Case Study: American Library Association Conference

Live Help: Mobile Questions & Answers via Text Messaging

The American Library Association (ALA) is the largest association of library and information specialists with over 64,000 members worldwide.

Mosio partnered with the ALA in 2009 to power mobile information services for their biggest conference of the year with an estimated 29,000 attendees and exhibitors.

Challenge 1:
The ALA's 2009 annual conference offered over 300 educational programs, 2,000 committee meetings and more than 1,000 exhibitors all housed in the largest convention center in the U.S.

Decreasing traveling budgets among attendees greatly increased the importance of maximizing each individual's conference experience.

Many attendees came representing colleagues who were unable to attend and therefore had added scheduling responsibilities to visit more sessions, events and exhibitors than previous years.

Challenge 2:
The ALA wanted a mobile solution that would provide real-time information services to every attendee, to answer questions and provide support beyond the limited number of static information booths.

The ALA faced a number of challenges in deploying an effective, efficient mobile solution:

• Provide a mobile technology ensuring accessibility to the greatest amount of attendees.
• Deliver a personal support experience that attendees were accustomed to at previous conferences.
• Train 250 volunteer "Ambassadors" on the mobile technology interface for their one-hour, rotating shifts.
• Manage all inquiries in a scalable, efficient way to ensure timely responses and delivery of information.
• Disseminate details and instructions of the new service to all attendees.
• Offer user-friendly experiences for both attendees and information volunteers.

The Solution:
Mosio leveraged its expertise in real-time mobile information exchange by deploying its web-based mobile text messaging platform to enable 250 volunteer information specialists to receive and respond to attendee questions. Attendees send text message inquiries from their mobile phones, while the Ambassadors answer online via laptop computers with internet access.

The mobile messaging software is designed to be "always on" by utilizing live responses during show hours and automated responses after hours, keeping the service connected to attendees 24x7.

Working together Mosio and the ALA met the following goals:

• Make the mobile information service available to everyone with a cell phone by utilizing text messaging.
• Brand the service "Text an Ambassador" to personalize interactions and maintain the familiarity of information support attendees expected.
• Present an intuitive interface for instant adoption by volunteers with no formal training.
• Provide collaboration utilities to accommodate multiple users answering questions simultaneously and avoid duplicated responses.
• Market the service through various pre-event online resources (conference website & wiki, news articles/blog posts, email campaign, Twitter & social networks) and on-site print materials (table tents, business cards, bookmarks in giveaway bags & daily conference newspaper).
• Enable back-of-house access so administrators could monitor and contribute to "live text chat" conversations to ensure positive interactions and correct information.

Results:
The resulting mobile information service delivered an engaging attendee experience turning every cell phone into a conference resource. Text messaging proved to be the ideal medium to reach the largest audience as it does not require attendees to own web-enabled phones or to download/install applications.

ALA's Text an Ambassador program was a huge success and increased attendee satisfaction through a personlized "information anywhere" service. The higher level of support assistance benefited ALA and its members without having to employ extra personnel. ALA has chosen Mosio once again as technology provider for the Text an Ambassador program for their midwinter conference in Boston, January 15-19, 2010.

Best Practices:
Pre-conference marketing included a "Try it Now" call-to-action to familiarize attendees with the service and included instructions to save the number in their phone contacts for instant access during the show.

Testimonials:
Client:
"The service was great. Amazing even. We received a lot of positive feedback from our attendees and our volunteers were able to use the technology with no formal training."
- John Chraskta, Director of Membership Services - jchrastka [at] ala.org

Attendees:

• "I LOVE the Text an Ambassador service for the @alaannual ! Makes life easy!"
• "Just tested the Text-an-Ambassador! Slick! What a bunch of smarties at ALA! #ala2009"
• "I think the text-a-librarian feature for #ala2009 is totally rad. Thank you thank you thank you!!"
• "ALA's Text a Librarian is awesome. I asked about registration & the buses and got an instant answer. #ALA2009, #Scls@ALA"
• "I <3 Text a librarian. Its so cool! #Ala2009"

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