August 25, 2016 - The Rio 2016 Olympics captured the world’s attention, despite hosting the games in a particularly challenging environment. The past few weeks have been a trip down memory lane for the team at Eventbase.
We successfully created the first ever official Olympic app, starting with the Vancouver 2010 games, the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games, and the Sochi 2014 Olympic app. Looking back, we needed to create a solid mobile experience with end-user facing capabilities. An experience that would accommodate millions of active users, access to effective scheduling tools for the thousands of events, transportation information and directions to help attendees navigate between hundreds of venues, and up-to-date information – all in a native app.
Now that the Rio Olympic games has officially come to an end, we can look back and see how far we’ve come and how the mobile technology landscape has evolved over the past couple years. Users now demand more than just a repository of information, luckily for organizers apps continue to innovate and have become more intelligent. Smartphones and tablets are meant to connect fans, through content consumption and sharing across global boundaries. Whether you’re a fan onsite or remotely watching events, mobile is no longer a second screen, but a primary channel for engagement and viewing.
As an event organizer, there’s now a wealth of data to tap into. What trends and topics are being discussed, what’s driving engagement, and which events attract the largest audience? It’s crucial for organizers to have their finger on the pulse of the event and to have access to this information. With advancements in mobile technology we can tap into these data points at a granular level. Now, event planners can take advantage of near real-time audience engagement and analytics with Eventbase features such as private social stream and hyperlocal analytics.
A private social stream, is a live internal social media stream. During the event, attendees can share their event experience with other event goers directly in the app, through photos, text and hashtags. Event organizers can tap into the conversation, see what’s trending in real-time, and help drive engagement.
Beacons and GPS can also be used to extract hyperlocal analytics and data points. What are the most popular places people are visiting, what does the flow of traffic look like during the event, and what sessions are people attending? We are able to track all of this and more, by uncovering behavioral preferences. This insight is extremely valuable and empowers event organizers with the tools they need to understand and drive engagement, to help make real-time improvements and delve into analytics to help optimize future events.
