Meetings

Daily Buzz: Modernize Your Conference With an Event App

Give your annual meeting a tech refresh with an event app. Here’s how to get stakeholders on board. Also: Are mid-career members mentees, mentors, or both?

Looking for a way to upgrade your annual conference? Try a meeting app, says Arlene Marie Karole on MeetingsNet.

“Apps have infiltrated every part of our lives—checking email, making an airline reservation, depositing checks, listening to books, or calming ourselves at the end of a hectic day—and are serving the conference niche, too,” says Karole, director of the Office of Academic Engagement, Education, and Communication, Cardiology, at Northwell Health.

She highlights several app benefits that helped her win buy-in from leadership:

A streamlined experience. “The app created a more seamless process for registering, accessing brochures, and responding to surveys,” she says. “For attendees, faculty, and sponsors, the app provides an exceptional experience as a centralized place for conference information that’s user-friendly and promotes engagement.”

An opportunity to go green. Trying to reduce your environmental footprint? There’s an app for that. Instead of printing out hundreds—potentially thousands—of brochures or notes, Karole chose an app with note-taking capabilities.

More networking opportunities. “An exceptional feature of the app is the ability for attendees to opt in to share their information,” Karole says. “This allows for networking like never before: Attendees can private-message one another, share photos, access social media, and more.”

The Mid-career Mentor and Mentee

Associations have members at every career level, but mid-careerists are often left out of the conversation when it comes to mentorship. Young professionals are seen as the mentees, while those who hold leadership titles become the mentors.

So, where does that leave those in the middle level of their careers?

Maddie Grant, a mid-career professional herself, writes on Association Success that associations need to better acknowledge and leverage mid-career members’ insights.

“What I find really interesting about this ‘messy middle’ stage is that we mid-careerists are potentially both mentees and mentors at the same time,” she says. “We have a wealth of knowledge accumulated with the years of professional experience, but we’re also still students. … It’s this unique double position where we can do a fairly decent job at offering guidance and advice, but also greatly benefit by being at the receiving end of it.”

Other Links of Note

iPhone users: iOS 13 is coming. TechCrunch explains what you can expect from Apple’s latest update.

Need support for an idea? The Personify blog shares tips on how to secure it.

Add LinkedIn to your social strategy. Research from its parent company, Microsoft, shows that engagement on the platform is growing, according to Social Media Today.

(PeopleImages/E+/Getty Images Plus)

Jeff Hsin

By Jeff Hsin

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