To help attendees make the transition to a paperless event, Hallmark provided each of them with an iPad loaded with the event app.
As the world increasingly goes digital, greeting cards seem like a relic from another time. Yet even these paper companies need to keep up with the times. At its 2012 gathering of retailers, Hallmark replaced paper with iPads to give 600 attendees a crash course in tablet technology.
“We were trying to do a quantum leap in terms of operations ... and get operators of our stores more comfortable with the technology,” said Gold Crown Operations vice president Mike Thomas. Each attendee received an iPad with all of the information they needed loaded onto an app created by developer QuickMobile. Since there was no other way to access the presentation materials, schedule, and other content, attendees had to jump in with both feet.
To ease the learning curve, Hallmark set up an Apple Genius Bar at the venue and created games and contests as incentives for attendees to interact with their devices.
“Universally, everybody was really excited,” Thomas said. “It’s like you got a new toy, and that’s what they were doing.”
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