How Technology Can Help Impact the Success - and ROI

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How Technology Can Help Impact the Success - and ROI - of Your In-Person Events

9/7/2022
You don't need a crystal ball to know that the future of events is tech-enabled, collaborative, and impactful. We're no longer hosting one-off events but rather building a platform to continue producing meaningful experiences for our audiences in new and memorable ways. How do you know which investments to make to ensure success for your next event?

Whether you've hosted a few events or several hundred, one thing is sure: technology helps make in-person events more dynamic and interactive. This means your guests get more out of them, you have a better chance of garnering repeat attendees, and you'll realize a higher return on investment (ROI) for your efforts.

Let's look at some of the ways top event organizers leverage technology to take their in-person events from good to great.

The Impact of Technology at Events
There are several ways technology can positively impact your event. First, it can help engage your attendees and provide a personalized experience that makes them feel special. Using tech to provide customized messages, tailored content, and unique experiences can increase your event's stickiness and boost long-term engagement.

Second, interactive technology can make your event more efficient by increasing operational capabilities. This can include automating workflow processes, such as check-in or booking, or providing real-time data about attendee behavior.

However it's used, technology is a core component of any successful event today.

The Role of Technology in Your Event Goals
Before the planning begins, it's essential to define your goals for the event and ensure that any technology used supports and achieves them. If you don't know your goals, it'll be challenging to decide which technologies to incorporate and when to use them.

For instance, if your goals include lead generation, you'll need systems that integrate lead capture tools. Or, if you're looking to increase revenue through your event, marketing automation tools that help boost sales conversions will be critical. Whatever your goals, technology will play a vital role.

Discover What Your Attendees Want
When planning an event, you need to consider what your attendees expect from your event. What experiences are they looking for? What new technologies would help your event stand out?

You can begin to get a sense of what your attendees want by surveying your target audiences ahead of time. You can also use data from past events to inform your decisions. You might find that your attendees want to be guided through the event experience through an AI chatbot. Or maybe they'd prefer to have the option to receive a guided audio tour through an audio-enabled attendee badge.

By better understanding what your attendees want, you can avoid over-engineering the event experience and instead focus on choosing the right technologies to achieve your goals.

Reimagining the Event Experience
Your events should go beyond just being a place for people to meet and exchange ideas. They should also be a platform for learning and creating real-world impact for your business or industry. This can prompt a deeper narrative and a more purposeful experience for attendees. Using technology at your events can help achieve this in two ways.

First, technology can bring people together around a common topic and form more impactful relationships. For instance, technology that enables voice assistants, interactive touchscreens, and virtual reality experiences can help guests engage with the content and connect with each other in new and meaningful ways.

Second, technology is an excellent tool for facilitating real-time collaboration and ideation. You can use collaboration tools and live polling to enable attendees to partner more effectively on real-world projects. Or using live-streaming technology will allow attendees to connect with others worldwide for broader input and impact.

The Types of Event Technology to Use
It's easy to get carried away with the latest and greatest event technology. While it's crucial to stay on top of industry trends, it's also necessary to ensure that each piece of technology you integrate into your event serves a purpose.

While many of these technologies will be critical to your event, some may be more superfluous to your goals. Here are some of the most popular and how to use them effectively.

Visuals - Visuals and graphics are a must-have at any event these days. From digital invitations to projected signage to holographic displays, your visuals should help create a cohesive theme and tone for your event while enhancing the experience.
Live Streaming - With in-person events just now on the comeback, live streaming is a critical tool to have at any event. It allows people who can't attend in person to be a participant and get value from it.
Live polling - Polling can help gauge audience sentiment, but it's often used ineffectively. When polling at an event, ensure that you're asking relevant questions about the topic or that will help you make better decisions for future events.
Engagement tools - Engagement tools like gamification, interactive touchscreen displays, and virtual reality can help make your event more interactive and help people stay focused on the topic.

Creating Immersive Experiences
Beyond some of the more traditional technology tools used in events, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are some of the most exciting technologies in the event space. You can use them to create more immersive, impactful experiences for your attendees or real-time events.

VR is great for solo experiences and ideal for ideation, collaboration, or training. You can use 360° video to create a virtual experience that allows people who can't attend to participate in the event. You can also use it to capture content for your live streams.

AR, on the other hand, is better for group experiences and can be incorporated into polling, gamification, and other engagement tools. You can also combine the two and live stream your VR or AR experience to a larger audience. This allows anyone to participate in the event, regardless of whether they are physically onsite.

Using Tech to Stream Exclusive Content
Your in-person events are a great place to advertise your live streaming channel. Offering exclusive content at your event, like a live show, podcast, or webinar, can help you grow your audience. You can either host the show at your event or have the content available exclusively on your streaming channel. Your attendees will be excited to tune in and connect with like-minded individuals and may be more inclined to share your streaming channel with their friends or colleagues.

Turn to Experienced Technology Vendors to Pull it Together

For these types of technologies to come to life, you'll need to ensure you have the right equipment on hand to deliver the best event experience. Tech solutions include computers, printers, and other office equipment, AV and video technologies, touchscreen kiosks and displays, and transparent and holographic solutions.

But just like many industries require expertise, technology solutions require precision handling and operation. If you plan to incorporate technology at your event, make sure you hire a technology partner to help. These partners are experts in their field and can help you achieve your event's goals and ensure you get the most impact for your technology investments.

Summary
Event planners must continually think outside the box to keep attendance numbers high. Attendants will no longer sit passively as a speaker presents in front of a projection screen and a room full of people. Instead, attendees want to be more interactive, participatory, and hands-on. By implementing some key technologies into your event, you can create a more engaging experience and ensure a more successful event that positively impacts the bottom line.