Case Study: How EventMobi Boosted Employee Learning and Engagement During Our Annual Company Retreat
For us at EventMobi, team bonding and work-life balance are the reasons why we love the culture here. Being able to rely on our colleagues, contribute ideas and have each of our voices heard, and be proud of the great value that we’re providing to clients all coincide to build a fun and productive work environment.
Ever since the beginning of EventMobi back in 2010, we’ve packed our bags every year and headed for a Team Retreat. We have offices in Toronto and Berlin, and amongst the two, so far we’ve explored the Bahamas, Milan, Barcelona, and Iceland, just to name a few. This summer, the Berlin team went to Lisbon for five days. Two days were spent in a co-working space. After all that work, it was time for play! We picked up the cooking spoons and attended a Portuguese cooking class before heading off to the Atlantic ocean to surf.
EventMobi’s technology is all about providing the best possible event experience to both planners and attendees through event management software tools like event apps, so what better way to demonstrate how useful an event app than by using it for our own team retreat? The following blog post is going to look at how we used our event app technology to improve attendee engagement and learning, and create an overall smooth event execution.
Agenda & Categories: Always Know What’s Going On
The heart of our team retreat was the agenda. From flight details to transfers, working hours and team dinners – the diverse and numerous activities scheduled throughout the five days could be clearly sorted, thanks to the color-coded categories. The agenda could be displayed in both list and calendar formats and also worked in offline mode, which was a huge benefit because we didn’t always have access to WIFI and roaming charges in Portugal would have been a big hit to the budget!
Attendee Profiles: Mobiers Get to Know Each Other Better
One of the retreat goals was to get to know each other even better. Some Mobiers have been around since the beginning of the company while others joined just a few weeks ago. In order to provide great icebreakers and get to know each other on a more personal level, creating profiles in the event app was a real benefit. Here’s an example of the types of questions we got Mobiers to fill out:
Spotify Playlist: Music to Our Ears
For the first two days of the retreat, the team worked within a co-working space in Lisbon. The internet connection was lightning fast and the rooms were bright and well equipped. But to really make it fun and productive, we needed to tap into the music system!
Taking into account that everyone has their own taste in music, we asked for everyone to put their favorite song in their attendee profile. We then compiled all the songs into a Spotify playlist, which we integrated into the event app. Having been inspired by music festivals, we thought that by creating a playlist, we could build anticipation and keep the great memories alive for years to come.
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Access to Information In One Place (Including Offline)
For a retreat experience, there are always a few more details that need to be kept on top of in order to run a smooth event. Logistics like flight information and co-ordinating meet up points can be tricky since it’s so common for things to change last minute. That’s why having all your up-to-date information within a single place that can be referenced in real-time by all organizers and attendees, like an event app, is so useful. Below is an image of what our event app home screen looked like. It included all the commonly accessed areas, especially the agenda and hotel information.
The map area in the event app showed the location of the apartments where we stayed, the co-working space, as well as the restaurants where we spent the evening dining together. We even included the nearest supermarkets and bars within walking distance. WiFi information, access codes for the apartments, and contact details of the apartment owners were also provided in the event app.
The handy Document Library also contained each person’s flight tickets. We wanted to make it as easy and convenient for Mobiers as possible. They didn’t need to sort through their emails to find their tickets or print them out because everything could be accessed through the event app, even while offline.
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Activity Feed: Share Photos to Keep the Memories Alive
Capturing and sharing moments is an important part of how attendees experience an event, especially when traveling. However, not every photo is suitable for sharing to the public on social media channels like Facebook and Instagram.
A great feature of EventMobi’s event app is the Activity Feed, which is an internal social network where attendees can share photos that are visible only to whoever accesses the event app.
Below is an example from our Activity Feed, which helped us create a shared photo album where employees could publish pictures and like their favorites.
Push Notifications: Keep Your Attendees Updated
Push notifications through the event app allowed us to communicate pre-scheduled and spontaneous messages to our employees. For example, we sent reminder communications 24 hours prior to departure, informed them about the airline’s carry-on regulations, and provided a link to the boarding pass. Even last-minute changes to the agenda could be easily communicated.
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Playful Gamification Experiences: EventMobi Jeopardy!
The highlight of the program was our own version of “EventMobi Jeopardy!” For those of you who may not be familiar with the TV quiz show, answers from different categories are read out and the players have to formulate the appropriate question. In our version, interesting, funny, or surprising facts were given about employees. Players had to write down on a blackboard the name of the Mobier who they thought was associated with the clue.
In order to collect enough material for the quiz, a survey within the event app was created and distributed through the event app four weeks before the team retreat. Examples of questions included “What is your secret talent?” and “If you wrote a book, what would be the title?”
Document & Note Sharing: Create Memorable Workshops
Events can easily become a hectic experience for attendees, especially when there are numerous or intensive sessions and workshops throughout the day. This can make it difficult to really let all the new learnings sink in and be digested.
For our company retreat, it was important to provide as much value as possible to employees. We wanted them to effectively learn new skills and increase their knowledge in ways that would help them be more successful in their careers.
The key to enabling participants to apply the knowledge they gained was to ensure everyone had access to documents and notes taken during the workshops. This was made possible through a feature in EventMobi’s event app called Session Feedback. Notes were logged in this section that addressed who participated in the session, what were the main outcomes, and next steps that needed to be taken. The person leading the workshop would then disseminate to all participants so they had a copy of the notes.
In Conclusion
Event apps help event planners design smooth corporate retreats and incentive trips. From hotel information, agenda details, and plane tickets – attendees always have the latest information at hand, even offline. And if any last-minute changes are required to the program, an event app makes distributing communication very easy. Used to the best advantage, an event app also helps to foster a sense of community and engagement, which has the potential to create life-long bonds and motivate employees throughout the year. An event app also provides a treasure chest worth of data about your employees, of which helpful insights can be drawn and used to influence the design of your next event.
Our retreat to Lisbon would definitely not have been as smooth or interactive without the event app. The key with this type of technology is to not make it the focus of the event. Instead, it acts in a supporting role that enables planners and attendees to experience the event as seamlessly and engagingly as possible.
Interested in learning how an event app can make your next retreat or incentive trip a smooth and engaging experience? Our event tech experts are easily accessible and can answer all your questions.