Best Practices

Sidekick Best Practices Guide

Use this guide to build a communication plan that keeps attendees informed and engaged, without overwhelming them. The goal is a steady, purposeful rhythm that feels helpful, not spammy.

Timing & Cadence

Aim for 4 to 8 scheduled Sidekick posts per event day. Under 4 feels sparse, and over 10 risks feeling intrusive. Within that range, avoid gaps longer than 1.5 to 2 hours during peak event hours, since attendees lose touch with the app when nothing new appears for too long. Instead, cluster content around key transitions, since moments like just before a keynote, at lunch, and at end of day tend to be your highest engagement windows. And resist the urge to front load everything in the morning; spreading content across the full day keeps that momentum going instead of losing it by early afternoon.

Images & Visual Content

Always include a rich image with Sidekick feed items, since posts with images see significantly higher engagement than text only posts. It's worth building a small library of standard images for recurring notification types, like announcements, session alerts, breaks, sponsor content, and urgent alerts, since visual consistency builds recognition over the course of an event. That consistency pays off with push notifications too. When attendees see the same category images again and again, they quickly learn what a "speaker highlight" card looks like versus an "urgent alert," and can react accordingly without even reading the copy.

Push Notifications

Keep push copy short and action oriented; under 10 words is ideal. Reserve push for truly time sensitive content, like a session starting soon, a room change, or a surprise activation, and avoid sending pushes more than once every 30 to 45 minutes, since attendees tune out rapid fire notifications fast. Whatever you send, always give the attendee a clear reason to open the app: what will they find if they tap?

Sidekick Feed Items

Feed items are great for richer content: sponsor spotlights, speaker bios, maps, menus, and day end recaps. Mix content types across the day rather than repeating the same format, alternating informational posts with prompts that invite attendees to explore or engage. Recap posts in particular work well midday and at end of day, reinforcing what attendees just experienced while building momentum for what's next.

Session Reminders

Auto session reminders are a great baseline, so make sure they're enabled for all sessions attendees are likely to care about. From there, be careful not to schedule manual pushes too close to those auto-reminders, or attendees will end up receiving a burst of notifications all at once.

General Tips

Review your plan with the event schedule open next to it, since every content gap is an opportunity to add value. Coordinate with sponsors early, since sponsored content needs to be woven into the plan rather than added last minute. Keep a "break glass" push template ready for urgent announcements, such as room changes, delays, or safety notices, so you're not writing from scratch in the moment. And once the event wraps, review your timing data to see what resonated and where attendees dropped off, so the next plan starts a step ahead.