Let’s start with the punchline:
Event tech has lost the plot.
And I mean really lost the plot. Not just a little confused, but wandering around in a field somewhere, chasing “innovation” for innovation’s sake, while the actual problems—the only ones that matter—are sitting there, unsolved, staring you right in the face.
The Obsession With Features: A Disease
Look around. Every event platform, every shiny SaaS startup, every “innovator” in event tech is busy building. Not building better experiences, not building value, not building anything that actually matters to the people who have to use it—your attendees. No. They’re building features.
Useless, pointless, expensive, fragile features.
- AI matchmakers that promise to “unlock serendipity”—code for “randomly connect you to someone you’d avoid in real life.”
- Chatbot concierges that nobody asked for, that nobody trusts, that can’t answer a single question you actually care about.
- 3D maps with “animated footfall heat zones” and digital fireworks—because, apparently, watching dots move on a screen is more important than, say, knowing when the keynote actually starts.
- Virtual swag bags. Gamification leaderboards. Push notifications every ten minutes. Tokens. Stickers. Badges. “Social walls.” The list goes on.
It’s all singing. It’s all dancing.
It’s all distraction.
Here’s What Attendees Want: The List You Refuse To Believe
Let’s cut the nonsense. Here’s what your attendees actually want from your app, your platform, your entire tech stack:
The agenda.
What’s happening? When? Where? Simple. Visible. Up to date.Their peers.
Who else is here? Is there a way to find and connect with people I actually want to meet, not just the “recommended matches” spat out by a half-baked algorithm?A way to connect.
Fast. Zero friction. No forced downloads. No registration gymnastics. If it takes more than 30 seconds, you’ve already lost half your audience.To be left alone.
After that? LEAVE THEM ALONE. Don’t bombard them with pop-ups, nudges, AI “tips,” or pointless “engagement” prompts. They are adults. Respect that.
That’s it.
No, really, that’s it. Every year, millions are wasted solving non-problems while the actual needs get buried under bloat.
The Great Lie: “More Features = More Value”
Let’s kill this idea once and for all.
More features don’t make your app better.
They make it worse.
They confuse. They clutter. They slow things down. Every extra button, every extra screen, every “just one more” menu item is a micro-tax on your users’ patience.
You are not differentiating—you are digging your own grave. The event tech space is not won by who can do the most. It’s won by who can get people to what matters, fastest, with the least friction, and then get out of the way.
Your job is not to impress your peers.
Your job is to serve your attendees.
If your platform’s roadmap is driven by “feature parity,” you’re already dead.
If your sales deck brags about “300+ features,” you’ve missed the point.
If your UX is so complicated you need a video tutorial, you’re building for yourself, not your audience.
Simplicity Isn’t Minimalism. It’s Strategy.
Let’s get this straight:
Simplicity is not minimalism for the sake of looking pretty. It’s not “clean lines” or white space or dropping features because you’re lazy.
Simplicity is brutal. It’s ruthless. It’s strategic.
Simplicity means:
Saying no to the noise. Fast.
Kill the darlings. Murder your sacred cows. If it isn’t vital, it’s gone. Your roadmap should be a graveyard of good ideas you didn’t ship.
Shipping what matters, then listening.
Launch the agenda. Launch connections. Launch only what your audience is literally begging you for. Then shut up and watch how they use it. Talk to them. Listen to what they actually do, not what they say they want.
Resisting the feature race.
If you’re building features just because your competitors do, you’re a follower, not a leader. Leaders focus. Leaders edit. Leaders know that nobody at your event gives a toss about “blockchain-powered badge printing.” They want to find Session 2A and meet Jane from procurement.
Why Most Event Apps Suck (And How to Stop Sucking)
Let’s be brutal:
Most event apps suck because nobody cares enough to be ruthless.
Everyone’s scared to ship “too little.” Everyone wants to look innovative. Everyone’s afraid to say no. The result? Mediocrity, every time.
Here’s how to build an event app that doesn’t suck:
1. Start With Brutal Prioritisation
Ask yourself: If the only thing my app could do was ONE thing, what should it be?
If the answer isn’t “the agenda,” you’re lying to yourself. Ship the agenda. Make it impossible to miss. Let users favourite sessions. Done.
Next, make it dead simple for people to see who else is attending (opt-in only—don’t force it). Give them a basic, reliable messaging tool. Don’t reinvent WhatsApp.
Resist every urge to “innovate” on these basics.
No AR. No VR. No AI assistant for telling you which coffee is vegan.
Be brutal with your “no.”
2. Test With Real People—Not Power Users
If you’re only testing with event organisers or your own team, you’re designing for yourself. Take your beta to the most impatient, least technical attendee you can find. Grandma. The grumpy executive. The intern on their first day.
If they can’t figure it out in 30 seconds, you failed. Try again.
3. Measure the Right Things
Vanity metrics will kill your product. Don’t measure “feature engagement.”
Don’t celebrate when people use your social wall for 5 minutes.
Measure:
- How many attendees found the agenda without help.
- How quickly users connected with someone they wanted to meet.
- How many people actually stayed in the app after the first hour.
Your NPS will tell you if you’re getting this right. If people say, “It just worked,” you’re onto something. If they ask, “Where do I find X?” you need to simplify more.
4. Be Unashamedly Opinionated
Stop copying your competitors. Stop adding features to “keep up.” Stop asking your sales team what will close more deals.
Have a point of view. Fight for simplicity. Be stubborn. Ship only what matters, and explain why you don’t have 1000 useless bells and whistles.
Say no to every feature you can’t explain in a single sentence.
Say yes to every improvement that removes friction.
The only question that matters:
Does this help my attendee have a better event?
5. Accept That Less Is More. Always.
When in doubt, cut.
When in doubt, strip back.
Do you know how many events I’ve been to where the “killer” feature was just a headache in disguise? Where the “engagement tool” became a source of spam? Where the “AI assistant” couldn’t answer a single question that wasn’t already on a printed sign?
Do less, and do it better. If it isn’t a hell yes, it’s a no.
Brutal Truths: Why Your Attendees Don’t Care About Your Tech
Attendees are not your testers. They’re not your product evangelists. They’re not interested in your company’s “innovation journey.” They’re there to get value—fast.
- They want to know where to go, not chat with a robot about the weather.
- They want to meet people they care about, not get spammed by “recommended connections.”
- They want to control their own experience, not be nudged and interrupted every ten minutes.
Every extra feature is a tax on their attention.
Every “new thing” you add is another risk that something critical—like the agenda, or the speaker info—gets buried.
If your app can’t tell the attendee what’s happening and where to go next, nothing else matters.
Nothing.
Smart Is Simple. Simple Scales.
I’ll say it again for the people in the back:
Smart is simple. Simple is scale.
The most scalable, reliable, beloved event tech in the world is ruthlessly, brutally simple.
It’s easy. It works. It stays out of the way.
Complexity kills.
Simplicity wins.
Every time.
A Final Word: Stop Building For Yourself
If you take nothing else away from this, let it be this: Stop building for yourself. Stop building for your sales team. Stop building for the press release.
Build for your attendee.
Build for the next 10 seconds of their life, not the next decade of “roadmap innovation.”
Be brutal. Be simple. Be real.
And for the love of all that’s holy,
Stop making AI tell people where the toilets are.
Now go, kill the noise, and build something your attendees actually want.