LOS ANGELES —When navigating the hustle and bustle of a busy trade show floor, sometimes getting the answer to a question can slow attendees down. Although all of the information they need can probably be accessed at their fingertips through an event app, taking the time to scroll to find it can be cumbersome.
With Highbar’s AI Chatbot, part of their event app software, attendees can ask their questions without missing a beat.
“Having the concierge there and being able to just ask a question instead of digging through menus is very convenient,” Michael Balyasny, Founder and CEO of Highbar, said. “It’s faster. It gets people back to experiencing the event more quickly and it’s just a better experience for young and old alike because it’s just like texting. It’s something everyone has a comfort level around.”
Related. 5 Ways HumanX is Changing the Game for AI Events
What contributes to the comfort of the Highbar AI Chatbot is that it’s layered in every part of the event app. If users are looking at floor plans, exhibitor lists or networking tools, whenever they have a question, instead of looking through a long list of agenda items, they can just ask.
Simplicity for Organizers
The Highbar AI Chatbot also delivers convenience for show organizers.
Not only does the product save employees from being asked common, repetitive questions throughout the event, it’s also convenient to implement — and can actually be built directly from Highbar’s website without any assistance. In fact, Highbar encourages show organizers to take a DIY approach so they can see firsthand during development how easy it will be for their attendees to use.
“We really encourage people to take those steps on their own because it builds confidence when they see how easy it is. Also, because they get a live preview of the app as they’re building it, they can see how the chatbot absorbs information and the types of answers it’s going to give their attendees,” said Balyasny. “You need to give people that high touch and immediate feedback loop to really build confidence around how accurate the answers are and how we integrate the event app side with the chatbot. It makes the experience for the attendee really intuitive and organizers see that right away within minutes of starting to configure this on their own.”
Related. Personify Reimagines Mobile App for A2Z Events Portal
Future Expansion and Further Convenience
In the near future, Highbar will add a fully-integrated lead retrieval solution to the event app, so exhibiting companies and their staffs don’t have to navigate multiple platforms when participating in one event — adding a level of convenience to the show experience. In addition, a one-on-one meeting feature, which will allow certain types of profiles to book meetings, will be launched.
“There’s still a lot of shows juggling either hardware or multiple apps. I think it’s just complexity that doesn’t need to exist,” Balyasny said. “Having this all built into the same app is going to be incredibly powerful.”
To get more events industry news, subscribe to TSE’s free e-newsletter on LinkedIn or through your email.
