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TheAppBuilder is a leading provider of corporate apps to some of the best known organisations in the world. Recently we developed a custom corporate event app for the British supermarket group, Waitrose.
With Waitrose, the challenge was to develop a corporate event app for their annual leadership conference — a key event in engaging and energising approximately four hundred Waitrose leaders and for the board to share plans for the upcoming year.
From a communications perspective, the stakes are always high for such an event as expectations are forever increasing. Corporate event ideas for increasing employee engagement and event management efficiency are often great in theory but time consuming and over-complicated in practice.
The Waitrose Communications team needed an app solution that would be the sole source of information for the event and had the potential to create a real “buzz” at the conference unlike other digital alternatives, and crucially they needed to be able to have the app fully working and ready to go in time for the event.
TheAppBuilder met that challenge by providing an event app with a non-technical set up that worked seamlessly with Waitrose’s existing suite of internal corporate apps (also created by TheAppBuilder) and exceeded expectations with a measurable increase in employee engagement at the event via the app.
Here are the 5 key benefits of the corporate event app as experienced by the Waitrose Communications team.
Non-Technical Event App Set Up
Having experience in preparing the build of a mobile news app for Waitrose employees using the non-technical toolkit from TheAppBuilder, the team decided to develop an event app specifically for the conference.
TheAppBuilder provided a conference app template and, in less than a half a day, the
Communications team refined its layout and structure. Over the next two months the Waitrose Communications team worked on the design and content of the app (with very little assistance required from TheAppBuilder) to create a sophisticated app that delivered maximum impact and could be distributed by an email with a download link.
As Laura Kendall of the Waitrose Partner Communications team put it – “even our IT guys can believe how simple it is”.
“From a communications professional perspective, the app navigation and the content management system are so simple. For such a fast paced conference just having something we could update instantly made communicating so much easier. We could upload content ready to go and then just publish it when required. Even our Waitrose IT guys can’t believe how simple it is.”
Accessible Event Content
Based on the feedback from last year’s conference, the Internal Communications team had already made the decision to switch from unwieldy, voluminous printed documentation and move to 100% digital communication.
The app was distributed to the conference attendees by an embedded download link via email.
96% of respondents rated the download process as “Easy” or “Very Easy” and 99.6% confirmed they had all the required information before the conference started.
The app itself was rated “Very Good” or ”Good” by 96.5% of the respondents — a major achievement in light of expectations set by top-quality consumer apps.
“The app download link was sent out about ten days in advance of the conference and positive feedback flooded in through other channels such as Google Plus almost immediately,”
Laura Kendall, Internal Communications Manager, Waitrose Partner Communications Team
“Even anecdotally, the feedback was immediate with delegates saying things like it's ‘great to have this’.”
Rob Cadwell, Senior Internal Communications Officer, Waitrose Partner Communications Team
Increased Employee Engagement at the Event
To increase delegate engagement, and maintain it throughout the conference, the team distributed timely, up-to-date information rather than providing it all at once. Confident in knowing content could be pushed out within 60 seconds, Laura Kendall, Waitrose Internal Communications Manager said:
“When key messages were delivered by the executive team during the conference, we were able to share them ‘instantly’ via the app. You simply can’t do that with a printed booklet.’”
Measurable Event Engagement
In the past, it was impossible to know how much use, if any, was made of a traditionally printed “Welcome Pack”. With the app, however, the Waitrose Communications team monitored the information in real time using Google Analytics and the spikes proved that new content was eagerly awaited and downloaded shortly after publishing.
Now that the conference has finished, the app remains live and serves as an ‘aide-memoire’ for the store managers tasked with disseminating key messages back to partners in the branch.
Increased Event Management Cost-Effectiveness
Although not an objective in itself, publishing via the app saved the considerable cost of printing four hundred booklets as well as the obvious environmental benefits. Unlike in previous years, the app resulted in far fewer logistical questions directed to the Communications team leaving them free to focus on the delegate experience.
Overall Impact of TheAppBuilder Corporate Event App
Post conference feedback such as, “The app was a stroke of genius”, “Bang on trend”, “Really helpful”, “Superb” and “Brilliant”, confirmed the app had exceeded expectations.
One respondent stated,
“The communication and tone of the meeting was excellent. It left me feeling energised for the year ahead”.
Christine Watts, Waitrose Communications Director added,
"The app was a star of the show. It transformed our communications with delegates and we are very grateful to TheAppBuilder for their expertise and support."
The Waitrose Communications team fully intends to produce another app for next year’s conference and may adapt it to include more video content, push notifications and live polls for new products.
Contact us today to find out how you can increase employee engagement and streamline communications at your next event with a corporate event app by TheAppBuilder.
