High-tech prototypes: futuristic event design projects guaranteed to make you feel old
EVENT DESIGN, EVENT PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY
As the maker revolution revs into high-gear, the future of spatial and experiential design is being built by small studios and labs experimenting with a medley of digital and IRL technologies. The results are pretty inspiring.
Cerebral Activations
Standing ovation on this one: way to integrate art, tech, and awareness-raising campaigns that add to an ambiance of empowerment rather than creating an awkward fundraisey vibe. Plus, this is so multi-disciplinary, we re not even sure what to call it. Art for a cause? Brand activations with lasers?
When a loved one gets cancer and you re not a doctor or a superhero you quickly feel like a bystander. And that feels S*! {04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3}# . With this punching bag we can step in the ring and join their fight. Punching cancer in the cells to raise funds for cancer research. Watch the film above.
Love. Check out more about this wicked project at interactivepunchbag.com.
Digital Wallpaper
The guys at Vienna-based design studio Strukt took projection-mapping small scale, turning an office into a digital disco after hours by projecting beams of light onto existing wall features. Naturally, Pac Man was also involved.
Or you could just, you know, turn the attendees themselves into wallpaper:
Interactive Flowers
Standard bouquets? What-ev-er. These two projects merge nature with interactivity. The first is a touch-reactive, Arduino-powered flower prototype that reacts to touch by opening and closing, much like the touch-me-not plant. The has been made using textiles and plastic parts. The second, Adaptive Bloom , is perhaps a little more avant garde a responsive art wall of floral radness.
Interactive Surfaces
Built for a Dresden exhibition all the way back in 2009, this interactive statistical strip merges physical design features with digital projection for flawless public data presentation.
On behalf of the German Hygiene-Museum Dresden, ART+COM has developed a statistics strip for the exhibition Work. Meaning and Worry to visualise and process large volumes of data and facts. Besides, seven interactive media stations with projections are integrated into the strip, where visitors can change different parameters by turning knobs and thus retrieve various data. 50 small monitors contrast the figures on the wall with individual perspectives: using touch screens, interviews with over 100 people are embedded into the statistics strip.
Six Ways to Make Your Event Hashtag a #Success
EVENT PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY
Hey man, you can t just get all willy-nilly with the hashtags, a right? If you want your event hashtag to take off, you gotta follow the rules.
1. Don t Procrastinate
With all the major stuff that comes with organizing an event, you might be tempted to prioritize stuff like venue and speakers over your lowly little hashtag. But don t leave it as an afterthought your event s hashtag should be one of the first things you choose, not only for the sake of advance buzz, but because it s going to be a central part of your event s design. Merchandise, decor, visuals, staff uniforms it s all a potential billboard for your event.
2. KISS
You know what they say: Keep It Simple Stupid. When brainstorming a hashtag, strive to keep it short and sweet. There are two reasons to avoid long, complicated hashtags: first, they re more likely to be forgotten or misspelled; and second, on a platform like Twitter, where you have a 140-character limit, you don t want to waste space with a hashtag!
3. Do Your Homework
This is where things get tricky if you ve followed the rule above, you ve come up with a catchy, compact hashtag that folks are sure to remember. Unfortunately, a lot of great minds think alike, which means the shorter and more memorable your hashtag is, the more likely it s already in use by someone else. After coming up with a few ideas, take to Twitter and do a bit of research about which hashtags are already taken and conversely, which ones have an established community that you can plug into. Ideally, your hashtag should be unique enough that users won t confuse it with another event.
4. Go All Out
This is no time to be modest. Crowds are used to glazing over advertising, which means if you want your hashtag to be noticed, you ll have to put it everywhere. The usual suspects are a good place to start incorporated into the decor, plastered on the walls, printed on banners and signs but you can also get more creative with it. Put it on your brochure, on table cars, heck you can even put it on your staff s tee shirts. Anything to make sure that if and when a guest is ready to post, the hashtag is right under their noses.
5. Offer Hashtag-Related Rewards
You can lead a horse to water, but you can t make it drink. Even if your hashtag is plastered all you re your event, that doesn t mean that attendees will be tweeting it en masse. Add an extra incentive by coming up with rewards for people who send out tweets incorporating the hashtag. That can mean anything from a lucky draw for participants to a Twitter wall, where people can view their own tweets, to hashtag-operated consoles, where in exchange for a post incorporating the hashtag attendees are rewarded with mementos.
6. Turn It Into a Photo Opp
One of the best ways to ensure that guests post your hashtag is to turn it into a photo opp. Have an idea for a larger-than-life display? Do you plan to incorporate an interactive wall or technical display with a lot of wow factor? Are you providing a photo booth or pictures with a mascot that people will want to post? Then build them around your hashtag. Even if you fail to engage attendees with the hashtag itself through one of the above strategies, no one can resist posting a quality selfie and if you do it right, you hashtag will be along for the ride.
Four Apps to Help Event Producers Get Organized
EVENT PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY
Among the most challenging parts of being an event planner is keeping yourself organized. From arranging the venue to proofing contracts, there are a million things to do in the run-up to a big event, and if you re not careful you ll quickly find yourself drowning in a sea of to-do lists.
Luckily, these days it s easier than ever to electronically compile and share information with your team the question is, how should you do it? Though technology offers a lot of options for constant communication, it can also make for complications when you find your to-do list spread across a half-dozen different devices and platforms. Read on for several options that will streamline your process, putting all of your information in one place and making for easier sharing and delegation. You re just a few apps away from
Evernote
This little gem is perfect for compiling all of your research into one place, no matter what the original format. You can take photos, record voice memos, capture handwritten notes, clip web articles and more, and then arrange it all according to tags. Another great feature is Evernote s ability to transform your notes into a to-do list complete with reminders. Evernote can be synced across multiple devices. The basic version is free, the plus version offers more monthly uploads and options for $24.99 a year, and the premium version features more detailed search and recording functions for $49.99.
Boomset
Having trouble keeping tabs on your guest registration? Get a handle on it with Boomset, an app designed to streamline registration and check-in. The app helps organizers print badges or create wristbands, and also allows guests can check in using their QR scanner. You can also import and sync multiple guest lists.
Zapier
The world of app use has gone meta which is to say, we now need apps to connect our apps. Enter Zapier, a webapp-automation service that helps create connections between more than 300 applications, including Evernote, Mailchimp, Twitter, Gmail, Google Calendar, Asana, Trello, Todoist, and more. Here s how it works you create a Zap, or an action that occurs in response to a defined trigger, allowing your apps to communicate automatically. For example every time you star an email in Gmail, it creates a task in another one of your apps easy peasy! Zapier is also great for keeping members of your team who are using different apps on the same page.
Slack
Forget email the new way to keep up with your team is Slack, a group chat app that can be used across different devices and boasts automatic archiving as well as a good search engine. Like so many other valuable apps, the key to Slack is integration, communication and simplification. Slack allows you to create chat rooms for different topics and teams, allowing for easier sharing of information and communication across teams. It also integrates with other tools to provide handy reminders, offers private channels, and a star function to designate tasks.
The Virtual Audience: Tactics for tackling engagement problems of the future
EVENT PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY
Hybrid and virtual meetings are becoming commonplace, but both event planners and attending audiences are split on the issue of virtual attendance. In the fourth annual American Express Meetings and Events Report, hybrid meeting technologies in other words, partial in-person attendance coupled with partial virtual audience attendance were names as one of the four empowering digital event solutions for the current year, but at the same time, as reported by Skift:
The AMEX report asked how many meeting planners offer virtual meetings at least 50{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} of the time, dependent on the group s size. Attendees were asked how often they attend online events based on the same criteria. Planners responded that they offer an online meeting option at least 50{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} of the time for smaller events (10-49 attendees), compared to 42{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3}, 32{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} and 24{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} for medium, large and very large meetings (500 or more attendees), respectively.
Meanwhile, 38{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} of attendees participated virtually in at least half of their small meetings, going down to 18{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} for very large meetings. It would seem as a meeting grows in size, the perceived value of attending that meeting increases due to higher levels of available networking opportunities and educational experiences.
A total of 68{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} of planners argue that attendees are too easily distracted when they attend virtual meetings, while almost half (45{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3}) of attendees agreed with that view. Furthermore, 74{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} of attendees and 85{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} of planners responded: In-person meetings are more valuable to me because they allow more social interaction.
So how do you connect in a genuine, authentic way to a virtual audience? We collected a few tips from the experts and from our own experience.
Match the Experience to Real Life
As much as possible, create an experience online that mirrors the attendee s experience in other areas, maintaining a thread of familiarity. You can do this by structuring the virtual content to be similar to television programming the viewer is used to seeing, or by striving to keep virtual content as in line as possible with an in-person experience.
Keep Segments Short
A study conducted in May of this year posits that the average human attention span around 8 seconds in 2015, down from 12 seconds in the year 2000 is now worse than the average goldfish. If you present your event in long, unbroken streams, you re much more likely to lose your audience than if you attack the content in easily-digestible chunks.
Use tech to keep the audience connected to each other
Not only is it too easy for virtual viewers to get distracted, they can also easily feel disconnected from the events on the ground. The Amex report suggests that event organizers:
Poll the webcast audience live, then push the poll results for the audience to see, and discuss the feedback live. Use polling features that display both percentages and easy-to-read pie graphs, to allow the audience a glimpse of how their fellow remote audience members are responding.
but structure for response delays.
While snappy back-and-forth dialogues between virtual attendees and live presenters sound great in theory, in real life, delays between attendee input and answer can cause disruptions and lower the quality of dialogue. Even if you test drive your technology, it s very hard to get a realistic assessment of how your event networks will respond to a heavy attendance load, so it s best to structure any live-to-virtual back-and-forth so that delay issues are minimized.
Any other tips? Let us know in the comments.
Oooh: Five Incredible Tech-Driven Interactive Brand Experiences
EVENT PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY
We know, we know, in 2015, most immersive brand experience are tech-driven it s hard to find one that isn t but these five feature cutting-edge experiential technology at their core.
Delta at TEDx2015
https://youtu.be/8_VWKEt2e3w
Delta jumped into the TEDx fray with a booth inspired by travel writer Pico Iyer and dubbed Stillness in Motion . The booth was driven by biometric sensors that matched the participant s heart rate to an immersive lighting display, creating a personalized trance-like sensory experience.
Flying Over Wimbeldon
The virtual reality experience launched by Stella Artois allows participants to see Wimbeldon though the eyes of Rufus the Hawk, the event s beloved pigeon-thwarting mascot. While you can participate in the experience online at Flylikerufus.com, Stella Artois also has a stationary location at Waterloo Station in London.
Holographic Tennis
More from the sports-o-verse, American express outdid themselves celebrating the start of the US Open with a holographic wall that allowed attendees to play a live-slash-virtual match with tennis celebs.
From Eventmarketer.com:
Here s how it worked: As fans munched on complimentary eats, they watched Sharapova, James, Puig, Isner and a few lucky members of the crowd step onto the court to use interactive, responsive tennis rackets designed to translate, in real-time, the players every move. As the athletes played a real-life tennis game, every stroke and movement of the ball was transformed into 3D graphics, animations, sounds and video projections. Holographic appearances from tennis legends rounded out the experience.
Kenzo s Interactive Aquarium
Paris-based fashion brand Kenzo educates the public about the dangers of overfishing with its interactive aquarium display window benefiting the Blue Marine Foundation. The window s abundance of virtual fish slowly begin to disappear and are only replenished by the purchase of a t-shirt.
Google Photos Food Truck
Google Photos took to the road with a mobile tour allowing participants to pay for lunch with a picture.
https://youtu.be/r0QSQANxY08
The Incredible Impossibility of the Super Bowl Halftime Show
EVENT DESIGN, EVENT INDUSTRY, EVENT PRODUCTION INSPIRATION, EVENT PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY
As you re making your last minute game-day dip selections and 60-inch TV purchases, there s a group of brave people who have been prepping for this Super Bowl Sunday since last year.
Spoiler alert: It s not any member of the Falcons or the Patriots.
No, for these ambitious folks, the game really begins when the players leave the field. It s halftime.
It s showtime.
A Logistical Nightmare
The team that puts on the Super Bowl halftime show truly accomplishes something incredible. While normal stage setup for a stadium-size concert usually takes a day or more, the Super Bowl halftime stage is assembled in just minutes six minutes to be exact.
According to Charles Coplin, VP of Special Events for the NFL, last year s Super Bowl XXXVIII (with the halftime show featuring Coldplay, Beyonce and Bruno Mars), they had six minutes to bring the stage on and set it up, and six minutes to break it all down. Oh and not to mention, leave the field in pristine condition for the second half of the world s most prestigious football game.
You see, not only do these incredibly elaborate stage setups have to happen quicker than the time it takes to boil six cups of water, they also have to do so without the help of heavy machinery or motor vehicles. Cranes and trucks could tear up the field or bump a goal post. There is way too much at stake to cause a delay of game due to a rogue rig.
Yeah there really isn t any room for mistakes. Like zero room. Because when they say that the Super Bowl halftime show is a huge stage, they mean that both literally and figuratively. What happens on that stage will be seen. By millions. Live. (Or maybe with a slight delay to prevent any future wardrobe malfunctions. )
In fact, there have been many years when the halftime show actually gets more viewership than the football game itself. This was true for last year s show. Super Bowl 50, which saw the Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers 24-10, had an average viewership of 111.9 million TV viewers. And when was its largest viewership of the night recorded? That s right. During halftime. 115.5 million TV viewers. And even that s rounding down.
This count from Nielson doesn t include out-of-home viewers who went to catch the game at a bar or at their friend s house. It also doesn t include online streaming viewers, or the nearly 70,000 fans that filled Levi Stadium.
OK, so the stage has to be setup in six minutes, using predominantly volunteers and virtually no heavy machinery. There can be no damage done to any area of the field. The performance needs to be executed flawlessly coordinating A-list performers, dancers, lights, sound, props and pyrotechnics because millions of people will be watching live. And then in another six minutes the stage has to be taken down and everyone tucked back in their seats before halftime ends, with zero damage to the field.
Oh yeah, and you also have to put on a halftime show that kicks ass.
Pushing a 12-minute Show to the Limit
What truly makes halftime amazing is that even with all of these restrictions, it still has to be an unforgettable show. It still has to astound the audience. It still has to keep us talking about it, comparing it to other halftime shows year after year.
Each Super Bowl halftime show tries to push the envelope a little further. Increase the WOW factor just a little more. Let s look at some examples, shall we?
1993 Super Bowl XXVII This is the show that really kicked off the modern halftime extravaganza. In the beginning, Michael Jackson impersonators seemingly morphed from within the digital scoreboards, appearing on top of them to dance high above the stadium. Then, Michael Jackson himself shot up from the stage floor and stared down the audience for a full 90 seconds without moving. A full 90 seconds.
A halftime spectacular featuring Michael Jackson wows a SB XXVII crowd of better than 98,000 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on 1/31/1993. Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images Photos (Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)
1995 Super Bowl XXIX Produced by Disney, this performance featured a live-action Indiana Jones skit, complete with 13 professional stuntmen, skydivers, Patti LaBelle, and one guy who got lit on fire (intentionally). While this halftime show received a lot of ridicule, it was the only one to feature stuntmen and live fight scenes no matter how hokey.
1996 Super Bowl XXX The headliner, Diana Ross, had 12 wardrobe changes, and left the stage in a helicopter.
2007 Super Bowl XLI This show featured a remarkable performance by Prince while it actually rained. The pouring rain wasn t planned, but the show definitely did go on. And it was fucking awesome.
2012 Super Bowl XLVI This year had an impressive stage completely outfitted with projection mapping. DWP Live, the projection mapping crew, spent nearly 3 weeks getting things ready in Indianapolis. The stage looked spectacular moving and transforming beneath Madonna and her dancers.
Photo By: Brad Duns via MomentFactory.com
Photo By: Brad Duns via MomentFactory.com
2015 Super Bowl XLIX Katy Perry rode in on a GIANT animatronic tiger (that looked like a lion), and then left by flying around the stadium on a star.
This year, we are eagerly awaiting the over-the-top antics of Lady Gaga. Rumor has it she will be performing alone, maybe with a small cameo by Tony Bennett, but we d love to see some surprise guests. There s also some high flying rumors that she will perform on top of the stadium, or suspended down from the roof in someway a rumor she has neither confirmed nor denied. She did, however, say that her stage would be athletic, so that sounds fun.
The 2017 halftime show has been designed by Bruce Rogers from Tribe Inc., who has been designing the Super Bowl halftime show for more than a decade. LeRoy Bennett has also joined him this year as a co-production designer. We expect the results from this dynamic duo to be nothing short of legendary.
Will you be tuning in to this year s 2017 Super Bowl LI halftime show? We ll be there, and we ll be live tweeting at @decibelevent so follow us and talk to us to let us know what you think. Bring on the guacamole.
Picspiration for your next Event: Photo Booths with a Twist
EVENT PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY
Pics or it didn t happen. I think we re all familiar with the basic Instagram photo booth deal by now (and if you re not, check out Instaprint, a killer suite of Instagram-enabled tools for events). But how about kicking it up a notch? Here s some ideas:
Light Painting Photo Booths
The Light Experience is an interactive art experience using light as the medium. With The Light Experience everyone at your party or event can get creative! Our team of light painting artist will create custom light packages including light colors and textures consistent with your brand or event. The Light Experience team will even create custom light logos with your company, band, or event branding graphics.
Teledisko
The world s most hipsterrific two-person nightclub in Berlin, naturally doubles as a photo booth. This, from Trendhunter: Once an interested party enters the Teledisko, they are able to select their favorite song on a touchscreen and dance like no one is watching during the time in the booth. Currently, there are three Teledisko s located across the Berlin area. The first two are permanently installed in venues for you and your friends to find on their own, while the third is mobile and available for event bookings.
Shootbooth
Shootbooth hearkens back to a time when everything was just a little more fabulous. As soon as you step in front of our 101 year-old bellows camera, perched atop a turn-of-the-century tripod, you know something special is about to happen. the button is pushed and pop! the the flash goes off. wizardry on the inside of the camera lets us instantly show you all your pictures on a review monitor set into a hardwood frame, and we print your favorites.
Airstream Photo Booths
Oh, sorry, was the turn-of-the-20th-century bulb flash not vintage enough for you? You want more kitch? Challenge accepted. This Austin-based rental company would like you to meet Bambi Booth a very rare 1963 vintage Airstream Bambi model just 500 of these lovely silver trailers were ever made! We have restored Bambi to her former glory and she is now a really cool, vintage photo booth and decked out inside with the most modern photo booth equipment and printer on the market today! Bambi is a small single-axle Airstream and is 16 feet long and 9 feet high; and yes, she does fit indoors in some of the larger ballrooms and indoor venues!
LED Glow Booth
Created by Philly-based Extreme Photo Booths, the LED Glow Booth is white and glows a solid color of your choice or rotating patterns of light. I mean, look at it. It s like the Aurora Borealis of on-site photography.
Animated GIF Booth
Created by Big Bad Booth, because one frame just isn t good enough anymore: Our Animated GIF Booths take 3-4 photos and combine them together to create digital animated looping awesomeness. These digitals can instantly be shared on social media with your hashtag, sent to guest s phones via text message or email, and displayed in an instant online gallery. We add static overlays to each animated GIF so every digital photo our booth produces is a reflection of your brand.
Thermo Booth
Sex it up, people: The Thermobooth features a new shutter release system in which skin contact between two or more people triggers a set of processes that result in a glorious lo-fi instant thermal-printed picture. Yes, it takes a picture when you touch each other! We are opening a stage for playfulness and the unexpected.
Did we miss any? Drop us a note.
Level up your floor plans: Great 3D modelling tutorials for event producers
EVENT PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY
Curious what it takes to DIY your spatial models? Want to be able to throw together a 3D walkthrough of an event area? Feeling like adding another skill to your set? Self-improver, we applaud you. We ll be looking at tutorials that introduce some of the most commonly-used programs in the 3D layout-i-verse, AutoCAD and SketchUp, but the truth is, you can use almost any 3D design program to create a room, site, stage, or interior space. Blender, for example, is a free 3D modelling suite with a robust user base and fan community that publish new tutorials frequently.
AutoCAD
Oh hoh! We re feeling feisty, I see. Goin for gold. Feeling powerful and full of vim. Okay. If we re starting with the heavy lifting, we d better take it slow. AutoCAD, as you probably know, is primarily an architectural tool for drafting, but it s been adapted for use across multiple industries. The software is very complex, comprising a full suite of industry-leading tools for 2D and 3D spatial design.
2D room layouts created in AutoCAD can also be exported to the other 3D design programs, so it s not unheard-of for event designers to use AutoCAD for creating the room structure and dimensions (a function at which it excels), and then finish the rendering in Blender or SketchUp.
Learn the basic controls: Hitchhiker s Guide to AutoCAD
This multi-part tutorial from the makers of AutoCAD covers the basic functions and features of the program.
45-minute AutoCAD starter video
Already a bit tech-savvy? Rather not suffer through 12 lessons to get a grip on the basic tools? This video takes a faster approach to familiarizing you with the workspace.
2D Floor Plans
Starting with flat models, this 20-minute tutorial walks you through the basics of building a floor plan in 20 minutes .
Turning Plans into Models in AutoCAD
A 16-minute overview on how to turn a flat plan into a 3D model.
Your First Set of Plans in AutoCAD
Geared more towards up-and-coming architects, this 17-lesson, pay-to-play course from digitaltutors.com is the Cadillac of AutoCAD tutorials. Check this out if you re interested in learning advanced interior and spatial design modelling.
Sketchup
SketchUp is a popular 3D drawing tool created by the good men and women at Google. There is a free version of sketchup for personal use, most professionals who plan to do a good deal of modeling spring for the pro version ($695). 3D objects can be created from scratch in Sketchup, or, as mentioned, can be imported from tools like AutoCAD (here s how).
Once you ve got a good command of the software itself, you can trawl the SketchUp 3D Warehouse for pre-made 3D furniture and decor items to toss into your room layout. The SketchUp site also offers a few of its own getting started videos, or check out these tutorials created by independent designers:
Learning the Workspace
How to create your first-ever SketchUp 3D model.
Create a 2D Floorplan
Today I am going to walk you through my process for drawing a 2D floor plan in SketchUp from measurements I ve taken at a client s home or business (in the field).
Creating a 3D Model from a Floor Plan
How to turn a 2D floorplan into a three-dimensional layout in SketchUp.
How to Use SketchUp to Create an Event Layout
Once you ve got the basics down, this video will teach you how to use SketchUp to layout a meeting room, banquet hall or other event space.
Site Modelling in SketchUp
For the very ambitious, here s a look at creating an entire 3D site plan for a large outdoor event.
Give Up
No? Too hard? Too much sitting and clicking while you burn through productive hours like a lava flow through Pompeii? No sweat, friend. There s a reason Social Tables is successful. Head over there, sign up, and do your floor plans the point-and-click way. We won t judge.
Top 5 New Gadgets and Technologies We re Excited For As Event Managers
BACKSTAGE, EVENT COLLATERAL, EVENT INDUSTRY, EVENT PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY, EXPERIENTIAL, MOBILE MEDIA
Earlier this year, Las Vegas played host to the largest tech conference of its kind, the Consumer Electronics Show 2018, or CES 2018 for short. The event showcases technology and cool gadgets, both real and conceptual, entering into the consumer realm. Here at Decibel Management, we re also excited to embrace (and play with) new technology and see how we can implement it into the world of event management. We paid close attention to the news coming out of CES this year as well as other tech markets and here are some items we are looking forward to seeing change the events game.
1. Samsung s The Wall Television
Come on. This is an easy one. A 146-inch micro-LED screen that is adaptive to its surroundings and has nearly endless customization features? Yes please. The Wall allows you to change the size and shape of the display, making customization of visuals and presentation limited only to your imagination. It can also mimic the area it is mounted to, allowing it to disappear from view or allow for more focused areas within the screen. Visuals are a fantastic way to gain engagement and attention at events and The Wall has the size for both main stage focus and the discreetness for professional and intimate settings. Price tag: don t-care-we-want-one USD.
2. Laptop/Tablet Combo Computers
Going to be honest. We don t think combo computers is the official name for these devices, but we liked the way it sounded. Essentially these are laptops that can convert and fold over to function as a touchscreen tablet. While this technology has been around for a few years, it is only now actually being perfected and made to be less clunky. Take Dell s XPS 13 2-in-1 for example. It has a sleek design, is responsive and has great battery life. As event managers we are running around, like constantly. Being able to work on the go, while standing, lying down or trapped in a shipping container is essential and the 2-in-1 technology is making that easier. Now if only Apple would get on board.
3. Projection Phones
The headline says it all. These are phones that can project videos, pictures and media onto any surface. Again, small projection devices have existed for a few years but they are just now starting to live up to expectations. Look at the Movi Phone unveiled at CES 2018. It s an Android smartphone that can project in beautiful 720p. Granted that s no 1080p, but come on it s literally shooting out of the back of your phone. As event managers, being on the road and having to respond quickly comes with the territory. Projection phones allow giving on the fly presentations or adding quick visuals to a space easy and relatively affordable.
4. Augmented & Virtual Reality Technology
Augmented and virtual reality is on the rise in 2018 (or at least Steven Spielberg hopes it is) and has the potential to have a significant effect on the events industry. For the first time ever you don t actually need to attend an event in order to be there. Hell, there doesn t even need to be an actual event space anymore. Just strap on your virtual reality gear and suddenly you re at the Bellagio for your company s sales conference. The best part is that the equipment for this technology is pretty affordable too, with many AR and VR devices only costing a couple hundred dollars. Don t get us wrong, we believe there is no substitute for true in-person engagement, but we are excited to see how this new technology will change the industry. At the very least it could make the conference calls between our D.C. and NC offices a little more entertaining
5. Wireless Charging
We know. Charging your device does not sound as sexy as a 146-inch high-def modular TV from the gods (please someone buy us The Wall ) but it s a great example of a subtle technology that will change our lives as event managers. Companies like Powercast and Energous have developed technology that allows your devices to be charged wirelessly .THROUGH THE AIR. Imagine never having to be tethered to a wall again while
you re late for a presentation but you need to send out that one last email so you don t get fired and oh God your kid s school is calling now, damnit what did Billy do this time. Well, this scenario could soon be a thing of the past, well at least the being tethered part, Billy is still a monster. At Decibel, we are seriously excited at the prospect of an entire event space being charged. All the attendees no longer having to fight over the two outlets in the venue, everyone happily snapping pictures, sending emails etc. while throwing caution to the wind over their power bar levels. Ahh.
Honorable Mention: Self Delivering Pizza Trucks
It s a thing now and we don t think this requires an explanation. Just hurry up and get to Washington, D.C. already.
Audience Engagement: A Trend To Watch Literally.
BACKSTAGE, EVENT COLLATERAL, EVENT INDUSTRY, EVENT PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY, EXPERIENTIAL, MOBILE MEDIA
While 2018 may only be in its infancy, we have already seen some amazing productions take place. The first few months of this year have played host to some of the largest global events in the industry. One trend we here at Decibel Management are seeing consistently is how planners have up d the game for audience engagement, but not just for those in attendance, but rather those viewing at home.
The Super Bowl:
Polls show that 92{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} of Super Bowl views can t even name the two teams playing in the game (not a real stat). But let s face it, most of us just watch for the commercials and to have an excuse to gorge yourself on various batter & sauce covered foods. That s why the people behind the Super Bowl are always looking for ways to have viewers turn the sound back up on their TV once the commercials are over. This past year marked Super Bowl LII (that s 52 for those of us who forgot our Freshman year Western Civ lectures) and the producers brought in a big hitter for the halftime show. None other than JT himself, Justin Timberlake. While many viewers may have watched the half-time show in hopes of another wardrobe malfunction , unfortunately, Janet Jackson s invite was lost in the mail. However, the production teams came up other tactics to make viewers feel like they were right there in the mix. Much of the halftime show was shot at ground level in single shot format, the camera moving around the field with Timberlake, resulting in a viewing experience designed to make you feel like you were in the stadium walking alongside. The icing on the cake came towards the end of the performance when Timberlake entered the stadium s seating area to dance and sing with those in attendance, thus helping to further remove the wall between performer and audience. We even got a new meme out of it! #selfiekid
The 2018 Winter Olympics In Pyeongchang:
The Olympics are notoriously difficult for producers. Whether it s the time differences (this year saw a nearly 12-hour gap for the US East Coast and Pyeongchang) or viewers lack of interest in hurling a rock down an ice rink and sweeping it along. There are many hurdles to overcome when coming up with strategies for this event. NBC had an interesting tactic for this year s games Quantity. NBC live-streamed a record-breaking 1,800+ hours of coverage, including every single event, over 100 medal events and 24/7 news and highlights, almost doubling their coverage from the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Viewers had more access and viewing options to this global event than ever before, making the Olympics feel more accessible and approachable. So sorry to all the chumps who bought round-trip flights to South Korea, chances are the fans at home got way more Olympic intake than those in attendance. Which is great news if you love shooting guns while cross-country skiing.
The Academy Awards:
The Oscars have seen declining viewership in recent years. The 2018 Academy Awards saw the lowest ratings ever. Yep. EVER. It was the least watched Oscars broadcast since their inception, down a whopping 19{04d9822e7d95da125d508d8e1efbcf2edc79acd8aec1f0bbdcbd6a6f684f9bb3} from just last year. I mean, who doesn t love a four hour ceremony of celebrities thanking themselves. However, while viewership may be down amongst this event that many people see as being out of touch or unrelatable, it s not for lack of trying. This year s awards included a segment where host Jimmy Kimmel surprised a theatre full of unsuspecting movie-goers with a who s who of celebrities handing out snacks and talking with the audience. You see, THEY RE JUST LIKE US! The Oscars team also attempted to poke fun at themselves a bit, by having a jet-ski giveaway for the recipient with the shortest acceptance speech. While elements like these work to remove the barrier between Hollywood and the audience, it s clear the Academy Award producers face an uphill battle if they want to get back to where the ratings used to be. Our vote: host the next ceremony at the Super Bowl halftime. It ll be a win-win.
With all this emphasis on audience engagement for those not in attendance, we are interested to see how this could have an effect on live event production moving forward. New tech and production techniques are making it easier and more cost effective to have offsite attendees. As an event management team, we believe there is no substitute for in-person impressions, but this is definitely a trend we ll be tracking and embracing.
