Live Events need to Embrace Technology and Realise Potential – an article reposted
Written by Steve Hill and found on Event Industry News: www.eventindustrynews.co.uk (Article) - Nov 2011.
Recent research from Meet Birmingham showed that 80 per cent of event organisers believed that technology is not currently being deployed as effectively as it could be in the live events industry. Here, Steve Hill, creative director of leading live events, project management and design consultancy, Amber and Green, explains why he believes the industry must embrace new technology and realise its potential.
All of us in the live events industry – unless you have been living on Mars for the last decade – will have become used to online registration systems, computer badging systems, interactive keypads and online trade publications. All exhibitor manuals are now digital and most exhibition press offices ask for digital press kits. And, in both our business and personal lives we are used to ordering items online. But there is a whole raft of technologies out there that the live events industry seems slower to pick up on than other sectors.
The Birmingham research suggested that part of the reason for this is a skills gap, and I would not argue with the fact that as an industry we need to gain more of an understanding of how technology can be used effectively. This is not to say that technology is ever going to replace live events. Rather, if one accepts that live events are about networking, then digital technology can be deployed to expand the audience for the event. This creates a virtual community that can exchange ideas and information, provide interactive and targeted communication, supply real-time information gathering and – at the very basic level – arrange appointments between delegates, exhibitors and visitors prior to the event. In other words, the event itself becomes part of a wider conversation.
Such “conversations” can also be tracked by technology to provide behavioural data that can be used after the event for CRM purposes.
At the moment, however, there are various platforms for digital technology – such as Bluetooth, smartphones, iPhones, iPads, Androids – all of which can communicate with other devices on the same platform. There is now available a smartphone app, Quick Response (QR) code (a type of 2D barcode) that enables event organisers to communicate with delegates. However, to use QR, which is specifically designed for smartphones, one has to download a special QR code reader app to interpret the codes, and there are readers for iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone. At the same time, Microsoft has Microsoft Tag, which is a rival but similar offering to QR codes.
All very well and hi-tech, but there is even more potential to digital communications for our industry. I am sure that the day when we will have cross-platform systems, giving us the ability to communicate to and between delegates whatever their digital device, is not far away. The potential then is unlimited.
But let’s step back a moment from digital conversations centred on an event, and look at how technology is taking over event planning.
I already know of a Windows-based software application that enables the live events hire sector to run and manage event schedules more effectively; and we have recently seen the launch of LiveEventTracker, a revolutionary online system designed to streamline storage, fulfilment and logistics for the live events industry.
Described as “the new event management system” LiveEventTracker has been specifically designed to help companies organise their event and exhibition assets and call upon them whenever needed, saving time and money.
And money is where perhaps one of the greatest potential for technology lies. More and more client companies are looking to the bottom line, and demanding that live events provide a measurable ROI. If, as well as enhancing an event, technology makes the organisation of an event easier, the time spent by delegates at events more relevant and engaging, then the event itself becomes more efficient and cost effective – an important factor in these days of tightening budgets.
ConfexLive is a next generation integrated interactivity, communications and research tool. It utilises mobile and social media channels to deliver information, collect feedback and encourage interaction - prior to and during conferences, exhibitions, functions and networking events.
It is essentially, as the article above mentions, a "cross-platform system, giving the ability to communicate to and between delegates whatever their digital device".
Read more about ConfexLive here, or otherwise contact us directly.