Oliver Thomas sat down with Cvent’s Brian Ludwig, senior vice-president of sales, and McNeel Keenan, vice-president of product management, during Cvent CONNECT in London in October, to discuss the future of event technology
What are the new technical entry levelsfor top level venues?
Brian Ludwig: You’re going to see fewer staff. Even in the lobbies for checking in, for getting keys to access to rooms or even for room service, all of these things are going to get further and further automated. Venues have started to equip registration areas with touchless technology to allow everyone to get in and out without too much human contact.
Some venues are investing in beacon technology to track where you are throughout the event, so that as you move around the venue an application will know your geographic location. This would enable you to know if there’s a VIP nearby that you want to talk to or maybe you’re walking down an aisle of a trade show and you’re alerted to booths you haven’t yet visited.
McNeel Keenan: There’s no doubt that event planners are rethinking accessibility and they want to make sure their experiences are available to as many people as possible. Live sports have been very successful for a long time by doing this, where they have built a strong international following. Unfortunately, event planners don’t have satellite trucks they can park outside to stream across the world, so they rely on the venues for that. Venues now need a fully tolerant live stream out the door service to reach a broader audience because, these days, not everybody can come to the event.
How important is gamification in maximising attendee engagement at an event?
MK: It can go too far where it incentivises the wrong things, where people just do it for the prizes. At the same time, we also know that just little nudges are incredibly impactful. It’s really about making sure people discover the full capability of an event and discover all the content that is there. Discover the less trafficked paths in the Expo hall, where you might find the next key vendor that is going to bring your business to the next level. From the perspective of organisers, we don’t just want attendees to go to the five biggest brands, there’s a lot more to shows than this.
BL: People are social by nature and they’re going to mix it up. But there’s another set of attendees that aren’t of that personality trait, so giving them that nudge really does make a difference in how much they interact with the rest of the folks.
With COP26 approaching, how does Cvent see event technology improving sustainability in the industry?
MK: People getting on a plane and travelling 10 hours away is a big sustainable issue. For us it’s about making experiences that you don’t miss out entirely if you’re unable to travel. But we also believe in the value of face-to-face. Therefore, you can limit events to more local or regional models. Hybrid events where you don’t necessarily have to fly every attendee that’s coming in-person to one place 10 hours across the globe, but you might organise multiple locations so people only travel two hours to a smaller venue.
BL: This may be more costly, as you don’t have the economies of scale that you would get at a larger event. But it’s not about cost alone, it’s ROI. If you get 1,000 people at one venue and instead get 1,400 attendees at multiple locations, you get X return from 400 additional attendees. These are the equations and calculations that marketers and event organisers need to think about.
