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We’re less than a week away from holding one of the most talked about data and analytics focused events of the year – Tealium’s Digital Velocity. The event will be in San Francisco October 9-10th and I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Jason Koo, Developer Evangelist at Tealium, to hear more about the mobile app he’s created for attendees, get an inside look at how it will help attendees and why every brand should be using one at the industry events.
Q: Your title is “Developer Evangelist.” What does that mean exactly? What does a typical day at work look like for you?
A: A Developer Evangelist or Developer Advocate is a spokesperson for developers, both internally for those working on creating products, as well as externally for those who are using them. This requires staying up-to-date with the latest technologies and having a strong understanding of how software products work.
Throughout a week my time will be evenly split between communications and development work. Because of my past technical expertise, I develop in-house projects such as demo apps and data aggregation scripts. Communications-wise I attend developer-related events, conferences and meet and maintain correspondences with other market professionals. I create our Tealium mobile applications and most recently have been working on our <Digital Velocity San Francisco mobile app.
Q: What’s included in the Digital Velocity San Francisco app? And how will attendees be using it?
A: The app includes everything attendees need to stay informed about the conference, including wifi info, schedule of events, speaker bios, maps, and access to the Digital Velocity Emporium store. Reminders and notification updates will also be sent through it.
Whenever an attendee needs to check in on the day’s agenda, they can simply launch the app and click on the ‘plus icon’ for any sessions they’re interested in. There’s also an Activity Feed to keep track of social posts with our event hashtag #DVSF.
Q: You mentioned the “Emporium”. What is that? And how does it work?
A: The Emporium is a light-hearted ecommerce experience that’s tightly integrated with the conference. Attendees are awarded Beastcoins for completing various activities and interacting with partners throughout the day. They can then purchase an assortment of swag items from the on-site store or conveniently through the app.
Q: How did you know what to include in the app and what attendees would want?
A: We’ve been doing Digital Velocity for a while, so we’ve tried a number of things and have gotten quite a bit of feedback over the years. Games and customized push notifications triggered by hidden beacons have been fun for past attendees, and having a live chat feature was useful at venues with unusual architectural layouts.
Privacy and security have also been top of mind, so this year we’re utilizing an app by the same company we use for registrations, reducing the number of places PII (Personally Identifiable Information) is stored. We maintain only the bare minimum amount of PII information in our system to run the conference and have also removed the Attendees section, a giant list of guest names and photos typical in most conference apps. Instead, we’ll be promoting more engaging face-to-face interactions through the Emporium, staff facilitation, and other on-site activities.
This year we worked closely with our event registration partner to reduce the number of places PII (Personally Identifiable Information) is stored. We only use the bare minimum amount of contact information to run the conference and have even removed the Attendees section, that giant list of guest names and photos typical in most conference apps. Instead, we’ll be promoting more engaging face-to-face interactions through the Emporium, staff facilitation, and other on-site activities.
Q: Does the app help connect attendees to one another so there is a networking component?
A: It does. The app allows you to add in-conference contacts, direct messages, and/or set up meetings with other publically viewable attendees.
Q: Why is having a mobile app at events important? I’ve been to conferences before that didn’t have one and as an attendee, you kind of do feel like you’re missing out on having all of the information you need, in one place.
A: That’s right, Julie, there’s a lot of things happening simultaneously during conferences. A big part of attending events to is to build relationships. That’s much easier to do if you’re not spending all your time figuring out where all your sessions are.
Additional benefits of a dedicated app are that you can be notified of any last minute schedule changes, flash news, and those built-in capabilities to help with networking.
Q: How do attendees download the app? Is it in the App Store?
A: The app can be found for free in both Apple’s iTunes and the Google Play Store, just search for the term ‘Digital Velocity’ or ‘Tealium’.
Thank you, Jason! Learn more about Digital Velocity San Francisco 2018 here.
