Brief Explanation

After successful shows in US and Brazil, IBM Smarter Cities Forum was coming next to India. The event would see business leaders and industry experts coming from across the country to discuss models to make cities smarter. IBM, seen as a forward thinker, had to intelligently demonstrate the key benefits of Smarter Cities at the event. The core of a smarter city was to be Eco-Friendly, Time Saving and Convenient. The strategy was to WALK THE TALK. Held as an all-day event, any last minute changes to the conference would needed to be handled professionally.The solution had to be real-time and had to personally communicate to delegates travelling from all over India. The answer lay in Mobile. This was easier said than done as predicting the kind of handsets accessed at the event would be a challenge The Mobile solution meant creating a web based application, which completely replaced the conventional physical event kit. Attendees could access event schedule, profile of upcoming guest speakers and any breaking updates at the touch of a button. The application demonstrated benefits of smarter cities like Eco-friendliness (saving paper), Convenience (carry the event kit on mobile) and saving time (instant access to event information).As a final utility, users could read summaries of industry case studies which were made available as downloadable whitepapers upon request. To create awareness within the venue we had large standees with instructions for the attendees to download the WAP site on mobile. The event venue was Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled to push the digital event kit to all delegates. To address security concerns on activating Blue Tooth or Wi-Fi, the web application could also be downloaded through QR codes and SMS. The event was attended by 250 C-suite members, of whom 62% were assisted by the Web Based Application in following the event. Average time spent on the app amounted to 4.3 minutes. The mobile WAP site was Eco friendly, time saving and Convenient, which also formed the core of a smarter city. Due to the large scale of the event, it was very dynamic in nature. Such events usually prove to be logistical and communication nightmare. This site helped in removing the communication obstacle, and helped the event function smoothly. This also helped as the C-suite audience is usually pressed for time.