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Updated version - lists all the tech providers. Very helpful!!

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Best Event Management Software - 2018 Reviews & Pricing

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Find the best Event Management Software for your organization. Compare top event management systems with customer reviews, pricing and free demos.

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Event Planning & Hospitality eBooks, Guides and Resources

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Download free eBooks guides and trend reports with tips and insight to improve your events or drive event bookings at your property.

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- new ways to use projection mapping to respond to changes at events

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The Los Angeles Philharmonic kicked off its 100th anniversary season on September 30 in a big way. The orchestra started the day with a free festival designed to showcase the city's creative spirit; it stretched the eight miles between the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl and featured 1,800 musicians, artists, and dancers, plus art installations, food trucks, screen printing, and more.

But the real highlight of the celebrations came after sunset, when performers including Katy Perry, Herbie Hancock, and John Williams performed a free concert for 18,000 fans at the Hollywood Bowl.

It wasn't a typical show at the Bowl, though. The concert marked the debut event from Xite Labs, a new project from content creator Greg Russell (formerly of Tandem Digital Entertainment) and visual artist Vello Virkhaus (formerly of V Squared Labs).

The duo, who recently merged their companies, teamed up to create projection mapping that was responsive to the music-in real time. More than half of the projection mapping was improvised depending on the performances, with technology designed to react to the orchestra's audio signals.

"We were not working with a timecoded show or click-track," explained Russell and Virkhaus in an email. "Instead, the actual tempo and purposefully subtle fluctuations were going to be reliant upon [L.A. Phil music director] Gustavo Dudamel's and John Williams' internal clocks. Even though they are masters, we knew that we would need to be able to be smart and flexible with our visual experience."

A team of 12 computer animators, programmers, and digital artists spent two months creating 16 looks to accompany the performers, using more than 17.4 million pixels. The result? Colorful, high-energy projections on the Bowl's famous proscenium that moved perfectly in time with the music, fully immersing the audience in the performances.

More than half of the projection mapping was improvised depending on the performances, with technology designed to react to the orchestra's audio signals.

"Using Notch Designer and Playback tools, we were able to design looks for songs like Katy Perry's "Firework," which used a real-time generative particle system-and then have those looks react to the orchestra's audio signals," said Russell and Virkhaus, who called out a performance of the Star Wars theme as a particular highlight.

"In Star Wars, there were moments when the whole Hollywood Bowl looked like the interior of the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo's ship," noted the team. "In those segments the audio from the orchestra, divided into eight subgroups, fed into our equipment racks and into our pre-programmed design from Cinema 4-D-which had been ported into Notch and programmed to react to sample audio that we used as reference tracks before the show."

To put it more simply: The team created a 3-D design that lit up in certain areas and at certain speeds and intensities in time with the music. "You could literally see the orchestra playing the physical structure of the Hollywood Bowl, which we designed as a transportation device for the audience," they explained. "So much came together in those moments and we felt like we were bringing the vision and the team-which included the audience-together to share in the magic and glory of John Williams' epic masterpiece."

Due to the improvised nature of the projections, Xite Labs was not able to participate in a formal rehearsal with the orchestra. Other challenges included working around the physical constraints of the bowl's stage while trying to position the interactive camera system and finding a way to run an 800-foot fiber cable to the top of the bowl. Another hurdle: The team was given only 90 minutes to align the mesh needed to properly map and align the visuals on the stage.

Despite the challenges, Russell and Virkhaus are happy with the result. "We love working on projection mapping because of the sheer scale and immersion it provides to creators and audiences," they said. "It's not new at this point, but pushing the quality and scale of these types of shows is exciting and still gets everybody's adrenaline going."

They think the future of the medium is finding new ways to blend projection mapping, sculptural lighting, LED, practical lighting, and sound design.

"We are starting to integrate higher-level embellishments to our mapping projects, such as live body tracking, camera tracking, and interactive elements that bring performers into the mapping shows," they said. "These environments will become extensions of our digital reality, embedded with machine learning, A.I. attributes, and interactive interfaces. We will be able to participate collectively in concert experiences through our devices."

Watch the videos below to see the technology in action.

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Video: See This Projection Mapping Respond to Music in Real Time

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The Los Angeles Philharmonic kicked off its 100th anniversary season on September 30 in a big way. The orchestra started the day with a free festival designed to showcase the city's creative spirit; it stretched the eight miles between the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl and featured 1,800 musicians, artists, and dancers, plus art installations, food trucks, screen printing, and more.

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Digital gift bags are efficient, economical and best of all- measurable

If you haven't received one yet, it's coming. It's lightweight, you won't forget it under your chair after the keynote, you won't feel guilty tossing out what you don't use and there's no need to make room in your suitcase to bring it home. Swag bags, goodie bags and party favors are all going digital.

There is something to be said about the personal touch of a goodie bag strategically crafted by planners, likely well into the night before a big event. But you might want to review the features of its digital counterpart before dismissing it altogether. The personal touch is far from removed; it's more intimate than ever.

Attendees can conveniently open their virtual bags from their smartphones and tablets via text messages and emails that link to your site or app, where they can receive discount codes, free offers and can even enter contests run by the host or event sponsors. Hosts have full control over what is in the bag, where it's positioned among other content and how it's being offered to attendees. They can also decide when the bag is available so that attendees may view it before, during and after the event.

Perk for Planners

A digital swag bag tosses all the logistics of shipping and/or traveling with favors right out the window. No more counting each water bottle, lip balm, granola bar and gift bag, no more lugging the leftovers back to the office (or hotel room) when the event is done, and risk of running out of supplies.

"All an organizer has to do is [submit] their list of sponsors and invite them to take part," explains Kathy Cohen, head of marketing for Zoliro. "Then sponsors add their own offers online, getting suggestions on which digital gifts will work best for their objectives, and submit the offer for approval." Cohen says this allows planners to focus their time on other aspects of event planning. They just approve the sponsors' offers before they're made available to attendees. But it isn't just a time-saver. Compared to the cost of a physical bag, a virtual one can offer higher value at less cost, because of its digital nature. At Zoliro, direct cost per attendee for a virtual bag is $1.20.

Attendees' Appreciation

Attendees benefit, as well, since they can drop their phones in their pockets and travel from one session to the next hands-free to greet, tweet and interact without worrying about their bags.

Because each swag bag is custom-built around your event, venue and cause, it can be as personalized as you choose to make it. So attendees won't feel you've lost your personal touch-in fact, with the ability to track which gifts are opened and how often, you can learn more about attendees, which will allow you to deliver even more customized offers in the future.

Canada Army Run, a military race with 25,000 participants, used multilingual virtual bags from Virtual Event Bags that included 39 offers, from discounts off of branded apparel and services to health supplements, samples, contest entries and more. Each offer was clearly branded with photos, logos and videos. Offers were arranged based on demographic niche, and sponsors could see in real-time how their offers were performing.

No offense to the beverage koozies and branded water thermoses-but digital gifting allows hosts and sponsors to deliver the gifts attendees really want, which will likely encourage them to return to your next event.

Sponsors' Delight

Sponsors love the ability to deliver digital gifts to attendees because of the reporting capabilities that aren't possible with tactile goodie bags. Companies such as Virtual Event Bags and Zoliro offer reporting dashboards that can show which offer codes and coupons were used most, how often the digital bag was opened and even what was purchased with the coupons.

"Sponsors understand that the audience is very targeted and engaged, and are willing to put in real effort to incentivize attendees to opt in and start the conversation," Cohen says. "The way [attendees] use the product tells us the truth about how they feel about it."

Tracking spending behavior revolutionizes the way sponsors and event planners make decisions about what to provide guests. Live goodie bags are judged merely by the real-time reactions spotted on showroom floors and verbal feedback, which-while still valuable-can't represent attendees to the same scale that reporting can.

At Techsytalk Live, hosted by Liz King Events, email invitations were sent before and after the event, via a link included in the events' mobile app (powered by DoubleDutch). Reports showed nearly 80 percent of attendees visited the bag and came back nearly five times.

As a result of these interactions, sponsors receive more valuable leads than they would otherwise, and have the power to decipher how their product or service will be presented in the virtual bag, from the physical placement within the interface to the graphics and text describing the product.

A Green Future

Paperless itineraries and event maps were the first step in economically responsible meeting and event trends. Virtual swag bags are a sensible next step to greener, smarter meetings.

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Digital Gift Bags are Efficient and Economical | Smart Meetings

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If you haven't received one yet, it's coming. It's lightweight, you won't forget it under your chair after the keynote, you won't feel guilty tossing out what you don't use and there's no need to make room in your suitcase to bring it home. Swag bags, goodie bags and party favors are all going digital.

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https://www.eventmanagerblog.com/concierge-app

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzpuXILtwpg&feature=youtu.be

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This year's Sziget Festival ended with the highest number of visitors in its history. The event's cashless payment system, Festipay also saw record transaction volumes.

This year's Sziget Festival ended with the highest number of visitors in its history to date. The event's cashless payment system, Festipay also saw record transaction volumes, according to a press release sent to the Budapest Business Journal by Cellum, the company providing the technical background.

Festipay launched new wristbands this year, which serve as a combined entry ticket and payment device. Furthermore, using Cellum's solution, visitors could also for the first time top up their balances before they even arrived, so they didn't have to waste time with this upon entry. The solution proved highly successful: about one third of all top-up transactions - worth over EUR 4 million - were carried out by users through the festival's official smartphone app connected to Cellum's mobile payment system.

Besides facilitating fast and secure payments, the app also allowed festivalgoers to track their purchases in real time. In addition, thanks to a new feature developed by Festipay and Cellum, visitors could have their remaining balances refunded to the card registered in the app once the festival was over.

Cellum CEO János Kóka said: "Festipay and Cellum were the first in Europe to come out with this solution, and we feel justified by the results. Patrons on other continents will hopefully also be able to use our solutions in the near future," he added.

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Mobile payments make breakthrough at Sziget Festival

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This year's Sziget Festival ended with the highest number of visitors in its history. The event's cashless payment system, Festipay also saw record transaction volumes. This year's Sziget Festival ended with the highest number of visitors in its history to date.

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Technology At Cannes Film Festival 2018 | HP Latex | HP

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https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/blog/facial-recognition-tech-for-events-ds0c/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMqChdb8p50

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Apple iPhone XS review: two steps forward, one step back

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The iPhone XS hasn't broken mould like the iPhone X, and it has weaker battery life, but its camera, design and performance are class-leading

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This is a sponsored post by Technology allows event planners to connect with their audiences in many ways - even past having their favorite coffee drink automatically available first thing in the morning, although that is pretty amazing. One of the most impressive ways is how audiovisual services and other design elements can transform a venue. Savvy event planners are transforming spaces in indescribable ways using AV and other "magical" methods. GES. More information about Event Manager Blog's sponsored posts.

In this article, you'll see how small spaces appear larger, a blank space becomes cozier, a theme is perfectly captured, as well as other incredible uses of space. These creative ideas can give your venue that extra personal appeal and cultivate the WOW! factor that makes an indelible impression on your audience.

All this and not a single magic wand required.

If you're looking for ways to transform your space, let's get started.

Event Venues: 12 Easy Tricks to Make a Bland Space Stand Out

Sometimes your event space just doesn't fit your vision, right? But that doesn't mean it's not the one for you. There's a lot you can do to completely transform the venue. Audiovisual tricks and effects are a great way to go from mediocre to mesmerizing.

Modern event lighting does more than just cast a rainbow of colors around your space, although that's fun, too. There are wireless uplighting options, which means you can finally position lights where you want them without worrying about attendees tripping over cords, awkward taping or expensive rigging. You can also spotlight an area of interest for maximum effect. But lighting needn't be passive. It can be used in a variety of moving ways including laser shows. Lighting even has personality and can be used as a "character" for an MC to interact with.

Hot Tip: Gobos. Gobos use a beam of light with a metal stencil over it to create dazzling designs on ceilings and walls. Imagine a ceiling that makes you feel like you're under the sea or other design. It's similar to projection mapping (which we'll get to in a bit) but not as costly or intricate.

In the ideal world, rooms would be designed so that everyone could hear and see the event's focus with equal clarity. That's simply not the case, at least not without technology. But now event planners can assist attendees by using relay and secondary screens to battle those awkward sight lines and ensure everyone has a great view.

Size doesn't matter: you may find that no matter where you try to add a screen for better views, it's just not possible. When that's the case, consider allowing attendees to use their own device to see every minute of the event up close.

You needn't shut your audience off from what's happening beyond your event. In fact, a lot of event planners are bringing in screens and video to showcase social media comments from elsewhere, broadcast a dignitary or speaker unable to make it in person, or link multiple event sites and crowds. Video screens can bring another "window" to your event, one that can give your attendees a view of anywhere in the world.

Think about: Many platforms now offer the ability to broadcast from multiple locations simultaneously. Is this something that could benefit your event?

While tech is the main focus of this article, it's not the only thing that can transform a venue. Bringing the outdoors in through the introduction of greenery and flowers can transform a bland room into something spectacular. Beautiful indoor sculptures and gardenscapes can be created through lush plants and design features. Best of all, this type of nature doesn't come with a concern over an unexpected downpour to ruin your event. With the right lighting and positioning, this can add a fantastic feature to your event.

Outdoor examples: It's not all about greenery. Consider water features, sand installations, and other natural ideas.

You don't have to physically transform your event space if your attendees aren't actually seeing it. In the case of virtual and augmented reality, you are virtually transforming your attendee's reality so the walls of your venue don't really matter. With virtual reality, you could "transport" your attendees anywhere the coder can create, while augmented reality can help your attendees see things that aren't really there (remember Pokemon Go!?). Either way, suddenly the physical design of your venue matters very little.

Keep in mind: Some people just don't like to wear headsets. You can use device-based VR or AR. While it won't provide an engulfing surround experience, it's still amazing.

Another non-tech idea is fabric. Fabric can add a touch of luxury, depth, color, and texture. It can be used on the ceiling for a quick burst of color when paint isn't an option. Fabric can also transform seating, taking a drab chair and re-envisioning it as a throne. When lights hit different fabrics or are threaded within the draping, this can create breathtaking effects.

Make it more dramatic: Draping the ceiling can make a room more intimate and give the WOW! factor from all angles, floor to ceiling.

If you want to capture another place or time, an LED video wall can create a beautiful landscape. Want to dine on the beach? A video wall can make your audience feel like they have a view of the ocean. These floor to ceiling (or extremely large) projections can make attendees feel like they're anywhere other than your venue. It accomplishes that without the (sometimes) annoying headgear or limiting the number of attendees that can enjoy the impact at the same time.

Consider: LED walls are versatile. They can serve as backdrops, device projects, or monitors. You can vary their use during your event.

If you are old enough, you may remember "Starlight Express", an amazing rock musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber that featured people on roller skates playing the roles of trains. The rigging and tracks went out over the audience in a spectacular display that felt nothing like a Broadway theater. Some event planners are doing similar things these days by incorporating rigging and aerial effects shows, although they are more closely inspired by Cirque du Soleil than roller skating locomotives.
Another use: Rigging can transform any area into a magical stage, as well as a place for better lighting or incredible video capabilities. This shot shows the amazing capabilities that come from even basic rigging.

While dramatic lighting is all about creating a shocking effect, not in a bad way, as an attention grabber, soft lighting is about creating a mood. Popular types of soft lighting that can transform a space include:

keyboard_arrow_right candlelight

keyboard_arrow_right string/fairy lights

keyboard_arrow_right lanterns

keyboard_arrow_right torches

keyboard_arrow_right fire pits

keyboard_arrow_right open flame cooking (but safety first, remember)

Hot Trend: Illuminated bar. Another type of soft lighting is illuminating frosted surfaces to create an ice palace effect. One spot that's popular to use this in is with a highlighted bar. It adds interest to the room and helps everyone find a way out of an awkward conversation.

Trompe l'oeil are murals that appear to be 3D but are designed to fool the eye. You can transform a hotel ballroom space into a Tahitian village. Originally, trompe l'oeil would be painted on the walls but these days they can come in the form of wall transfers that can be applied for the event and then removed or even floor art. They can give a boring wall much-needed interest and spark your attendees' imaginations.

Take it to the next level: In addition to amping up a room, these faux finishes can provide amazing selfie spots. Just make sure you include a hashtag on a sign nearby so no one misses the social media fun.

If you have a venue space that is large and uninviting, you can make the space cozier by creating smaller spaces within the larger room. This can be accomplished easily through the introduction of fabric or greenery to cordon off the spot, or using a screen, furniture, or rugs to create a smaller section of the room. These nooks provide the ideal spot away from the bustle for attendees to unwind and connect with one another.
The surprising aspect of nooks: While generally nooks are thought of as small, intimate spaces, they don't have to be. Take a look at this space within the larger Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Certainly not a small area but it creates a destination and a place that is separate from the larger space without feeling cramped.

Projection mapping is the sort of effect that will take an attendee's breath away. The possibilities are endless with this type of treatment. Projection mapping projects an image onto a 3D surface. Why is this spectacular? Because it can transform a boring wall into Buckingham Palace or the interior of a spacecraft. It can even switch between the palace and the spacecraft every hour. You can project onto people, in large areas or in small ones. Since it's a projection, there's no cleanup or takedown afterward to contend with. Just a quick flip of the switch.

Bonus: You can still appreciate (and see) the architecture underneath the image.

IN CONCLUSION

Think of your venue as a blank canvas. There are some things that simply can't be changed (e.g. if your venue only allows one caterer) but the ballroom or exhibit hall can be transformed into a space beyond what you ever imagined. When it comes to AV and other design elements, there's much that can be done to transform your space into your ideal venue. From lighting and color to projection mapping, if you can envision it, it likely can be done.

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12 Clever Ways AV Can Transform Your Event Venue - Make Your Venue Stand Out

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This is a sponsored post by Technology allows event planners to connect with their audiences in many ways - even past having their favorite coffee drink automatically available first thing in the morning, although that is pretty amazing. One of the most impressive ways is how audiovisual services and other design elements can transform a venue.

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Powering Mobile World Congress 2018 with Event Technology

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One of China's most popular video games is testing the use of facial recognition to check users' ages.

Honour of King's publisher Tencent announced the move at the weekend.

It said the trial would initially be limited to "thousands" of new players based in Beijing and Shenzhen.

The title has been criticised in local media over claims children have become addicted to it. But one expert questioned whether the test could be scaled up.

The mobile app resembles League of Legends and pits players against each other in multiplayer online battles set in a fantasy world.

Under pressure from local regulators, Tencent introduced restrictions in July 2017 to limit under-12s to one hour of gameplay a day and 13- to 18-year-olds to a maximum of two hours.

Last month, the company added a real-name registration system to encourage players to keep to the rules.

The facial-recognition test appears to be a further effort to discourage young players from trying to circumvent the time limits.

Tencent said a random selection of new players would be assigned to the test when they first signed into the game.

But it has not disclosed the technology it will use to carry out the scans or how it intends to cross-reference the resulting IDs.

Tencent highlighted that many users had previously voiced concerns about the idea of it using facial ID checks in games and said it would evaluate the results of the real-world trial "in depth".

Gaming crackdown

The Chinese state is currently engaged in a wider campaign to control video gaming.

In addition to concerns over addiction, there have been warnings the activity could be linked to rising levels of near-sightedness.

In August, the ministry of education announced plans to develop its own age-restriction system and to limit the number of online games available.

But one expert questioned whether the latest move would be a success.

"This test is an extension of Tencent's existing Youth Guardian platform, which allows parents to monitor gameplay time and uses facial recognition, but this goes a step further by comparing user images with government photo records," said Piers Harding-Rolls, from the IHS consultancy.

"It is inevitable that this sort of technology will hold some limitations especially for younger children that go through a lot of facial changes as they grow.

"However, facial recognition technology is improving all the time."

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Game uses facial ID to check players' age

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One of China's most popular video games is testing the use of facial recognition to check users' ages. Honour of King's publisher Tencent announced the move at the weekend. It said the trial would initially be limited to "thousands" of new players based in Beijing and Shenzhen.

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AI robots and self-driving cars might steal the headlines, but the next big leap in technology will be advances in voice services, according to Google's head of search, Ben Gomes, who says that a better understanding of common language is crucial to the future of the internet.

"Speech recognition and the understanding of language is core to the future of search and information," said Gomes . "But there are lots of hard problems such as understanding how a reference works, understanding what 'he', 'she' or 'it' refers to in a sentence. It's not at all a trivial problem to solve in language and that's just one of the millions of problems to solve in language."

Gomes was speaking to the Guardian ahead of Google's 20th anniversary on 24 September, more than seven years after Google launched its first voice service as simple speech-to-text for search.

Now built into Google's search and its AI voice assistant which is embedded in billions of smartphones around the globe, voice recognition has become essential in developing countries with low literacy rates.

"It was not obvious to us that what seems like an advanced technology in the west, seems like a basic thing you need in countries like India. So it sort of flips the conversation around," said Gomes, who was born in Tanzania and raised in Bangalore.

"Many languages in developing nations have never really had common keyboards - I studied Hindi for 10 years, but I wouldn't know how to type it - so voice is much easier to use than typing."

Google's attempts to understand language aren't new. Having cracked the basics, Google started with spelling correction in 2000, which was slightly more complex than just adding a dictionary, and then onto what Gomes refers to as "the softening of words".

"You can think of initial search engines as finding words with hard boundaries - here's the exact word you typed, I'll try and find it in the title of the document."

"But there's a language that people use when they know about an area and another when they don't. In English we generally know this as synonyms, but it's a particular kind of synonymisation."

For example, people may search for "how do I change the brightness of a monitor", using a general word like "change" because they don't know a more specific word. But those with more knowledge of the area would use "adjust" in both queries and documents. To find the user the right document you need to inject the jargon of the specialist area into their query, something that took Google over five years to develop.

Many hard problems stand in the way of computers truly understanding language on a human level, but for Gomes the future lies in "the notion that language will become easier to use for finding information".

"You'll be able to ask much more sophisticated queries and in more sophisticated ways. You'll actually be able to carry on a conversation with Google."

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Speech recognition is tech's next giant leap, says Google

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Company says spoken word already essential in developing countries with low literacy rates

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Oculus, the Facebook-owned virtual-reality company, launched its new Oculus Go headset in May with an elaborate sculpture that highlighted some of the content users can experience. Building on the company's penchant for showing off its new virtual experiences through a physical event, Oculus recently hosted a media dinner in the "omakase" style-in which diners entrust the chef to curate a tasting menu-creatively pairing headset content with cocktails and dishes inspired by that content.

The company partnered with actress Chloë Grace Moretz (the star of the new film The Miseducation of Cameron Post) to host the six-course dinner July 31 on the rooftop of the Public Hotel in New York. French-American chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten created the menu, which consisted of upscale dishes served alongside cocktails crafted by the Los Angeles-based creative shop Happy Hour Agency.

"The event concept was inspired by a multi-course 'omakase'-style menu to reflect the many different experiences available on Oculus Go, and to provide guests with a fully immersive taste of virtual reality," said Brandon Boone, head of consumer communications for Oculus.

Each diner wore an Oculus Go headset and could enjoy courses such as Masters of the Sun, served with sesame-crusted salmon, passion fruit sauce, spinach, and black olives, paired with "The Fix" cocktail, made with vodka, cognac, passion fruit, egg white, blue curaçao, and bitters; Hulu: The Handmaid's Tale, served with parmesan-crusted chicken and lemon artichoke sauce, paired with "Mother's Milk Punch," which included clarified milk punch, rum, cognac, absinthe, cinnamon, and pineapple; MelodyVR: The Chainsmokers, served with grilled lamb rack, crunch garnishes, and herbs, paired with "Smoke 'N' Mirrors" cocktail of mezcal, bourbon, angostura, citrus blend, orange oil, and smoked tobacco; and Guided Meditation VR, served with a seasonal pavlova and berries, paired with the "Rumaste" cocktail of rum, guava, aloe, lime, sugar cane syrup, tropical foam, and kombucha.

Oculus's in-house team lead the event's production, with support from partner agencies Magnetic Collaborative and Day One Agency. Here's a look at how guests consumed both the V.R. content and the custom dishes at the event.
Launch Slide Show

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Technology Tasting: See How Oculus Crafted a Dinner Based on Virtual-Reality Experiences

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The virtual-reality company creatively showcased content offerings on the new Oculus Go headset by pairing them with six courses and cocktails in an "omakase"-style dinner. Oculus, the Facebook-owned virtual-reality company, launched its new Oculus Go headset in May with an elaborate sculpture that highlighted some of the content users can experience.

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Knowing event technology trends-and adopting the most valuable ones-gives planners and venues the competitive advantage. Studies show that using event technology can increase attendance by 20 percent and increase productivity by 27 percent.

But with new event technologies emerging constantly, how do you know which ones to consider? From design through debrief, we've got you covered with the event technology trends you need to know for success-from preliminary planning sessions through post-event debriefs.

Discover top event technology trends this year for hotels and meeting planners:

1. Facial recognition

This technology records attendee facial features using photos uploaded during registration, then scans attendee faces as they check in to the event. Each match automates personalized actions, such as printing a badge with the attendees name, sending an email with a scannable lunch voucher, and finalizing a swag bag for their ticket-tier (no sense creating swag bags for no-shows).

What this trend means for event planners

Facial recognition technology is a powerful tool that streamlines key attendee touchpoints and provides data to help improve future events. The technology speeds event check-ins, improves security, and helps businesses at tradeshows collect more valuable leads by tracking attendee visits to booths. You and your team can also use facial recognition to watch for crowd flow bottlenecks and collect session attendance data so you know what worked-and what didn't.

What this trend means for event venues

The ability to support advanced tech like facial recognition makes venues more attractive to corporate planners. The technology also allows automation at certain access points, which means lower manpower requirements and lower costs.

Facial recognition in action

This video demonstrates the fundamentals of facial recognition and how it helps facilitate event check-in, VIP access, and security:

2. Projection mapping

If you're looking to enhance the attendee experience, an augmented reality technology called projection mapping can create excitement and engagement. Videos, graphics, animation, and other creative content are projected onto any surface, turning everyday structures into vibrant, interactive 3D displays.

What this trend means for event planners

Planners can dramatically transform any space to add a 'wow' factor and build buzz. This visual technology is an efficient, cost-effective way to create optical illusions on anything-from cars to landmarks to stages.

Because there are no real limits to what you can do with projection mapping, event planners can stretch their imaginations. They can project large-scale maps of convention booths, the cover image from the keynote speaker's bestseller, social media walls, and interactive art displays.

What this trend means for event venues

Offering tech to support projection mapping provides bang for the buck. There's no need to physically construct or deconstruct any part of your exhibit hall to add this fun, popular technology to your toolbox and draw more events.

Projection mapping in action

The video showcases one of our favorite examples of projection mapping at the Sydney Opera House:

3. Branded multi-use event apps

Properly integrated apps add value to events, providing attendees with more opportunities for networking, interaction, and engagement with peers, speakers, and exhibitors. Having a one-stop-shop for literally every piece of a conference or tradeshow in digital format under one brand hits the sweet spot when it comes to ease-of-use, personalization, and brand authenticity-all-important attendee touchpoints.

What this trend means for event planners

With tradeshow or conference maps, speaker bios, and schedules in the event app, there's no need for bulky information packets. Push notifications in the apps help keep attendees informed and on schedule. Planners can also use apps to personalize the event agenda through live polling and attract event sponsors with the option of targeted attendee surveys.

What this trend means for event venues

Apps help you create a customized visitor experience. Guests can use apps to control their rooms or even communicate with chatbots to find nearby attractions.

Event spaces can create customized apps to share helpful info like maps, historical tidbits, and even the personalities of their unique employees (like in the video below from Wembley Stadium):

Branded apps in action

YourMembership used their app to make magic. At its Xperience17 event, the membership management software brought the world of Harry Potter to life. Using an event-specific app, the team weaved-in elements of gamification to engage, amaze, and facilitate learning. The app was adopted by an incredible 88 percent of attendees who were sorted into "Houses" to compete against each other.

4. Event diagramming in 3D

It's essential to have a complete, detailed picture of an event layout to ensure effective floor plans, seating, flow, foot traffic, lighting, cabling, and other room elements. Easy-to-use 3D event diagramming software provides accurate, customizable, collaborative project planning regardless of venue design or size.

What this trend means for event planners

Planning a room layout requires frequent back-and-forth between you, the venue, and your stakeholders. An event diagramming tool facilitates communication and can make it much less of a headache because you can:

Give clients peace of mind and leave nothing to chance on the big day

Upload a floor plan to work with, so you know the diagram is to scale

Take clients and stakeholders on 3D 'fly throughs' to clarify your vision

Plan seating charts and manage attendees' meal choices or other preferences

Help staff easily identify and accommodate VIPs and guests with special requests

What this trend means for event venues

Sales reps can collaborate with planners in real time, share variations on the event proposal, and visually portray upsells. Once you've used it a few times, you can show clients diagrams from past events.

For instance, The Venetian has more than 1,000,000 pieces of furniture available for events. They use an event diagramming tool to transform vendors' PDF layouts into to-scale diagrams within their various spaces.

Some hotels let planners take the reins, like the Sheraton Commander. The hotel's Director of Catering and Event Management, Judy Brillhart, says this improves relationships because planners "love being empowered to seat their guests in the manner they want."

Event diagramming in action

To be successful with multiple events, planners need to map out the many moving parts of each one beforehand.

That's where a tool like Social Tables' event diagramming software is invaluable. Forbes has used the software since 2013 to verify event elements and the viability of venues. This has improved the efficiency of their events, including the annual Under 30 Summit.

5. Second screen

Attendees are using their smartphones during presentations and meetings, so it makes sense to embrace the screen as an engagement tool. Usable on any mobile device, second screen technology increases learning and provides insight into attendee behavior and interests.

Attendees can use this tech to follow slide presentations, participate with quizzes and polls, take notes, and engage in text-based Q&A. They can also view graphs, tables, videos, and other content; and follow website and social media links.

What this trend means for event planners

Since improving the attendee experience is part of an event planner's job, second screen tech moves the needle in a positive direction. Any speaker can keep an audience attentive and engaged with this technology, leading to good reviews and a successful event.

What this trend means for event venues

For speeches and seminars in large meeting rooms, it's essential that attendees can hear, see, and interact with speakers. Supporting second screen tech for presentations is much less expensive than making physical upgrades that aren't in the budget.

Second screen in action

This video by Core-apps offers a preview of their Conference Notes second screen technology that allows attendees to bookmark slides, add notes, and share notes with colleagues:

6. Social media sentiment

As event attendees connect on social media and comment on an event, you can evaluate hashtags, @-mentions, emojis, and comments to determine varying levels of satisfaction. This data underscores the importance of social media sentiment analysis in monitoring your brand and messaging, keeping an eye on competitors, and making improvements to services during and after events.

What this trend means for event planners

Tracking attendee activity on social media during an event provides actionable data to help you make adjustments in real-time. Some improvements you can make in response to social media sentiment include:

Replenishing food and beverages

Easing show floor bottlenecks

Driving session attendance

Addressing technology issues (mobile apps, Wi-Fi, or audio/visual)

What this trend means for event venues

Venues can social media sentiment to promote popular services and learn where there's room for improvement:

"Wi-Fi at conference center was horrible" is an obvious red flag needing attention.

"Hotel spa = unexpected treat!" tags an amenity you can promote more widely.

Social media sentiment in action

Check out Hootsuite's comprehensive guide to social media sentiment. It showcases how to measure and improve social media sentiment to build trust, increase engagement, and find influencers.

7. Wearable tech is an event technology trend

Wristbands and smart badges using near-field communication (NFC) chips keep disruptions and lines to a minimum, thereby increasing attendee productivity and engagement. This technology lets attendees:

Access different event areas

Exchange information with peers

Receive exhibitor marketing material

Make cashless purchases

What this trend means for event planners

Wearable tech helps you speed-up check-in, control access, and monitor attendee behavior with less staffing. It also improves ROI for exhibitors, who can drive attendees wearing the tech to visit a booth of interest based on an individual's profile.

Additionally, the technology can alert planners to booths that aren't drawing many visitors so they can help exhibitors generate more foot traffic.

What this trend means for event venues

On-site staff can use real-time data to learn when they need to offer overflow rooms or investigate security breaches, such as non-VIP guests in restricted areas.

Wearable technology in action

An interesting example is Hilton America's use of wearable technology wristbands at its 2017 Leadership Conference. Attendees used wristbands to exchange contact information with one another as well as vendors. Gamification incentivized the interactions, rewarding attendees with points they could trade in for merchandise.

You can read more details in this wearable event technology case study, which includes more info on objectives and results.

8. Indoor wayfinding

Indoor wayfinding helps attendees navigate exhibit halls with ease, similar to how GPS-enabled Google Maps and Waze provide driving assistance. These indoor position systems (IPS) use stationary Bluetooth beacons around event venues, sending out signals read by mobile apps.

What this trend means for event planners

Planners can generate pop-up directions for attendees based on their location at an event instead of investing in producing/shipping/replacing physical signage. Attendees-especially Millennials-will appreciate the convenience and performance, spending more time networking and less time looking for directions (or getting lost).

You can also incorporate proximity advertising options as a value-add for exhibitors and sponsors, with ads appearing as attendees navigate the venue. Post-event, you can utilize IPS data to see where attendees spent their time visiting booths and attending presentations.

What this trend means for event venues

Investments in information technology infrastructure may be necessary to handle increased traffic across Wi-Fi systems. Adding hotel bars, restaurants, spas, gift shops, and other amenities to the location map can help drive additional revenue during events while improving the attendee experience.

Indoor wayfinding in action

This technology is in use at events large and small; for example, the 100,000 attendees at Mobile World Congress 2017 had access to indoor wayfinding. This video gives a basic introduction to IPS and indoor wayfinding:

9. RFID and beacon attendee tracking

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a low-cost technology used at events to store attendee admission information on their person, helping to detect fraud and streamline access. Beacon technology is similar to RFID, tracking attendee preferences and behavior to create personalized experiences. Attendees can review their travels throughout a tradeshow and see who they interacted with, while exhibitors are notified in real-time when sought-after prospects come into their booth.

What this trend means for event planners

Using RFID tracking you can gather useful attendee behavioral data, send leads to sales team members in real-time, and build attendee profiles to send targeted messaging. Reviewing analytics captured by RFID technology also validates your event and highlights improvement opportunities by tracking session popularity, length of attendee visits to exhibitor booths, and strong tradeshow traffic.

What this trend means for event venues

RFID and beacon technology helps security and general event staff do their job better in real-time, which is essential for building trust and streamlining crowded events. Since delivering a quality customer experience within budget is key, RFID can help.

RFID in action

There are many examples of RFID being used to improve guest experiences. It's used by Disney for faster check-in, opening hotel doors, and purchasing food and merchandise.

The video below shows how West Virginia University used RFID wristbands at their annual fall festival to help students move around the event and make cashless payments:

10. Venue sourcing platforms

Increasingly, event planners are turning to venue sourcing platforms to connect with the perfect site for their particular event. Through the Cvent Supplier Network, planners can easily send RFPs or quote requests, and track them through their event management software.

What this trend means for event planners

With venue sourcing tools, planners gain access to the specifications of thousands of sites-wherever they are and at any time. You can discover detailed venue layouts, capacity ranges, and on-site services. And when you find a few promising venues, you can clarify event size and request an initial price quote to start the ball rolling.

What this trend means for event venues

Venue platforms offer exceptional ROI and generate more leads through improved discoverability. When listing your venue, make sure to:

Convey elements that make your venue unique

Showcase your event spaces visually with accurate floor plans, 3D diagrams, quality photos, and videos

Leverage the success of past events with testimonials and social media accolades

Venue sourcing platforms in action

The Cvent venue sourcing platform allows users to manage bids, determine availability, build eRFPs, and track meeting spend. This video walks you through the tool:

11. Behavior recommendation engines

Streaming TV services (think Netflix and Hulu) remember what we've watched and use that data to make recommendations. Similarly, artificial intelligence (AI) tech is using badge scans, social media info, and other behavioral data to match attendees with people they should meet or seminars they may want to attend.

What this trend means for event planners

Instead of taking-up significant time pre-event and on-site manually recommending seminars, exhibitors, and sponsors to attendees, AI can do it for you-even in real-time-based on their profiles and preferences captured during registration.

While this tool is a great value-add to attract exhibitors and sponsors, it requires transparency and advance notice about how you may use data submitted by attendees.

What this trend means for event venues

The same attendee behavioral data used by event planners can be useful to hotels in identifying potential guests.

AI behavior recommendations in action

Along with other developers, behavior recommendation pioneer Google is now actively developing services like their Recommendations AI for businesses to build their very own recommendation systems. Many off-the-shelf products are available as well, based on deep learning models that adapt to customer behavior.

For an explanation of how AI behavior recommendation systems work, watch this video:

12. Geofencing

This location-based marketing tool creates a virtual fence around a specific geographical location, such as an exhibit hall or venue. Attendees entering the geofenced area triggers predetermined actions, such as event check-in, push notifications, or advertising related to the event.

What this trend means for event planners

Planners can sell geofencing to exhibitors and sponsors to reach attendees at events, or even promote their event on attendee devices at a competing event under a separate geofence. You can also provide attendees with a better experience via seamless registration and check-in, along with automatic app downloads as soon as they walk on-site.

Geofencing also provides analytics, both post-event and in real-time to help you better understand things like the duration of an attendee's time at an event and overall peak attendance.

What this trend means for event venues

Hotels can serve ads promoting their brand, facility, and services to attendees at events, including food and beverage offers, spa deals, or discounts to extend their stay beyond the event or return at a later date.

Geofencing in action

This video answers the most commonly asked questions about geofencing, how it works, accuracy, and viable use cases:

13. Retargeting

Did you know that an average of 97 percent of website visitors leave without taking action? Retargeting helps bring them back-once a prospect visits an event website, ads for that event will appear on any subsequent websites the prospect visits, in the form of website banner ads, search engine results, and pop-up or push ads on mobile apps.

What this trend means for event planners

Event marketing teams should develop relevant and creative ads with clearly visible event dates to convince prospects who have visited an event website, but haven't yet registered. These are strong leads: they've nibbled on the bait and are waiting for you to reel them in.

What this trend means for event venues

Just as event planners use this tool to get attendees to come back, venues can use it to generate return visits from event planners. Additionally, you can retarget attendees during events with offers for in-house services like food and beverage, spa, and discounts on extending their stay.

Retargeting in action

This video from Google's Digital Garage helps explain how retargeting allows you to advertise to your website's visitors and get them back:

14. Gamification

According to the CrowdCompass Mobile Event App Benchmark Report, gamified events see a 44 percent increase in engagement. Gameplay creates an immersive attendee experience, while generating leads and booth visits for exhibitors via quizzes, scavenger hunts, and trivia on mobile apps.

What this trend means for event planners

Want to get attendees to download your branded mobile event apps? Let attendees know there are interactive games within the app they can play with other attendees.

Gameplay fosters a sense of common purpose; creates an environment of collaboration and trust; facilitates easier communication; and boosts attendee confidence. You can also gather information about attendee engagement and interests via game choices.

What this trend means for event venues

Promoting the use of gameplay on-site showcases a venue to organizations looking for facilities supporting team building exercises as well as immersive attendee experiences.

Gamification in action

The Boston Red Sox setup what's commonly referred to as a "gamification corner" at Fenway Park in the form of a virtual batting cage as part of a promotional campaign:

Want more information about event technology?
What is event technology?
Put the latest technology to work for your event design and conferences today!

Next up, learn about other event industry evolutions for 2020, including event food catering trends and event decor trends. Or, learn how technology can help you plan events on the go!

More event technology ideas like this:
The 29 Best Event Management Tools On The Market
The 6 Best Floor Plan Software Options to Make Diagramming a Breeze
6 Mobile Event Apps No #Eventprof Should Live Without

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Must-Know Event Technology Trends for 2020 | Social Tables

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Knowing event technology trends-and adopting the most valuable ones-gives planners and venues the competitive advantage. Studies show that using event technology can increase attendance by 20 percent and increase productivity by 27 percent. But with new event technologies emerging constantly, how do you know which ones to consider?

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Scaling your event doesn't require endless investment and growing complexity. It just requires more efficiency. That's where event automation comes in. Download this guide to learn how to streamline your staff so you can focus on the strategic work that grows your event.

Download Now

Scaling your event doesn't have to require endless investment and growing complexity. But it will require more efficiency .

That's where event automation comes in. Using technology to automate tedious tasks will save your team time, so they can focus on the strategic work that drives your business. It also provides deep insight into your business - the kind of insight that empowers you to scale your event to multiple dates or cities.

Download this guide to learn how to:

Focus your staff to become more strategic in all areas of your business

Automate your website management, promotions, paid advertising, customer experience, and more

Scale your technology to gather more insights and grow your event

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How to Use Event Automation to Scale Your Events Business - Eventbrite US Blog

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Scaling your event doesn't have to require endless investment and growing complexity. But it will require more efficiency. That's where event automation comes in. Using technology to automate tedious tasks will save your team time, so they can focus on the strategic work that drives your business.

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Tiles that change colour and respond to touch are on show at the Ifa tech show in Berlin.

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-45348076/the-waterslide-with-virtual-reality

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Germany's Therme Erding water park is offering virtual reality headsets to riders of its waterslides.

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GM, Tom Beedon, shares the measurable impact of adding a Relay Robot to the staff at the Residence Inn LAX. Relay makes staff happier and more productive while improving the guest experience, to increase occupancy, revenue, social media scores, and RevPar.

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Emotional science and tech - an essential read

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Emotional science and tech - an essential read

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This image illustrates the Component Process Model, led by Klaus Scherer. It shows how the person experiencing an incident of emotion first appraises what is happening, then exhibits various different types (components) of response -  expressive (eg. face, voice, body), behavioural (eg. action, movement) and physiological (eg. heart rate, breathing, muscle tension). All these factors are considered in combination to result in the emotion that the person experiences.

Mixing the Models

So which emotion model is best?

It depends what you want to achieve.

We've measured emotions all over the world, from the mundanity of a supermarket floor to the extremity of an active volcano. Along the way we've had our hands held by our buddies across the road from us at the School of Psychology, Queen's University Belfast, guided particularly by Dr Gary McKeown, a specialist in emotion science. In most cases, the best results have come from a mix of theoretical approaches.

Typically we start by seeking emotional signals from a range of both physiological data (eg. heart rate, facial expression) and context data (eg. location, speed). By combining these various components we can apply algorithms to make an appraisal of the scenario in hand. We then convert that analysis into dimensional scoring (eg. valence, arousal, dominance) before applying discrete labels to the target 'zones' of emotional data, which provides a human-readable narrative of the analysis.

As empathic AI becomes more widely deployed into all the digital systems with which we interact in our daily lives, we expect to see this kind of multi-level processing being core to high-quality user experiences.

Machine Emotions

The essential function of empathic technology is to mimic the emotion modelling process that our brains and bodies execute constantly every day.

You receive signals from the world around you via your natural senses and experience emotional responses to them¹. The human sensor array (eyes, ears, chemical receptors, etc.) collects data signals such as light, sound and taste, and sends them to the brain for interpretation. Not only do we then 'feel' an emotional response, but our physiology also changes accordingly. These changes can materialise in many forms, from facial expressions to a racing pulse, to the release of chemicals into the bloodstream.

Empathic technology functions in an analogous way. Digital sensors (cameras, microphones, wearables, etc.) collect electronic data signals such as video, heart rate and temperature that monitor the human's physiological changes. They then feed this data to an emotion-processing algorithm.

Just as our brain tries to make sense of the information it receives, companies like ours design software to filter and sort sensor data and feed it to algorithms that interpret it for emotional signals. Jump over here for more about how this works in a practical context (driving a vehicle).

The scientists and engineers building empathic technology use emotion models like those described above to identify meaningful emotional signals from the incoming data streams. A highly empathic machine therefore would be able to wrangle multiple information sources simultaneously and know which ones to pay attention to when. To achieve this it must apply statistical algorithms in a series of steps:

- Filter the unwanted noise that is typical of data collected from human physiology and behaviour, especially in the wild, in real-life scenarios.

- Weight the available data streams for their relevance and quality at each specific moment and for the current context. One type of data might be far more useful than another depending on when and how each is collected.

- Classify these nice, clean data signals using a discrete ( happy, sad), dimensional (high/low valence and arousal) or other theoretical framework of emotion.

Filter, weight, classify. These steps require algorithms that employ statistics to infer probabilistic scores from the available signals. Like I said, it's not perfect. But the human brain is an imperfect statistical engine too - it also makes probabilistic inferences based on limited and contradictory signals. And this generally works just fine, without us even noticing it is happening.

Our brains still make mistakes, they can be tricked by confusing data such as visual illusions, or by poorly adapted processing tools such as bad memories. Or they can make perfectly valid inferences that just don't make sense in the modern world, like making us feel hungry when we see a chocolate bar.

For better or worse, this statistical approach to understanding human emotions is taking us to some interesting places in the current science of emotions. Some of the field's leading scientists such as Lisa Feldman Barrett argue that the brain constructs an incident of emotion based on its probabilistic predictions about the information it is receiving. This says that emotion is predictive rather than reactive, contradicting the common idea that the emotion is a natural response to the situation (see the Theory of Constructed Emotion - here's a video).

There are many ongoing controversies within emotion's academic community. As a prime example, the function of facial expressions and their relationship to emotion has been challenged for many years. A recent statement of this argument can be seen here ( Crivelli & Fridlund, 2018).

Our Empathic Machine Future

Nevertheless, this is an exciting time for the science of emotion. The field is accelerating forward, not least due to the increasing availability of affordable data sources. Tens of millions of wearable devices are sold each year now, putting biometric sensors on consumers all over the world. Video cameras and microphones have become ubiquitous, largely because they are bundled with the mobile tech in our pockets. Our words and actions are tracked by websites and software. The internet, in both its physical and digital forms, can now provide deep insights into the nuances of human emotion.

Devices such as vehicles and smartphones are increasingly being adorned with more and better sensors, and new devices are being connected to the internet every day. By algorithmically interpreting the exploding pool of human data these systems produce, we will see empathy arising in all kinds of human-machine interactions.

What we choose to do with the opportunities provided by empathic technology is already overdue for wide, public discussion. Artificial empathy could prove to be any of the following:

- Annoying. Yes, your next fridge might ask you if you're sure it's a good idea to take another pork pie from its shelves after you've had two already and you're really not in the mood to hear it right now. Yes, your car might suggest you listen to Spotify's 100 Top Feel-Good Pop Hits if it infers that you are feeling angry that morning and are likely to drive too close to the guy in front.

- Invasive. Recent incidents like the Cambridge Analytica / Facebook scandal have shown us how a person's interactions on a social network alone can provide enough data for digital algorithms to manipulate them towards a third-party's desired behaviour. Now we are beginning to share even more intimate, physical data too: a continuous feed of our bodies' current states. Ethics and protection are fundamental to ensuring that this rich dataset is not exploited to control or harm us.

- Benevolent. Ultimately, the positive aim of most of the people working in the empathic tech space is to use digital technology to help us humans understand ourselves better. With machines that are able to measure our emotional state and provide an appropriate response at the right time and in the right way, we can achieve a new level of emotional intelligence. Applications could range from saving lives (eg. identifying driver fatigue or predicting suicidal behaviour) to simply making us more content in our daily lives.

Hopefully in the immediate future we will see some or all of the following:

- Universal emotion modelling  - with a single processing engine that is able to infer accurate and meaningful emotional signals from whatever data sources are available at the time (which is the main aim of our products at Sensum).

- Universal continuity  - of measurement and service. If your vehicle uses one empathic system that is siloed away from the systems used by your smartphone or fitness band, you could miss out on the richer benefits that would come from combining these data sources.

- Exponential machine learning  - applied to the data sets that our daily activities create. Given the right instructions, algorithms could uncover new insights about human emotions that we haven't yet imagined.

- Explicit and mutually agreed ethical practices  - not just to protect users from abuse of their personal data, but also to inform and empower them in how they deal with the organisations to whom they consent to benefit from its use.

While both the science and technology of emotion are still in relatively youthful states, we have a journey of learning and discovery ahead of us. Just as a dear friend can teach you things you never knew about yourself, the emergence of emotionally intelligent machines can shed new light on the mysteries of what it is to be a human.

Related Reading

Footnotes

1) Of course our emotions don't just correlate with external signals, but internal ones too. You only have to think about something scary to feel afraid. Your body can tell you you're hungry without anything external going on.

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A Primer on Emotion Science for our Autonomous Future | Sensum

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This image illustrates the Component Process Model, led by Klaus Scherer. It shows how the person experiencing an incident of emotion first appraises what is happening, then exhibits various different types (components) of response -  expressive (eg. face, voice, body), behavioural (eg. action, movement) and physiological (eg. heart rate, breathing, muscle tension).

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Integrated registration and promotion system and event app

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Integrated registration and promotion system and event app

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Integrate the most simple registration & ticketing solution for all your events. Digitize your event and offer an interactive experience for your guests!

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Pain points. Every event planner has them, especially when it comes to technology implementation and its effectiveness with engagement and increasing event ROI. And with so many technologies to choose from to tackle pain points during the event planning process and while onsite, digging deep to find the right solutions can be an overwhelming process.

A recent etouches survey has done just that. We surveyed 239 event and meeting planners from around the globe to find out the most common pain points in the industry. Sure enough, they varied throughout the event lifecycle, region and job title, but with just about every issue cited, we found that finding the right technology or software solution is the key to solving it.

Here are some of the most common pain points from our survey participants, event planners from North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions, as well as some solutions to consider:

Pre-event

Pre-event planning is largely focused on maintaining or increasing attendee numbers and therefore, increasing potential revenue. This is why the registration process needs to be as smooth and efficient as possible. So it's concerning to hear that half of event planners say that managing attendee registration is one of their top pre-event pain points. On top of that, even more event planners, 56%, say that targeting the right people with the right event content is another common struggle.

In these cases, finding an event software platform that can not only automate the registration process, but can also collect valuable attendee data while doing so is something to consider.

When attendees register for your event, it's no secret that they want an online process that is quick, easy and error-free. But make sure it has the same qualities behind the scenes. Look for features that offer form customization, template building and automatic reports - anything to make the management process seamless for you and your staff.

These features, especially customization and reports, also give you the opportunity to understand your attendees better. If you are one of the event planners out there struggling to pick the best engaging event content, then add content-related questions to your registration form. Tracking what professional titles, age groups and other important demographics are attending your event can also help you analyze what content may be more appealing for your audience.

Onsite

The onsite experience, especially for new attendees, is the place to make a good impression and having the right technology only enhances that. While onsite, our survey respondents said communication with attendees (44%) and registration & check-in (42%) were their main pain points. These problem areas can be addressed in many ways, but efficiency and ease of use are key.

A technology solution that immediately comes to mind for increasing communication is an event mobile app. But while that seems like a no-brainer, would you believe not even half (47%) of our respondents say they have a mobile app for their events? Price and putting in the time to create and manage apps were the main reasons why most event planners haven't added one.

Having a mobile event app is invaluable. Not only does it act as a convenient place for attendees to get all of their information, but it can also be the place to receive the latest updates or schedule changes through push notifications and alerts. Just about everyone has a smartphone these days, so why not take advantage of that to increase attendee communication. Along with kiosks, attendees can use an event mobile app to access self-service check-in, alleviating long lines and freeing up staff members' time at the onsite registration desk.

So while mobile event apps may be expensive or time consuming, a key takeaway from this is finding technology that kills two birds with one stone or has the potential to solve multiple pain points. Not only will it benefit the attendee experience onsite, but it can also save you money and headaches in the long run.

Measuring success

Not surprisingly, attendee satisfaction was the top indicator for event success, according to our survey respondents. After all, attendee satisfaction is what keeps them coming back year after year and allows your event to grow.

If you're not already, measuring attendee satisfaction can be as easy as sending out surveys, but that often only touches the surface. An attendee may say they liked or didn't liked something at your event, but what does that really mean? What about it can you change to increase attendee satisfaction in the future?

The good news is that a majority of event planners say they are using event management software and are measuring event ROI, at 66% and 65% respectively. By using these tools, event planners can dig deeper into attendee satisfaction specifics and how to change them.

However, one area that event planners seem to be ignoring that can contribute to attendee happiness is the venue. Just 20% say they use a solution to source the right location and venue for their events. Attendees want to go to events that not only engage them, but are also exciting and enhance their experience, whether it's being close to local attractions, is affordable or can handle your event size. If you find that your attendees are not connecting with or particularly enjoying your venue, don't neglect their feedback and find a venue sourcing tool that can find something more suited to your audience, therefore increasing attendee satisfaction.

Conclusion

Overall, as event planners, it's good to give yourself and your event a checkup from time to time. Along with taking the time to diagnose your specific pain points no matter where they are in the event lifecycle, make sure you do your research to find the perfect solutions to your event's unique needs.

The perfect technology tool is out there, and once you find it your events will be healthier in the long run.
To learn more about event planner pain points and the technology solutions to fix them, download your free copy of The Event Check Up white paper.

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Pain points. Every event planner has them, especially when it comes to technology implementation and its effectiveness with engagement and increasing event ROI. And with so many technologies to choose from to tackle pain points during the event planning process and while onsite, digging deep to find the right solutions can be an overwhelming process.

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EventBots are artificial intelligence chatbots that help event participants get information about your event over text, anytime, anywhere, without the need to download or learn a new app. It's low friction, simple, and intuitive, since everyone already has a phone and knows how to text.

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Fab website for Event Tech News

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An independent resource for event technologists and event technology solution providers.

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A guide to how technology is used in events (long read but worth it)

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A guide to how technology is used in events (long read but worth it)

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https://www.eventmanagerblog.com/event-technology#etb

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A comprehensive guide to understand how event technology is used in events. Strategy, intelligence, free resources and ideas to make technology work for your event.

Much has been written about using technology to run better events. Everything should be easier right?

What you need is a resource that sets you up for success, fast!

This is why we created this page. To bring you the latest event technology tips, ideas, trends and strategies to run successful events.

If you want a complete framework you can get a free PDF now, The Event Tech Bible - the most comprehensive overview on the subject that is valuable and free!

On this page, which we will constantly update, you will get:

You may ask yourself, why should I listen to these folks?

When someone thinks about event technology experts online they think of EventMB. Some numbers and reasons why:

We have analyzed north of 500 event technology tools for our reports

250,000 event professionals have downloaded copies of our event technology reports

Readers include most Fortune 100, 250 and 500 companies with event teams

We have published in-depth reviews of dozens of event technology tools

The person writing this, your editor, Julius Solaris, is the most sought-after speaker worldwide in the event industry for event technology

We constantly analyze and grow a database of over 1,500 event tech tools

We have started, supported and launched many event technology competitions and education initiatives in major events around the world, including IMEX and IBTM.

EventMB is the most sought-after resource for event technology companies to advertise on.

We started talking about the use of hashtags, social media, event apps and more tools back in 2007

We are supporters of the organic use of technology within sound meeting design. We hate fashion and we put your event results first

We may have several more reasons but we hope you can trust us by now. If you don't, get in touch and let us know how can we prove to you even further that we mean business.

But since we know you are a busy event professional, let's start looking at what you will find in this post.

Research: Event Technology Adoption Will Continue to Rise but Cost is a Barrier

In January 2018 we conducted one of the largest pieces of event planning research ever completed with 2,400 contacts and over 1,000 respondents.

We asked specific questions that pertain the event management software selection process. We are happy to release the results. If you want to publish the research on your site let us know here.

The Use of Event Technology is Rising

Eventtech adoption is set to increase in 2018. The majority (59%) think they will be using more eventtech in 2018. 40% felt their usage would remain the same, while only 1% felt that they would be using less.

Event Technology is Too Expensive for Many Event Planners

A majority (61%) of event professionals state that the main thing preventing them from using event technology is that it's too expensive. This feeling is echoed when it comes to choosing an eventtech supplier. 71% say the main reason they would choose not to work with a supplier is the cost.

Support is Top Priority When Choosing an Event Technology Supplier

The most important factor when choosing an event technology supplier is customer support, 59% agreed. Using modern technology (54%) and cost (47%) were also key factors in the decision making process. Over a third also felt that integration was important.

WiFi is Still a Big Issue for Events

Most (79%) eventprofs feel that WiFi availability and performance is still a big issue. 44% also said that poor WiFi was one of their main frustrations when dealing with venues.

Online Registration is the Most Popular Event Technology

The most commonly used eventtech among eventprofs is online registration, with 85% using it at their events. A majority also favor email marketing (61%) and survey tools (54%).

To get a copy of this research for publishing you can request it here: State of the Event Industry Research 2018

What Is Event Technology?

Event Technology refers to the use of technology, whether hardware or software, in a live event. Technology can be used during events to facilitate event planning processes, engage attendees, provide ROI analytics for sponsors and increase security for the community hosting the event.

Event technology can be used during the whole event planning process, including the facilitation of core activities such as registration and marketing. Recently event technology has gained prominence to engage attendees during the event and facilitate attendee-to-attendee and attendee-to-performer interaction.

Event technology is also a valuable tool to connect remote audiences who cannot attend in person, providing a bridge to extend attendance outside of the event physical location.

The use of event technology in the event planning and production process can sit with the event planning team and/or dedicated cross-functional teams and/or the audiovisual contractor for the event.

The Evolution of Event Technology: A Quick History

Event technology goes back a long way, but the purpose of this page is not to give you a history lesson. However, it is important to understand its recent evolution.

What's in it for you?

A lot.

In fact, what many may sell you as cool and trendy can be actually old and outdated or maybe a commodity. We are not attempting to identify fashion, rather we want to give you a way to counter-argue shameless salespeople and paranoid statements on websites and eventually save money or get more value for your investment.

If a technology is a commodity, you should pay for what it is worth, not a premium. In some instances, it should be free or part of the package.

So what does the recent evolution of event technology look like? What are the new event technologies to invest in?

The graph above shows the four waves of eventtech.

1. The first wave was online registration and ticketing.

2. The second wave was event mobile apps.

3. The third wave was engagement technology (polls, ARS, live engagement).

4. The fourth wave consists of VR, AR and AI.

The first three waves are now passed. The technologies above have now become commodities. We accept them as basics of your eventtech mix.

That doesn't mean that these are technologies of the past. In fact, most of the action these days happens around these three types of tools. Eventprofs are buying them, the companies who build tech in these sectors are getting large funding. And, if you haven't even looked in one of these categories, you are way behind compared to your peers. If you have never used any of these technologies for your event, you may be missing out and behind the majority of event professionals.

The market is mature for these tools. The products are starting to look the same.

On the other hand, AR, VR, and AI are creating a new ecosystem where new players will be born. Possibly they will reinvigorate some tools of the previous waves.

Based on the previous waves, we can anticipate a three to five year period where new startups will build almost exclusively in this vertical.

Some practical applications to watch:

AR - specifically filters

Engagement of attendees

More sponsorship opportunities

Chance to reinvent the speaking experience for corporate events

VR - Live 360-degree video

Engage remote attendees with a more immersive experience

Better sales opportunity at trade shows through live product demonstrations

AI

Staff cost savings through virtual concierge and chatbots

Increased security thanks to facial recognition

Faster check-in process using facial recognition

Inclusive and fast information through voice recognition

5 Steps To Incorporate Event Technology At Your Event

If you are a busy event professional, you probably have your strategy figured out by now. One of the most annoying practices of so-called 'event technology experts' is to bore you to death with business 101 tips.

What you really want is practical advice to gain competitive advantage through event technology. Not a basic business course.

This is why we have devised a quick, go-to market formula for event technology that is guaranteed to make any investment you make towards tech fruitful.

Don't you get annoyed when you buy a gadget online and it doesn't work or it doesn't really serve the purpose you bought it for? The same applies to event technology, with the only difference being that you cannot return the time and resource invested in the program.

So, give us five minutes of your time to flick through this strategy guide. If you want a complete framework, you can download our Event Tech Bible but if you are busy start with this five-step guide.

If you know your event technology and just want to learn about guerrilla tactics or event technology trends, skip to the next section.

Step 1: If You Want To Succeed With Event Technology Stop Doing And Start Thinking

Events have become even more complex. Technology and increasing security threats are just some of the additions to a growing list of contingencies that an event professional has to take care of.

Without a strategic vision, most elements of the event planning process will inevitably be compromised, whether it is event tech, speaker selection or venue management. Of course, we may rely on more experience in some areas and dodge some bullets but if we react instead of plan, failure will be a likely result. Embracing a strategic vision is therefore paramount.

Let's Start With Why
Tip: Whenever facing event technology decisions or evaluating a tool, ask yourself: Am I bringing value to attendees, my team or stakeholders?
WHY should you use event technology at your next event? Take the time to think about it. Because the answer is oh so important. In fact, those that have a sound answer usually succeed.

Event technology should bring value to attendees, your event planning team or staff, your stakeholders (company, sponsors, exhibitors, performers, etc).

If the answer is no, move on. No need to believe the hype, try the latest cool thing, trust that charming salesperson, be tech-savvy. If there is no value, there is no need to engage.

The Vicious Cycle: Sometimes You DON'T Need Event Technology

Do you need to use technology for events? One of the most recurring issues with technology adoption is that choices are sometimes influenced by fashion and peer pressure rather than being the result of a thoughtful analysis.

The results of such an approach are usually disappointing. Disappointing results and low ROI usually spark a vicious cycle of distrust in the real value of technology. However, attendees are in fact becoming quite demanding of technology at events.

As we spend more time on social networks, and with our smartphones, we expect events to cater for our desire for technology.

Not all attendees are created equal. Some audiences do not use technology inside or outside of their personal sphere and are not interested in doing so. Therefore running a technology program for such audiences would represent an unsuccessful tactic to begin with.

Here is a breakdown of the components that make up the vicious cycle of event technology:

WEAK ASSUMPTIONS

We are not sure exactly what it will bring but it will be positive

Success with tech means everybody is happy

INCORRECT NEED

We expect great things from our tech program

We're not sure how we will communicate with it but attendees will adopt it; it will be a big hit

LACK OF MEASUREMENT AND CLEAR OBJECTIVES

Low uptake

Negative feedback

Lack of tech awareness in the audience

Tech blunders

HIGH HOPES BUT LACK OF SUPPORT

Tech is such a waste of time

We spent a lot of money in the past and the ROI was zero

We will never invest in technology again

Better to do things like we always do

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

NEGATIVE ATTITUDE TOWARDS TECHNOLOGY

If the answer to the value question is yes, on the other hand, you are onto something. However, that doesn't just mean you should jump on it. We still have to think about it more, but surely you are now in a safe decision space. A decision that is dictated by value over hype, someone else's marketing or peer pressure. A sound decision that puts the event first.

Step 2: The Best Kept Secret in Event Technology That Works. (Value)

What does a value-oriented tech decision-making process look like? Very simple. It's really a matter of asking yourself the same question, am I adding value? Whether it is attendees, sponsors, boss, colleagues, local authorities, speakers, performers, suppliers - are you adding value by using event technology?

Consider - are you adding more layers of complexity or simplifying things? Is that piece of technology going to solve a problem or create new ones? And if it creates new questions, are the pros outweighing the cons?

Aim to:

Step 3: Don't Assume, Map!

Process mapping consists of laying out all of the core touchpoints, user journeys and contingencies any of the stakeholders involved with your event may be affected by.

If you use a template to project manage your event, you could use Work Breakdown Structures or detailed rundown sheets. These are very valid starting points for your process mapping stage - sometimes they are all you need.

Look At Your Event Plan

This is an example of what a process mapping sheet may look like:

Find Quick Wins in Event Technology

You get the picture of what we are doing here. By thinking through your whole event you can easily identify areas of opportunity to implement technology that almost certainly will deliver value to attendees. In most cases, event professionals will start with the tech, instead of starting with the problem we are trying to solve and what benefit it will bring to attendees. Starting from the 'why' will always lead to positive change.

Can One Event Technology Solve Multiple Problems?

For the seasoned event professional, it will be fairly easy to immediately recall the major areas where more help is needed. On the other hand, less experienced event planners will discover that mapping all the tasks in the process can give a much clearer visual way to proceed.

There is no need to be too granular about the process. It is also best to avoid uncertain areas. If the benefit of engaging with technology is not immediate, it means there is little value. Also if the problems associated with the tech solutions are more than the benefits, you may want to pass.

Reconciling the process with a benefit should be an 'aha' moment, characterized by an effective and clear tangible outcome for the stakeholder involved.

It is also a good idea to prioritize the areas that need more help or present a better opportunity.

Step 4: Decision Time. Get Your Hands Dirty

Once you've done your homework and research it's time to come to a decision. The decision-making process can be broadly broken into four main parts:

Agree on Goals And Shortlist Technology Options

Agree on what you need to achieve using your new event technology and shortlist options by comparing technology on its ability to help you achieve your objectives.

Evaluate Event Technology And Suppliers

Arrange a demo of the technology and ensure that you're able to test it to your satisfaction. Make sure to investigate support options and integration with other tools. Perhaps most importantly, calculate the total cost of implementation.

Select The Best Tool And Evangelize

Once you've selected the best tool, work with the supplier to overcome any remaining concerns you might have over implementation and make sure they're in your corner to help you introduce the new technology to your colleagues or attendees.

Have a Plan B

Don't immediately bin the old way and everything associated with it as soon as the ink is dry on the agreement. If the technology doesn't fulfill its promises, make sure you have a backup plan to lean on.

Step 5: If You Don't Measure It, It Doesn't Exist

Be specific. While eventtech is largely used to generate more marketing and sales opportunities, by no means can eventtech be reduced just to these areas. In fact, more often than not, technology is a tool to smooth processes. Being specific about what you're measuring and why you're measuring it will allow you to continually improve processes over time.

Use partners. Make sure during the purchasing phase that event tech suppliers will be right next to you in supporting your measurement. This should be part of the contract you agree to sign. In competitive event environments where accountability is everything, you cannot overlook such a detail.

Look at all the metrics. It is of utmost importance to start your program with all the correct KPIs and measurement frameworks in place before going forward. This is specifically true of any category or tool aimed at internal processes. Having an idea of your current processes (timing, difficulty, and efficiency) is paramount for later benchmarking.

Avoid tech biases. Gradually implement internal technology with those members of your team who are more inclined to tech. They will be immediately able to share whether a tool was useful or not with an unbiased perspective. Implementing in increments and with the right people is key. The same approach also applies to external, attendee-facing tools.

Clarity in reporting. Make clarity the motto of your eventtech selection strategy. Do not compromise on the user experience of the selected tool. Ensure that the company you decided to work with is able to give you vital metrics that will help you in your analysis and that they are focused on the same benefits you are trying to offer to your stakeholders.

Evaluate Success and ROI

It's important to make sure you measure the effectiveness of tools you're using to meet your objectives:

How To Overcome Your Clients Biggest Fears About Event Technology

Change isn't easy for anyone but if you have clients or a boss that are tech-phobic, being sensitive to these most common concerns can help you convince them the technology is exactly what they need to be more productive and grow their event.

Below, we've listed some of the most common fears event planners' clients have relating to event technology and how to assuage them.

Never use the client as a guinea pig for completely unknown technology

Only sell it if you know it will work - a proven track record of successful uses and implementations, and sharing data to back claims about the benefits will foster trust.

1. Complicated Event Software Can Be Off-Putting

It's highly likely that any technology applied to events will be used in conjunction with other technology or software. The prospect of difficult, time-costly data transfers can be very off-putting for clients, especially if the data has to be manipulated between applications.

Remove the burden of over-complication:

2. If It's Not Tried and Tested You Can't Know It Will Work

Clients do not want to be your test subject. Convincing someone to use technology is easier to do if you are a power user.

Give your clients confidence in event technology:

3. Your Event Technology Must Address Client Needs

It's important that you know and understand your client's objectives. Clients never want to adopt technology for technology's sake. It's nice to have the latest event technology but it's worth nothing if it doesn't help the client achieve their goals.

Use eventtech to help your client meet their objectives :

4. Event Technology Is Very Expensive

The expense in itself is not a deal breaker, but expense without return or expense with a murky return are unacceptable to most businesses, even those with deep pockets.

Kill event technology cost concerns with benefits:

5. Learning New Event Technology Is Overwhelming

Learning a new technology is time-costly and can be overwhelming. This is even more of a problem if it's not made clear how much learning will be needed to implement and use the new event technology.

Quell fears of a steep learning curve:

Are You Making These 6 Common Mistakes with Event Technology? Stop It Now

The modern meeting planner has to be adept at using technology to manage, promote and support their events. However, with an ever-changing technology landscape, this isn't always easy. Here we look at some of the common pitfalls and how to avoid them:

1. Don't Fall Prey To Unclear Objectives - Focus On Need

Before you adopt a new technology take the time to clarify and understand what you really want it to do. Make a list of the key challenges, pain points and expectations that you have. Unclear objectives can lead to over-excitement and early adoption of inappropriate technologies or technophobia and an unwillingness to try new tools.

Create a list of features you are looking for and separate that list into 'must haves' and 'nice to have'. This will keep you on task and prevent you from getting distracted by features that you don't really need.

2. Give Yourself Time To Adopt New Technology

Always make sure you have enough time to thoroughly do your research, test drive the software, evaluate proposals and negotiate with suppliers. Deciding which software to use can be a massive undertaking. There are hundreds of event technologies to choose from and you may find yourself learning a new language to make sense of it all.

Once you have chosen your technology the next stages are implementation, training, testing, and support. Each of these steps takes even more time and you need to be prepared for a learning curve. Lead time by using off-the-shelf software. Sign-up-and-go solutions allow you to get started right away and put you in the driving seat.

3. Avoid Tech Disasters By Using Trusted Suppliers

Find suppliers who have a great track record and don't be afraid to work with smaller companies. Many of these smaller companies have great passion, commitment, and creativity. However, do make sure that you ask for references and check out some recent examples of events they have supported.

Listen to and trust the advice of your supplier. Explain what you want to achieve not how you want to achieve it. You are an expert on your event and they are an expert on the technology. Allow them to provide that expertise to you.

4. Measure Event Tech Performance In Line With Objectives

Make sure your measurements mirror your event objectives. For example, if you are using technology to create a more efficient check-in process then you might measure the check-in times or how long people have to line-up.

Given how much time and money you have invested in technology you need to know if it's doing its job. You also need real-time feedback so that you can make corrections along the way. For example, if you are getting lots of website traffic but hardly anyone is registering for your event you need to know about that.

5. Use Onsite Testing To Prevent WiFi Blackouts

Work out how much bandwidth your event needs and compare it to what the venue has available. It is a mistake to assume that your venue will provide great WiFi. In addition to your event-specific needs, take into account a tech-savvy audience that may have multiple devices.

To find out what bandwidth is available, do an onsite speed test. Work with your venue to optimize your WiFi access and if all else fails you may consider hiring a company to set up your own hotspot for the event.

6. Provide Attendee Education and Tech Support

Make sure every point at which your attendees interface with eventtech is as easy for them as possible. Not everyone has the same level of technical aptitude and some attendees may even be complete technophobes.

In addition to making sure each touch point is as simple as possible, always ensure that you have the ability to easily educate and support your attendees if they need it.

What Technology Used in Event Planning Do You Really Need to Master?

Event technology is getting a lot of attention. Many companies are getting an incredible amount of investment and pouring it into changing event planners' perceptions.

Great.

But what's in it for you?
Use Tech to Find the Right Venue:

1. Use an online venue search and RFP tool to select your next event venue

2. Start with a very specific list of venue requirements, e.g. the main room with a ceiling height of over 2m, four break-out rooms holding 60 theater-style and within 20 miles of the airport. If no suitable options are returned, you can look at changing the search filter criteria to see more options.

3. Before requesting venue proposals, be clear in exactly what you are looking for; what things are essential and which are compromisable or 'nice to have'. This will enable the venues to answer the brief more clearly in their response.

4. Time the send out of your eRFPs carefully. Sending a request out at 4.45pm on a Friday may get a slower response than issuing at 10am on a Tuesday.

5. On your eRFP, ask venues to cost their offer as a complete package or DDR (Day Delegate Rate) and also to give the cost of the room hire, catering, AV, etc separately. This allows you to calculate the best deal for you as well as lowest risk and outlay.

A lot of headaches.

That's why we've summed up the main types of event technology you should really care about. The ones that can make a difference for you in your planning process, for attendees to make the event more memorable and for sponsors to make their investment worthwhile. For each of them, we've given you fast action points to consider.
Use Tech to Negotiate a Better Venue Deal:

1. Go to venue marketplaces and venue RFP portals

2. Undertake multiple searches on different sites to see the different results that are returned. Many websites, listing sites and marketplaces only list venues that have paid for the privilege or are not always kept up-to-date so it can be worthwhile to search a few different sites.

3. If you have a number of events coming up which you would be happy to place in one venue, discuss the options for placing the business with them and the bulk discount they could offer in return.

4. Make sure you know the history of recent business done with shortlisted venues, including the total value of the booking, rates offered, and evaluation of the event. This data will put you in a much stronger position to negotiate the best rates.

We have also summed up some quick actions for each type of technology. If you want the full picture, get a copy of our free pdf, the Event Tech Bible.

1. Event Technology for Better Venue And Destination Tools
Use Tech to Shortlist the Perfect Venues:

1. Ask your shortlisted venues for a virtual site inspection first. Video conferencing can save money on travel. Is it necessary to visit the site three times or can some of those trips be done virtually?

2. Virtual reality allows you to visualize the setup of your design, cutting travel costs and the time it may take to rearrange something that wasn't working once it was set up. You can solidly rely on virtual reality to help you shortlist the best venue options.

3. Some venues have developed virtual tour apps which can work to demonstrate different event room layouts even when you are on site. During a walk around, point the iPad around the venue to look at the spaces with different setups and production from previous events. The 360-degree rendering can look so real it is easier to envisage your own event set up clearly, even if you are standing in an empty hall. See through walls and imagine the possibilities.

4. If your shortlisted venue has none of the above, ask yourself, are they modern enough to earn my business?

Destination and Venue Selection

Venue selection is more than just ticking boxes in terms of room capacities and costs. The right venue choice can support your event messaging, and also open up possibilities in terms of meeting design, innovative tech, and experimental room layouts.
Use Tech to Streamline Transport:
Venue Negotiation

Comprehensive, strategic venue sourcing solutions make a comparison of the deals much easier, including comparing against the history of previous rates offered, and other business opportunities which are currently on the table. Having such rich data can greatly improve the bargaining power of the event planner and assist with serious venue negotiation.
Do This Now:
Venue Evaluation

Virtual tours, 3D plans, virtual event planning, room layouts and reviews all assist with the shortlisting process, even before you can physically visit the venues. Sometimes it is necessary to book a venue 'site unseen' (without personal inspection or appraisal) and technology, such as VR venue inspections, gives event planners the means and confidence to do this by making them feel like they know the venue well before they have even stepped foot inside.

Transport
Remember to:
Managing flights, ground transport and getting live updates and status helps to keep everything on track when managing multiple schedules and reacting to any changes which need to be made as a result.

Connectivity
Make Sure to:
Problems with WiFi are still a constant bugbear and in a depressing number of venues the bandwidth and connection speeds are not good enough. It needs to be tested first-hand using Speedtest and if necessary enhanced by bringing in a temporary WiFi provider.

2. Event Technology for Registration And Check-In
Make it Swift by:
Online Event Registration and Ticketing

Online event registration and ticketing is a fundamental part of most events today. Most event planners use an online system to capture important details from those wishing to attend, which saves the event planner's time and ensures better accuracy (no issues deciphering bad handwriting). Bespoke registration forms can be set up requesting as many details as required by the organizer, including using conditional logic to elicit additional information depending on the specific answers given. This centralized data can then be used across other eventtech, such as within the event app and to segment and personalize email communications.
Good to Know:
Secure Online Payments

Online event registration platforms generally offer many advantages to save the event planner unnecessary work, such as automatic ticketing, confirmations, reminders, receipts, and invoices, analytics, easy exporting and importing of data. Payments for paying events can be taken securely as part of the transaction, including for extra sessions, merchandise, and activities.

Onsite Registration and Event Check-In

Onsite registration is possible using a guestlist app, scanners, web-based check-in, facial recognition, NFC, RFID or self-service kiosks. Badges can be triggered to automatically print on demand at the point of arrival to reduce unnecessary printing and waste and to save time and the setup space required at registration. Some systems enable automatic VIP notifications to be triggered when a special guest or speaker checks into the event. Check-in systems allow real-time updates and monitoring in terms of numbers onsite, which is handy if you need to keep an eye on numbers for catering purposes.
Consider This:
Cashless Transactions

Some smart badges, passes, wristbands and even rings can be used for cashless payments and transactions. These systems can operate in different ways but generally, they can be pre-paid and loaded with credit that can be spent during the event or linked directly to take payments on the spot.
Be a Master Scheduler:
3. Event Technology: Event and Project Management Software

Event and Project Management Software
Make Sense of the Staff and Volunteers Mayhem:
There are all-in-one solutions which can take care of registrations, task management, marketing and communications within one platform. Obviously, there are many benefits of comprehensive tools that help you manage everything in one place and that gives the peace of mind that if a piece of data is updated in one place, this is reflected everywhere, without manual intervention. Alternatively, there are standalone tools which handle specific elements, such as project management, vendors, and suppliers, tasks and workflows.

This is essential reading if you are investigating the best event management software.
How To Get Feedback That Matters:
Scheduling Tools

Event schedules can constantly evolve through the lifecycle of the event and technology exists to enable detailed event agendas and running orders to be created, adding detailed notes, making updates easy to make and printing bespoke copies of the information required by different staff members or teams at your event. Some tools even allow live updates to share precisely where in the schedule everything is up to and notify team members outside of the plenary room how long until the session wraps up, for efficient show management.

Staff and Volunteer Management

On large events, managing staff and volunteers effectively can benefit from tech, particularly to handle communication, changes, and updates. Some tools are app-based to allow easy updating on the move, or even when onsite at the event. For instance, if someone doesn't turn up and you need to allocate staff to different roles and locations this can be dragged and dropped within the app and notifications sent to the staff members involved.
How To Make the Most of Mobile Apps:
Evaluation and Reporting Tools

Surveys and evaluation forms can be issued, completed and analyzed digitally to gain feedback from event attendees. Data such as ticket sales, workshop sessions attended, budget position and dropout rates should also be collated. C02 calculations and other intelligence and reports relevant to your event should also be gathered. All the intelligence can be discussed at the debrief meeting, so you have a solid idea of what went well and where exactly improvements and changes can be made for the future.
What You Should Look For In Event Apps:
4. Event Technology: Mobile Apps, AI And Concierge Tools

Event Mobile Apps

Event mobile apps put important event information at your delegates fingertips. The event schedule, floor plan, attendee profiles, abstracts, presenter bios, exhibitor, and sponsor information can all be contained within one small application. Event apps can help to cut down printing, staffing requirements and streamline communications and actions within your attendees' smartphones.
Website Essentials:
Bookmark this page to quickly compare 131 event app providers.

App Technology and Features
Be Clever with your Promotion:
Deep learning is powering the evolution of event apps by providing immediate responses and actionable items for event professionals using apps, by analyzing and sometimes predicting responses. Push notifications and beacons are also important. By triggering messages, particularly targeted messages, at specific times, locations or to a segment of attendees who meet certain criteria, it is increasing the likelihood that it will encourage action as a result.

5. Event Technology: Marketing and Social Media Tools
Be a Guerrilla Ninja:
Websites

Many platforms exist to enable event planners to set up their own websites if they wish, or they can pay a professional to do it for them. Dedicated landing pages, lightboxes, and pop-ups can be added to help to personalize the messages and prompt people to take action.
Don't Miss a Single Click: For a complete guide to Event Marketing, have a look at our dedicated page.
Event Promotion and Digital Tools

Event Promotion and Digital Tools can offer clever ways to target and gain exposure with your attendees. Free and low-cost tools can give event planners skills to create effects that were only previously possible with extensive training and expensive professional software. For example, design and photo editing are now much easier to achieve on a budget and to do yourself if you want to.

Live Event Promotion, Branding and Sponsorship Opportunities
How To Be Better at Engagement:
From tried and tested options, such as digital signage, interactive touch screens, and social walls, through to sponsored charging points, projection mapping, and drone streaming, there is the opportunity to be inventive. Sponsors are demanding more and need reassurance about the value they are getting as a result of their investment in the event.

Tracking and Reporting
Cool Collaboration Tools:
Learn about how people navigate your website, which calls to action have the most clicks, and which campaign resonates the most with your audience. By taking time to understand the myriad of data at our fingertips we can be much more successful at sending out the right messages and making tweaks which result in more positive conversions.

6. Event Technology: Engagement and Live Interaction Tools
How To Make Playful Events:
Interaction and Engagement

Interaction and engagement through polling, voting, and live Q&A is a powerful way to get real-time feedback from your audience and to explore what is on the mind of your attendees. By getting instantaneous reactions and feedback it can also be used to pivot the event if it reveals that more time and focus should be given to different issues.
Be an AR/VR Visionary:
Training and Collaboration

Technology can support learning through training and collaboration tools. In training sessions, it is possible for users to submit their answers and then reveal all the responses from the wider group, which can lead to a richer discussion about the varying interpretations. Heat maps can be used to show the greatest concentration of answers, as well as using general graphs and charts to illustrate the spread and most popular answers.

Gamification
Must-haves of Networking Technology:
Gamification can get attendees excited and using scavenger hunts, challenges and quizzes can be a great way to work as a team and get to know people, as well as exploring the local area and all corners of the show floor. It can be a fun way to ensure contact with your key sponsors and to encourage desired behaviors, such as social media activity, sharing photos, completing challenges and talking to key stakeholders.

Augmented and Virtual Reality
Play Cupid:
Augmented and Virtual Reality are hot topics in the event industry, although there sometimes seems to be some confusion over what each technology does. Augmented reality is a great tool to animate and distort things, as used with filters and effects you can add via Snapchat and Instagram. Virtual reality is focused on creating an immersive online environment, within which people can react and enjoy shared experiences, such as enjoying an event and interacting with other virtual attendees. Mixed reality is a mixture of virtual and augmented reality. Where VR allows the user to interact with virtual things in a virtual world, mixed reality allows interaction with virtual things in the real world or real things in a virtual world. Substituting a holographic projection or VR experience for a live keynote speaker is entirely possible.

7. Event Technology: Networking and Matchmaking Tools
Make Your Events Lead Magnets:
Networking

One of the biggest motivators for attending events is meeting like-minded people and networking. Whether it is a B2B event and people are looking for opportunities to do business or a consumer event where people want to feel connected, the perception of the event will be directly impacted by how well they interact with other people present.

Matchmaking

Matchmaking goes a step further and intelligently matches or scores the compatibility of different attendees. It often relies on the guest selecting a few tags for the things they are interested in or looking for, and it can then offer the best results for the people the participant should talk to. By identifying common ground they can also get straight to the conversations that matter and make the most of their networking opportunities.

Lead Retrieval and Information Gathering

Lead retrieval is important to exhibitors and sponsors looking for warm leads and potential new customers. The number of details and inquiries gathered and the quality of these contacts can directly impact whether or not they re-sign up to be involved next year. If they can generate a volume of business as a direct result of the show it can justify the costs of attending and prove that it has been worthwhile.

17 Event Technology Trends That Will Transform Your Event Today

1. Facial Recognition

Whether part of a standalone app or deployed through an existing app infrastructure, facial recognition will impact guest management on several levels including security and crowd management with check-in and registration. As this technology delves into the heart of many challenging problems of modern events, it should be on the priority list of the modern event professional.

2. Augmented Reality for Sponsorship

Online marketing has pushed the need for accountability, tangibility and return on every dollar of investment. After another year of empty buzz, AR is starting to live up to the hype by offering creative opportunities for sponsor messaging. An added benefit of AR is measurability. Metrics and collected data can be fed back to sponsors to prove ROI.

3. Non-intrusive Attendee Tracking With Clever Floors or Mats

Smart mats and physical objects can be strategically placed onsite at your event to add analytics and intelligence. You can immediately see the positives of having such an approach when you are trying to justify exposure to your exhibitors or sponsors. They can be strategically placed in areas that need a stronger measurement input and offer a non-intrusive, anonymous and reliable source of data to pass to your sponsors or prospective sponsors.

4. Virtual Concierge

Chatbots and voice-activated platforms are helping event professionals to save on extra temporary staff for their events. Volunteers and temporary staff often require an incredible amount of training and most of their time is used answering frequently asked questions. Chatbots are well positioned to give quick answers to these questions and constitute a much faster alternative to event apps where information mining can be challenging.

5. Influencer Marketing Technology

Influencer marketing is all around us. One of the most preferred marketing tactics for 2018 and definitely one that needs the most support from technology. The current trend is geared towards two types of platforms: Those that help to categorize, analyze and source influencers in specific industries, so you can deploy them for your event marketing purposes, and those that help in creating assets to use with your existing influencer network.

6. Event Feedback via AI Chatbots

The market for chatbots is fast maturing. Chatbots offer an interesting feedback channel for events. They are continuous feedback channels, collecting interactions at any stage of the event. They offer a safe environment for attendees to let go and really say what they think. It is much easier to be honest in a chat window than in front of a real person. AI-powered chats offer a colloquial way to gather information compared to multiple choice questions.

Chatbots also offer a marketing opportunity as they can connect with social profiles and be carried out via Facebook, offering a new set of data for event marketers.

7. Advanced CRM

Creating custom experiences that deliver on individual objectives for large crowds is an eternal struggle for event professionals. Event technology has the answer with advanced segmentation which translates into detail-based personalization and more accurate targeting for event marketing. Creating custom event landing pages, sections of your website and communications is, above all, incredibly relevant in the era of personalization.

8. Marketing Intelligence From Device Charging Stations

We live in a smartphone battery crisis. You see the agitated faces of attendees around the world when they are approaching 5% of their battery and they have no power bank. Events can use this opportunity not only to improve the attendee experience but also to provide marketing intelligence based on usage. Charging stations also present an opportunity for branding and sponsorship messaging backed up by easily provable ROI data from usage.

9. Voice Recognition

As voice-powered tools, such as podcasts, are living a second life, voice activation seems to be the strongest entry point for technologically challenged audiences. Voice powered assistants are getting smarter and understand almost immediately what's on our mind. As soon as voice protocols will be opened, all the existing app infrastructure in event technology will heavily rely on voice.

Whether it is a regular mobile app or a chatbot, voice will be always a faster entry point to ask for information or provide feedback. Events are time sensitive. They require speed. Opening apps, finding the relevant screen, typing in a chat require minutes - minutes are a big deal in relation to events.

10. Live 360-degree Video

Live 360-degree video, or what many refer to as 'virtual reality', uses technology to break down barriers and creates new opportunities for event professionals. Remote attendance is now sexy. We can feel being at the stadium watching a game or experience the speaker at a conference looking at us, or we can interact with the attendee sitting next to us in a third dimension. This type of technology offers much more tangible remote attendance opportunities.

11. Real-Time Feedback From Live Technology

Live technology is geared at giving real-time feedback, analytics and indication opportunities to sell. It encompasses tools that are engineered to empower event professionals to quickly act on what is happening at the event. Most event technology stresses the before and after, forgetting about troubleshooting common problems or taking advantage of recurring opportunities that happen during events.

12. Sharing Economy

While services like Uber, Lyft and Airbnb are increasingly looking at the event industry and adapting their offering, they are still B2C services that little have to do with the intrinsic dynamics of our industry. Of course, there is potential and a lot of capital but times are still not mature enough. However, they are mature enough for sharing economy, crowd-powered services created specifically for the event industry, such as venue sourcing sites.

13. Tech Trade Shows

Trade shows and exhibitions are bleeding attendees and sponsors. There is a mass migration of sponsors and exhibitors investing in their own events. They don't believe in the promise of exposure. They want tangible ROI. It's more important than ever to invest in technology geared at making trade shows more measurable.

Imagine simpler data to be presented to your sponsors. Envisage better ways to keep sponsors returning the next year. While the technology in this space is not futuristic, what comes across is the positive requirement in this trend for grounded, solid, down to earth technology that conveys value in a very simple fashion.

14. Crowd Thinking

Crowdsourcing and leveraging crowds to deliver solutions, content or services has been around for over a decade. For years, we've received desperate requests from event professionals looking for tools to allow co-creation with attendees, yet the event industry has seen technology more on content creation rather than on co-creation.

It must be said that the wisdom of the crowd has oftentimes been ignored by event professionals who feel challenged in their status quo. Allowing attendees to make decisions challenges the very role of the event planner some may think. The event professional's role has evolved into more of a facilitator than a planner. Details are important but experience is king. The pathway to positive experiences is channeled through co-creation. Event planners are the instigators, crowd thinking is the means.

15. Empty Seating Technology

Event professionals will solve empty seating problems and beat the scalpers by being involved with secondary ticket markets, they cannot be cut out. Empty seating is damaging to artists and performers, at the same time things happen and some attendees won't be able to make it. These are problems inherent to events. We've all faced them. Technology has to, and can, help.

Offering controlled secondary markets where attendees that genuinely can't make it can share their tickets safely and follow specific rules. Also, by offering smart technology solutions that look at analyzing and reporting ticket sales in real time, can feed back to event planners key performance indicators about the event.

16. Touchable Tech

Offline, touchable products are making waves. Technology we can touch offline creates that connection that we need when meeting people and interacting with objects in the real world.

Touchable tech solutions are available that appeal to the five senses, removing the distraction caused by the brain's own echo chamber. They can take attendees back to when they were kids and play on nostalgia to activate playfulness. Embrace touchable experiences and your attendees will feel engaged in a new way.

17. Diversity

Diversity is still a very real and present problem in events, however, the event tech community has finally come together to offer tools to event professionals to tackle the issue. From online pledges to diversity calculators, we are witnessing the pioneering steps of individuals that have decided to take action against injustice.

These tools are very basic and sometimes not even software based. Their message though is more powerful than any of the trends above. The problem we are tackling here is way more sizeable than what color our centerpiece will be or how attendees will see their schedule on their smartphone.

Diversifying our performer lineups means changing the way we do events. It means advancing our industry, it means changing the behavior of our attendees with a positive message. It also elevates the profession of event planners from mere executors of tasks to agents of change.

BONUS - The Top 5 Event Technology Trends to Watch in 2018 [Video]
Take Action:
15 Event Technology Tactics To Quickly Make Your Event Better

Understanding event technology is one thing but what you really need are tactics that can be employed to the benefit of your overall event objectives. Unless you've been there and done it, it's difficult to know the possibilities and limitations of eventtech. It's a brave - and big - new world.
Things to Consider:
Fortunately, event technology has now reached a stage of maturity where there are already several tried and tested tactics that can help you get the most out of your event.

We've listed some of the best tried and tested eventtech tactics for driving benefits to all aspects of event management, from event promotion to attendee management and everything in between:
Consider Benefits of Facial Recognition Technology:
1. Save Time With Online Venue Comparisons

When reviewing potential venues, work with a tool that enables you to compare them side by side to easily see the differences between options. This can save a great deal of time reading multiple websites and paper literature.
Cover Yourself:
2. Make Attendees Feel Welcome With SMS Messaging

Improve attendee experience by making them feel more welcome. Customize text messages for your event attendees so they receive a welcome message as soon as they land at the airport, or arrive at the hotel.
Increase Event Revenue:
3. Improve Attendee Experience With Facial Recognition

Wait times continue to be one of the biggest bugbears for event attendees. Facial recognition technology solves the issue by speeding up check-ins. Other common uses for face recognition include personalization and security.
Personalize Online Registration:
4. Always Keep Your Data and Attendees Safe

The security of your attendees, stakeholders, and their data is paramount, however, threats evolve. Worrying about security upfront can save you an enormous amount of money and can even save lives.
Streamline Team Communications:
5. Increase Efficiency and Revenue with NFC and Virtual Check-ins

Lengthy check-ins and queue-lines for bars and merchandise cost you both in time and interest for attendees. Very few lines are pleasurable and it can limit your sales as well.
The Future is Voice Controlled:
6. Personalize Registration Forms With Conditional Logic

Knowing your attendees is key to delivering a good event experience. Make sure you're asking the right questions to the right people on your registration forms.
Create a Library within your Event App:
7. Utilize Mobile Apps For Maximum Team Efficiency

Event professionals rarely get the opportunity to sit at a desk when an event is in full flow so it's important to be able to get information to them when they are on the move.
Stay Connected:
8. Use Voice Recognition For Attendee Convenience

Simply asking a question is much easier than navigating through pages of information. Give your attendees a quick and easy way to get the information they need by using voice recognition. Asking for directions to the nearest toilets or to a specific session is the quickest and easiest way to get the information.
Analyze the Findings:
9. Make The Most of Useful Event Content

Event experiences can be improved greatly by convenience and why reinvent the wheel when conference vendors may already have created great resources that could be shared publicly.
Embrace AI:
10. Leverage Community To Learn, Connect And Promote

Online communities allow event organizers to get closer to their audiences. They are more than just a platform for promotion. Engaging with your audience can also help you better learn what makes a great experience for them.
Get Smart with Integration:
11. Use Data To Find The Value In Connections

New event technology allows eventprofs to get a much better understanding of attendee ROI through analytics. Analyzing data from matchmaking tools can help measure ROI in terms of user usage, satisfaction and connections made and give much more detailed analysis.
Go Live:
12. Use AI To Offer A Better Experience

Many matchmaking apps now use AI to better match attendees to each other. The technology learns from each connection or rejection to ensure that future matches are better suited to the individual.

13. Improve Efficiency With Software Integration
Take Action:
By using software platforms that talk to each other without the need for human input, you remove the opportunity for human error and remove friction from the process of information transfer.

14. Use Live Streaming to Increase Reach and Save Travel Costs

Live streamed video is one of the key technologies underpinning many of the technologies we use for communication and entertainment every day. Its usage is also becoming more prevalent in many areas of the event industry, saving costs on travel and helping to promote events with live content.

Here we rank the 15 best event live streaming tools.

15. Work With Sponsors To Increase Revenue

Getting the right sponsors for your event can be a struggle but eventtech has the answer by way of matchmaking services to take the hassle out of the research phase. Beyond that, technology also allows you to develop that sponsor relationship further and generate even more income.

In Conclusion

Event Technology is quickly changing the way we plan events. By using event technology you can save money, make events more engaging, provide better ROI to sponsors. These are just some of the benefits to start using event technology for your event today.

This page provides you a guide to get involved with eventtech for your next event projects. It will be also updated with the latest trends, tactics, and tips to successfully tackle the opportunities and challenges brought along by using technology at events.

Now onto you:

Do you have a tip to make this page better? Send an email to contact@eventmanagerblog.com.

Do you have more tips to add? Comment below.

Do you have a colleague who may benefit from reading this page? Share it with them.

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The New Event Technology Formula (2018 Edition): Strategies, Tactics and Tools That Work

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A comprehensive guide to understand how event technology is used in events. Strategy, intelligence, free resources and ideas to make technology work for your event. Much has been written about using technology to run better events. Everything should be easier right? What you need is a resource that sets you up for success, fast!

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Interactio - Simultaneous translation in attendee's phone

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The best tech at CES

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The Top 5 Event Technology Trends to Watch in 2018

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With the enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May 2018, businesses around the world must adapt to suit this brand new data protection policy. As the broadest modification in data privacy laws since 1995, the GDPR is going to be a game changer in every industry that deals with data collection. We've decided to explore how event businesses should perform effective due diligence today to avoid painful punishments in May.

What is GDPR?

The GDPR is the EU's new data protection regulation coming into effect on May 25, 2018. Aimed at providing EU citizens with more control over their contact information, the GDPR is enforced with heavy penalties for disregarding the regulation. The newly adopted law will apply to all businesses collecting and processing the personal data of EU citizens, regardless of their physical locations.

How will the events industry change after GDPR enforcement?

Europe's new data protection law imposes new obligations on event planners and event marketers. Eventually, GDPR is going to transform the methods of collecting data through registration forms, storing it, targeting clients through marketing activities, and sharing data with third-party organisations. This means that both event businesses and independent event organisers should put a strong compliance mechanism in place to protect themselves from heavy fines.

What are the GDPR requirements?

Before discussing compliance mechanisms, let's first explore the actual requirements that the GDPR establishes to understand the best way for event businesses to adapt.

Here are seven principles of the GDPR that you should consider when organising or marketing an event:

1. Lawfulness. A data subject should be perfectly acquainted with how and why their data is being used. Based on the specific method of communication and the direct or indirect collection of personal data, European citizens should fully comprehend how their data is to be processed. It's important that all information is provided in clear, plain language. Basically, this is the rule killing the traditional pages of small print that irritate you so much.

2. Accuracy. No inaccurate or outdated information is allowed. Data controllers are obliged to pay attention to any updates and make the necessary amendments once any inaccuracy is identified.

3. Purpose limitation. Every data processing action must be founded on a related permission from the user. This means that processing your client's personal data is allowed only to the extent that it is compliant with your client's permission.

4. Minimisation. Before requesting permission for a specific set of data, make sure you need it. According to the GDPR, collected and processed data must be limited to what is necessary for the organisation.

5. Confidentiality. The lifeblood of any data protection regulation is keeping the clients' private information secure. This means that as a data controller, you must develop strong confidentiality mechanisms and check whether they work on a regular basis.

6. Storage. The GDPR says you should regularly scrub your database. Once the goal of retaining specific facts and figures has been reached, you're obliged to dispose of them unless you have further grounds for retention.

7. Accountability. Imagine that an information commissioner knocks on your door one day and asks you to explain how you comply with the GDPR requirements. This is a situation that every data collector must be prepared for when dealing with the personal data of EU citizens.

What are the penalties?

When the deadline for the GDPR enforcement arrives, it's going to be a real apocalypse for those entering the game unprepared. One of the reasons you should be scared is that failure to comply can have serious financial consequences for your organisation.

"One of the significant differences between the Directive and the GDPR is that the latter greatly increases the maximum fine amount-up to €20,000,000, or up to four percent of the company's annual 'global turnover' for the preceding year, whichever is greater," says TechTalk.

The penalties for GDPR non-compliance can be very heavy, especially if you think in terms of large companies like Google or Facebook. For instance, considering the fact that Facebook's turnover equaled $40.7 billion in 2017, the company would have to pay $400 million in fines in the case of non-compliance.

What should event planners do about Europe's new data protection law?

To ensure that the impact of the GDPR won't ruin your event expertise in May 2018, today is the perfect time for taking action. Add the following tasks to your to-do list to avoid the danger of non-compliance:

Adopt data-auditing practices. In the very best tradition of Sherlock Holmes' inspections, explore all the wheres, whos, and whys of the personal data stored on your software systems. With a good data-auditing mechanism in place, you'll manage to stick to lawful data storage and processing.

Facilitate consent requests. Your ultimate goal is to ensure that whenever data collection takes place, a data subject is informed as to why this particular information is collected, how it will be processed, and for how long it will be stored. Think about the tools that will help you automatically update data subjects and request consent, which will lead to personal data being transferred to your contact base.

Adjust entry forms. Data minimisation lies at the heart of the new data protection law. Attend to your event registration and survey forms to make the necessary improvements in relation to the reduction of unnecessary questions.

Ensure the highest level of security. When choosing technology partners, pay attention to their compliance policies and the way they adapt to the GDPR. Also, facilitate an efficient system for notifying security breaches in order to address all breach issues as soon as they arise. According to the GDPR, security-related announcements must be made within 72 hours of a breach.

Conclusion

The impact of the GDPR on event management and event marketing is expected to change the way event businesses build relationships with both customers and technology partners. Through the timely preparation and implementation of new data security mechanisms, you can protect your event business from bankruptcy and heavy fines.

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How Will the Events Industry Change after GDPR Enforcement?

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With the enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May 2018, businesses around the world must adapt to suit this brand new data protection policy. As the broadest modification in data privacy laws since 1995, the GDPR is going to be a game changer in every industry that deals with data collection.

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What is the future of the events industry? Will the events look the same in 2018? Event technology says no.

Knowing the benchmarks that wait for your events in the next year gives you the advantage of entering the game well prepared. We've collected 7 of the hottest event tech trends that you can plant in your strategy to stay ahead.

The findings that we're pleased to share with you are in the Infographic below.

Key findings

1. With the help of AI technologies, event planners will be able to process larger amounts of event data and benefit from smart chatbots and indoor navigation in 2018.

2. Online ticketing and event applications will be the primary targets for cyberattacks, as concluded by Carbin Balls & Co.

3. The wide use of "Wi-Fi on the Fly" will allow establishing Wi-Fi networks at venues without connectivity in a few clicks.

4. The impact of VR and AR will get stronger increasing the popularity of virtual events, venues, and presentations.

5. Taking a selfie at the event will mean having the possibility to share it on any social media platform through advanced photo-sharing technologies.

6. With wireless charging, facial recognition apps, and better display possibilities, 2018 will amp up mobile use at events.

7. The mobile sets for live streaming will be improved in 2018 because 63% of event marketers are going to invest more into live streaming.

GEVME wishes you a year full of event successes and new achievements. Stay tuned and get started with GEVME to automate and elevate your event experiences in the next year!

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Event Technology Trends in 2018 [Infographic]

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What is the future of the events industry? Will the events look the same in 2018? Event technology says no. Knowing the benchmarks that wait for your events in the next year gives you the advantage of entering the game well prepared.