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ant to be shamed into working out through automatic messages posted to your social-media accounts? Become

an ordained minister? Well, “There’s an app for that.” Coined by Apple for a commercial in 2009 and trademarked in 2010, that phrase is even more apt today. As of late August, according to VentureBeat — a website that covers entrepreneurial ventures and disruptive technologies — more than 1.2 million mobile apps were available for download for iPhone, Android, and Windows (although not all of them have been updated recently) via their various online marketplaces. On average, VentureBeat reports, 2,371 additional apps are published every day.

Thousands of these mobile and web-based apps are specifically designed for our work lives — including a wide range targeted to meeting professionals. Planners now have options for handling event registration, site visits, coat-check logistics, and speaker management through apps developed by companies focused solely on this industry. And a large number of organizations are migrating toward mobile apps that are created exclusively for their meetings — whether they’re developed in-house or by an outside vendor — in order to cut back on or do away with printed pro- grams, quickly communicate schedul- ing changes to attendees, and generally make it easier to navigate the meeting and explore the meeting destination. But what about apps that help meet- ing professionals in their day-to-day work — outside of their on-site confer- ences? While planners face unique challenges in the workplace that make industry-specific apps a welcome devel- opment, they also benefit by download- ing apps not designed solely with the meetings industry in mind. But wading through hundreds of thousands of avail- able downloads in the iTunes App Store or Google Play (for Android devices) to find those apps can be daunting, to say the least. To help sort through some

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of the clutter (Candy Crush, anyone?), Convene spoke with several meetings-technology experts about the apps that they think are most valuable for planners. Their go-to apps span a number of categories and uses, but in general all of them can help planners lead more productive and organized — and maybe even less stressful — professional lives.

TRAVEL SMART Frequent travel “is something that everyone in this industry has to deal with,” said Meeting U founder (and former plan- ner) James Spellos. There are a number of apps out there that can help relieve travel headaches — from booking trips to airport delays. Hipmunk (Free; iPhone/iPad, Android, or Web) is a travel search tool that calculates what the traveler’s “agony” factor

— number of flight layovers, time of day, and, of course, price — might be. “Our main philosophy,” Steve Huffman, Hipmunk’s co-founder, said in an interview with Forbes magazine, “is that we want you to spend as little time on our site as possible with the least amount of pain.” Hipmunk does not handle direct booking like many other aggregators do, leaving that to the hotels’ or airlines’ sites themselves. FlightBoard ($3.99; iPhone/iPad or Android) turns your mobile phone or device into a reader board like those you find in airports. It provides real-time flight arrival and departure information for more than 3,000 airports worldwide, with updates every five minutes — helping users stay on top of potential delays. “It’s a great app for trying to figure out whether you’ll be able to make your connection,” Spellos said. Waze (Free; iPhone/iPad or

Android) was recently acquired by Google, ostensibly to improve its ability to give drivers Google Maps directions based on real-time traffic on their mobile device. Waze, which already provides traffic data for Apple’s own map service, is a com- munity-based navigation application that relies on current drivers to report accidents, traffic delays, police action, and even the cheapest gas stations — in addition to providing voice-guided navigation. “[Google Maps] has always had the traffic in there,” Spellos said,

“but it’s always been a little less accu- rate than you want it to be.”

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