As I stood in my backyard slightly startled and dumbfounded, I wanted news about what had just happened, I didn't want to go back in the house just yet, so I looked to my trusty iPhone and launched the
WTOP mobile app to stream the news which confirmed that it was an earthquake.
I started thinking about emergencies like this that may occur at an association's annual meeting or onsite event and what would happen?
This is where text alerts would come in handy and help to curb the chaos that could follow such an emergency, because as you may know, over 97% of US mobile phones can receive text messages. Also, text messages use far less bandwidth than a normal voice call and after
often more reliable when trying to communicate during these types of
circumstances. As part of an association's registration process, association's should be implementing a text alerting system, enabling the attendees to select what type of alerts they would like to receive, during what time periods, how many during a specific time period and for how long (just during the conference or beyond).
I found the the DC govt has created a
text alert system for this specific purpose, so I've signed up for it now.
You may be concerned that your members don't want to receive text messages because of the cost, but that is why it would be a truly OPT-In program available during event registration. Now that text rate plans from mobile phone carriers have come down in price, and many rate plans include unlimited text options, people are often more likely to opt in for this type of alert system.
Just think...when the earthquake hit yesterday...what was the first thing you grabbed? If you're like most...it was your mobile phone.