The UFI Digital Innovation Committee weighs in on the industry’s darkest digital fears
- Words by Matthias ‘Tesi‘ Baur
UFI’s ICT Group recently changed its name to the Digital Innovation (DI) Committee. As proud chairman of this DI Committee, I wanted to share its goals and mission.
Firstly, the DI Committee aims to drive digital ideas and concepts forward to help exhibitors and visitors get the most out of trade shows. Secondly, it strives to be a platform for all UFI members to share, discuss, review and embrace new and thought-provoking digital developments and projects. Thirdly, through its awards programme, it hopes to provide a solid framework and guidance to help businesses adopt digital solutions in the industry.
During the UFI congress, we held an interactive discussion where delegates were encouraged to discuss their views on the digital world. During this session, we learned that digital is a diverse and sometimes controversial topic that needs to be talked about more in our industry. Below are the views from some of our DI Committee members. How do you personally feel about some of these statements?
Is our industry is lagging behind our attendees’ digital ability?
Stephan Forseilles:
I think it greatly depends on the nature of the event. If we are talking about a B2C pop-culture event for teenagers and Millennials, then yes we are far behind. However, in the B2B world, especially in industrial sectors, the best of us are doing pretty well.
That said, we are not quite where we should be. I see digital primarily as a way of improving our customers’ experience. They are all used to the speed and simplicity of Twitter, Google, Uber and the likes, and we still ask them to fill in five pages of questions to register.
It is easier to open a bank account online that to get a badge to one of our events. And don’t get me started on everything that exhibitors have to deal with. It is not so much that we are lagging behind our customers’ digital ability (their dentist probably is too and that’s not a problem) but rather our customers are now used to a level of digital simplicity and ease that makes us look like an antiquated administrative nightmare.
Bernhard Wagner:
Admittedly, the trade show industry is lagging behind the early-bird attendee, but not behind the average attendee. Our customers have differing levels of skill and familiarity when it comes to new technology and media. The challenge for all organisers is to cater to this diversity, allowing for satisfaction without overburdening the user. This goal is hard to achieve – however, feeding the early birds some tech cookies would be a good investment in our digital image.
Gunnar Heinrich:
As with many topics surrounding the digital world, this statement is somewhat controversial. As long as our exhibitors continue to use a written form and fax machine to send their stand orders instead of using our brand-new webshops, we don’t see them as digital challengers. Sadly, this generalisation is often extended to all exhibitors and therefore taken as a welcome excuse not to innovate the overall digital service portfolio.
Typically, however, it’s the larger and/or more agile exhibitors who have heavily invested in their marketing organisation and tools that will miss the organiser´s service innovation in this field.
These exhibitors are used to measuring all their marketing activities with proper KPIs and will compare the results with the cost/benefit ratio of an exhibition. I think it’s key to serve them and convince the others to follow in their footsteps.
Régis-Emmanuel Crouzet:
I don’t feel that our industry is lagging behind our attendees’ digital ability. The quality of our awards applications shows that our industry, on the contrary, is very responsive to new digital tools, and to the digital revolution we’re experiencing.
Will AI replace event managers in the future?
Stephan Forseilles:
AI can already diagnose some illnesses as well as or better than doctors. It can understand human speech better than humans. It can write prize-winning novels. It can beat us at any board game you can think of.
Specialists predict AI will have an I.Q of 10,000 by the year 2030! With so much processing power and access to a seemingly unlimited amount of data, it shouldn’t be too difficult for AI to find interesting topics and locations, pinpoint the right speakers, organise marketing campaigns, matchmaking, and so on.
However, I don’t think it will replace us – or at least not within the next ten to 20 years. It will rather act as a powerful and intelligent assistant, improving our understanding, reach and efficiency. It will allow us to concentrate on what we’re much better at than it is: human interaction.
Gunnar Heinrich:
AI and Machine Learning are concepts that will impact the work of a modern-day event manager, but if we forecast the next five to ten years, they are unlikely to replace anyone. It’s highly recommended that event managers are aware of and use the fast-growing possibilities offered by AI to optimise their work, both in terms of effectiveness and efficiency.
AI can uncover hidden potential for an event manager, make smart suggestions for a floor plan they would never have developed on their own, or propose a segment for spin-off which promises fast growth.
Régis-Emmanuel Crouzet:
Even 50 years ago, American film director Stanley Kubrick understood the power and danger of A.I. – Ridley Scott’s 2017 film Alien: Covenant plays with the theme again.
And we’ve all followed the recent captivating debate between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. It is too soon to forecast what A.I. will bring to our industry, but the future challenge will definitely be how to use AI to serve us – not replace us. One thing we can be certain of is that the need for people to meet each other face to face, to see the reality, to touch and feel, will always remain, and therefore our industry should consider AI as an opportunity, and stay vigilant to avoid obvious threats.
Is Augmented Reality (AR) is a waste of money?
Stephan Forseilles:
Saying that AR is a waste of money is like saying trade show mobile apps are a waste of money. It is useful sometimes, and a gadget at others. That being said, I must admit I’ve seen maybe one interesting AR application for every nine totally useless ones in our industry.
It’s been a hyped trend over the past four or five years –Pokémon Go brought it to the masses, but I already see it fading away. It will go back to being just one of the tools in our arsenal to improve customer experience. As with every new technology that is nice but not world changing, it has reached its peak of coolness when everybody wanted it, but now it’s a normal thing to use in some circumstances, but sparingly.
Bernhard Wagner:
Apple pushes it with their new iPhoneX, while IKEA and Nike and many other companies use the technology to create a better customer experience. Although AR is still in its very early stages, there will undoubtedly be implications not only for marketing and product development but also for many industries, including gaming and entertainment, healthcare, education, retail, and tourism, to name just a few.
Is AR useful to the trade show industry? First, we need to find the best AR applications and services for trade show visitors and then we need to integrate these into a business model – only then can we decide whether it’s a waste of money or a success. Just like with all services and business models.
Baris Onay:
Any new technology penetrates various levels in society before it can have any measurable effect on anything. As described by Simon Sinek, these levels are: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards.
Until about two months ago, when Apple announced a big reveal and put it on all of its phones going forward, AR was in the very early stages of penetration and therefore not very relevant for the masses.
But we’ve all seen this ‘movie’ many times before – new tech spreads like wildfire. It’s not very hard to predict the event tech industry (which is growing much faster than the events industry itself) commoditising AR-enabled event apps even before organisers ask for it. The question is: when will the users ask for it?
Gunnar Heinrich:
It doesn’t make sense to judge AR technology itself but rather to judge the solutions built on AR technology.
There are AR solutions for exhibitors that can help them to showcase a specific product while saving money, as they need less exhibition space.
Of course, these kinds of benefits aren’t the ones organisers are keen to hear about. There are also AR solutions for organisers that can gamify the visitors’ experience, boost a state-of-the-art image, and generate extra revenue.
However, sometimes tried-and-tested solutions are transferred to an AR app just for the sake of using modern technology. Why build an AR-enabled navigation app to find your way around the halls when a normal floor plan can beat this in terms of usability, cost and customer satisfaction. In cases like these, wasting money is just one negative aspect of this approach – you also have to consider the impact it will have on your scarce IT resources.
Régis-Emmanuel Crouzet:
AI. robots, AR, and 3D printing will change our world, lifestyle and businesses.
Is it a waste of money today? Certainly not. AR adds more content, therefore serving exhibitors, and providing a richer experience for attendees. What is good for exhibitors and attendees is good for our service industry, too.
