Mobile app technology can be an incredible tool for show organizers, especially those platforms that help event professionals streamline their events. As a result, you don’t have to look far these days to find a slew of mobile apps specifically designed to help improve all aspects of the event planning and execution ecosystem.

Designed to simplify the attendance tracking process for educational sessions of all sizes, Expo Logic has created TrackPod, an interactive session-scanning mobile app that uses the camera on a mobile device to keep track of session attendees.

“This app is expected to become an industry staple due to its ability to track session attendance, limit access to sessions based on an attendee’s registration type and measure how long each attendee remains in a session,” said Jeff Cooper, president and CEO of Expo Logic.

He continued, “With this new cutting-edge technology, meeting planners are now able to measure session popularity in real-time and verify eligible CEU earners. The app can even be used to scan badges for ticketed events, therefore eliminating the need for printed tickets.”

TrackPod’s features allow event planners to:

• Scan barcodes on attendee badges as they enter and leave sessions
• Track how much time each attendee spends in any given session (for CEU purposes)
• View attendance counts in real-time
• Based on registration type, determine if an attendee is eligible to enter a session or must return to the show organizer to purchase a ticket, or change their registration type
• Override session attendance rejection
• Access a list of current session attendees

Besides the ability to report valuable data in real-time, the app is versatile enough to integrate with a variety of event registration systems, also in real-time.

The app works best with iPhone5 or later versions and is available for rent on an Expo Logic device. For events with high-volume scanning needs, laser scanners or “sleds” that attach to mobile devices are recommended and are also available for rent via Expo Logic.

Post-event, TrackPod data can be delivered in reports or can be written back to the planner’s AMS or CRM system.

Before discovering TrackPod, Stephanie Armbrust, registration coordinator at Northwestern Mutual, knew she needed to find a quicker, more user-friendly session scanning method for her company’s Regional Meetings, Annual Meeting and Leadership Conferences that attract 300-15,000 attendees.

Since adopting the app last year, Armbrust and her team have been able to expedite and streamline their event session scanning process considerably.

“We host a lunch each year with more than 2,000 attendees with a very short window of time to enter the room and TrackPod scanners made the entry process extremely smooth,” Armbrust explained.

She continued, “Having the app on an iPhone that most everyone is familiar with makes it very user-friendly. We oftentimes hire local security personnel to assist in scanning at our events across the country and they have never run into any issues with the app. I also really like the format that the data is collected in. We receive one spreadsheet that shows all attendees broken up by session (and) we are able to easily break that apart as well as keep one master copy for future reference. The data collected by the app has been well-received by our business partners, as well – they are able to send follow-up information to attendees and have confidence that each participant was collected. We are very happy with our partnership with ExpoLogic!”

To learn more about TrackPod, go here.