Mark Jones, Founder and CEO of Giant iTab, discusses how to use technology to drive face-to-face engagement.
The world of digital has obvious benefits for online communities.
The myriad of tools, apps and other technology available today allows for globally dispersed communities to communicate, present or simply conduct a meeting online - internet permitting. Yet this is only a small piece of the pie.
The real pay-off for many sectors comes when these tools drive engagement and more face-to-face time with colleagues or clients. Seeing the whites of your peers’ eyes is usually the most effective way to communicate and ultimately conduct your business. In fact, in many cases meeting in person is vital, therefore using the great tools at hand to drive engagement or to start the conversation needs to be part of your technology mix.
The retail sector often talks about the new “retail blend” where the journey starts online and then progresses onto the shop floor, allowing for a great retail experience in person. For the events industry this is even more prevalent and, in our opinion, goes one step further. Many top agencies and corporate meeting planners are cleverly layering technology into events, to enhance the experience and the conversation around them.
Whether it be the latest facial recognition software that allows access to events with simply a scan of your face or touch screen technology to vote, collect information or showcase content, the aim is to wow the delegate both on and offline. When your mind turns to architecture and designing your next event, don’t think simply of what happens in the traditional event landscape of paper business cards and printed literature, but how much more effective and tech driven your next face-to-face gathering could be.
Put yourself in the size 9 brogues or size 5 Louboutin’s (yes, I’m generalising to raise a wry smile) of your delegates, attendees and visitors. What technology is second nature and will be an easy transition into your event? Touch screens to consume content are very much second nature from our habitual use of phones, so replicate this into your event and then transmit your technology mind space into new, emerging and cutting edge technology based on virtual reality, 3D imaging or even proximity and movement based software and hardware.
Think about technology that delivers upon the objectives of the attendees yet has a wow effect, you don’t want a Christmas tree effect dripping with tech that becomes garish or too heavy but a mix of the effective but easy-to-use technology that makes for an engaged, interactive event.
