At-The-Event Resource Roundup

This is the future of mobile technology in the arts: creating an enhanced event experience for your audience.  At-The-Event gives you the tools for sharing event-specific content, increasing social activity, and encouraging ongoing attendance.

As we approach the start of the 2015-16 season, lets revisit At-The-Event:  what it is, how to set one up, and how to get people's eyes on it. 

Introduction:

• Blog:  Take Your App to the Next Level with "At The Event"
• Slideshow:  At The Event Detailed Walk-through
• Video: Becoming Familiar with At The Event

At-The-Event Setup:

• Video: Adding At The Event Content to a Performance
• Video: Editing At The Event Content for a Performance
• Blog: Enhance Your App's Events with Things To Know
• Blog: Encouraging Your App Subscribers to Get Social
• Blog: Using Your App's Offers Tab to Drive Revenue, Encourage Participation, and More
• Blog: Get URL - A Tool for Enhancing Navigation (useful for adding Custom Actions)

Promotion:

• Blog: Smart App Download URL
• Blog: Tips for Promoting Your Mobile App, Part 1: Encouraging Downloads When Patrons Are Off-Site
• Blog: Tips for Promoting Your Mobile App, Part 2: Encouraging Downloads When Patrons Attend Events

Spotlight from the Field:

• Blog: Partner Spotlight: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Additional Resource:

• Engaging At the Event: Audience Expectations for Live Performance in the Mobile Age - This white paper charts the rise of the mobile audience and their shifting expectations for live performances. It also reveals the results for our At The Event pilot program featuring eight performing arts organizations. The paper concludes with five steps for arts organizations to meet audience expectations head on.

At The Event - Partner Spotlight: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Since 1896, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has been enriching the lives of audiences with world-class music.  Now at the start of their 120th season, PSO expands this tradition by utilizing their mobile app's At-The-Event feature to enhance the concert experience for the 21st Century.  Their audiences now have easy access to a variety of event-specific content, social interactions with artists and patrons, and special offers.

At-The-Event Recap

The At-The-Event Checklist highlights
available content items and provides
one-click access for easy editing.

When setting up At-The-Event,  it is important to provide as many content options as possible.  You don't want to advertise exclusive or event-specific content to your audience without providing them with an experience that lives up to its promise.

At-The-Event has three main content areas:

• The Info screen contains features such as: 
• Check in (This feature doesn't require any setup, it just works!)
• Things to Know
• Program Notes
• Artist Bios
• Custom actions - links to other content tabs or websites.  
• The Social feed aggregates posts from Twitter or Instagram with a defined #hashtag and adds posts made using the In-App form.  
• The Offers area lets you showcase specific deals, promotions, and partnerships to your patrons.

Now, lets take a look at how Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra used each of these areas for their recent concert event - FUSE@PSO: Brahms + Radiohead.

Adjusting Your Mobile App to Facebook's Recent Changes

For those of you who have your mobile app configured to pull content from your Facebook Page into the Buzz area of your app, you may have noticed that your Facebook posts have not been appearing in your app.

What happened

Earlier this summer, Facebook made a major change to how they feed content to other web services by switching from RSS / XML code to JSON.  Correspondingly, the RSS / XML feed link you entered into the Buzz area of the mobile suite is no longer active.

What you can do

The infrastructure for the Buzz area currently relies on RSS / XML code to import content from social media and other sites, so incorporating your Facebook content into the Buzz section of your app is not possible at this time.

While we explore our options for reintegrating the Buzz tab with Facebook, we suggest creating a custom tab in your mobile app linked directly to your Facebook page.

1. From the InstantEncore dashboard, go to Mobile >> Tabs.
2. Scroll down past the list of current tabs to the section labeled "Add a Custom Tab."
3. Enter a text label for the new tab.  You might use "Facebook," "Updates," or "Like us on Facebook."
4. Select the icon to associate with the new tab.  We have included a commonly recognized Facebook icon in our library for you to use, if you like.
5. In the "Content" area, select "Display an existing web page."
6. In the URL box, enter http://m.facebook.com/YourFacebookPageName.
7. Click on the "Create" button.

Your Facebook Page will now appear as a tab within your mobile app. It's that easy!