Event technologies are constantly evolving—and with the pace of the industry, it’s hardly surprising! With seemingly perpetual advancements, it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon, which has everyone wondering what the next big thing will be…
But for us, it’s not about focussing on the latest thing, but about utilising the right event technologies to deliver on your objectives. This is why we’ve put together this post to highlight our top picks to help you create unique experiences at your event. Let’s dive right in, shall we?
top event technologies to help you create more unique experiences
aggregated social media wall
A great way to promote social media engagement during your event is by using a social media wall. These huge digital walls live link social media feeds, encouraging attendees to share their event highlights and thoughts during your event by seeing what they, and others, are saying in real-time. Their posts appear on the big screen and encourage interaction—helping to drive conversation, engagement and traffic toward your company’s social platforms.
event apps
30% of businesses currently use them for their virtual events, and with all your event details hosted in one place, there’s an almost endless possibility of features that can be incorporated into it. Meaning the number of people using this technology is only expected to rise! Apps are completely customisable, which means that whether you’re looking at it from a design, usability or information-sharing perspective, there’s a solution to meet your event needs. With the most popular uses including registration pages, agenda breakdowns, maps of the venue and a way to receive real-time event push notifications—it’s a great way to keep your guests in the know, especially if you’re arranging any surprise guests or giveaways!
kinetic energy walkways
These simple but powerful walkways have the ability to convert the kinetic energy from footsteps into renewable electricity, helping to power your event. You may recognise this technology, as it was recently used in Coldplay’s “Music Of The Spheres” world tour where they used kinetic dance floors to power the concert. The technology is not only fun, and hugely engaging for your audience, but is a great addition in moving towards creating a more sustainable industry.
drones
Sometimes, seeing your event from ground level just doesn’t do the scale or aesthetics of the event justice. That’s where drones come in. Featuring a new way to showcase your event, drones enable you to capture unique angles and gain a fresh perspective by utilising this technology. Becoming increasingly common with event usage, drones offer the ability to record or live-stream bird’s eye footage and really capture the scale of the day.
virtual reality
Another increasingly used technology is virtual reality. Having the ability to explore full-scale, virtual environments is not only a fun way to gamify in-person events, increasing interactivity on-site, but is also the perfect way to create an immersive, first-person experience during virtual events. The full potential of virtual reality depends upon your creativity, but a great example of how it can be used, includes our next feature on this list…
the metaverse
You’ve probably already heard of The Metaverse, but if you haven’t and you’re looking to understand what it is, it’s essentially a virtual environment that enables people to explore and meet inside digital spaces. Think of it like The Sims, meets Social Media! The Metaverse provides users with the ability to interact with 3D environments and connect with other attendee avatars, enabling this technology to offer the most feature-packed virtual events available. We helped a client to build a space for one of their virtual events in 2021—and whilst much time hasn’t passed since then, the popularity and ways in which this technology can be used has increased extensively!
virtual and hybrid platforms
There are numerous platforms that can be used when you’re looking to gather as many attendees as possible in one place. Such as:
· Hopin
· Hubilo
· Bizzabo
· Goldcast
· Airmeet
But whether you want to broadcast your event live or share something pre-recorded, virtual and hybrid platforms help to enable your attendees to participate—no matter which part of the world they may be located in. Helping to not only boost the number of people who can attend, but helping your audience’s accessibility—enabling them to participate, regardless of any financial, familial or work commitments.
projection mapping
There’s no better way to light up your event than with projection mapping. Not only does projection mapping add an extra level of pizzazz to any location, but its ability to showcase content and tell stories using the surrounding walls and buildings really help to bring an event to life. Curious to see an example? Back in 2013, we used projection mapping at this private event at the Hofburg in Vienna!
non-fungible token (nft)
An NFT, or non-fungible token, is a form of digital ownership where all transactions are recorded in a blockchain. This means that the purchase of an NFT can be verified by anybody, reducing the risk of forgeries, and ensuring greater peace of mind for anyone who’s looking to buy and/or sell.But how does this fit into events? Well, NFTs are the perfect way to validate the authenticity of event tickets. In fact, many event organisers are now beginning to use NFTs for that very reason, including Gary Vaynerchuk whose team recently used them for VeeCon, where only VeeFriend NFT holders were able to gain access to the event!
audience response systems
Have you ever wanted to involve your audience in more interactions at your events? An audience response system enables you to do exactly that! Creating the ability to collect responses from large groups of people instantly, audience response systems let attendees interact with your content in various ways, such as voting on certain options or outcomes such as polls, live Q&As and creating a unique, engaging experience in the process. These systems can range from small handheld devices to mobile apps and are ideal for conferences and conventions.
final thoughts
With 49% of Marketers saying that audience engagement is the biggest contributing factor to having a successful event, there’s no surprise that technology is becoming more and more popular within the industry.In fact, event technologies are so integral to the success of your event that we included them in our guide all about proven strategies that you can use to maximise audience engagement. Check out the blog to find out what other strategies you should be utilising within your events!