“We found that Yapp has saved us a ton of money and cut down on our printing cost, and for some events nearly eliminated them!”
Thompson Management Associates is an association management group that works with trade associations to manage growth and development. Often this is by way of programs, events, and educational training. It works with 8 associations, each of which hosts one to three trade shows and trainings annually.
Part of Thompson Management’s promise is to be a low-cost development solution for its clients. In previous years, the company’s association clients were printing materials — schedules, bio books, maps, and more — for each and every program attendee. Thompson Management decided it was time to go digital. “We believe that apps are now expected at the types of events that we run,” said Vincent. “People love having everything that they need in the palm of their hand.” Initially, he worked with one association on a vendor-built native mobile app; for one event, the development cost was in the thousands of dollars.
Thompson Management was convinced of the importance and advantages of event apps but it wasn’t convinced its app provider was the best solution. The team kept searching until it found Yapp. For that same event the next year, Thompson Management used Yapp’s self-service platform for a fraction of the cost and found that the attendees loved (even preferred) it to the native app.
“We now use Yapp for our association client events. That includes trade shows and large and small events.”
Thompson Management has tested Yapp with a number of their association clients, whose members range in age from their mid-20s to late-60s. The freedom of the platform allowed them to gauge interest and adoption without a huge financial commitment, and they’ve seen download rates steadily rising.
Thompson Management was able to cut event costs by a third when they switched from another event app solution. The cost savings from eliminating paper have also been huge. As download rates increase, Vincent believes they’ll be able to continue cutting printing costs until they are 100% digital.
One of their association clients has a membership primarily made up of older people and they expected a low download rate for their app. Turns out that they had a download rate of 43%!
Thompson Management believes that mobile event apps are a must at all association events regardless of size and audience makeup. They wanted a cost-effective way to test mobile apps for several of their association clients. Yapp was the perfect fit: They increased engagement at their events, saved time and were able to communicate more effectively with the attendees. They did all this while cutting event costs by a third!
“I've received nothing but positive feedback from attendees. We actually created a native app for one of our clients last year. The attendees of the same event one year later loved the Yapp app even more, and it cost a fraction of the cost for app development last year.”