Event Technology Trends James Dickson - Event Industry News
Whole sea-changes are actually rare. When it comes to technology, whole sea-changes are quite rare things. (Click)
Major advancements are usually followed by minor refinements. Innovation tends to happen on a nano-scale. People generally can t see the evolution until they take a step back and look at how far they ve come. Providers make the tech smarter & more stable, but rarely change the fundamentals. (CLICK) EXAMPLE - Original iphone. Home button, volume, lock, silent switch. iphone 5S shares all the same fundamentals.
The technologies which have had the most profound effects on human life are usually simple. Freeman Dyson The tech innovations in 2014 are unlikely to bring wholesale changes to how events run, but they will certainly improve them and more importantly, the attendee experience. Dyson is an English born Physicist. His quote is very much applicable to the use of technology within our industry. (CLICK) The tech innovations in 2014 are unlikely to bring wholesale changes to how events run, but they will certainly improve them, and more importantly, the attendee experience.
A Change of View Many organisers think about technology in terms of channels. At the moment this loosely comprises the event itself, its online activity and its mobile activity. Thinking within these channels is likely to become less relevant as technology allows us to merge these channels. (CLICK)
Text How does your attendee choose to engage? Moving forward we need to understand that attendees will choose to touch an event in different ways, so we need to identify those touch points. Understanding these points of engagement will help organisers to allocate resources and invest in the appropriate infrastructure to deliver them.
Wear-able Technology From the first desktops, we are now surrounded by computers. They appear in our cars, in our pockets, in our bags and soon, on our bodies. From the first desktops, we are now surrounded by computers. They appear in our cars, in our pockets, in our bags and soon, on our bodies. (CLICK FOR PHOTO). We ve all seen Google glasses. (CLICK) Smart watches (CLICK) NFC Rings are being developed.
Societal trends will impact events As society, and thus your attendees, embrace these technologies, they will become part of their daily lives. Using it for events will open the door to attendees being able to navigate internally at an exhibition and use facial recognition software to prompt them of someones name.
Crowdsourcing Will Shape Events The process of obtaining information and ideas regarding services and content from a large group of people, most notably, your customers. Crowdsourcing tools have already emerged to enable sharing, funding and voting. Benefits to organisers include lower costs, greater choice and better input. Mobile polling devices can be used during an event for insightful data capture, market research and real-time feedback. Data is key to shaping an event and securing its long-term stability.
London 2012 Used LED tablets installed on each seat.! Companies like Crowd Connected are taking this to the next level, using mobile phones as individual pixels. Each person s phone become an individual pixel that can be controlled from a single internet enabled laptop or computer. The Crowd Connected system uses indoor positioning to accurately pinpoint where each mobile device is, giving huge scope to lighting designers.
Event Apps Will Become Essential, Not Preferable Today there are nearly 100 conference or event guide app providers covering every option imaginable. Fully customised to off-the-shelf, native apps for ios or Android to HTML5. They re providing a richer event experience and allow you to deliver several of the points already raised, like data capture, customer feedback, contact exchange, delegate introductions and social media integration.
Multi-Event App Platforms Will Become Common Allows organisers of multiple events to avoid the development of individual apps for each of their brands. A master app template is built by the developer that features consistent branding. The event planner or host cab then choose the desired elements for each event and upload the required data themselves. Less expensive, uniform analytics across multiple events and attendees only have to download 1 app.
Mobile Social Event Networking Will Blossom One good contact can make a trip worthwhile. Yet until recently, the way most events managed this was with a name badge. Event Apps will become like a Swiss Army knife, with robust social integration becoming the most common way the participants access the social channels.
Free Web CMS s Will Open New Doors
A major trend in web-design is opensource content management. Joomla and WordPress have emerged to become powerful tools. Used to build and manage some of the most recognisable sites on the web, including Ebay, The New York Times and Event Industry News. Open source has allowed thousands of plug-ins to be developed, giving web-managers simple ways to accomplish nearly any task. Using these plug-ins allows event organisers to build sites that are highly relevant to the content they are delivering.
Content Curation Tools Will Help Effciently Manage Related Interaction Flickr Facebook Twitter Slideshare Instagram YouTube
Content Curation Tools Will Help Effciently Manage Related Interaction eventifier.co conferize.com storify.com bundlr.com
Video Will Integrate in to the Natural Business Process of an Event HD Cameras in our pockets. C o s t o f H i g h - E n d v i d e o production has dropped. Hybrid meetings and event content capture are growing. Most of us are carrying HD video cameras in our pockets, with the ability to use in built software or free apps to record, edit and share. Video is almost always a more compelling way to promote a message
Video is becoming cheaper (in many cases free) & easier to distribute. YouTube is the second largest search site on the web. 1 billion unique users each month. Over 6 billion hours of video watched on YouTube each month. 100 hours of video uploaded every minute. Most of us are carrying HD video cameras in our pockets, with the ability to use in built software or free apps to record, edit and share. Video is almost always a more compelling way to promote a message
Acquisition by Microsoft will likely lead to more integration with MS Office products
Allows 9-way video conferencing for free, plus free web-streaming of video and direct recording to YouTube.
Video Engages Video generates a 400%-700% increase in viewer engagement and responses rates compared to static content. Video email messages generates 2-3 times higher click-through rates compared to static emails. According to ComScore, 89m people in the USA watch 1.2b online videos daily. As video becomes ubiquitous, we will see strong growth and reliance on it for event promotion and content distribution.
Geofencing will allow interactivity on a new level. A geofence is a virtual perimeter around any geographic area, such as a hotel, a conference center, an exhibition or any another arbitrary boundary. When a mobile device using a geofence service enters or exits a geofence, the device receives a notification which often is in the form of an alert or a mobile coupon. A geofence notice may be sent to another mobile phone or email account as well. Although a relatively new concept, geofencing is beginning to be used for marketing, security, and anti-theft purposes.! Using Bluetooth Low Emmission on mobile devices, and combining them with beacons that emit data, new possibilities are crease for interaction. ibeacons is the name Apple have created for this technology, but all mobile platforms will support it. EXPAND (CLICK)
Advanced Display Tech Will Create a Greater Wow Factor Touch screens are now cropping up more and more. 3D Imaging will become more widely used in exhibitions. It attracts attention. Projection mapping is another interesting development. Becoming award winning technology. Look at the touch screens at this show.