Disastrous weather, unforeseen political disruption, and acts of terror can wreak havoc on a meticulously planned meeting or event. This has resulted in an increased emphasis on “Duty of Care” throughout the industry, and professional planners are responding by incorporating tools that provide quick access for communicating with participants, speakers and sponsors.
At Creative Group, we’re constantly evolving and adapting to the needs of the industry by developing technology tools that can help our clients manage meeting schedules, share content, and allow participants to interact in real-time with an event. One such solution proved to be invaluable for attendees of a conference we planned and managed in October 2017.
Critical Communication
Our client had been considering a mobile app to help organize, motivate, engage, and communicate with 250 attendees in Las Vegas. The conference was to be attendee-paid and voluntary, and there were no pre-event print communications to drive awareness and solicit participation. Creative Group recommended our proprietary EventAPP™ to provide access to event content and identify session locations, timing, maps, and more.
Ultimately, all attendees downloaded and used the app, and this proved to be a key advantage, given what ultimately transpired on the final day of the conference. On that sunny Sunday afternoon, some participants left for the airport. Others extended their stay for the weekend and went off on their own. Many decided to attend the Route 91 Harvest festival, the now infamous concert where many lives were lost during a mass shooting.
When the terror began at the concert, all Las Vegas hotels went on lock-down, allowing guests to enter a facility but not leave. In many properties, cellular service was jammed, due to an overload on the system, and some properties shut down Wi-Fi service to guests, freeing it up for first responders. As a result, people could not easily communicate with friends, colleagues and family members.
Given the enormity of the situation and the importance of Duty of Care in today’s world, our client made a quick decision to push urgent, real-time communication to all attendees via EventAPP, which is powered by cellular data or Wi-Fi and works on Apple and Android mobile devices.
All participant information automatically uploaded from CreativeEDGE,® our registration and attendee management tool, into our EventAPP™ platform, making all attendee contact information readily available. Through the chat feature within the app, attendees were asked to check-in and provide their whereabouts. The activity feed within the app allowed people to quickly post their locations and comments for others to see. A group of five conference attendees had indeed attended the fateful concert and suffered minor injuries but were able to report via the app that they were safe and accounted for.
The app communication channel was subsequently left open for 3 days after the conference to provide further updates. Ultimately, our client recognized the value and peace-of-mind EventAPP delivered: “When the Wi-Fi went down in our hotel, it was our only form of communication through the evening. It was our only way to stay in touch with the attendees and verify their safety.”
Staying connected and safe during unforeseen disruptions
At Creative Group, we are always tapping new technologies to design a more robust attendee experience, provide greater efficiencies, or create value for our clients. We know keeping meeting and event participants connected has never been more important, and a sound crisis management strategy can really save the day.
Creative Group takes a proactive approach to develop industry-current tools to help ensure your attendees stay connected as a group and remain safe at all times. Our CreativeEDGE platform offers one of the industry’s most sophisticated tools for end-to-end meeting management and to date has been used for over 1 million participants. For fundamental and topline information, Pinpointe™ is our limited-feature app that provides a stable, fundamental communication path for your participants, speakers, and sponsors.
Whether you choose Creative Group’s full service EventAPP or our new, communication-focused Pinpointe app, we can help you manage Duty of Care for your audience. What’s the right solution for your next meeting or event? Let’s start the conversation.
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