This iPhone app was created for the MarkLogic 2010 user conference. It's a schedule plus conference news in your pocket!
Responsibilities:
Sometimes you remember the name of the person who gave a talk vs. the name of the talk itself. Instead of sifting through the sessions, the app allows you to browse by speaker and find their contact info.
Each session has a survey form that attendees can fill out to provide feedback to the speaker. This feedback is automatically parsed and aggregated on the server as a row in an Excel spreadsheet.
Things are always getting out of date when you attend a conference - sessions change, rooms change... The conference app stays up to date via the Apple push network. For instance, if someone loses their keys, a conference facilitator can update the MS Word document, save it, and send the notification out to all the attendees.
Sponsors are a big reason why conferences are possible. The app provides an additional avenue to get their message out there and connect with potential customers.
Conference facilitators can update changes to speakers, rooms, abstracts, news, etc. before or during the conference by simply opening and saving a Microsoft Word file. (Yes, this actually works, there is no custom CMS!) Upon saving the document on the MarkLogic Server, the file is automatically converted from its .docx format into property lists suitable for iPhone consumption. (more details below)