Real Fan Con App: Fan Expo Canada 2012

Known as the “Comic Con” of Canada, Fan Expo Canada draws over 80,000 comic book, science fiction, horror, and anime enthusiasts to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre each year. For four days, attendees get to take their pick of a variety of panels and sessions featuring special celebrity and comic book guests, and browse over 700 exhibitor booths in Artists’ Alley.

Guidebook's fan con app for Fan Con Canada

The Fan Con App Helped 80,000 Attendees Navigate a Huge Venue

An event of this size and nature benefits greatly from having a mobile guide. Attendees don’t want to be worrying about when the next panel is or how to navigate the sprawling 400,000 sq. ft. Metro Toronto Convention Centre. With a mobile guide, attendees can find the answers to their own questions in the palms of their hands.

Can’t find your way around? Simply look up your desired destination using the handy maps feature. Forget when the next autograph session is? Just check your personal schedule, which allows you to set alert reminders before each session begins.

Fans Made Personal To-Do Lists

Given the eclectic nature of an event like Fan Expo Canada, which caters to a variety of different fans, a fan con app is essential to ensuring that all attendees are able to find information about the specific activities they are interested in. The massive schedule, for instance, is conveniently broken down into separate tracks for science fiction, anime, comic book, horror, and gaming fans. This allows attendees to find sessions and panels they’d like to attend and add them to their personal schedules. Guidebook lets people plan ahead so they can make the most of their convention experience and take advantage of exciting opportunities like celebrity photo ops and autograph sessions.

Another great function is the fan con app’s universal searchability. In other words, the entire guide is searchable, meaning that attendees can search for specific exhibitors and retailers rather than having to scroll through extensive lists. For instance, an attendee searching for the retailer Everyday People can simply start typing the name in the search bar until the desired match comes up. Clicking on the result takes the attendee to a short description of the vendor that contains an embedded link to the retailer’s website, in this case, everydaypeoplecartoons.com. This allows attendees to browse exhibitors’ websites in advance and see what each is offered ahead of time. Given that there are over 700 exhibitors, this is a huge timesaver.

In-App Social Media

At fan conventions, everyone is on social media. Including the convention-specific Facebook page and Twitter streams in the guide gives attendees the whole conversation at the click of a button. Attendees can also take and post pictures directly to the guide’s shared photo album, which lets people check out activities they may have missed.

Check out our fan con app for Fan Expo Canada here. Want to learn how you can make your own fan con app? We’d love to give you a personal demo.

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