Enhance Your App's Events with Things To Know

Every day, new audiences attend performing arts events.  And many of them open their programs only to find program notes written for patrons with a much deeper understanding of the art form, the work, its context, etc.

If you knew that a new patron was attending your event, what would you tell them to guide them toward a positive experience? 

This is the thought that prompted us to develop Things To Know - a new feature in the At The Event module for the mobile suite.

What Is It?

Things to Know is a list of short, interesting, and useful facts related to the event.  These can range from trivia about the programming or people involved with the production to parking information to social media campaigns.  Perhaps you want to let patrons know about near by food options or pre-concert activities? Things to Know can be used for anything that improves your audience's experience.

How Are Arts Organizations Using It?

How Does It Work? 

Step 1: Once you've created an At The Event instance, you will be greeted with a checklist showing you what features are available to you.  Click on "Things to know" to get started adding your first item.

Step 2: The next screen will eventually show you a list of all Things to Know added for the ATE, but to get started, click on "Create your first Thing to Know."

Step 3: Here is where you add the important details. Be sure to include....

• A Name to help you identify it later (this will not be shown to the public)
• A relevant image
• 500px wide by 250px tall is recommended
• Do not number the images, InstantEncore will do that for you
•  The text information (HTML is allowed in case you wish to link out to more details)

Once you have everything filled out, click "Add" and your first Thing to Know is done!  You will be able to repeat steps 2 and 3 using the "Add Thing to Know" link until you have added everything you wish to include.

You can manage your existing Things to Know by clicking the Name and making any needed edits.  Re-ordering them can be done using a simple drag-and-drop method. To remove one completely, just click on the trashcan icon to the right.

Take Your App to the Next Level with "At The Event"

InstantEncore is excited to introduce the next stage in performing arts mobile engagement with "At The Event" - a new feature set for our mobile suite designed to deepen audience engagement and foster community among your patrons before, during, and after the show.

How does it work?

When “At The Event” is activated for an event, a full-image landing page becomes the home screen for your Apple and Android apps on the day of the show.  You control the start and end times during the day for this landing page to appear within the app. When your patrons tap on the landing page, they are taken to special content related to the event.

INFO

The Info screen enables you to engage your patrons more deeply with content specific to the event and the artists involved. Standard features include: location-based check-in, things to know, program notes, featured artist bios, and sponsor information. You also have the ability to create custom content just for that performance, connect to multimedia content already in your app, and link out to external URLs.

SOCIAL

The Social screen highlights the social media hashtag for your event, aggregates posts with that hashtag from Twitter and Instagram, and allows your patrons to respond with their own posts. If a mobile user does not have an account on Twitter or Instagram, they can use the in-app posting form to engage in the conversation.

(Why not Facebook?  Because most Facebook users have their privacy settings limited to friends and family.  In order for an app to pull in hashtag content, it must be publicly posted.  We did not want Facebook users to become frustrated by submitting a post that did not appear in the social feed due to privacy settings.)

OFFERS

The Offers screen helps you to capitalize on your audience’s attendance by promoting upcoming events, season subscriptions, concession specials, merchandise, offers from external partners, and more.

At The Event Resources

Over the upcoming weeks, we will be releasing a series of posts on this blog to highlight tips and best practices for making the most of this exciting new tool for audience engagement.  In the meantime, here are some resources to help you dive deeper into exploring what you could do with At The Event in your mobile app.

• At The Event Detailed Walkthrough (slidedeck) - This resource provides detailed specs on the various content areas within the At The Event feature set.
• Becoming Familiar with At The Event (video) - This video provides a visual overview of At The Event within the control panel for the InstantEncore mobile suite.
• Adding At The Event Content to a Performance (video) - This video demonstrates how to create At The Event content for an event.
• Editing At The Event Content for a Performance (video) - This video shows you how to edit pre-existing At The Event content for an event.
• Smart App Download URL (blog) - This blog explains how to connect your mobile users directly to the correct app for their devices.
• Engaging At the Event: Audience Expectations for Live Performance in the Mobile Age (PDF) - This 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.