2 page Case Study - Posted 8/6/2007

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Microsoft Corporation

Mobile Solution Enhances Event Experience for Attendees and Speakers

Microsoft wanted to enhance the experience of attendees and speakers at a series of high-profile events. The company worked with partner Sunnysoft, which developed a mobile device solution based on Windows Mobile® software. Attendees use the solution to network with others and interact with speakers. Event organizers can provide attendees with complete, up-to-date event information, all of which makes the events more valuable for everyone involved.

Business Needs

In 2006, the Microsoft Enterprise and Partner Group decided to increase the value of its IT Leadership Summits, a series of 33 high-profile events. “Our attendees are asked to spend time at so many conferences, and their time is precious,” says Linda Coppess, Senior Marketing Manager for the Microsoft Enterprise and Partner Group. “We wanted to increase the level of attendee excitement at the event in a way that also would benefit organizers, speakers, and marketers.”

The group aimed to support peer networking during the event, make it easier for organizers to give participants full views of up-to-date event information, heighten the level of interaction between attendees and speakers, and provide a way for speakers and marketers to get feedback from and information about attendees.

Microsoft set out to license an easy-to-use, event-specific application for mobile devices that people could carry throughout the event. “Because attendees might be using the application only once, they weren’t going to receive any training,” says Coppess. “We needed an intuitive solution that attendees could pick up and use right away.” Plus, organizers needed to be able to modify the solution on-the-spot so that they could notify attendees of a change in a conference room, for example, or provide speaker biographies and other background materials to accompany a presentation.

Solution

In October 2006, the company turned to Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Sunnysoft to develop mEvent, a solution that helps marketers deploy event information to mobile devices in a matter of minutes to hours, depending on the event’s complexity.

Getting instant feedback in the form of questions from the audience and poll and survey responses really helped me tailor my keynote speech to more fully resonate with the audience members. Shanen Boettcher General Manager, U.S.-Windows Product Management Enterprise, Microsoft

Microsoft offers event attendees the use of HP iPAQ hw6925 devices with a voice and data plan from AT&T; some attendees choose to download the application for use on their own Windows Mobile powered devices. Attendees receive current event information on the devices and can send it to their own e mail inboxes for later reading. The mEvent interface also makes it easy for them to share their contact information with others to facilitate networking during the event.

Speakers use mEvent to poll audiences and conduct surveys. In turn, attendees can submit responses to polls, participate in surveys, and submit questions for speakers. Marketers use the polls and surveys to collect attendee input and feedback for future use.

The solution was ready for an IT Leadership Summit event in February 2007. As of June 2007, it has been used for another 19 events by more than 2,000 attendees.

Benefits

The mEvent solution has improved the excitement, flexibility, and organization of Microsoft events, positively contributing to the experience of everyone involved.

• Easy, intuitive use. Attendees can pick up the mobile devices and start to use them immediately, thanks to the solution’s intuitive interface and straightforward navigation. “Even for inexperienced users, the mEvent application for Windows Mobile is extremely self-explanatory—you just click, and it moves you through,” says Coppess. “Sunnysoft also has done a tremendous job of increasing the application’s usability over the last few months in response to what we learn at each event.”
  
  
• Enhanced attendee satisfaction and value. Surveys conducted using the device during events show that 90 percent of event attendees agree that the event application enhanced their experience.
  
  
• New service to speakers. Microsoft now has an innovative way for speakers to interact with attendees and to collect information that can improve the quality of a presentation. Speakers use the devices to poll session attendees about the issues that they experience and the topics that they’d like to learn about. “At the IT Leadership Summit in New York City, I took advantage of the mEvent polls, session surveys, and real-time questions,” says Shanen Boettcher, General Manager, U.S.-Windows Product Management Enterprise for Microsoft. While setting up for one of his demos, Boettcher directed the audience to a poll sent to their devices. People who were signed in to the keynote session received the poll, and their responses were sent to the speaker monitor. Boettcher commented on the results and then shared them with the audience through the mobile devices. “Getting instant feedback in the form of questions from the audience and poll and survey responses really helped me tailor my keynote speech to more fully resonate with the audience members,” Boettcher says. “And when participants submit their questions using the mobile devices, it’s less disruptive and easier for me to address them within the context of the session.”
  
  
• Increased efficiency for event organizers. Says Coppess, “It takes little effort for us to establish each new event—the interface automatically adjusts according to whether the event is one day versus multiple days, there are surveys or no surveys, and so forth. Compared with printing out and distributing event changes on paper, mEvent saves us time and money while improving the accuracy and timeliness of our information.”
  
  
• Greater availability of marketing data. Because speakers and marketers use surveys to collect attendee input and feedback, it’s now easier to follow up on sales opportunities after an event. “Collecting data using the solution is far more effective than trying to gather and keep track of business cards,” says Coppess.
  
  
• Stand-out events. The mEvent solution differentiates Microsoft events, increasing the likelihood that attendees will choose Microsoft events over others. “The experience is unexpected for attendees but very positive,” says Coppess.