The top event technologies of 2007

Whether it’s for consumer or b-to-b events, when it comes to including the latest bells and whistles, the challenge is choosing technology that impacts the customer experience in the most relevant way. And lately, more and more, that means gadgets and gizmos that turn the traditional static event model on its head: Marketers making the best use of new technologies are often the ones who are using them to put customers in command of their own experiences. After all, there is no more relevant brand interaction than the one your customers create for themselves.

Holography

What it is: A method of producing a projected 3-D image that can come to life on a variety of canvases, from the exterior of a building to small screens inside a consumer experience or trade show exhibit.

How it works: Laser beams create an interference pattern, that, when recorded on a holographic plate, forms a 3-D image.

Why you should care: Holograms can take a product display or a marketing image to a new level, offering the target a new way to experience the brand. The latest advances in holography have expanded options from the traditional (say, a corporate logo extending out from a wall) to the stuff of sci-fi flicks. Through spectral imagery—video projections with holographic properties—brands can create miniature theatrical sets within a kiosk, a unique way to tell a product’s story. For a recent mobile tour aimed at recruiting healthcare professionals, the U.S. Air Force used holography to create images of human anatomy and of a large cargo plane. The images, lit from the front, reflected off of large panels and came to life.

Embedded Video

What it is: Photo activation has a powerful new partner: green-screen video activation that makes attendees, literally, a part of the action. The technology can put people in just about any imaginable situation, from running through defenders for a touchdown to having a scripted chat with a celebrity.

How it works: Like traditional green-screen photo activation, embedded video puts prerecorded images in the foreground and background of the video, to make it appear as the though the consumer is inside the image.

Why you should care: Traditional photo activation is being used by every brand, everywhere; embedded video kicks it up a notch. The end result is something more interactive—and more personalized—than traditional photo activation, which means consumers may be more likely to share the finished product (and any attendant branding) with others.

Interactive Touch Screens

What they are: Flat screens that respond to the touch, allowing event attendees to use their fingers to do everything from playing video games to navigating through electronic product catalogs.

How they work: In addition to the display and a central operating system or computer processor, touch-screen technology relies on three main ingredients—a touch-responsive glass panel, a small card that connects the panel to the computer, and a software driver that communicates data to the computer.

Why you should care: Paper has officially gone the way of Tom Cruise’s popularity. Adding touch screens to mobile tours, sponsorship activations, and guerrilla efforts is one of the easiest and most effective ways to make an event more interactive. Using a finger as a cursor, a participant can send a wheel flying across the screen and win a prize based on where it “lands.”

Verified Data Collection

What it is: Software that connects with a database of addresses or an Internet mapping system, allowing brand ambassadors to instantly verify that the mailing addresses and phone numbers consumers provide—for example, to register for sweepstakes or on-site activities at events—are 100 percent accurate.

How it works: When a brand ambassador punches a person’s street address into a web-enabled PDA with the proper software, the device connects with a server to verify the accuracy of the address. If the address doesn’t exist but is similar to another one, a suggestion for the other address will pop up.

Why you should care: It’s not news that event attendees hate giving up their contact info for the good of your corporation’s marketing objectives, a fact that often results in less-than-accurate names and addresses in your database.

Audience Interaction Devices

What it is: Tools that allow attendees at meetings and conferences to communicate instant feedback to speakers at the head of the room.

How it works: Attendees can use either their own handheld devices (including PDAs and cell phones) or ones provided to them by the event host. The audience member can enter questions or comments into a handheld, then press a button to send a message to a central server, where a moderator can read the submission before it pops up on the screen at the front of the room.

Why you should care: The technology can quickly perk up even the most boring session by giving attendees the chance to be more involved. Pose a survey to the group to get fast feedback or give timid attendees a chance to ask their burning questions during a Q&A session. And it’s easy enough that even the most tech-averse attendees should be able to handle it. Survey results pop up in seconds, and software for Q&A sessions allows a moderator to review incoming questions and weed out duplicate queries before sending them to the front of the room.

Motion-activated Windows

What they are: Glass walls that “react” when people approach. Content projected from the inside surface of the glass responds upon approach, reflecting the person’s image and allowing the display to “greet” the visitor without requiring the person to actively engage the exhibit. It’s customized content created on the fly.

How they work: Embedded sensors on the glass that react to a visitor’s presence are the key. The content triggered by those sensors can include any kind of AV application, from Flash animation and photography to video and sound.

Why you should care: For an impressively interactive presentation, this is the edge of cutting edge. Nissan North America’s Infiniti division used the technology as part of an exhibit for this year’s auto show exhibits. As consumers approached one of three connected glass panels, several round button-like images popped up onto the glass. Visitors could hold their hand up to one to select video and messaging covering different aspects of the brand and the vehicles. Infiniti’s setup used a sensor system tied into projectors behind the glass. Using 50-percent mirrored glass coated on the back with a screen film and a high-output projection system, the sensors were hooked up to a computer that triggered the AV. Three eight-by-3.5-inch-wide panes of glass were placed side by side, with each displaying rear-projected content from a high-lumen projector.

Virtual Product Displays

What They Are: Through digital imaging, a 3-D, life-size representation of the product is displayed on a screen. Consumers and customers can check out every inch of every surface of an item, and read product info and key brand messages, all with the touch of a finger.

How They work: A combination of hardware—the flat-panel screen with touch technology—and software that digitally captures product images from all angles.

Why you should care: Ciena used virtual product display to show off its telecommunications platforms at the Globalcomm show in June. The displays were so well received by attendees that “it’s become an integral part of our marketing mix,” says Bill Rozier, the company’s vp-global marketing.

For brands that have to display large numbers of products at trade shows (or consumer events), the technology offers a solution that can show off several large items in a smaller space. Plus, because the physical product does not have to be on site, companies can begin to cover the investment in the display technology by saving money they’d spend shipping the physical items to events.

RFID-based Customized Messaging

What it is: Individualized messaging—typically displayed on a flat screen at an exhibit—that specifically addresses each attendee’s business challenges.

How it works: Attendees fill out surveys about their business needs before an event; show organizers (or exhibitors) enter the info into a database. When the event starts, each guest gets a badge with a radio frequency identification chip that works with the brand’s exhibit RFID reader. Thanks to the pre-show questionnaires, the system can display targeted messages on a screen, addressing attendees as they approach. (The same technology can be used to give sales reps a heads-up on what a particular attendee might want to discuss.)

Why you should care: The technology cuts down on time wasted discussing products that might not be useful to each prospect. Exhibitors can take the technology a step further and program targeted videos, surveys or demos that play on computer kiosks when a visitor with an interest in a specific product group approaches. If an attendee walks by a booth and sees their logo, a personalized greeting, and several relevant products on the perimeter displays, they’re exponentially more likely to come in and engage in the conversation.

Smart Fabric

What it is: A combination of emerging nanotechnology and chemistry, smart fabric reacts to touch and sound, calling up responsive images as the user interacts with it. It’s the next form of intelligent architecture—solid materials infused with sensors that can change, respond, and react.

How it works: Super-engineered fibers, as they’re called, come with the promise of a variety of interactive applications. The next generation of accelerated fibers will come with four key attributes. One is memory, in which electrospinning techniques will use nanofibers to create new fibers that have memory for positioning and elasticity. Next is flexibility control, with polyester multifilament yarn providing stretch control with embedded “limits” that only allow stretch to go so far. Three is mass, as fibers transcend their fabric origins and become solid composites via carbon-infused epoxy and Kevlar mixed with ceramic. And lastly, fabric will become intelligent.

Event Management Dashboards

What it is: Software that gives marketers a complete central repository for all things events. The days of fragmented data and decentralized management are coming to an end.

How it works: Primarily web-based offerings allow marketing departments to have one access point for all event-related information. The software offers planning modules that track budgets, expenses, schedules, assets, and inventory. There are also strategic add-ons that will create, monitor, or compute event recaps, venue agreements, contract management, field staff management, and time sheets. Solutions from such companies as Spindustry, Thriva, and Marketing Pilot include features and functions from email blasts and staff e-conferences to reporting, expense management, and secure access.

Why you should care: By our estimates, three-quarters of all event departments operate in decentralized bubbles that are far from streamlined, integrated, or complete. Leveraging management software not only allows for a tactically easier way of overseeing the workflow, but it also provides a holistic view of your company’s event marketing machines in a way that no paper report or Excel spreadsheet could.