How to Customize Your Event App

Generic event apps deliver a fragmented user experience, leaving disengaged attendees and a forgettable event experience. Designing a custom app for each event from scratch will only leave organizers scratching their heads instead of planning the event. 

The answer? Choosing an event app vendor that handles the build while you stay in full control. To choose one wisely, you need to understand which customizations are possible and which ones actually drive attendee engagement.

App Customization Essentials Every Organizer Needs to Know

As an event organizer, having your own custom app is key to aligning it with your event priorities. Here’s how you can customize your event app to best suit your event needs.

Launch a White labelled App

Think of a white labelled app as a pre-built blank slate. As a brand, you get full control over how it looks with your own logos and brand colours for a unique visual identity without needing to code it yourself. Once you’ve set up your brand identity, you can reuse it across future events. That means no more repeat design work or setting up from scratch.

A white labelled app brings its fair share of advantages. For starters, you don’t need to hire a development team to build an event app from scratch or go through endless cycles of testing. Secondly, the app’s underlying technology and architecture have been tested, optimized, and proven to scale.

With the vFairs WhiteLabel Event App, organizers can host a standalone, customized branded app under their own name on the App Store or the Play Store. Letting them create a branded experience from the first touch point for attendees.

Design a Personalized Homescreen

A personalized homescreen acts like a personal concierge for every attendee. Helping them know when and where to be to find the sessions, content, and features that matter most.

With a custom event app, you can rename and reorder home screen tiles to prioritize what you want users to see. Want to highlight top sessions or important announcements? Pin them to the top of the screen. Want to make sure users don’t miss out on exhibitor booths? Make it more visible to make sure attendees don’t miss out. 

Your event app is not a digital brochure. It’s how attendees experience your entire event. When they can’t figure out the schedule or find the networking lounge, that’s not an app problem, that’s an event problem.

Muhammad Younas

CEO, vFairs

Create Tailored Audience-Centric Navigation

Whether it’s speakers, exhibitors, job seekers, or any other attendees, a custom event app should feel like it was built for them. With built-in tailored navigation, you can create unique app experiences for each audience group, guiding them straight to the tools and content that matter most to them.

The key to maximizing engagement at your events is creating an app experience that feels effortless. Attendees can easily navigate, find what they need, and stay connected.

Kristian Papadakis

Founder and Product Director, Presso Network

For attendees interested in speaker sessions, you can include a quick link to guide them to the speaker portal — a central hub where they can access all relevant information on speaker sessions. For the exhibitor booth enthusiasts, the event app can include a list of booths that feature detailed information on pricing and products for attendees to browse.

This way, your attendees don’t have to sift through cluttered menus and instead, find themselves exactly where they need to be for what they need. Saving time and making sure your event is a success.

Guide Attendees with Branded Maps

Large venues can feel overwhelming for your attendees, especially if they’re unsure where to go next. A fully customizable floor map built into the app with specific session and booth names can be a lifesaver for attendees and turn a confusing layout into an engaging wayfinding experience. 

Custom mobile apps like the vFairs Mobile Event App feature an easy-to-use Floor Plan Builder that can showcase brand colours, logos, and visuals in the floor plan design. Organizers can use drag-and-drop elements to design floor plans to visualize the entire event layout. You can tailor booth sizes, shapes, and layouts to match your event’s identity and offer branded navigation elements and signage. 

Any changes to the floor plan are synced automatically across the event website, virtual event, and mobile app to make sure attendees and exhibitors are always up to date.

Most importantly, you can pin must-see sessions or booths to the map to make sure they get the visibility they need — it’s a win-win.

Boost Connections with Easy Networking

A custom event app can be your attendees’ digital networking wingman. Features like QR-based contact exchange, smart attendee filters, networking roundtables, and chatrooms remove the awkwardness from small talk and introductions and help people connect based on shared interests.

Whether it’s a spontaneous chatroom conversation or a scheduled networking roundtable with like-minded professionals, the best event apps allow your attendees to build real and lasting connections without fumbling for business cards.

Improve Exhibitor and Sponsor Visibility

When you create your own app, you get to build a powerful platform that can make sponsors and exhibitors stand out. From branded banner ads on the home screen to targeted push notifications, you can offer them premium real estate that gets them in front of the right audiences.

Sponsors can host their own booths where they can showcase videos, brochures, and downloadable content like case studies, company profiles, or product sheets. Think of it like a mini brand hub that is available to attendees anytime during the event. 

You can drive traffic directly to these showcases to give them visibility. Want to make an even bigger splash? Give them a splash screen ad that is guaranteed to grab attention!

Lead Conversations with Engagement Tools

Good events don’t just inform, they engage. Making your own app gives you access to powerful engagement tools like live polling, surveys, Q&A sessions, photo galleries, live social feeds, and leaderboards. These tools let you spark real-time interactions and participation. 

For more engaging speaker sessions, attendees can use live polling and speaker Q&A for dynamic sessions. Photo galleries and live social feeds let attendees show off their favorite selfie. Want to make sure people remember your sponsors? Throw in a sponsored live poll or let them take over the photo gallery.

You can use gamified leaderboards to reward attendees for taking specific actions—like visiting a sponsor booth, checking into a session, or answering a trivia question. Our personal favorite is a sponsored leaderboard or challenges that reward participants with the highest scores!

The best part is that every element can be customized to your brand, from poll visuals to gallery layouts.

Foster Inclusivity with Multilingual App Interfaces

Hosting a global audience? A multilingual app interface is a must-have feature that makes it easier for everyone to participate. Custom event apps like the vFairs Mobile App allow users to choose their preferred language and see menus, session titles, and navigation elements instantly translated.

When attendees get to explore your event in their native language, they feel included, confident, and more willing to engage. Multilingual support is a simple yet effective way to show your commitment to accessibility and directly contributes to higher registration rates, app engagement, and sponsor visibility.

Wrapping up

Your custom mobile app isn’t just a digital add-on. It’s the engine that powers your entire event experience. By investing in features like a white-labeled app, personalized home screens, and tailored navigation, you stop forcing diverse audiences into a one-size-fits-all experience. Instead, you give every single attendee, speaker, and sponsor a journey built just for them.

However, your event app success depends on more than just customization. Encouraging active app usage during your event plays an equally important role in ensuring event success. You can display QR codes and check-ins and add soft reminders before and after sessions to encourage app adoption. To learn more about event-app related best practices for in-person events, download the vFairs ebook.

Ultimately, a successful event comes down to maximizing value for everyone involved. A custom event app helps attendees find their sessions, connect with peers, and explore content without friction. Sponsors get the visibility and ROI they’re promised. While your brand stands out at every touchpoint, leaving a lasting impression.

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