A Mobile App for Your School: The Case Files

“I love your mobile event app… but do you support mobile apps for schools?”

– Our favorite question at CASE V Conference
Council for Advancement and Support of Education

Mobile event guides are for more than just conferences and conventions. Who’s more wired than the campus-goers of the world? These days, college students expect a mobile app.

You’re lightening their loads

Students and visitors are going to be on their devices no matter what. At any gathering, an attendee is likely to be taking notes or browsing the web on their iPads or Galaxy Tablets.

Instead of asking attendees to juggle their devices and giveaways with a handful of papers, you can just ask them to download the mobile app for your school. That way, rather than forcing them to carry more things around, you’re connecting with them on a device they’re already using.

As they say, if you can’t beat em…

Your attendees can plan in advance

Sure, you’re sending emails with your schedule, but how many people will actually take the time to print or copy your schedule? With a mobile app, users can view a full list of your school’s sessions, plan out their schedule, and set reminders for events they want to attend.

If you decide to include a section on things to do around the area, you can help them plan out the rest of their stay. Young alumni will want to know if their favorite bars have survived your campus expansion, and parents visiting their kids may need to quickly find nearby hotels.

You’re harnessing the power of social media

Generating buzz is critical in today’s wired world. Your office has probably added social media to your marketing strategy, and now you’ve got someone running your Facebook page and someone else Tweeting #YourAwesomeAlumniEvent. Social media is especially crucial for educational institutions because it’s one major (and relatively cost-effective) way to reach out to Alumni, Visitors, and Potential Donors.

So what if all the social media platforms could be integrated into one app? Mobile apps for schools allow you to include only interface features that are relevant to your event, so that there are no distractions. Users can tweet with pre-filled hashtags. They can post a message to your Facebook page. The shared photo album will make it easy for others to boast about how awesome their weekend was. And when two alumni meet, they can exchange contact cards and check out your school’s alumni page on LinkedIn. Networking just got that much easier!

It’s a social media revolution, and your school needs to be part of it!

You’re keeping them from getting lost

Visitors spend way too much time puzzling over those maps you’ve got posted around campus. Interactive Maps on your mobile app will help them navigate your school and find the right room even within a building, so that they don’t miss the first batch of hotdogs from the BBQ, or run out of seats at your keynote speech.

You won’t need a megaphone to make an announcement

Even the most well-planned schedule is bound to have a few changes, and when an entire afternoon of sessions suddenly switches up its room assignments, you don’t want to have to poke the IT Department to get the news out, or worse, print out the dreaded “Room Changed” notice and stick it on the offending door. Mobile apps for schools let your users know about that all-important location change, or even about the free cookies they are giving out on the campus lawn – as soon as you know it!

You won’t need a paper survey to get feedback

Feedback is critical to these events – how else will you know which speakers to invite again next year, or whether the caterers have improved? Paper forms are not the most ideal solution. You can also send out your email surveys a few days after the event…but sadly, by that time, a good number of people have already come down from their event high, and might not recall the name of that great presenter they learned so much from. But what if there was a quick survey they could fill out right at the end of their session, right from their devices? Mobile apps for schools give you the metrics sooner, they get the survey over with sooner – everyone wins!

Try a mobile guide for your school or campus event

Give your attendees the tools to maximize their experience! The more productive and enjoyable the event is for them, the more likely it is that they will come again next year – and share their support for your future projects. A mobile guide makes it easy and intuitive for them to have a great time.

So how does Guidebook help with mobile apps for schools?

Guidebook puts you in control of managing your school’s mobile guide. You don’t need the IT Department or a team of Computer Science seniors to make your app. Even if mobile devices secretly (or not so secretly?) intimidate you, creating a mobile app with Guidebook is straightforward and simple. Our content management system, Gears, is a visual interface – so there’s a lot of drag-and-drop and fill-in-the-blanks. If you’d rather not take the time to create most of the guide yourself, Guidebook is built to be collaborative so that the Techie of your team can take care of uploading the information. (You could also just use a resident Guidebook Techie, aka Customer Success Associate, to make your awesome campus event dreams come true. Really. We’re genies.)

This was our exhibitor table at Case V. Our duffle bag full of squishy balls was severely depleted after just two days.

Not convinced? We’re a bunch of skeptics here, too, and we think the best proof is a trial. You can sign up for a completely free account on Guidebook Gears and start creating fully-functioning mobile apps for schools right away. You can also download the Guidebook app and see the guide that inspired this whole post – just search for Case V!

We promise we have ears, so if you have unanswered questions or a burning desire to see certain features implemented on Guidebook, we want to hear all of it! In the meantime, we are going to be traveling to more CASE Conferences to better understand your needs, all while packing our stress balls and checking out the best local fare (mmm, Chicago pizza).