I was asked to write a blog on my thoughts on event tech trends in 2016.
Whenever I write a blog, I try to research the subject a little bit before I begin to type the words as they come out of my mouth. In this case, I googled “What is a trend?” Googles reply “a general direction in which something is developing or changing” or a “fashion”.
Interesting…
A lot of the “trend” reports/blogs/posts I’ve already read for 2016 talk about, for example, technology that is already available and is already being used. So they’re not really trends, they’re promotions or certainly what suppliers of said technology will hope gets noticed by the unassuming client to something they have to do more of – a good plan I agree. There are a few blogs that move away from the latest developed app, for example, and talk about experiences that these trends will help offer to people. So not really the tech itself, but more the combined effort of the technology already in use and in existence to make someone’s experience of something greater.
After further research, I can surmise that a trend blog is typically a person’s opinion of what they think may or may not happen in the following year. Great, everyone has an opinion, so here is mine 😉 It is technology focused… I work for a tech company after all.
So, what trend will I offer you for 2016?
I recently took part in a panel session with the topic about what event tech will look like in 5 years time. (you can watch the full session here).
The problem we had in this discussion was actually with the title itself.
Technology is constantly evolving, adapting and being invented. If, for example, I had a dollar for every app company I saw at the WebSummit in Dublin, I’d be a very rich man. They’re all clinging to the the vision that they’ll be the next best thing that we all “need” to use (and rightly so, otherwise, why invent…?). But from that, we have no real idea of what is next. Or rather, what the next BIG thing will be. Who knows what Facebook might launch next. Who knows what new rules LinkedIn will bring that means we all have to change our development plans again to work with it.
A lot of the latest technology has overnight success (or rather, months/ years of work, then sudden success) and suddenly, whilst a lot of the industry focus on say Twitter, Instagram or Linkedin, there may be a whole new social network that we need to come to terms with (there is by the way… I just read someone elses blog about it… ;-).
Which brings me on to my thoughts on what’s going, or rather what should be happening in 2016.
Integration.
Lots and lots of integration.
Ok, so to answer my own statement above, it’s not a trend as integration has been happening for years. It is more something that I think will happen more often with event tech in 2016.
I know from my own personal use of various types of software how frustrating it can be that they don’t all speak to each other. For example, I’m preparing this blog in Evernote, which I can see on my phone / ipad / laptop, but I can’t link it through to my blog posts on Linkedin or our website blog, for example, in a live test environment. Instead, I’ll have to copy it and paste it a few times. Ok, so not an onerous task admittedly, but if you magnify this by the variety of CRM’s, websites, apps, reg forms, booking forms, H&S forms, databases, event guides, seminar planners etc., that an event will typically be operating at any one period, you can see a lot of work needs to happen, by someone. In practical sense, this could be an organiser having to manually update each of these “portals” that will take valuable time away from them from promoting their event.
So, for all key stakeholders of an event in 2016, my prediction?
Simplified processe and quality integration to aid in seamless experiences for all involved.
Integration doesn’t just happen overnight either. Everyone will have a slightly different requirement from their integration needs, so it’s important to plan what you need out of your event technology to ensure that what you’re getting out of it is actually useful. So, take a moment either now or early in 2016 (or your event cycle of course) to plan, not just for how your event will shape up, but how your event technologies will work together to make your life easier and the experience better for all of those involved in your event.
I hope you all have a very merry Christmas & look forward to seeing more of you in the new year!
Matt