What will it take to wake the “sleeping beauty” asks Matthias Tesi Baur in his recent article decrying the problem of transforming the events industry. It surely won’t be a kiss…and it hasn’t been through want of trying. I think it’s because costs are prohibitive to explore all the possibilities of what could be the next big thing.

According to Gartner’s Top Predictions: Through 2019, every $1 enterprises invest in innovation will require an additional $7 in core execution.

Why spend money trying to digitally transform the industry when the deployment costs of designing, implementing, integrating, operationalising and managing the solution can be significantly more than the initial innovation costs.

Instead of investing in too many concepts, let’s focus on just 3 points, from Gartner’s bold predictions about 2020 that should resonate with our industry:

1. 100 million consumers will shop in augmented reality. As I’ve written in a previous post, event attendees will be expecting to use tools at our events that they use in everyday life. If by 2020, we are shopping in augmented reality, then the option to view products, network with colleagues and learn new information at our events should also have an AR component.
2. 30 percent of web browsing sessions will be done without a screen. Using voice recognition and potentially facial recognition instead of desktop browsing could revolutionize the registration process onsite. We are already dabbling in facial recognition. Other ideas could include visitors who ask a Robotic Concierge for product interests / business matches / wayfinding etc.
3. Algorithms will positively alter the behavior of more than 1 billion global workers. Smarter AI algorithms are already on the way to changing how we target our marketing, for example the Grip platform. Algorithms can positively alter behaviour by augmenting intelligence with your large collective memory bank driven from all the registrations at your previous events. This could better help understand what really turns a registration into an attendee.

It’s only three years away, but by 2020 the events industry will certainly have woken the digital “sleeping beauty” and be on the way to mastering the digital transformation era. This can be an exciting time for our industry. A transformation of this magnitude will involve us all and it has the potential to refocus and re-energize the entire events industry globally.