Client
Leading Technology Company Hosting a Large-Scale Annual Event
A leading technology company organizes one of the world’s largest annual conferences, attracting over 80,000 attendees. This flagship event spans multiple venues across a major U.S. city and features more than 4,000 sessions covering a wide range of tech industry topics. As the meeting grew each year, the client realized that the complexity of providing a smooth and efficient event attendee experience increased, as well. Their goal was to leverage mobile app solutions for large events best practices to simplify event navigation, personalize the attendee experience, enhance overall satisfaction, and help attendees maximize their time.
Challenge
Improving Event Experience for 80,000+ Attendees
Each year, managing a vast number of sessions and attendees at the conference became more challenging. This client faced several key obstacles that required optimizing their event mobile app and streamlining process:
Session Enrollment Challenges
With over 4,000 options to choose from, attendees often struggled to reserve spots in high-demand sessions—especially if they waited until they arrived onsite. Many missed out on the opportunity to attend popular sessions because they were unaware of availability or didn’t sign up in advance. They also had difficulty creating a schedule quickly that considered interest area, time slot, and venue location. This led to frustration and wasted time, directly affecting the event attendee experience.
Scheduling Friction
From a scheduling perspective, if attendees logged out or closed the app, they had to manually reset their filters and preferences every time they logged back in. This created inefficiencies and poor user experience—leading to scheduling friction and dissatisfaction.
Cross-Venue Transportation
The event spanned several venues in a major city, and attendees spent considerable time traveling between locations. The lack of integration between the conference mobile app and transportation logistics added stress to attendees’ schedules and further fragmented their experience.
Dynamic Session Scheduling
Session schedules frequently changed due to fluctuating demand. Communicating these changes to attendees in a timely manner was challenging. Many found it hard to stay on top of last-minute updates, undermining their ability to make the most of the event.
Solution
Personalization Powered by Machine Learning for Event Apps
Hexaware partnered with the client to enhance the event mobile app using Amazon Personalize. This solution aimed to deliver a personalized event experience, optimized event scheduling, improved efficiency, and reduced friction for attendees. Here’s how the solution worked:
Personalized Session Recommendations
Using data such as personal session preferences, past enrollments, and real-time location, the application offered personalized session recommendations. This not only made it easier for attendees to find sessions aligned with their interests, but also helped optimize their schedules by suggesting sessions in close proximity—minimizing time spent traveling between venues.
Efficient Scheduling Features
A new event scheduling optimization feature allowed attendees to quickly create personalized schedules based on prior enrollments, familiarity with the event, and other user attributes. The team established a tagging system and personalization feature to recommend sessions geographically close to each other, reducing the need for attendees to waste time traveling across multiple venues.
Persistent Session Preferences
To combat scheduling friction, the app incorporated a persistent filter feature. Attendees’ session preferences were saved even if the app was closed or they logged out, allowing users to pick up where they left off. This event scheduling app improvement streamlined the scheduling process and eliminated the need for repetitive tasks.
Real-Time Session Updates and Notifications
To address the issue of fluid scheduling, the app introduced real-time in-app notifications. This feature alerted attendees about new sessions or changes to existing ones, enabling them to quickly respond to session modifications and optimize the conference attendee experience.
Transportation Integration
Understanding that cross-venue travel was a significant pain point, the app integrated transportation time into session recommendations. This allowed attendees to create schedules with proximity-based suggestions, improving their ability to plan their day efficiently and create a seamless event experience with a mobile app.
Benefits
A More Efficient and Satisfying Event Experience
The integration of personalized features into the mobile app for conferences provided a range of benefits, greatly improving both the attendee experience and event outcomes:
Increase Event Satisfaction with Personalized Mobile Apps
The personalized event experience led to increased attendee satisfaction. Tailored session recommendations, reserved seating, and the ability to efficiently manage their time contributed to a more enjoyable experience. Attendees felt more in control, driving overall satisfaction with the event.
Reduce Scheduling Friction and Optimize Time Management
With the new scheduling features, attendees no longer had to manually reset preferences or worry about missing out on sessions or reserving seats. The app reduced scheduling friction, enabling attendees to optimize their experience and manage their time more effectively. Additionally, integrating transportation logistics helped minimize time spent traveling between sessions.
Actionable Insights for Event Organizers
By tracking and measuring each year’s mobile engagement, user interactions will continue to train the model for future events, helping the tool become even smarter and more responsive for future users. Hexaware also helped the client understand user preferences so that future events could be optimized with those insights in mind. The benefits of personalized mobile apps for events, making it easier to improve future experiences.
Long-Term Impact and Future Optimizations
The improvements made to the app were not just short-term fixes. As it continued to collect data, its personalized features evolved, enhancing event scheduling optimization for future events. This created a feedback loop, making it even more effective year after year.
Summary
Transforming the Event Experience with Personalization
Hexaware’s integration of Amazon Personalize into the event mobile app for conferences transformed the attendee experience by addressing key pain points, such as session enrollment, scheduling friction, transportation logistics, and real-time updates. By providing personalized session recommendations, streamlining event scheduling optimization, and incorporating real-time updates, the app allowed attendees to maximize their time and engagement with the event.
The result was a significant increase in event satisfaction, improved scheduling efficiency, and a smoother, more enjoyable experience for attendees. These innovations not only improved this particular event but set the stage for even greater personalized experiences in future events, ensuring attendees continue to benefit from an increasingly personalized event experience year after year.
