Anika Ved of Anika Ved Events and an Eventprofslive member , discuss the pros of emerging technology and how platforms need to keep up with corporate demands

efore March 2020 , event technology would be used mostly as registration software and events companies didn ’ t even think of digital events as an option . The only reason to use conferencing software was for internal meetings , which would be a last resort .

Fast forward three years , conferencing software has become commonplace for our external events as well as internal meetings . Many of these conferencing platforms have had to increase their level of

Eventprofslive at the Corporate Event Forum

“ With the releasing of restrictions across the world , live events are coming back with a vengeance . Virtual platform providers have their work cut out to meet the demand of corporates wanting quality technology along with content ”

functionality to keep up with being the best platforms on the market . Event professionals have had to upskill by becoming producers or old fashioned ‘ AV techs ’ as events are no longer housed in a physical venue , but in people ’ s homes , and troubleshooting often needs to take place remotely .

With the ever increasing importance of sustainability , we can now see the pros of using event technology , not only to canvas a bigger , global , virtual audience , but also speakers . We no longer need to budget for speaker travel and accommodation , instead we can focus on getting the technology right and ensuring their hardware and software is set up correctly . Speakers themselves can fit in their family lives around conferences , being able to log on just for the hour they are needed to speak and can carry on without clearing their diary for a few days to travel . This can increase productivity , and speakers can fill their diaries with even more speaking engagements .

Emerging technology

Now we are on to the next iteration of event technology – the metaverse . This is an exciting phase , moving from the 2D world , into the 3D world and one that will shape our industry moving forward . The metaverse is a

blur between the gaming and events world , often with developers moving over from the former into virtual events . There is a fine balance between hi-res graphics and still having strong engaging content .

For the past three years , the motto for our virtual events has been ‘ content is king ’ but there is an added layer of getting the graphics right , which needs to stand up to the load of hundreds , possibly thousands of users on the platform without compromising on the streaming quality of content . Most attendees do not have gaming PCs , which also needs to be considered , along with bandwidth of home set-ups . There is so much potential in this new age of event technology , with talk of NFTs which were even spoken about in the midst of lockdown between peers ( remember Clubhouse ?), creating that sense of a one-time-only experience that formally only in-person events could give us .

With the releasing of restrictions across the world , live events are coming back with a vengeance . Virtual platform providers have their work cut out to meet the demand of corporates wanting quality technology along with content .

The next 12 months will show us if event technology can really match up the appeal of in-person events our delegates have been craving . CN