1. T ECH N O LO GY CO N FE R E N C I N G
Tomorrow’s conferences will be slicker and more useful
than ever, so long as technology doesn’t get in the way
WORDS TOBIAS GOURLAY ILLUSTRATIONS SAM CHIVERS
B
eau Lotto, a neuroscientist
and leading app creator, is
unequivocal. ‘Technology’s
going to have a massive
influence on conferencing over the
next few years,’ he says. ‘And it could
be good or bad.’
Bold words. So what does the future
hold for conferences? One thing seems
certain. The onward march of tech
may propel us into a brave new world
of holograms, drones and augmented
reality (AR) headsets, but certain key
elements will never change.
There are three reasons why
anyone attends a conference: to
gather information; to network; and
to be inspired. In sharing content
digitally, introducing new people in
a more targeted way and improving
production values, tomorrow’s tech
could be pivotal in helping organisers
enhance the delivery of all three.
And that is exactly how it should be
used. Ignore the siren calls of Silicon
Valley: tech is not something to throw
money at in pursuit of a fleeting ‘wow’
factor. (What would you do now with
a box full of Google Glasses?) The
most valuable tech is that which no
one notices as it smooths the path
through a day’s conferencing, helping
to extract maximum value.
‘Our goal is to get out of the way
and let human interaction happen,’
says Tim Holladay, CEO of Crowd
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Mics, whose app turns smartphones
into microphones. ‘In 10 years, we
hope tech disappears from view.’
Nurturing all things face-to-face
will bolster the industry. As event
technology sage Corbin Ball observes,
‘There’s no such thing as a virtual
beer.’ And he’s right: we’re social
animals who like to do business in
person – and FaceTime just isn’t quite
the same as old-fashioned face time.
Just before tech disappears from
view, we’ve cast our eye to the horizon
to spot the inventions and innovations
that will make conferencing easier
and better for all. What follows is our
organisers guide to the conferences of
tomorrow. >>
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VIRTUALLY THERE
The events industry is not usually an
early adopter of new technology, says
Maria Schuett, producer of Central
Hall Westminster’s Meet the Future
conference. ‘We follow the example
of others, which means there are
always some signposts about where
the sector is heading.’
Right now, video gamers around
the world are braced for the launch of
Oculus Rift early next year. Its maker,
Oculus VR, was bought by Facebook
for $2bn last spring, and its virtual-
reality (VR) headset promises to be
both more advanced and cheaper
than its predecessors. It marks the
arrival of affordable VR that doesn’t
make its users seasick – and that’s a
big breakthrough.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg
told Vanity Fair recently that headsets
offering ‘immersive 3D experiences’
will one day replace smartphones. So
what does this mean for conferences?
Eventually, it won’t just be scruffy
young men using them to get even
closer to Lara Croft; anyone in the
business of hunting out a venue will
don a headset and drop right into it.
Physical show-rounds will be
history, and potential clients will
be able to get an accurate read on
a venue from afar, opening the UK
market up to more overseas visitors,
and vice versa.
BRAND DESIGNS
While researching this piece I visited
IET London: Savoy Place (aka The
Institution of Engineering and
Technology). Standing in steel toe
caps, wearing a hi-vis and a hard hat
in the middle of what will become
its entrance lobby, I got a glimpse
of the near future. Using a Google
Cardboard VR headset, I saw what
the foyer’s ‘digital chandelier’ will
look like when the venue reopens in
November. With LED screens instead
of candelabra, it’s a big, shiny branding
opportunity that’s connected and
flexible: those screens can display
anything from corporate videos to a
brands’ signature colours. Whenever
someone walks beneath them, the
animation rate increases and light
ripples across it.
Branding on the outside of the
venue will matter more too. Today,
external projection (whereby
enormous moving images appear
on the front of your chosen venue)
is an expensive, time-consuming
investment. The results can be
spectacular, though – take a look
on YouTube at Nike and Projection
Artworks’ recent show at Battersea
Power Station. In the future, prices
will come down and it won’t just be
huge multinational corporations who
can afford to pull that kind of stunt.
After making a big first impression,
organisers should lay on a full sensory
experience for delegates. ‘Immersive
events appeal to more than two of
our senses,’ says Rob Davidson, MD
of consultancy Mice Knowledge.
‘Instead of just sight and sound,
companies might use smell or colour
as well for greater effect.’ That’s
because, in an age when so many of
our interactions will be mediated by
screens, real-world experiences will
be more powerful than ever. >>
W H AT ’S T H E D I F F E R E N C E?
Augmented reality (AR) is an add-on to the real
world. You’re still looking at Big Ben, but your
bionic contact lens is telling you on the side that
it’s 96m tall and was completed in 1858.
At the other end of the sliding scale, virtual
reality (VR) creates entirely new worlds. Stick
on a headset and, although you’re still standing
outside Big Ben, it’ll have you believe you’re in
Sydney, looking up at the Opera House.
Anyone in the business of hunting out a venue
will don a headset and drop right into it
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WEAR & SHARE
Networking is set to change too.
Some of the tech sector’s finest
minds are working all hours to crack
indoor positioning systems (IPS, as
opposed to GPS). When it’s possible
to accurately geolocate individuals
within a room – and those
individuals have shared their data
with the organiser – networking will
become much more efficient.
There’ll be no more getting
cornered at the coffee bar by salesmen
peddling irrelevant products. A
delegate will be able to follow
augmented reality arrows all the way
to the serious folks they really need to
be chatting with.
That’s the software, but what
about the hardware? It’ll probably
be wearables introducing us to
our new best friends. They’ll take
various forms (from the contact-lens
offspring of Google Glass to sleeker
versions of the Apple Watch) but we’re
betting against obstructive headsets.
‘Eye contact is fundamentally
important to us as humans,’ says
neuroscientist Beau Lotto. ‘The idea
of us all wearing visors scares me –
it’d be even worse than talking to
someone in sunglasses is today.’ Look
out for subtler contact lenses, or even
good old-fashioned smartphones.
Finally, Microsoft has just
introduced real-time translation
software for Skype. As language
barriers come down, there will be one
less excuse for not talking to the guy
in the lederhosen.
SALAD DAYS
Jamie Oliver’s now going meat-free
three days a week, but there may
come a time when even that seems
a little indulgent. Industrial meat
production has some serious side
effects – deforestation and the
methane emissions of cows among
them – and Eden Caterers’ Nick
Mead reckons we’ll soon be looking
elsewhere for our protein.
Fish will still be on conference
menus, so long as we haven’t
exploited marine resources to
exhaustion, but – brace yourselves
– insects might be right alongside
them. ‘If we can make them a bit
more appetising, you could well see
caterpillars sprinkled on lettuce,’ says
Mead. Yum.
It’s good news for vegetarians,
though. Veggies will be our staple
fare. Mead’s ingredient to watch is
seaweed. Loaded with vitamins and
minerals, it’s set to be one of the next
big superfoods.
The way that caterers deliver the
food is going to change too. ‘People
make bad choices at buffets,’ says
leading nutritionist Kate Cook.
‘They feel like they’re on a jolly, so
they want to eat as much as possible.’
Wearables will soon be on hand to
guide us towards what we really need:
‘Hey, feeling a bit low this morning?
A shot of zinc will help so, here, go
for the extra spinach.’
By taking such personalised
pre-orders via conference apps,
caterers will serve exactly what
everyone wants and leftovers will
become a thing of the past. >>
A delegate will be able to follow augmented reality
arrows all the way to the serious folks
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4. T ECH N O LO GY CO N FE R E N C I N G
DEAD MEN TALKING
What does the future hold for
tomorrow’s speakers? As well as
reacting to real-time feedback and
learning to share the stage with their
audience, they must face down a
threat from yesterday.
Remember a slightly twitchy Tupac
rapping from beyond the grave with
Snoop Dogg at the Coachella festival
a few years ago? Holographic imaging
has improved considerably since then
(a much more convincing Whitney
Houston hologram is about to
embark on a world tour) and the cost
of the technology has come down too.
For conference organisers, being
able to choose anyone from recent
history to deliver a show-stopping
oration certainly has some wow
factor today. But will the novelty wear
off? When delegates are listening
to Churchill’s ‘fight them on the
beaches’ address for the umpteenth
time in their career, they might just
start wondering ‘So what?’ or ‘I don’t
suppose there’s any chance of a Q&A
session here?’
If holograms have a long-term
future, it may be because they can save
us air miles: the image of present-day
speakers could be beamed into the
event live, while the living, breathing
artiste delivers their star turn from
wherever they happen to be based.
ENGAGE BRAINS
It’s a simple fact of human psychology:
if we buy ourselves an experience
and an object at the same price, we
usually end up much more satisfied
with the experience than the object.
‘It’s the difference between going
to see a great band in a blues bar and
watching them on a YouTube video,’
says Lotto. Live experiences make a
bigger, longer impact, and that’s an
important lesson for anyone with
an audience to engage: if you really
want to leave your mark, give them a
memorable experience.
‘There should be less talking
to people from a stage and more
bringing people up onto that stage,’
says Lotto. ‘If someone helps to create
your event, they take ownership of
it. Instead of yet more information,
they will gain something much more
powerful – embodied knowledge.’
The latest tech will give organisers
other ways to empower their
audience. Apps will allow delegates
to rate the elements of a conference
at the touch of a button, forcing
organisers to react in real time. This
could result in a variety of different
positive outcomes: affording the best
speakers more time at the podium,
moving the hottest breakout sessions
to larger spaces – or even running
them again later in the schedule.
In short, your delegates will be in
charge, and that will be a good thing.
‘It’s often the introvert in the corner
who has the best question,’ says Nick
Lomax, unique venues business
development manager at Kinetic
Solutions. ‘Getting them involved is
good for everyone.’ >>
If holograms have a long-term future, it may be
because they can save us air miles:the image of
speakers could be beamed into the event live
P L AY T H E G A M E
To keep Generation Y delegates linked in and
churning out useful data all day, Stéphane
Doutriaux from digital event platform Poken
predicts a ‘gamification’ of the conference
experience. Using their apps, attendees will
score virtual points for gathering contacts,
going to sessions, and feeding back their
thoughts. Those virtual points might even be
exchangeable for real-world prizes.
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LIGHTING THE WAY
Go for a show-round at 8
Northumberland Avenue today and
you’ll soon spot what they’re most
proud of. In close partnership with
Philips, the Charing Cross venue is
beta-testing a colour-changing LED
lighting system that’s controlled
from an iPad and which can even
‘dance’ along to music.
The next step is to get
it responding to delegates’
individual needs. At a basic level, 8
Northumberland can do that now:
if guests are fresh off the plane,
they get a blue hue that tells their
bodies it’s morning and they really
ought to wake up a bit. Want to
give a conference a happy ending?
Psychological research says you
should bathe it in yellow light.
According to futurologist Ian
Pearson, AR might hold the key to an
even more personal light show. ‘With
the right technology, AR headsets
could light and colour visual points of
interest, according to taste.’
The same technology could lend
itself to audio as easily as the visual
realm, meaning no one would ever
miss the keynote’s pivotal point
because they couldn’t hear him or her.
STAFF REAPPRAISALS
As registration processes move
towards full automation, organisers
will appreciate the labour cost
savings, and delegates will be happy
too: no one’s going to do check-ins
more smoothly than the machines.
Whatever a delegate’s weapon of
choice – smartphone or wearable –
it will be communicating with the
ticket barriers as they approach. And,
assuming the correct privacy box
was ticked during the registration
process, their entrance will be
automatic and seamless.
‘But it’s important we don’t lose
the human touch,’ says Maria Cena,
commercial manager of Blackfriars
venue The Mermaid. ‘That’s something
we still very much believe in.’
Indeed. In just 10 years, Generation
Y – those young ’uns also known as
millennials – will make up 75% of
the global workforce, according to
Deloitte. They’ll be quite at home in
the tech-driven world of tomorrow,
but Davidson predicts they’ll also
be less at ease in old-school social
situations, where there’s no screen
to hide behind. Like the meeters and
greeters of today, the human staff
of tomorrow will still be crucial in
putting future delegates at ease. V&E
Organisers will like the labour cost savings and
delegates will be happy too: no one’s going to
do check-ins more smoothly than the machines
F LY I N G H I G H
Drones are about to give everyone a whole new
perspective on events. Piloted from the ground
by qualified droneographers, the unmanned
aircraft can be loaded with video cameras
and sent up high to capture stills and moving
footage of all the action below.
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