“Because of the techie nature of students, the Far Eastern University (FEU) Cultural App was created,” shared Martin Lopez, director of the FEU- President’s Committee on Culture (PCC) with the attendees of the 34th Annual Conference of the Federation for Asian Cultural Promotion (FACP).

Lopez, one of the two Filipino speakers, demonstrated the functions and features of the FEU App in a panel discussion on Arts Marketing and Audience Building at the above conference held recently at the Eastern and Oriental Hotel, George Town, Penang, Malaysia.

Lopez explained how arts and culture organizations can increase attendance to performances using the application. He cited the case of FEU, its millennial student body and the barriers that hinder their attendance at PCC events, these range from lack of time, conflicting schedules between classes and performances, lack of or late awareness, to distractions, in general, like cell phones and social media.

The FEU Cultural App’s functionalities addresses their perceived impediments to attendance and includes a campus virtual tour, an online art exhibit, a community chat, events notifications and check-in mechanism.

Lopez claims that this is perhaps the first of its kind with an innovative approach that fosters active participation and increased attendance at cultural events. The PCC Director expressed enthusiasm to share the digital platform and app developers of arts and cultural institutions are interested to adopt the same mobile application in their organizations.