During the last decade, cellular phones have evolved from a luxury and a curiosity to a ubiquitous necessity. Today it’s not just early adopters using their phones to completely organize their lives — it’s a huge segment of the population that lives and dies by a tiny mobile device. That’s where you come in. More and more trade show attendees expect to use their cell phones to better navigate your show. If you’re not facilitating that, you’re leaving them disappointed. Here are some of the best ways to enhance the attendee experience through the use of mobile technologies.

NEXT-GEN TEXT MESSAGING

By now most of us have had the pleasure of receiving a text message from our moms. Yes, it’s weird and disturbing, but true. The large majority of people has mastered the basics of short message service (SMS) technology, so now it’s time to make it more interesting.

How to use it: CTIA, the Wireless Association, uses text messaging to help drive traffic to exhibitor booths at its International CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment and International CTIA Wireless shows by creating scavenger hunts. Attendees can win prizes like flat-screen TVs by participating, and sponsors can use the hunts to get people into their booths. Participating attendees must answer a handful of questions each day of the show. Some are simple, like “What color is the carpet in the Samsung booth?” Others are product-related and require gaining substantive knowledge about exhibitor offerings.

“The scavenger hunts work very well for us,” says Heather Lee, Vice President of Marketing for CTIA shows. “We ask 10 questions over the course of the show, with two or three per day, and we find we get very good participation. We see lots of people going to the places that are referred to in the text message to find the answers.”

CTIA also offers attendees a service called Booth Finder, powered by iLoop and Open Market. Attendees simply send the first three letters of the exhibitors they are looking for to a specified short code. In a few minutes, the service shoots back the name of the company, booth number and contact information. “We promote it in our show guide, on panels throughout the convention center and on the jumbo screen during the keynote walk-in slide,” Lee says. “So people are constantly being reminded that programs like this are available to help them better navigate the show.”

The American Library Association (ALA) is also using texting to enhance its customer service capabilities through a program called Text an Ambassador. Its service provider, Mosio, sets up a short code the ALA shares with attendees. Show attendees text questions to the code and ALA volunteers and staff read them through an online dashboard created by Mosio. They use the dashboard to upload answers, which are pushed back to the attendees via text message.

“Going through the dashboard is great because you can have more than one person staffing it and you can use auto responders as well,” says John Chrastka, Director for Membership Development at ALA. “It lets everyone communicate directly with a knowledgeable volunteer or staffer whether they have the simplest, cheapest cell phone or the most high-end personal assistant.”

Next steps: Chrastka thinks that eventually there will be sponsorship opportunities within the Text an Ambassador program. “We’re approaching it from a service delivery perspective first and concentrating on the attendees before we start monetizing it,” he says. “But there are good opportunities where users will get their answer and at the bottom it says, ‘Visit this exhibitor.’ We can do those things. We just haven’t built it yet.”

LEARN MORE FROM OUR SOURCES:

• Mosio (www.mosio.com)

• iLoop (www.iloopmobile.com)

• Open Market (www.openmarket.com)

MOBILE APPS

This was the year of the mobile app. Even the most ardent technophobes found themselves exposed to — and experimenting with — mobile applications on iPhones or competing smart phones. Once everyone had some fun with bubble wrap and bodily functions, they realized that apps are more than just cute diversions. They’re super useful. At the same time, the cost of developing a mobile app is decreasing, and it’s becoming easier to create one on the backend. Add the fact that more and more developers can create apps that work on all platforms and you’ve got the perfect recipe for an explosion in trade show apps.

How to use it: The National Association of Realtors (NAR) launched a mobile app for the first time at its annual conference in Chicago this past November.

“We had thought about doing it a few years ago, says Sue Gourley, Vice President, Conventions, at NAR. “But the technology just wasn’t there yet. There was a lot of programming that had to be done on our end, it was costly and it would only work with certain types of devices.”

This year, NAR discovered Boopsie, one of several providers offering a cross-platform app that can be created with straightforward and simple backend preparation. “All we needed to do was provide an Excel file with the data in the field and Boopsie took it and made it into what it was. And the updates were great because all you do is update the Excel file and send it in. Changes can be made any time.”

NAR’s app consists of a fully searchable, user-friendly database of all information related to the show. This includes conference sessions, exhibitor listings, committee meetings, keynotes and special events. NAR also decided to include hotel and restaurant guides for the city of Chicago in the app.

Users can search for a speaker, a session or an exhibitor just by starting to type the name in the search field. Contact information for speakers, exhibitors and even local restaurants and hotels can be called or e-mailed right from the app with one touch. Because most smart phones are equipped with GPS, the NAR app can locate the attendee and use that location to direct them to specific booths on the show floor or session locations or help them locate restaurants or meeting areas.

One feature Gourley particularly loves is Sessions Starting in One Hour, which offers one-touch access to everything that is about to begin from keynotes to sessions to committee meetings. Most mobile apps can also include video clips. NAR added pre-conference speaker videos, where some speakers gave a sneak preview of their sessions. “You can get a picture of the speaker and find out what sessions they will be attending or speaking at,” Gourley says. “You can call that speaker or e-mail them with the touch of a button. And we saved quite a bit of money by not putting the speaker directory in print.”

CTIA introduced its mobile app at Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2008 and has been expanding it at each subsequent show.

It’s most recent show, Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2009, was the third time the app was offered. “It’s basically another navigational tool, but a lot more visual and a little more robust,” Lee says. “So aside from the typical things you’d expect to see like your schedule-at-a-glance and exhibitor list, we’ve started introducing more advanced features like video.” Videos from keynote speakers or sessions can be uploaded on-site.

“We also introduced a voting component,” Lee says. “So for every event that was on the schedule-at-a-glance, attendees were able to do a thumbs up or thumbs down. That was a neat way to engage people.”

CTIA also gave app users the opportunity to comment on every event that was listed in the schedule-at-a-glance. “We didn’t make those comments public, but we shared them with the speakers and organizers,” says Lee.

Implementation was also easy for CTIA, which used Unity Mobile to create their app. “Everything has a Web-user interface, so you go into this system and load in all the graphics you want like your logo and images. You create your navigation — what sections you want inside your app, such as scheduleat- a-glance, exhibitors, events and alerts. Then you start populating it with content very much like you would do with a content management system to create a Web site,” Lee says. As with NAR’s app, it’s cross platform. “Their system scales all the graphics down to whatever the device can support, so it’s been very painless,” Lee says. “When we first started with mobile, you had to hire a separate set of agencies just to manage the mobile piece. That’s become more streamlined. It’s a lot easier now and a lot cheaper.”

Next steps: For its upcoming show, CTIA will be adding more robust social networking elements.

“We are planning to integrate Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn so that when users publish comments on the app, they’ll be published to all three social networking sites under CTIA’s profile page,” Lee says.

Users will be able to create a login for themselves and hook up with other app users. “Being able to find people who have similar interests that you wouldn’t have an opportunity to meet otherwise will be a big plus,” Lee says.

Users will also be able to upload images directly to the app, so there will be a photo gallery of attendee-posted show pictures. As with advanced text messaging technologies, the NAR and CTIA mobile apps have started with attendee functionality in mind, but adding upgrades for exhibitors is on the agenda as well. “We wanted to give ourselves time to create the awareness that this app was available,” Lee says. “We haven’t solicited a lot of exhibitor feedback, but for the upcoming spring show we have some plans to start doing that, probably by going to some of our big supporters and asking if they’d be interested in having a banner ad or a logo placement within the app.”

NAR has exhibitors in mind for the future as well. “Next year, we’ll be looking to expand that exhibitor directory to provide more bells and whistles with it,” Gourley says. “Perhaps we’ll look at including video or advertising in the directory.”

LEARN MORE FROM OUR SOURCES:

• Boopsie (www.boopsie.com)

• Unity Mobile (www.unitymobile.com)

• Core-Apps (www.core-apps.com)

• Trip Builder (www.tripbuilder.com)

MOBILE DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT

With so much of people’s lives stored within a tiny cell phone, it seems fitting that all the literature collected and distributed at trade shows be stored in the phone as well. And so it is with management systems such as SNIPP, XNIP and Virtual Totebag. All three services offer a similar, if slightly nuanced, product.

How to use it: Exhibitors are encouraged to set up an account and upload materials — from catalogues to white papers to brochures. Once they do so, they receive a code, which they can then promote during the show. Attendees who want access to printed materials can text the exhibitor’s code to an overall show code created by the service company.

After the show, all of the literature the attendee requested will be available to them in PDF form, either sent to them in an e-mail or accessible through a Web site for download.

The potential savings in shipping and printing costs for exhibitors could be substantial if the technology really takes off. And cutting down on all that paper would be a big step forward in greening trade shows.

Right now, Paul Graller of production company Hall Erickson sees a slow progression. “It hasn’t taken off tremendously well,” he says. “The last show where we did it was Supercomputing 2009, and there were maybe 10 companies that participated. It’s an exposure thing. You have to get it out there through a couple of show cycles and get people used to it. Then it’ll have a little more impact.”

For Heather Lee of CTIA, virtual document management is on the radar, although she isn’t yet offering it to her exhibitors. “It’s something I started seeing earlier this year and I think might become more popular as time goes on,” she says. “Our exhibitors aren’t asking for it yet, but we still may start doing it soon. It’s an interesting idea.”

Next steps: Exhibitors aren’t the only ones who can benefit. Session speakers could also upload handouts and additional information, which would allow them to offer a lot more for attendees to take home.

LEARN MORE FROM OUR SOURCES:

• SNIPP (www.snipp.com)

• XNIP (www.xnip.com)

• Virtual Totebag (www.virtualtotebag.com)

Lee Ann Murphy is a freelance writer. She is the former managing editor of Event Marketer magazine.