Case Study: Real Property Management Wins the Game at Attendee Networking
About Real Property Management
Real Property Management (RPM) is a leading residential property management company with over 300 franchised locations throughout the U.S. and Canada. Their speciality is in single family homes, condos, and small residential apartments.
Meet the Person Behind the Event Magic
Like many event planners, Tim Sedgwick wears a number of hats at Real Property Management. He works with franchisees to help them build their revenue streams, and also manages the company’s Annual National Conference for Franchisees.
The RPM Annual National Conference
An annual conference is held every February for Real Property Management’s franchisees to connect with one another, keep up-to-date on trends within the property management industry, and learn new strategies that will help them run successful businesses.
The Event Goals
Real Property Management really wanted to do something different from how they had been previously executing events. The goal of the conference was focused on attendee networking and getting people to build their network within the franchisee community. In order to create this type of event community, Tim knew the organization needed to adopt a new approach.
“We needed to create a platform where attendees could communicate with each other better. We didn’t want to just leave it up to chance that they would interact.”
— Tim Sedgwick
Tim and his team really wanted to push for increased communication and relationship building between attendees, so they turned to EventMobi’s event app technology as a contemporary and cost-efficient means to achieve these goals.
Recommended Read: Read our ebook on how to Create an Event Community to Increase Attendee Loyalty and Engagement
How Real Property Management Achieved Success
1. Gamification
Tim and his team had included attendee networking games in previous conferences. However, they were unable to achieve maximum ROI. The games were not integrated into the overall event experience in a way that would help them achieve their event goals. Rather, they were treated as an afterthought and not heavily promoted to attendees.
By using the EventMobi app’s gamification feature to communicate game rules, challenges, and track gameplay, the number of attendees participating in the game dramatically increased. EventMobi’s leader board (which showed the highest players’ scores) was displayed on the app’s homepage and on screens throughout the conference venue. This provided additional motivation for attendees to join the game.
Recommended Read: Read this pocket guide to learn how to use gamification to achieve the 5 most common event goals.
3 Games Real Property Management implemented to drive event ROI:
A. Attendee Networking Game
Attendees received points for meeting as many people as possible. This was executed by printing a unique four-digit code on every attendee’s ID badge. This way, people would have something in common when they started a conversation.
Recommended Read: Learn how to design an event networking game with this simple Implementation Guide
B. Sponsor Networking Game
To encourage attendees to visit sponsor and exhibitor booths in the marketplace, points were allocated to each booth according to their level of sponsorship. Attendees had to visit the booths and speak to the vendors in order to get the code.
“The Sponsor Networking Game really helped us keep people moving around during the event. If they wanted to get points, they had to visit and meet each one of the vendors. That helped out our vendor marketplace quite a bit. It kept people around, engaged, and conversing. Everyone benefited from that game in the end.” – Tim Sedgwick
C. Registration Game
Real Property Management went from not ever having used event technology at their annual conference to fully rolling out an event app as a replacement for all printed communications, including the agenda.
In order to get attendees comfortable with using the event app, points were allocated to activities related to pre-event app adoption.
“When attendees registered, we gave them points if they filled out their profile, including uploading a profile picture or their LinkedIn details. We really wanted people to become familiar with the technology prior to the event and use the event app as a networking tool. So, it was crucial that they download the app, sign in, and get used to the format since it was such a stark difference from what we’d done in the past. To encourage people, we awarded points for every activity.” — Tim Sedgwick
2. Session Q&A
Prior to implementing EventMobi’s event app, a microphone would be used for people to ask questions during speaker sessions.
“I used to have to run around with a microphone in the ballroom, from table to table or to whomever was raising their hand just so that everyone would be able to hear their question.”
– Tim Sedgwick
Instead, attendees were able to type their questions directly into the event app and vote for other people’s questions as well. This enabled Tim and his team to easily manage the Q&A and read the most popular questions to the speaker on behalf of the audience.
This approach was much more time efficient and provided insight into which topics the audience engaged with the most.
3. Feedback Surveys
“In the past, I collected attendee feedback with paper surveys. I had to design and print the surveys, and physically place them on each seat in the session rooms. Afterwards, I’d collect them and do it all over again. It was a big pain in the butt. With EventMobi’s help, attendees could submit feedback through the event app. To see the results, all I had to do was export a report instead of tediously keying everything in off of the paper forms. Plus, I didn’t have to run around everywhere.” — Tim Sedgwick
Real Property Management took advantage of the feedback survey feature in the EventMobi event app as an easy way to gather attendee insights. The data was then used to enhance the design of the speaking sessions and overall event experience.
The event app made it a lot easier for the team on the back end because it was so simple and quick to tabulate the results. In addition, the savings from not having to print surveys and agendas paid for the event app, so there was no additional budget required in order to accommodate for the technology investment.
Recommended Resource: We’ve put together a selection of amazing event app designs to inspire you.
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Results
Increased Attendee Networking
The gamification, especially the Attendee Networking Game, really helped Tim and his team accomplish their main goal, which was to increase conversations and connections between attendees. In addition, the Sponsor Networking Game provided greater value for the vendors because they were able to have more engaged conversations with attendees.
“Both in person and through feedback surveys, people were telling me that because of the event app and gamification challenges, they were able to have conversations they wouldn’t normally have had at the conference. We saw so many people talking with one another. It was a noticeable difference from previous years. Both attendees and vendors mentioned that they were grateful for the networking opportunities.” — Tim Sedgwick
100% Event App Adoption Rate
Real Property Management put all of their event content on the app — including the agenda, which was distributed as a printout during the previous year’s event. This meant that the only way to access the agenda was through the app. As a result, the event app adoption rate among attendees was 100%.
Recommended Read: The Ultimate Guide to Increasing Event App Adoption and Engagement
To ensure a smooth event experience, attendees were encouraged to download the app prior to the start of the event through promotional campaigns. Also, the entire staff was trained on how to use the event app so that during onsite registration, they were able to guide those who didn’t or were unable to download the app beforehand.
“The event app was very intuitive. Both the staff and attendees were quick to pick it up and get rolling with it.”
— Tim Sedgwick
Maximized Pre-Event Attendee Engagement
An impressive 45% of attendees downloaded and engaged with the event app prior to arriving at the conference. In addition, 35% of total attendees did all the tasks that were asked of them in the pre-event marketing communications.
THIS INCLUDED:
- Uploading their profile picture
- Filling in their bio information
- Logging into the app to look at the event content (such as the agenda)
“We hit the pre-event promotions pretty hard. We started encouraging attendees to download the app about two months before the start of the event. And by incentivizing them with points for completing tasks, we not only got the app more populated with content but also got them used to maneuvering through the event app. This way, they wouldn’t be starting fresh when they got to the event, and on our end, we wouldn’t have to spend time explaining how to use the app. Attendees could jump right in and start networking.” — Tim Sedgwick
Tim’s Lasting Impressions
“All in all, we were really pleased with the event app and how it performed. It helped us accomplish what we had really set out to do, which was to get our franchisees connected with one another and have conversations that they normally wouldn’t have had.”
— Tim Sedgwick
