When companies like Microsoft, FedEx, and 3M want to accelerate their digital transformation journey, they call Andrew Au. An expert on digital transformation, Andrew is the president of Intercept, a strategic millennial and digital transformation consultancy. He brings both substance and style to navigating disruption and future-proofing organizations, powered by big data and transformative ideas. Read his top tips to help event planners find and embrace the best technology transforming events.
Digital transformation is setting a new equilibrium for industry and society. It’s fundamentally changing the way we work, live, and play. As Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum put it, “In its scale, scope and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before.”
As an event planner, digital transformation has likely hit the agenda for your conferences, with the rising interest in big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. But have you considered how it’s transforming your attendees expectations? Attendees want to navigate your events the same way they do on Amazon, AirBnB, or Uber.
Here are 5 ways you can apply digital transformation to your next event:
- Smart Badge Technology
Start looking at your name badges in a new light. Through smart badge technology, you can convert traditionally static name tags into interactive tools that help attendees navigate your event. If your attendee hears something interesting in a breakout session, they can simply click their smart badge to receive more information. If attendees want to exchange contact information, they can simply tap their name badges together. This tech exists today and is already making its way into major events across the U.S. and Canada - AI-Powered Networking
Networking is a common fear for most attendees — help break the ice faster with a bit of tech. Explore the integration of social platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn within your event app. For event apps that have open API’s, this can be an easy way to intelligently recommend people to connect based on common interests and networks. Don’t worry about building an artificial intelligence (AI) app for this, you can pull from existing app galleries for this type of functionality. - Chat Bot Concierge
With the emergence of AI-powered customer service, consider the use of chat bots to create a 24/7 event desk concierge. Want to know more about the next speaker? Or, where room A301 is? Or, when’s the next coffee break? These types of questions can be streamlined through a sleek chat bot that can provide accurate and consistent responses. Deploying natural language processing will help the bot understand common phrases and iterations of the same question to provide more humanized support - Beacon Technology
As an event planner, you’re always looking to make next year’s event better. With beacon technology, you can better metricize and analyze your event traffic. Where did attendees spend most time? Where did they not spend enough time? What was the most popular destination? All of these questions can be answered in real-time by placing beacons within your different event zones. Beacons can ping device MAC addresses without the collection of personally identifiable information to provide these powerful insights. - Gamify Your Feedback Loop
Attendee feedback and NPS scores are important in evaluating the attendee experience. Rather than sending email surveys post-events, consider integrating short surveys within your event app. Through properly timed notifications and a points-based gamification system, you can significantly drive survey completions at your next event. Good news — these software-as-a-service platforms are readily available today.
Interested in learning more about digital transformation and what Andrew Au can bring to your next event? Contact us at [email protected].
