The original article was published on 23rd October 2017.

This is a personal list, of course, but here are the sorts of apps I think are essential for serious conference-attending. 

Business card scanner

Collecting business cards is all very well, but you can easily lose them, or mislay them afterwards. A business card scanner lets you use your phone to scan the cards and file them in database. There's a useful article about that here: 

Business card scanners: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2486045/mobile-apps/mobile-apps-7-business-card-apps-for-smartphones-scan-em-and-store-em.html 

QR code scanner

Rather than manually write or type out a website address, use a QR scanner to go straight there on your smartphone. Then you will be able to access later from your browser history. There's a list of suitable apps here: 

Top 7 free QR code scanners: https://scanova.io/blog/blog/2015/04/01/qr-code-scanner-iphone-android/  

Evernote or similar 

Evernote allows you to make notes and then search for them afterwards. You can also capture images on a smartphone and upload them to Evernote. There are other apps that do similar things, which you can read about here: 

Note-taking apps: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6065-best-note-taking-apps.html This website has changed since I originally published this article. It now also lists apps which convert handwritten notes into digital notes, and similar. I’ve just installed a handwriting recognition app from Google, and am looking forward to trying it. I hope to report on it in due course.

Conference app

If the conference itself has an app, download it. The very least it should do is contain an up-to-date list of sessions and other information. The better ones also allow you to take notes, rate sessions, and even collaborate with other conference-goers. 

Eventbrite 

If you obtained the conference ticket through Eventbrite, then download the app. If the conference organisers allow people to show their tickets electronically on the door, rather than paper ones, then it will be easy for you to find the ticket on Eventbrite. (An alternative is to email yourself the ticket, but if you have a lot of emails it may be hard for you to find that particular one on your phone very quickly.) 

See also Robert Scoble's My must-have list of apps for SXSW (or any big conference) for a massive list of apps, some of which may be useful: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140305193557-67396352-my-must-have-list-of-apps-for-sxsw-or-any-big-conference   

This article is an extract from Education Conferences: How to get the most out of education conferences. For more information and links to where you can buy it, please click here:

https://www.ictineducation.org/education-conferences