Attendify on Apple's App Store issues

Michael Balyasny, CEO, Attendify says change is often uncomfortable, but it breeds opportunity and creativity. We spent the last two weeks making sure we’re ready, and have an exciting announcement to share, but first let’s take a step back and recap what we know. When we first saw these changes, we didn’t even consider that our apps could be called ‘templates’. Like most observers, our initial impression was that Apple is targeting thousands of spam and clone apps that clutter the App Store. The apps Attendify builds are so much more; every app is a fully- featured private social network with powerful back-end management tools. In addition, our view is that just because apps have similar sections, like a schedule, speaker listing, sponsor directory and maps, doesn’t mean they’re template driven. And we’re proud to have a skilled submit team that audits, QAs and submits each app manually, not using an auto- generation process. Fortunately there aren’t many options. Apple will either recognise that branded event apps create value and should be omitted from their template policy, or individual branded event apps will be banned from the App Store. It’s as simple as that.