Taste of Madison is an annual food and music festival held in Wisconsin's state capital every Labor Day weekend. When Taste of Madison organizers came to V-Soft about developing a mobile application for the event, the V-Soft Digital team was eager to create an innovative solution that would help their more than 250,000 event attendees make the most of their weekend.

Updating Communication & Eliminating Waste

Before deciding to upgrade to a mobile app, Taste of Madison was printing hundreds of thousands of paper programs for their event. These programs were printed the week before the event, creating an inability to provide updates to attendees in real-time, such as changes in vendor locations or cancelations. The paper programs also created waste, something the organizers wanted to move away from.

A mobile application was a comprehensive solution to address both of those challenges. With a mobile app, any event changes can be made instantly and updates can be sent to users via push notifications. Using a mobile app eliminated the need for paper programs and therefore created zero waste.

Features of the Event Mobile App

There were many features to the Taste of Madison Mobile app. As stated earlier, the ability to send real-time updates via push notifications was critical. Other features included an interactive map and a dynamic content management system that stored information on stage schedules, food & drink vender profiles and their menus. 

Building an Event App Using Amazon Web Services

Taste of Madison's event application was built using Amazon Web Services (AWS). V-Soft Digital is an AWS certified Mobile Competency Partner. This app used many different AWS tools:

• AWS S3: Save program details for the 3 entertainment stages
• AWS DynamoDB: Manage dynamic information of over 80 restaurants
• AWS Mobile Push Notifications: Update users about the event
• AWS Mobile Pinpoint Analytics: Track user interactions