Your Next Event: There s a Free App for That By: R. Lucas Boling The Missouri Bar Jefferson City, Missouri Presented at: ACLEA 48 th Annual Meeting July 28-31, 2012 Denver, Colorado
R. Lucas Boling The Missouri Bar Jefferson City, MO LUCAS BOLING is the CLE Programs Attorney for The Missouri Bar MoBarCLE. Prior to joining The Missouri Bar staff, he was Deputy Director of the Missouri Division of Workers Compensation and practiced law for 18 years. Lucas is a former Missouri Assistant Attorney General and a former staff attorney for the Missouri Labor and Industrial Relations Commission. He earned a B.A. in Political Science, magna cum laude, from Truman State University and a J.D. from the University of Missouri Columbia School of Law. Lucas is co chair of the ACLEA Distance Learning Committee and former cochair of ACLEA's State & Provincial Bars SIG.
YOUR NEXT EVENT: THERE S A FREE APP FOR THAT! Lucas Boling CLE Programs Attorney The Missouri Bar MoBarCLE 573-638-2244 lboling@mobar.org Imagine attendees at your next event having access to the agenda, exhibitor information, attendee list, and area map in the palm of their hand. An event app can make that happen. The rapid growth in the number of smartphone users worldwide is apparent. We can see it as we walk down the street, sit in an airport, or attend a meeting. But, how many of your attendees will actually use an event app? Is there any return on the investment in an event app? We ll leave those questions for another session, because in this ACLEA session, we re going to build an event app for FREE. Apps don t build themselves. So, we can debate the term, free. Yes, there is the value of your time or your staff s time to consider. But, if you want a basic app for your next event without paying a developer or writing a single line of code, this is the session for you. REASONABLE EXPECTATIONS: WHAT IT IS. WHAT IT IS NOT The basic event app we are going to build is web-based. That just means the app is a set of web pages, designed to render on a mobile device, residing on a server connected to the internet. It is not a native app. Native apps are downloaded to and reside on the mobile device. The platform we are using has options free and paid for converting your app to a native app. But, that is a discussion for another session. We re building a web-based app today. THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE FUN DESIGN. CREATE. BUILD Let s start with the fun. If you are a creative person, then building an event app can be fun. Starting with a blank canvas, thinking through your event from your attendees perspective, and then building something that will add value to your event is rewarding. 1
The bad isn t necessarily bad; it is just recognizing the realities and limitations of the web-based app. INTERNET OR DATA ACCESS REQUIRED Consider the venue where your event will be held. Will your attendees have access to a reliable wi-fi or data connection? Remember, the web-based app resides in the cloud and not on the mobile device. No internet; no access to the app. YOU DON T OWN THE CLOUD The app you build resides on a server somewhere in the world and you don t control that server. If it goes down because of a problem or for routine maintenance, your app will be unavailable. For that reason, I suggest that you do not try to monetize the app by securing a sponsor. Instead, promote it as a value-added feature and highlight the fact that it is a web-based app. APOLOGIES TO BLACKBERRY & WINDOWS PHONE The web-based app we are going to build renders well on iphones and Android devices. I have seen it render on ipads and Android tablets. In fact, a new feature of the platform we are going to use allows you to save your app in a format that takes advantage of the larger pad and tablet screens. Although the free app can be published in HTML5 format, Blackberry and Windows Phone users cannot currently access the app. This will likely change as the HTML5 standards are developed and mobile browsers are modified to support more HTML5 pages. Be sure to let your attendees know that the app is web-based and available on iphones and Androids. Cross-platform accessibility is an important consideration and one that you will face even if you decide to develop a native app. Which native app platforms will you pay to support? Let s talk about the good. TRY BEFORE YOU BUY Once you have created your event app, with a few key strokes you can create a short URL and QR code to track how many times your app is accessed. Using that information, you can determine if the free event app is sufficient or if there is enough usage to warrant the cost of converting to a native app at next year s event. IT IS FREE. The only cost is the time it takes you to build it. NO CODING REQUIRED If you can create a simple Excel spreadsheet, access the internet, type, and drag and drop text, then you can build a free event app. 2
MEET YOUR NEW FRIEND: MOBILENATION Type free app builder in Google or Bing and prepare to sift through more than 1.5 million results. The number of online app builders continues to grow and there are innovative sites out there ready to help you build your organization s app. Some offer free versions along with their premium products. After test driving several over the past two years, the one I like best for building a free event app is http://www.mobilenationhq.com/ WHY MOBILENATION? It s free. There is no coding required. There are no ads placed on your app. Most importantly for an event app the platform supports pages and links that provide your attendees an overview of the event and allow them to drill-down to more detailed information about sessions. Many platforms do not provide tools to drill-down into the information you will want to provide attendees in an event app. WHAT YOU NEED A free account at http://www.mobilenationhq.com/ Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox browser. Try signing into your account at http://www.mobilenationhq.com/ in Internet Explorer and MobileNation will respond: MobileNation has detected that you're using Internet Explorer. In order to continue loading the builder in this browser, you need to install Google chrome frame. Alternatively you can use another browser such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox I have successfully used the Safari browser for Windows to build an app, but MobileNation s emulator for testing the app will not run on Safari for Windows. A plan and electronic version of your event agenda. Cutting and pasting from a PDF will work. Some text copied from a PDF especially long dashes, quotation marks, and apostrophes -- may need to be cleaned up before you upload the text to the app builder. Excel or other spreadsheet program that will save worksheets as.csv (comma delimited) files. Microsoft Paint, Photoshop, or other program to resize app graphics. 3
QUICK TIPS Plan before you build. It will save you time. There is no cut and paste of page elements (buttons, labels, etc.) and pages cannot be cloned. For elements that will appear on multiple pages, place the items at x and y coordinates that are easy to remember. Simplify where you can. Ease of access wins over bells and whistles. Avoid the temptation to use the animation features. They are unnecessary and can slow the app s responsiveness. Keep in mind that the app is public. Anyone can share the link. In fact, MobileNation s homepage often shows links to the three most recent apps that have been published or updated. Your app will show up in that timeline. Give yourself sufficient lead time to build, proof, and polish the app. Graphics can be in a number of formats. The file sizes of GIFs and PNGs are usually smaller than JPEGs. 60 pixels x 60 pixels is a good size for graphics used as navigation buttons. Watch the videos. MobileNation has quick tutorial videos available on its website and YouTube. The videos provide step-by-step instructions. Even so, I had to watch one several times to wrap my brain around how to use the drill-down function. It is a powerful feature that you will want to use to provide details of each breakout or workshop session at our event. Save your work often. You will be building the app online. Internet connections can be lost and web pages can freeze. Use your favorite short URL service (such as bit.ly) to create a customized link to your completed app so you can track the number of hits. Promote your app with a QR code tied to your customized URL. The following pages include a simple template for planning your app and tips for gathering the data to upload to your app. The ACLEA session is designed to build an event app in 60 minutes. We ll create an app for a single day event. Building an app for a multi-day program just requires creating more pages and more links. If you get stuck and need help, I m glad to share what I have learned. Just send me an email: lboling@mobar.org 4
PLAN YOUR APP Below is a screen shot of your app s blank canvas. Your completed app will consist of several interconnected layers. Before you start uploading data and creating pages, you may want to use the template to provide a map of your app s layout. It will make it easier to connect all of your pages and improve the flow of your app. 5
SAMPLE PLANNING PAGE Page Key Elements Add Links to 1. Home Logo 127px x 76px Schedule Connect Exhibitors Local 2. Event Schedule Overview Back button 60 px x 60 px Home button 60 px x 60 px Links to each day of the event 1 3. Schedule SUN 4. SUN 8:30 -LIST 5. SUN 8:30 - DETAIL 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. Back button 60px x 60 px Home button 60 px x 60 px Links to each time slot Back button Data 8:30 Title Back button Data 8:30 Detail 1,2 3, 5 4 6
OR DRAW IT. 7
CREATE YOUR DATA FOR EACH SESSION OR WORKSHOP IN EXCEL. USE A NEW WORKBOOK FOR EACH TIME SLOT. FORMAT THE DATA FOR EACH LIST AND DETAILS PAGE BY ADDING THE TEXT IN THE EXCEL FORMULA BAR INSTEAD OF IN THE INDIVIDUAL CELL. 8
SAVE EACH SPREADSHEET AS A CSV (COMMA DELIMTED) FILE. After you have this prep work completed, the rest of the building process is just a matter of uploading the data, uploading your graphics, pointing, clicking, and typing. We ll walk through each of the steps during the ACLEA workshop in Denver. 9