Just like every aspect of our lives, digital transformation or technologies of events have become an essential aspect of event management services too. Significant cost and time savings, increased attendee satisfaction, and improved exposure and image building are just a few of the advantages.
There was a time when clients always wanted a hard copy invite by snail mail in addition to email, a multi-city event meant sending carton loads of printed collateral material to various towns either through expensive couriers or surface mail with all the risks of late delivery and damaged stuff reaching. It was touch and go on many occasions since these collaterals got held up and often reached late!
Enough stress to give any event manager ulcers! While a great turnout was always a source of relief and happiness, it was more quantity than the quality of audience then. It also meant long queues and registration delays, not very encouraging for the first speaker. Q&A sessions got chaotic and feedback forms, the main source of leads, were partially filled, if at all.
Impact of Digital Transformation on the Event Industry
Digital Transformation has brought about welcome changes for the events management services – invites reach the right person and are read, databases have been refined by agencies with domain expertise, registration processes have become smooth with QR codes, feedback forms are filled digitally and in real time polling ensures instant feedback.
All this makes for the kind of user experience event managers have been longing for. The event itself has much-improved viewing thanks to LED walls, hi-tech sound and most importantly event software.
The Pandemic and Digitalization of Events
How well digital transformation touched events can be seen through the surge in webinars when the pandemic hit us. Over a couple of weeks, we leapfrogged five years in digital adoption. Following a series of early cancellations, the shift to online events was quick and necessary.
The main takeaway for event marketers was both eye-opening and encouraging: virtual events have the potential to exponentially expand awareness and lead volume as they attract new and larger audiences, with many virtual events seeing a 3X-4X increase in attendance or more over their in-person equivalent.
That being said, cut to the latter half of 2021: Webinar Fatigue! – Webinar fatigue is a new problem that has evolved as a result of endless online meetings and events! People started using online portals for jobs, school, and acquiring new skills in their spare time. These increased demands have been associated with elevated levels of heightened attention and increased pressure to respond and perform remotely with greater efficiency, as well as a subjective sense of restlessness, anxiety, and inability to relax. Webinar fatigue is currently widespread among 75% of those who use two or more devices at the same time, and 53% of persons who only use one device at a time.
With increasing indifference towards webinar invites and the lost grandeur of events, people now crave to physically meet and network. But, when you still have certain restrictions and also do not want to lose the benefits of virtual events, what’s the solution? Enter Hybrid Events!
Hybrid Events – The Future of Events
With social distancing measures being far from done, and many participants reluctant to attend a physical event, hybrid events are the way to go. A hybrid event combines in-person and virtual aspects of the event to provide the best possible experience for both audiences.
Further, hybrid events are a fantastic way for event planners to broaden their audience, have higher engagement, get more sponsorship opportunities (live sponsors, virtual sponsors, or both), reduce expenditure (smaller venue, less catering, decreased travel cost), and improve ROI.
To be able to experience all of this and more, the hybrid event technology you utilize must include variable session tools (to allow participants to participate in real-time, return to content later, and access fresh content on-demand throughout the day); interactive features (to support polling, Q&As, gamification, survey etc.); an additional screen (for attendee thumbnails, which can be replaced by the speaker image), streaming and projection technologies; multiple cameras-based audios and video recording set up etc.
Top Trends in Event Technology
As event technology evolves and improves, the good news is that it is becoming easier to deploy all of these. Here are the top event technology trends you need to know:
1. Facial Recognition
This can help record participant visits to booths, speed up event check-ins, enhance security, and track session attendance to see what worked and what didn’t.
2. Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)
Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) have the potential to transport visitors to a whole new world- participants may experience things up close that they would have to go far and wide for otherwise. Now when the future is hybrid events, AR and VR can help give the virtual participants an experience equivalent to the physical ones.
3. Live Streaming
When you live stream an event, you can keep in touch with your audience even if they couldn’t attend in person. When live streaming an event, use social media to your advantage.
4. Chatbot
Chatbots are being utilized to answer inquiries and deliver essential information at events. Attendees can get a quick response regarding any registration query from automated customer care, while organizers can focus on arranging their event.
5. Event Automation
From registration and event check-in to budget management and reporting, an event management software covers all facets of an event’s lifecycle. The idea is to ease the communication, save your time and money, and make the participant’s journey easy.
Conclusion:
With all of the latest technology on exhibit, events are embracing digital transformation to provide an immersive experience and make the participant journey as painless as possible. Latest technologies like 3D, VR, and AR can combine the virtual and physical parts of an event to generate unparalleled hybrid experiences. To say that exciting times lie ahead will be the understatement of the year because, with hybrid events, you have endless possibilities to implement the tech trends!
Planning a Hybrid Event? Channel Technologies, with 23+ years of experience, is one such Hybrid Event Agency in India that has long-standing relationships with vendors across the country, experience in such events, and in-house event automation software to help deliver a flawless experience to the customers.
Give us a buzz today!