App Review: GuideBook for BlackBerry 10

 

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How’s everyone doing? Finally got my BlackBerry Z10 and one of the first useful apps  I ran into was GuideBook for BlackBerry 10. With over 100,000 apps in BlackBerry World now, I find myself looking for the apps that I can relate to and use in my productively in my line of work.

GuideBook may not be an app you use daily, but it sure is extremely useful if you are attending a conference as I was in this paticular situation. I attended the 2013 Texas Emergency Management Conference at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas earlier this week and GuideBook was with me every step of the way. I downloaded this great app, and then proceeded to download the guide for my conference. I was pleasantly surprised at the complete scope of this app, as it really was an one stop app for all my needs while attending this conference. From keeping my schedule of courses I wanted to attend to helping find out the locations of local restaurants, I had no worries when it came to being organized at the conference.

photo 1 replacement

Screen shot of GuideBook Menus and “Welcome Letter”

 As I said above, I downloaded the app then, searched for my guide to download, once downloaded I was able to see the full capabilities of this app. Posted under “Welcome Letter” is the Introduction Letter from the Conference makers to the Attendees, nice touch, I received the same letter when I registered for the conference. If you look under the “Main Schedule” it give you the break down of all the courses given at the conference by day. As mentioned I was also able to add each course into “My Schedule” and set reminders so I wouldn’t get forget with everything going on. It also allowed you to select a course to view an overview of information on the course as well as the instructor and room number.

photo 2 replacementScreen shot of “Main Schedule” and “My Schedule” with an Overview of the course

The really cool thing about this app is how it is integrated with a “To-Do” section to keep yourself organized with things you need to do and having a guide of the local restaurants. I was able to keep a short quick list of things I needed to with the ability to check it off when completed. My personal favorite was of course the “Restaurants” portion, it was able to give me a break down of the restaurants located nearby and had a rating of their prices and also explained what cuisine they served. Made it easy for me on my first day to find my personal favorite restaurant “Hooters”, I love the wings from there. I was also able to locate the exhibitors that had station in the convention center with the “Exhibitors” section, making it extremely easy for me to attain training material for my office as I didn’t have to walk by each on of the hundreds of exhibitor present.

photo 3Screen shots of “To-do”, “Exhibitors” and “Restaurants” sections

Also found within this app, is a “Registration” section as well as a “Map” section. I already had pre-registered but after looking up the section it gives you a lot of information and registration options. The “Map” section really saved me, because if you have never been in state of the art convention center it can be over whelming finding your way around. Not for me, GuideBook was by my side.

Photo 4Screen shot of “Registration” and “Map” Section

All in all this app was pretty amazing, it is everything you need if you plan to attend a conference or get into an adventure; just download and search to see if the guide you need is there. GuideBook provides integration and allows you to navigate through the app smoothly. Everything you need is in the app itself, so no need to switch through different apps to find things you might need. You can download Guide book at the BlackBerry World