Case Study: Canadian Meetings + Events Expo 2022 Uses the Mobile Event App to Drive Engagement With Exhibitors
About the CMEE
For over 25 years, The Canadian Meetings + Events Expo (CMEE) has brought together meeting planners of all kinds – independent, corporate, or government – with event suppliers. As the biggest and longest-running meetings and events show in Canada, the CMEE gives event planners the chance to discover and meet with 200+ companies, gain relevant industry knowledge, and source new event ideas.
Meet the Person Behind the Magic
Melissa Arnott oversees the successful delivery of tradeshows and conferences, including the CMEE, at Newcom Media Inc. As an experienced trade and consumer show executive, Melissa has been the show manager of the CMEE for nearly 6 years.
CMEExpo 2022, Toronto, Canada, August 16-17
Event Goals and Challenges
Event Goal
To connect meeting and event professionals with new suppliers offering a range of event planning products and solutions for venue sourcing, special event and incentive travel planning, and event management-related products and services, including technology.
The Challenge
CMEE 2022 was the second event held in-person after the COVID-19 pandemic. As health and safety restrictions had eased, registrations were back to pre-2020 levels. The organizers wanted to ensure event stakeholders made the most of the show by making it easy to navigate the show floor, find educational sessions, and network with one another.
“We discovered EventMobi a few years ago and immediately found that they were just easy to work with and they also enhanced our user experience, both on the exhibitor side as well as the attendee side.”
– Melissa Arnott
How the CMEE Successfully Connected Event Planners With Suppliers
“When we’re planning the event, we plan with the attendee experience in mind all the time. So what the App does is make us very aware of what the experience is going to be. So EventMobi is really enhancing that experience, again, both on the exhibitor and the attendee side.” – Melissa Arnott
The CMEE used the following unique features offered by EventMobi’s Event App to deliver an amazing and unforgettable event experience:
Event App Highlights
1. Interactive Agendas
Education sessions and workshops at the CMEE are designed to provide planners with powerful insights and learning opportunities to deliver better events and progress their careers. Each CMEExpo Education Workshop is pre-qualified with the Events Industry Council so that planners’ time spent at the CMEE can go towards receiving or renewing their Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation.
Using EventMobi’s Interactive Agendas, attendees were able to quickly sort sessions by date, time, and type, and add their favorites to their personalized agenda to ensure no important workshops were missed.
2. Gamification
In order to help sponsors connect with qualified buyers and drive session attendance, gamification challenges were created to encourage attendees to visit exhibitors on the show floor and to attend specific sessions.
“Gamification is a great feature. It helps attendees really engage with our exhibitors and get people moving through the show floor. So it’s a great way to get your attendees to move to those spots where they need a little bit more attention.” – Samantha Nagy, Marketing Strategist, Event Attendee
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3. Interactive Event Maps
With 200+ exhibiting companies, it can get tricky for attendees to locate an exact supplier on the show floor. With Interactive Event Maps, event planners could pinpoint or search exhibitors for easy wayfinding, as well as see what is in the surrounding area.
“I did check out the floor plan and that was nice how you can zoom in and see, and it has the street layouts and everything. So that was really helpful to find.” –Olivia Popofsky, Marketing Coordinator, Event Attendee
“My favorite feature would be the map. I find it’s very easy to navigate. If I need to find an exhibitor on the show floor, I can click on the exhibitor and it’ll tell me exactly where to go.
– Samantha Nagy
Results
1. Increased Engagement Between Event Planners and Suppliers
With 563 Challenges completed and 59,700 total points collected, the ‘Play to Win’ gamification challenges were a clear favorite among spirited attendees. These statistics, paired with anecdotal feedback collected onsite, demonstrate that this engagement feature created an exciting and memorable attendee experience while driving relevant traffic to exhibitor booths.
2. A Positive User Experience
Reactions from CMEE 2022 attendees were extremely positive.
“People are going towards technology. And as much as we used to love those big, thick show guides that we carried around and, you know, probably injured our shoulders, the Event App is right in their hand and they can use it. They can change their experience as they go.”
– Melissa Arnott
Users noted that the Event App was visually appealing, offered easy access to important information and updates, and simplified navigating the event.
“It was my first time using it actually, but I like the color way of it, and it pops where it should. So it’s been really easy and nice on the eyes.” – Olivia Popofsky
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