Conference News Supplements The Tech Factor Supplement | Page 12

The
event
technology
minefield
12
Technology
Do you know what you need when it comes to event
technology? Paul Martin, executive director of strategic
business at EventsAIR, shares his thoughts
ith attendees
having an ever
increasing
appetite for new
and innovative event technology and
growing numbers of vendors and
products emerging in the market in
response, it is understandable that
meeting planners can find it hard to
know what technology is really
needed to deliver successful events.
So how can meeting planners
navigate the technology minefield?
Today most planners are, or have
used, one or more meeting
technology platforms. The challenge
with such an abundance of tools to
choose from is understanding the
platform and supplier that best fits
your organisation and events. In
many cases the technologies
chosen are determined by the type
of event, the audience and/or the
budget. Another consideration is to
use an all in one solution or invest in
multiple standalone providers. In
any case these are decisions that
often keep meeting planners awake
at night. Choosing the right
technologies sees your event a great
success, while selecting
technologies that don’t deliver sees
quite a different outcome.
The real question is, do you know
what your technology partner has to
offer and how will these
technologies help to deliver better
event outcomes?
In many cases, meeting planners
are only using a small percentage of
the tools offered by their chosen
platform (i.e. online registration,
communications, badging, and
reporting) and are missing out on
real opportunities to further engage
their delegates and deepen event
experiences. As technology
continues be more influential in
event delivery it is important for
meeting planners to better
understand and fully utilise the tools
available to them. So, how does a
busy meeting planner easily keep up
to date with technology?
Keeping updated with the rapid
progression of meeting technology,
with increasingly busy schedules, no
doubt proves challenging, though
there are some simple ways to stay
across the technology
advancements and trends that
meeting planners need to know
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THE CHALLENGE
WITH SUCH AN
ABUNDANCE OF
TOOLS TO CHOOSE
FROM IS
UNDERSTANDING
THE PLATFORM AND
SUPPLIER THAT
BEST FITS YOUR
ORGANISATION AND
EVENTS.
about. One way event technology
providers offer to increase the
awareness of the tools available
in their platform is to host regular
webinar sessions and online
forums. These activities offer
updates to users and introduce
new features and functionality
beneficial to their attendees, and
overall event success. Another is
through annual user conferences
allowing users to gain best
practice advice on emerging
areas of technology use in
events while networking with
other event planners first-hand to
exchange experiences in the use
of technology at their own
events.
While many technology
providers do maintain
comprehensive programs to help
meeting planners gain the most
from their technology, the
reliance is still largely on
meeting planners to reach out to
their technology partner to
broaden their own knowledge on
the event technology offering
and what they may be missing
out on.