The app for that 

My excitement for NCBA was elevated last week with the introduction of the official convention smart phone app (Thanks, BEEF Magazine and Pfizer!). What an incredible tool for those attending convention and for folks at home to follow along. If you have a smart phone and haven’t downloaded it yet, take a moment and look into it before Feb. 1. Here’s how:

Depending on what type of phone you have, go to where you purchase apps. In my iPhone’s case, it’s the App Store. For Droid users, it would be the Droid Market. I simply searched for “NCBA,” and it promoptly found what I was looking for:

Click to install the app, and get ready for the nation’s largest cattle industry convention. Tada!

Next, start exploring the home screen “dashboard.” You’ll notice the app has a variety of functions — you can create a personalized schedule for your week in Nashville, look up exhibitors, maps of the convention center, event highlights, check the weather and more: 

Having been to the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, I know how handy these maps will be once we get to Nashville. That place is HUGE, and it’s easy to get turned around in if you’re not paying attention. These maps give a great overview of the layout of the convention area — I recommend taking a couple moments to study these in preparation:

Here’s a great example of how to personalize your schedule and organize your convention week.

Follow with me here: Go back to the “Dashboard” screen. If you click on “Exhibitors,” then select “All Exhibitors,” you get a listing of all companies who will have trade show booths.

Then, scroll a screen down until you see “American Angus Assn/Angus Productions Inc…..” Click on the little star next to that name:

Good. Now, If you click on that name, it brings up this screen:

See how the “Bookmark” button is yellow? That’s the little star from the previous page working. Now, you can locate us on a map:

Or, you can click “+Schedule” and fill in this information: 

And there you have it… you’ve entered your first event into your personalized NCBA smart phone schedule, and you won’t forget to stop by the booth for the Angus Tweet Up Wednesday night! If you’re new to Twitter or need a little more help navigating this convention app, here’s a great opportunity to get some face time with folks who are happy to share their techie knowledge.

Now, if you go back to the “Dashboard” (There should be an icon in the top left corner to click that allows you to re-trace your steps until you get back home), you can beef up your schedule a little more. Click on “Events,” then click through each category of events. You’ll be able to scroll through all the convention highlights — committee meetings, general sessions, trade show parties and more.

Just like in the exhibitor section, you can just click on the little star to the left to add an event to your schedule:

My NCBA calendar is already filling up fast! For those of you who can’t make it to Nashville this year, I think this is still a great tool to keep up with everything that happens in those four short dates. If you click on “Downloads” from the Dashboard, it looks like once convention is here, you’ll have the ability to save notes, handouts and video clips from the sessions.

Have you downloaded the convention app yet? What features have you discovered? What events are you “starring” already and can’t wait to attend? Looking forward to seeing you there!

Until next time,

-Laura

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