization of App (1 = very inflexible; 4 = very flexible) How Tech Savvy is Audience? Mixed - some are tech-savvy but some are not 65% Pretty good - most are fairly tech-savvy 16% Very good - most are quite tech-savvy 14% Pretty bad - most have trouble finding an On/Off button 2% 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% Comments and Analysis Given the relatively low response rate, these results are not truly valid from a statistical perspective but I hope you will still find them interesting and useful. Please note that in order for a particular vendor solution to appear in the results, more than one response was needed. Vendor solutions who only received a single response were lumped together in the category. Page 6 of 7

7 It s interesting to note that when we asked respondents to give an overall rating of the vendor s event app solution, most received a score of 8 or higher (the scale was from 1 to 10). Respondents were also generally satisfied with the costs of the solutions. When asked what device platforms an app was offered in, the Apple iphone and Android devices were nearly neck-in-neck at 74% and 72%. It s important to point out, however that all of the event app solutions used will work on an iphone or Android device - - it s just a question of whether the app was a mobile web solution vs. a native app. When I asked about the major features of the respondent s event app, nearly all indicated having the core basics of displaying the conference schedule, speaker information, exhibitor listings, personalized schedule, sponsor logos and access to session handouts in the app. Somewhat surprisingly, a very small percentage had integration to the association s AMS. In other words, most are having to manually enter or import the conference schedule and/or speaker info into the event app. Only 16% indicated that they have integration to their AMS so that this info could automatically be fed into the event app. I hope that level of integration will increase quickly. In terms of rating the flexibility and/or customization of the event app, nearly all were rated as somewhat inflexible (2) to somewhat flexible (3). None achieved a very flexible (4) rating. The ability to customize an event app is no doubt a difficult proposition for the app vendors. If the app is fairly static and consistent, the costs will be lower and the bugs/defects should be fewer, but many customers demand a certain level of flexibility in the feature set or in the look and feel of the app, which in turn will drive costs up and increase the likelihood for software defects. It s a balancing act which I think has been reflected in the survey results. Lastly, when asked about the audience or users of the event app and their tech-savviness, most (65%) indicated that their audience was very mixed, while 30% indicated they had a pretty good to very good audience of tech-savvy users. Thanks again to all who responded, and I hope we can do this again next year. Page 7 of 7