Make an app

I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues.
 - The Lorax, Dr. Suess

I was just looking at a budget the other day for a 4,500 person event and noticed the line item of $120,000 for printing conference programs.

Two thoughts occurred to me: 1) wow, we are using the wrong vendor! and 2) why do we have paper at all? All of our attendees will have some sort of smart device. Whether its an iPhone or an Android-based phone or a Blackberry, all of our attendees will have one. So why aren't we just building an app for them to access to find what they need?

I just saw an article in Texas Meeting & Events (meetingsmags.com) about MacroView Labs who have built a new app allowing event managers to share news, videos, and schedules via cell phones, and they can include a password to keep the info private.

I have no idea what this costs, but I'm thinking I'm about to save $100k.