Going to a business conference is always fun, especially if you’re like me and you love what you do and catching up with old friends you haven’t seen in a while. Ahead of an event I am always stressing out over the blocks of time that aren’t productive or if I’ve run into a situation where there are two events at the same time. Did I pick the right one?

If you’ve attended events in the past couple of years you’re probably old hat at using the tech at your disposal. If not, read on.

Over recent years, technology has helped solve some of the issues with regard to event productivity. Mobile apps developed just for the event give us everything we need to select the right conference track, find it, and if needed, bail on it to go to a better session. Amenities surrounding the event are easier to find as well.

In my opinion the Twitter hashtag has probably been the single biggest technology impact on event productivity. Tracking official and unofficial hashtags allows you to see, in real time, everything from an impromptu meet up to unfiltered comments about conference content. If an entire group of people are giving something a digital thumbs up or down, You’ve just been given some great guidance.

That said, the official Twitter hashtag for the NAR conference is #NARannual – be sure to tag, and follow posts to get a real time handle on things.

NAR has also developed a comprehensive app for the event that has been sponsored by ERA. It does a pretty good job of using geo location and other mobile features to get access to everything happening in and around the event. Registration is made easier and it even links out to a site that takes silent auction item bids. No more going back to the table every 10 minutes to see if you’ve been outbid. If you haven’t downloaded it, you can get it for free here.  There is also a website sponsored by Realtor.com called Conference Live that will be giving real time updates and links to resources during the event.

Prior to the event is a good time to make sure all of your contacts have been synced up and any of the other digital tools you use, like Evernote, Twitter, Facebook etc. have all been updated. See you there!