You know your event app is having a moment when adoption drops from "everyone's using it!" to "does anyone have a paper guide?"

In this episode of Mayhem & Method, we get into what happens when a shiny new messaging feature becomes a sponsor spam cannon. Fun for literally no one.

Host Jen Santos is joined by Josh Vande Krol and Marty Choate, co-founders of Intrivium, for a story that starts with great app engagement and quickly turns into attendee mutiny. When sponsors and exhibitors discovered they could message and request meetings with basically everyone, they did exactly what event pros fear they'll do: they messaged basically everyone.

What follows is a very event-tech-flavored disaster involving overloaded calendars, abandoned apps, furious executives, 5:00 AM fixes, and the hard-earned realization that "engagement" is only good when it's not making people want to throw their phones into the nearest ballroom trash can.

Top Takeaways from Jen's convo with Josh and Marty:

• Uncontrolled features become chaos features. Messaging, meeting requests, notifications, networking tools—great in theory, disaster in bulk-send reality.
• Bad attendee experiences have a long memory. Even after the fix, people may not come back unless you communicate clearly, rebuild trust, and maybe give the app a fresh coat of "this is totally different now" paint.
• Mayhem makes the method. Rate limits, permissions, ticketing systems, sponsor controls, and better comms usually exist because something went sideways first. As is tradition.

Links:

www.intrivium.com

@JoshVandeKrol on LinkedIn

@MartyChoate on LinkedIn

This episode was produced by Audiotocracy Podcast Production.