Considering creating a mobile version of your show guide? Check out Boopsie. The service takes show
information that organizers provide in spreadsheets, such as exhibitor and sponsor listings, poster sessions, floor maps, session details (including a description, speaker info and photos, dates, times and room numbers), and turns it into a branded mobile app that attendees can download onto their smartphones and use at the event.

The Internet-based service, which partners with BD Metrics, connects back to a server to update every five minutes to reflect programming changes. Show info is organized into channels to make it easy for users to find and access a variety of show info as they’re navigating the event. Boopsie’s mapping function directs users from one booth to another, and attendees can search for info on sessions, for example, by day, type or speaker name, and Boopsie can suggest other similar sessions that may interest them.

Prior to the event, users can even designate booths they want to visit and Boopsie syncs those selections with the user’s phone at the show. The service also lets organizers add Twitter feeds and local restaurant, hotel and tour details. Organizers can either pay Boopsie or BD Metrics for the
service or sell it as a sponsorship.

The American Library Association (ALA) used the service for the second time at its Annual Conference in July to create an app that attendees could use to navigate its floor map and extensive program info. ALA further customized the app by adding channels like “sessions where you should be,”“sessions starting in an hour,”“exhibitors you should see,” and a “meet the authors” section, as well as Chicago hotel and restaurant info.

ALA covered the cost of the app by selling it as a sponsorship. “We have so many programs that it makes our program guide difficult to carry around, so putting it on cell phones is great,” says Deidre Ross, Director of ALA Conference Services. “It was a big hit with our people.”

For more information, visit www.boopsie.com.