How the LA Phil utilized Guidebook to create a custom app to help thousands of attendees navigate its sprawling event. The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association (LA Phil) brings a variety of music genres to audiences at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. Highlighting Los Angeles’ diversity, the LA Phil presents everything from orchestral and chamber music to pop and jazz. Similarly, in celebrating its 100 year anniversary, the LA Phil brought its celebration to the streets with Celebrate LA!, an outdoor festival celebrating LA’s rich art culture. In celebrating its centennial, LA Phil turned to Guidebook to create an interactive event guide to enable Celebrate LA! attendees create their own memorable experiences. Here’s how they used Guidebook to put their Celebrate LA! Event program in attendees’ back pockets. 

Opportunity:How to showcase thousands of event acts and empower attendees?

Bringing together thousands of Angelinos to celebrate its 100th season, LA Phil organized an exciting day of art, music, dance, and more. Spread out across an eight-mile event route, with over 2,000 acts and six main event hubs, organizers sought a way to showcase the jam-packed program. Celebrate LA! was a sprawling event, blocking off motor traffic for a foot-traffic-only eight-mile block party. Given this, it was important to LA Phil organizers to not only provide event information but to also empower attendees to navigate the event and create their own event schedules. 

Solution:Putting attendees in the driver's seat with mobile

To support such a robust program, organizers knew they needed an engaging solution. Realizing that providing information on a website alone would not properly showcase the robust agenda, they turned to Guidebook to create an engaging mobile app. The Celebrate LA! app simplified a large, complex schedule. Personalized schedules and interactive route maps ensured attendees could make it to all of their favorite acts.  Additionally, attendees could share memories to social media, access LA Phil’s gift shop, and save the Celebrate LA! Spotify playlist right from the app. 

Results:Success! Adoption rates exceeded expectations

While the LA Phil team went into the event without expectations, attendee app adoption far exceeded any number they were anticipated to see. Thanks to online and day of promotion of the app, over 7,400 attendees downloaded the Celebrate LA! app for an engaging event experience. With 50,000 session views, those attendees regularly accessed the Celebrate app to stay on top of their sessions throughout the one-day event.  

Our event app turned out exactly as we planned from the moment we dreamed it up! – Tara Gardner, Manager, Digital Marketing

  “Our event app turned out exactly as we planned from the moment we dreamed it up,” said Gardner. By partnering with Guidebook to go mobile, Celebrate LA! organizers not only supported the goal of showcasing the LA Phil’s rich artistry, but also met another tenant of their mission; to continue looking ahead toward the next century of artistic innovation. Celebrate LA! is one of the thousands of events that moved to mobile with Guidebook. To learn how, schedule time to speak with an events app expert.