This year, several members of the Mighty Team went to Craft and Commerce, ConvertKit’s annual conference in Boise, Idaho. And the highlight for us was experiencing Mighty Networks as the conference app!
The event apps market is growing, with over 72% of organizers saying that an app was vital to the success of a recent conference. And G2’s research found that 65% of organizers plan to use a conference app for things like check-ins, AI, QR codes, and even virtual reality experiences.
In this article, we’ll pull from both our research and experience to talk about what makes a great conference app. We’ll cover:
- What makes a great conference app.
- How to choose a mobile conference app.
- 10 of the best conference app options.
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What is a conference app?
A conference app delivers the virtual experience of a live or hybrid event. The first iterations of conference apps were basically mobile conference schedules. As the technology has evolved, conference apps have evolved to include more features to serve members–things like ticketing, member management, and better interactive schedules.
But a modern conference app goes way beyond just a convenient schedule. We can use tech to make conferences better. More engaging. More successful.
A conference app can mean software that:
- Helps attendees find and make life-changing friends.
- Empowers attendees to create content and add to the event.
- Takes care of payment, registrations, and tickets.
What we learned from going to a conference with our app
Boise, Idaho was baking under the summer heat. And as the conference got started, we felt the energy. The conference featured great speakers like Ali Abdaal and Cody Sanchez, and a session on starting a million-dollar community from our own CEO–Gina Bianchini.
Some of the magic came from a great line-up of speakers, an awesome venue, and–of course–300+ amazing creators who came together to make it happen. You know. This is the stuff every conference needs.
But behind the scenes, there was something else happening:
- The conference app chat was blowing up with “strategic selfies” (speaker John Meese suggested we take them”)
- Attendees were organizing, posting, and running their own awesome meetups for things like white-water rafting, running, or the sunrise canyon hike (for those who could handle the 5:00 am wake up).
- Creators were sharing what they were working on or asking for help–and the mobile conference app was blowing up with responses!
- Walking around town, you’d see new friends grabbing lunch in some of Boise’s great restaurants (and yes, this probably included potatoes in some form).
And the app helped this happen!
The conference app wasn’t just for scheduling and ticketing. It was a dynamic, virtual conference that happened alongside the real one. Sure the app was populated with the conference basics, which was super helpful!
But it was the attendees who made the conference app come alive with photos, stories, asks for help, and suggestions for everything from business ideas to gluten-free restaurants in Boise.
Here’s what made it work so well. And here’s what to look for in a conference app.
What to look for in a conference app
- A conference schedule (obviously), but also RSVPs and session engagement inside the app.
- Great communication tools for messaging and emailing attendees, and handling support or questions.
- Tools for connecting participants to each other: eg, rich profiles, social links, chat & messaging. The real people magic in a conference app comes when attendees can find and meet each other–virtual connections that spill into the real world.
- Features for unleashing attendee creativity. Let attendees create content, add photos, build short- or long-form text, post videos, and ask questions. When the engagement happens in the app–without you doing anything–it will 10x the value of your conference. And it keeps the momentum going until the next one.
- Payment, ticketing, and registration. If your app is supporting the backend of your event, make sure you can collect payments, track member lists, and connect members after.
- Easy building, hosting, and supporting—it shouldn’t take your whole team to get a conference app off the ground and looking great.
Our favorite things that worked about the app
As we think about what made our mobile conference app work, here’s what we loved:
- Attendees organically shared their notes from sessions in the dedicated discussion feeds.
- Live icebreakers that got people on the app meeting people IRL (ie. “Find someone who’s the same height as you and take a selfie).
- Local Boiseans (is that right?) organizing meetups around some of their best local grub spots and excursions. (The karaoke was a highlight.)
- The running chat before, during, and after the conference that keeps on giving. For example, Natalie Parmenter (the creator of Primary Focus), gave the shoutout above after fellow members helped make her launch a success!
- ConvertKit opened studio and recording spaces for people to drop by and create content. (If you’re ever in Boise, you can schedule a time to drop in and use them for free!)
The best mobile conference app options
1. Mighty Pro
Best conference engagement app
Mighty Pro builds conference apps deployed on G2’s top-rated community management platform. Mighty is a platform that hosts more $1 million communities than any other, and this includes amazing conference communities.
Mighty Pro has been building branded apps since 2017. This includes 400+ branded apps for creators and brands like Tony Robbins, TED, Mel Robbins, Marie Forleo, Jim Kwik, and Matthew Hussey.
Here’s what you can do with Mighty Pro.
Interactive scheduling
Mighty lets you build an interactive conference schedule for your attendees to engage with. You can build landing pages for individual sessions and members can RSVP and even chat or message in the session. Members can see who else is coming to the session and connect.
And of course, you can create direct livestreams of the session and/or post session videos to the relevant Spaces after.
Member Engagement Like No Other
Mighty has been the #1 community management software on G2 for years, and it’s not just because of “features.”
You go to a conference to meet people, right? And Mighty has built in the tools to make this happen! Every attendee is prompted to create a bio–they can use AI to create one if they’re stuck.
From here, the software builds interactive member lists that can be sorted by interests, activities, or even geography. Fly out member profiles help you focus on interesting people, and the AI engine can even tell you what you have in common and start a conversation.
Community after the conference
Mighty gives you more content options than just the conference basics, though. That’s why it’s the perfect platform to keep community going beyond the conference.
You can custom build Spaces around 8 different core features: activity feed, chat, members, table of contents (for a course), events, a page, a single event, or a hashtag. Here are some of the ways current Mighty Hosts use these features after a conference:
- Hosting regional meet-ups hosted by supermembers.
- Re-cutting conference material into a virtual course or other learning experience.
- Continuing to post content around things your members care about.
- Announcing themes, tickets, locations, etc. for the next conference and building buzz.
Mighty is really good at keeping the engagement and conversation going beyond the conference–if that’s your thing.
Running the conference
As far as running the conference, Mighty can handle payments in 135 different currencies. This can include different tiers and bundles, as well as control over who can access which part of the app.
And Mighty comes with analytics you won’t find anywhere else. These are the insights you need to know what worked and what didn’t, to see where members spent the most time and attention, and to understand conference revenue.
Branded conference apps
If you want your conference app in the App Store and Google Play Store under your brand, this is the way to go.
Here are some of the highlights of Mighty Pro:
- Support for branding, splash screens, notification branding and app best practices
- Proactive upgrades and app submissions
- Includes integration with ConvertKit’s professional plan (up to 10,000 subscribers).
- Support from community strategists who will work with you to make your conference a success both in attendance and revenue, and how to grow a conference community that runs itself.
With the latest insights across 400+ 6-and-7-figure businesses, we’ll show you not just how to achieve your goals, but exceed them.
You can find out more about Mighty Pro here.
Or, if you’re not ready for a branded conference app yet, you can get started on Mighty Networks for free.
2. Accelevents
Branded conference management app
Accelevents’ conference app offers tools for registering and check-in for the event, accessing the program, and building a personal schedule. With smart features like live streaming and a virtual exhibit booth, it can handle live or hybrid conferences.
Accelevents also has member management tools like profiles and bios that can help attendees connect and find each other. And on the day of the event, you can do check-ins, print badges, and even run challenges and polls in the app.
One downside is that Accelevents users have noted challenges with managing breakout rooms. It’s great for managing a conference. But it’s not as strong when it comes to connecting attendees to each other.
Accelevents features
- Branded apps for managing your conference registrations, badge printing, and schedule.
- Some in-app networking and connection features like livestreaming, QR scans, virtual sponsor tables, and polls
3. Swapcard
Great conference management app
Swapcard is a cool concept for a conference app with some great features built-in. Like Accelevents, Swapcard is good at managing a conference schedule. Attendees can print badges, scan QR codes, and build a custom schedule with their RSVPs.
It’s strong for sponsor content as well, creating spaces for sponsored content, chats, and meeting management.
But Swapcard’s best features are for networking. With attendee profiles and networking-friendly UX for finding and messaging potential contacts or leads (plus integrations with social profiles), Swapcard is great for introductions.
Swapcard features
- Conference app (with branded options) for managing registrations, badges, and access control
- A discussion feed, event guide, personalized recommendations, session rating, and livestreaming
- Networking tools: AI matchmaking, profiles, and messaging
4. Stova
Stova (formerly Aventri & Meetingplay) is an event planning and management platform that can work well for conferences. However, it is important to note that Stove does not offer branded apps (you can run your conference on the Stova app).
Stova was built for virtual events, which does give it some interesting features for a conference. Its strongest features are the conference delivery: breakout rooms, livestreaming, and chat. Plus, it includes a 1:1 networking scheduler, which is a neat tool.
Stova also offers some features that are good for planning and preparing an event, like email marketing and conference budgeting.
Stova features
- Good virtual-first conference app with livestreaming, breakout and networking rooms, and a virtual lobby
5. Bevy
Bevy started as an event app for virtual and in-person events, and it has recently pivoted to community + events. This makes it good for managing a conference with check-in, registrations, ticketing, and list management. It can work for hosting a virtual conference too with virtual meetups, chats, webinars, and recordings, and it has a discussion feature. Bevy even includes a drag-and-drop page builder for creating event landing pages and websites.
Bevy has great virtual features, but its community features are quite basic. Essentially, Bevy hosts forums that give you chat and messaging features. But these are really quite simple. It’s not built for the connections that a real community platform gives you.
Bevy features
- Brings community + events together with event management and virtual event production
- Live engagement features like chat & messaging, forums, webinars, and meetups
- Drag-and-drop conference page builder
6. CVent
CVent is another conference app that was created for virtual events and event management. Like others on this list, it can create conference websites, sell tickets, and host content. It has event organization tools built-in for a live event (things like hotel and venue selections), and a webinar-like feature for virtual events. In fact, it’s probably strongest for event planning.
However, CVent has no community or chat features, it’s not made to connect attendees to each other.
CVent features
- App for running an event, with planning, promotion, and “day-of” management features.
7. ON24
ON24 is a simple, webinar-style conference platform that can work as a virtual conference app. It has chat and polls to go along with the webinar, and they’ve recently added features like breakout sessions and video chats.
With registration and form-builder and some ability to customize a conference with colors, fonts, and hero images, it’s a good, basic virtual conference app.
ON24 features
- Webinar platform with engagement features built-in
8. VFairs
VFairs is a virtual and live event software that focuses on conference management features. With registration forms, badge printing, QR check-in, venue maps, and agenda building, it’s a good participant-focused app for helping attendees navigate a conference.
VFairs offers branded mobile conference apps as well as onsite help for live conferences. You can integrate it with your CRM too, and VFairs comes with valuable event analytics to understand what’s working with your conference.
VFairs features
- Registration & ticketing, badge printing, and other day-of management tools.
- Platform for virtual event hosting that includes networking, gamification, and other presentation features.
Conclusion
We know how amazing a conference can be, helping attendees learn, grow, and make connections they’ll keep for a lifetime. But a conference can grow your brand too, increasing awareness while boosting your bottom line.
And a great conference app makes all these things happen!
If you want to learn more about how to get your own branded conference and community app, check out Mighty Pro.
