How to roll out event technology when attendees don’t use it

Remember event apps? I know there will be many nay-sayers out there who disagree with me. But I’m not talking about tech savvy or public show attendees, I’m talking about normal B2B trade events.

Event tech’s biggest problem is that the regular trade show attendee is uninterested. And don’t bother sending them a survey. Over the past 20 years, it is our experience that most attendees don’t know what they want, or probably more exactly, they don’t know how to express what they want.

2017 is supposed to be the year that Event Tech companies finally come into their own and drive the most interest among attendees and organisers of events. It’s supposed to be all about AI and VR and how integrating these platforms will finally “grab” the attention of the attendee and make them truly engaged with our events… Really?

I’m not sure this will be the case.

We’ve been trying to understand how to engage attendees and exhibitors at live events & exhibitions for decades. That’s why we are rolling out NFC platforms at our events. After playing with lead generation tools for exhibitors, and being limited by exhibitors who don’t follow up leads, we have decided to put the responsibility back in the hands of the attendee. And we want to provide this system in the simplest way possible.

Toyota chief designer Kevin Hunter is famously quoted for saying: “People can’t tell you what they want in the future, but they know what they want now. You have to balance creativity with market acceptability.” 

A lot of people attribute the success of great technology like Uber to its User Interface. For me, it’s all about the hassle-free or ‘frictionless’ ease-of-use experience. Using the NFC technology is easy – attendees just tap their badge on areas of interest on the show floor, read the show digest email at the end of the day, click on the e-brochures, and get the information. That’s it. No paper, no business cards, no app taking up precious space in your phone. A great end-to-end customer experience, made possible through the seamless connection of the attendee name badge with the back-end NFC platform.

We’ve even considered the exhibitor too. The NFC platform comes with a lead retrieval app for the proactive exhibitor to qualify their leads & take notes. Now we are seeing a different pattern of behaviour at the event. Deep analysis based on the buyers’ true interest. Not dependent on proactive exhibitors or flawed responses from registration forms, but from actual “taps” from attendee badges as they browse the show floor.

This is factual analysis of what is happening at the event. It’s not guessing why an attendee stood at a certain spot for 10 minutes (maybe they just bumped into someone they knew). Or guessing why an attendee who ticked they were interested in Product 1 on the registration form only stopped at Product 2 booths (maybe they just ticked the first response for every question). Unlike other systems, the attendee is touching exhibitor products or session rooms when they are really interested.

Our NFC products are true engagement today, using platforms that are easy, cost effective, and work. If you’re interested in experiencing the NFC technology, come to AIME 2017 in Melbourne 21-23 February where we are rolling it out through the entire event. I will personally be on our stand 1608 to meet you and answer your questions.

What will the future bring? We cannot predict where technology will take us and I’m sure that AI will play a huge part in our lives. We just have to work out when to use the technology in our events and I believe this will be when we are all using it in our everyday lives.

More about Info Salons Group:

The Info Salons Group is the leading Registration & Attendee Database event technology company throughout Australia, China, Asia and the Middle East.

Involved with over 500 events annually and working with the largest and most respected organizers worldwide, including Reed Exhibitions, Informa Exhibitions, UBM Asia, Deutsche Messe, Diversified Business Communications.

The head office is in Sydney Australia with offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Dubai and Istanbul.

www.infosalonsgroup.com