16 Feb Event Trends for 2016:
Year on year event planners are challenged on how to advance their events reach, increase audience engagement and get higher attendee numbers. This year there are some amazing innovations which could really make a difference-see our top tips below.
Crowd Streaming: An advancement on Live Streaming as the content is created by the audience in addition to the event host. The attendees can broadcast through apps such as Periscope and Meerkat which have a global audience creating a greater reach for your event. This can be useful for the event manager as it can be a really good way to gage how your audience is feeling, based on the number of positive comments on the views, the number of views and the engagement rate. Furthermore this can be a fantastic opportunity for the event host to interact with its audience both in and out of the room. The best interaction often comes from showing the audience something they wouldn’t normally see, such as behind the scenes action, special interviews and announcements.
Audio Beacons: Beacons have been taking the event industry by storm in the last two years. These nifty gadgets link with smart phones through Bluetooth and send attendees information. It is a great way to encourage delegates to attend their seminars and keep them updated with the day’s activities. Audio Beacons are an improvement on this as they do not required Bluetooth and no proximity to the source is needed. They cleverly send inaudible sound waves to the devices, activating content on mobile apps. There is no excuse for missing your breakout session now!
The Digital Swag Bag: Especially for marketing events it is incredibly important that the guests go away with a goody bag of memorable treats and information about the new product or service which has just been celebrated. However with today’s ever more discerning crowd it can be hard to grab their attention. The Digital Swag Bag is a new online platform which can provide ad space for sponsorship representation, rich media to launch new products, social media to gain further reach and giveaways to create a buzz. This service also provides a handy online reporting system, so you can see how many people use the bags, the engagement on each supplier, responses to the offers and more.