Meetings Africa 2019 thrives with locally-developed mobile event app from Flock

Delegates to Meetings Africa 2019, the biggest to date with over 350 exhibitors, embraced the mobile application provided by Flock Event Management to make their show experience seamless and productive.

Arguably the premier trade show for the business events and meetings industry on the continent, Meetings Africa showcases Africa’s diverse offering of services and products while providing a forum for African associations and African meetings industry professionals to explore opportunities to grow their respective businesses.

For Meetings Africa 2019, Flock supplied a digital, custom-branded mobile app for attendees to download and access to facilitate their movement and participation in the show. The app housed all event information including speaker, exhibitor, attendee and general information as well as all documents including brochures and presentations; floor plans, photos and videos; and an interactive, instant survey for feedback from guests.

One of its more popular elements was a live newsfeed updated in real-time with social media posts. Important, too, is the fact that the app continues to ‘live’ after the event closes enabling delegates who downloaded it to retain a directory of exhibitors and their contact details, as well as updated photos and videos from the event.

Over 700 attendees downloaded the app over the two days. Page views for the period totalled just over 170 000 – an average of 240 views per delegate.

“We’re delighted with these statistics, which prove just how popular the app was with delegates,” said Flock CEO and founder, Mike Lysko. “This high level of engagement, as well as attendees’ willingness to download the app, proves that Meetings Africa’s decision to utilise technology to enhance the delegate experience was the right one.

“Attendees’ adoption of the app also helps Meetings Africa to considerably reduce its carbon footprint. An early adopter of the principles put forward by the Eventing Green Forum in 2011, Meetings Africa is mindful of every decision it takes. From transport to energy, its team has successfully accomplished much to date, and the mobile app and digital planning of the event was so important for this continued success in 2019.

“Working with Flock meant the event team was able to make last-minute changes to information to be shared through the app, cut back on and – in many cases – do away with its print runs, and work flexibly and smartly. Not only did the app help Meetings Africa 2019 meet its green targets for this year, it helped it save on its print budget. Those are accomplishments both organisers and attendees can be proud of,” he said.The statistics collected by Flock during the show will help Meetings Africa improve its offering next year, and – interestingly – also provided insights as to what technology delegates were supporting. These are crucial, because they enable Flock and Meetings Africa to ensure that the app supports and is optimised for all devices and operating systems in the market. Over 121 905 views were made using the Android operating system, 47 112 by iOS and 314 by other systems. Samsung was the device of choice for 82 612, Apple for 47 112 and Huawei for 25 571.