There’s something to be said for networking with like-minded people at a real-world business conference. And there are several mobile apps that can help you to maximize your time and enhance your experience. You’ll be able to take notes, pictures and videos, connect, engage and follow up.
Try these 10 best iPad apps for your next business conference.
Remember Everything with Evernote
The number-one activity of most attendees at a conference is taking notes to get the most out of each presentation. The favourite note-taking app of business people is Evernote. This app allows you to create different notebooks and keep individualized notes in each one.
Evernote has a great search feature, so it’s easy to find specific content in your notes. You can also include photos of a favourite presenter or detailed slides that you’ll want to review later, as well as audio, tags, URLs and more. Evernote is free and available on all mobile devices.
Network in Real-Time with Twitter
Twitter comes in handy for networking at business conferences. Ticket holders or people who just want to follow along to tweet and retweet the best content and follow conversations, can do so, whether they are there physically or stuck at the office. You can use conference hashtags to follow and engage with other attendees and speakers.
The Twitter app is free and available for all mobile devices.
Stay in Touch with Friends – Facebook Messenger
Facebook Messenger is a great real-time tool for keeping in touch with one or more friends during a conference. Message them to meet up after a session or make plans with a whole group of people for a post-conference dinner.
Facebook Messenger is free.
Keep Track of Your Group with Foursquare
In a large conference, when your friends are all over the place, foursquare quickly shows you where people are. And, since multiple-day conferences often have parties going on afterward, Foursquare helps you to determine where the best networking is going on.
Foursquare is free and available on all mobile devices.
From Business Card to Contact with CardMunch
The more people you meet at a conference, the more business cards you acquire and you may end up with dozens of them. CardMunch quickly scans business cards and puts the information into LinkedIn, making it easier to follow-up and connect with contacts.
CardMunch is free and available on the iOS platform.
Track Your Connections with Evernote Hello
With your permission, Evernote Hello connects your DayTimer, LinkedIn profile, Facebook account, phone contacts and more to help you remember all of the contacts you made at a conference. The app lets you scan business cards or enter people’s information manually. Use the Hello Connect feature to instantly connect with a group of people.
Evernote Hello can automatically glean related information about contacts from your phone, online networks, your own Evernote account and more, to create more complete profiles that will enhance your networking.
Evernote Hello has a free version and a paid upgrade available.
Take and Share Pictures
Taking photos is an easy and quick way to create content for your social media network or blog. You can snap pictures of important presentation slides, have your picture taken with a big-name speaker or simply take fun pictures with friends at networking events. Then tag your friends and contacts on Facebook to strengthen these connections.
Use you iPad or iPhone’s camera, upgrade to an app with more features or use a fun app like Instagram that has its own social platform. There are camera apps for all mobile devices with free and upgraded options.
Interview Experts
One of the easiest ways to get great content for your blog, podcast or YouTube channel is to interview speakers and fellow attendees. All modern tablets and smartphones come with built-in video recorders and most include some kind of video editing or sharing software. For iPad, iMovie, costing $4.99, is a popular choice for video editing if you don’t want to wait until you get home to edit and share your videos.
Eliminate Paper Clutter with Shoeboxed
Rather than ending up with a wallet full of receipts from restaurants and stores, Shoeboxed lets you snap pictures of them and then automatically enters the date, total, payment type, store and expense category. You can then send expense reports right from your phone or export expenses to accounting software such as QuickBooks.
Shoeboxed is available for free or you can get the paid version.
Keep Up With Friends on Facebook
Facebook is a great tool for follow-up after a conference. It’s great for strengthening the relationships you made at the event. “Friend” people you met at the conference, tag new and old contacts in photos and comment on the conference’s Facebook Event Page.
You can access Facebook on all mobile devices for free.