Tips on creating Android & iPhone apps for speaking events
At FIT we recently published an iphone app for a large design event based in London, so can share some insights into creating an iphone or android app for a speaking event of this kind. Below are a set of 10 insights, please enjoy at your convenience.
1. Create a dynamic list of speakers and biography that is driven by some kind of CMS.
As is often the case one or two speakers will drop out or change the topic of their talk. When submitting iphone apps to the app store it can take time to get your app approved, which is not what you want when the event is fast approaching. You may sometimes be able to get an expedite request, however Apple can be quite grumpy about this.
2. Make your content available offline.
You can’t always guarantee that there will be internet connection at the event. It would be a disaster if an attendee opened the app only to find a screen of blank nothingness.
3. Have content that unlocks after the event.
Event apps can often be throw away, so you can increase their sell by date by including links that will open after the event is finished. This will make your app longer living and more content rich.
4. Make sure you heavily advertise your app otherwise no one will download it.
Advertising the app is just as important as creating it in the first place.
5. Allow your attendees to connect.
At events one of the primary reason for attendance is to network, however this is often too difficult when there are so many attendees! Perhaps have attendees details within the app, so they can easily contact one another before, during and after the event.
6. Allow users to share content directly from the app.
Have a link to Twitter that will open the hashtag for the event in the native twitter app.
7. Think about including a survey.
Attendees would often like to have the chance to leave their opinions and feedback. Perhaps think about including a short survey for them to fill out.
8. Include a floor plan.
If you are holding a large event think about including a map of the event, this will encourage users to use the app more.
9. Add directions to your event.
Many people have trouble locating events, so think about making their life easier by having directions to the event.
10. Check-in with the app.
Think about having a feature that allows attendees to RSPV for the event using the app. Once at the event attendees could also check-in/register using the app. You will always have to have other means of accessing tickets, however if there is an option to check-in within app it will encourage greater usage of your application.
FIT Digital is a creative digital marketing agency based in London. If you would like to discuss a project, please get in touch.
Creative Digital Marketing
To those who are in London, I hope you’re all enjoying the sunshine and making most of it. To those who aren’t in London, you’ve just missed the best time to be in this City. I’m sitting by the window, so I’m still getting some nice sunshine — yes, through the window. Though I realise it doesn’t feel exactly the same as direct sunshine on my skin.
At FIT, we’ve been buzzing around for the last couple of months. We’ve gone through quite a lot of changes. We’ve moved our office to Piccadilly, Haymarket (the Japan Centre is conveniently located behind the building). Also we’ve started working with some fresh new ‘darling’ clients and on some great projects. We’ve done done some pitch work as well, which is always a great motivation. This year we’ve also welcomed new talent to our team and we’ll be hitting business development in the APAC regions this year. Lastly we also re-printed our business cards — It just had to be done. Now we have mat black cards with gold foil prints. So, we’ve been quite busy!
But one change that I wanted to write about today is the transformation of our company. FIT Digital has transformed from a design boutique to something we call a ‘Creative Digital Marketing Agency’.
We’re now in a position to offer digital marketing services as a one stop digital marketing shop.
Our main offers are …
Design & Build for website, mobile, app, tablet, touch screen pieces. Our current projects include those for fashion brands and other fashion related websites re-designs and build in HTML5, some globe mapping projects using geo-location and Social Media, iPhone & iPad apps design and build etc. We’ve been having great fun with these projects! We love both full screen image/video fancy websites and information led websites re-designs. It’s such a great feeling to be applying our skills and design sensibilities to projects. We’re also taking production work from London based agencies and US agencies under this service.
Marketing & Advertising services including Digital Marketing Strategy, SEO and Social Media Marketing Strategy. How fun it is holding brainstorm sessions with amazing team!? In fact we’ve completed some interesting pitches for a few Social Media campaigns including an airline company. The airline pitch is a typical project that shows our uniqueness and strength in cross-cultural knowledge. We’ve got some positive feedback, so we’ll see!
Speaking of Social Media, we’ve started a Japanese Social Media Marketing service called JAPAN BUZZ. We have a separate website for this (www.japanbuzz.info) as it’s quite a specialist field.
And of course, as our team is 50-50 split of English and Japanese we are able to offer all of our services in both languages. This leads me to explain our linguistic related digital services. We have a team of professional translators, fully digitally integrated bilingual digital professionals including Design, Social Media, SEO and Project Management fields. We are an unique entity in Europe, able to offer all these services in two languages whilst being on trend with UK’s digital industry — yet understanding the cross cultural context and aesthetics.
We’re aiming to work on some interesting projects on the side too. We always value the opportunities to think out of the box. Being a digital factory line is the worst thing that can happen to us. We’d like to be working on non-commercial projects to keep up our creativity with innovative ideas and motivation. We’re also discussing about setting up annual funds for non-commercial projects where our staff can submit application proposals. This is part of our sales & marketing strategy and also to grow as a company where creatively motivated individuals gather.
Thanks,
Kana
Out of the Blocks
After too much time spent bending, squatting and sweating we’ve finally heard the pistol and launched our new website!
The redesign uses a clean white background with crisp jet black elements. It’s quite a change from our old website which was a little mild. We’ve made our design sharper, crispier & more fashionable!
We loved playing with dark on brighter textures