As the volume of events increases (given the post-covid comeback, the rise of virtual events, and the corporate world's realization that events are important in the customer's journey to name a few reasons), event technology still needs to catch up.
The next iteration of attendee-facing tech (it was event apps a decade ago) should be personalized itineraries… which acts you should catch at a festival, speakers you should learn from at a conference, networking events you should attend, and booths you should visit at a trade show.
In March, I attended Treefort, which is Boise’s own SXSW (disclaimer: I am an investor in their new music hall). Treefort is primarily a music festival with 500+ bands but it is run alongside nine other “forts” spread out across Boise. From comedy to film, Treefort has it all but with a few dozen options at every slot and the need to traverse between venues, charting your route and choosing what to do at each moment can be challenging.
Sure, it’s fun to get lost for the sake of serendipity, and festivals like Treefort present opportunities for whimsical discovery... but sometimes, especially when your time is limited, consumers need some structure... especially since they tend to flock to things they know (e.g. artists or speakers they've heard of) and don't have a bias for going outside the box. This is an opportunity for event tech to solve.
There’s an experience gap in event technology. It's trailing years behind the innovation we've seen in marketing/advertising. With a litany of data (from Spotify recommendations to the social graph to all the consumer data points), event tech companies should be harnessing this information to craft curated schedule recommendations ahead of the event.
If advertisers can target someone based on the kind of water bottle they're likely to buy why can't automated event tech recommend the kind of session an attendee would enjoy?
Conferences and festivals are resuming and growing. Event tech can help attendees navigate to the experiences they would find most interesting and valuable.
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