T E C H N O LO G Y C O N F E R E N C I N G

Tomorrow’s conferences will be slicker and more useful than ever, so long as technology doesn’t get in the way

WORDS TOBIAS GOURLAY ILLUSTRATIONS SAM CHIVERS

Beau Lotto, a neuroscientist and leading app creator, is unequivocal. ‘Technology’s going to have a massive

influence on conferencing over the next few years,’ he says. ‘And it could be good or bad.’

Bold words. So what does the future hold for conferences? One thing seems certain. The onward march of tech may propel us into a brave new world of holograms, drones and augmented reality (AR) headsets, but certain key elements will never change.

There are three reasons why anyone attends a conference: to gather information; to network; and to be inspired. In sharing content

digitally, introducing new people in a more targeted way and improving production values, tomorrow’s tech could be pivotal in helping organisers enhance the delivery of all three.

And that is exactly how it should be used. Ignore the siren calls of Silicon Valley: tech is not something to throw money at in pursuit of a fleeting ‘wow’ factor. (What would you do now with a box full of Google Glasses?) The most valuable tech is that which no one notices as it smooths the path through a day’s conferencing, helping to extract maximum value.

‘Our goal is to get out of the way and let human interaction happen,’ says Tim Holladay, CEO of Crowd

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Mics, whose app turns smartphones into microphones. ‘In 10 years, we hope tech disappears from view.’

Nurturing all things face-to-face will bolster the industry. As event technology sage Corbin Ball observes, ‘There’s no such thing as a virtual beer.’ And he’s right: we’re social animals who like to do business in person – and FaceTime just isn’t quite the same as old-fashioned face time.

Just before tech disappears from view, we’ve cast our eye to the horizon to spot the inventions and innovations that will make conferencing easier and better for all. What follows is our organisers guide to the conferences of tomorrow. >>

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VIRTUALLY THEREThe events industry is not usually an early adopter of new technology, says Maria Schuett, producer of Central Hall Westminster’s Meet the Future conference. ‘We follow the example of others, which means there are always some signposts about where the sector is heading.’

Right now, video gamers around the world are braced for the launch of Oculus Rift early next year. Its maker, Oculus VR, was bought by Facebook for $2bn last spring, and its virtual-reality (VR) headset promises to be both more advanced and cheaper than its predecessors. It marks the arrival of affordable VR that doesn’t make its users seasick – and that’s a big breakthrough.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg told Vanity Fair recently that headsets offering ‘immersive 3D experiences’ will one day replace smartphones. So what does this mean for conferences? Eventually, it won’t just be scruffy young men using them to get even closer to Lara Croft; anyone in the business of hunting out a venue will don a headset and drop right into it.

Physical show-rounds will be history, and potential clients will be able to get an accurate read on a venue from afar, opening the UK market up to more overseas visitors, and vice versa.

BRAND DESIGNSWhile researching this piece I visited IET London: Savoy Place (aka The Institution of Engineering and Technology). Standing in steel toe caps, wearing a hi-vis and a hard hat in the middle of what will become its entrance lobby, I got a glimpse of the near future. Using a Google Cardboard VR headset, I saw what the foyer’s ‘digital chandelier’ will look like when the venue reopens in November. With LED screens instead of candelabra, it’s a big, shiny branding opportunity that’s connected and flexible: those screens can display anything from corporate videos to a brands’ signature colours. Whenever someone walks beneath them, the animation rate increases and light ripples across it.

Branding on the outside of the venue will matter more too. Today, external projection (whereby enormous moving images appear on the front of your chosen venue) is an expensive, time-consuming investment. The results can be spectacular, though – take a look on YouTube at Nike and Projection Artworks’ recent show at Battersea

Power Station. In the future, prices will come down and it won’t just be huge multinational corporations who can afford to pull that kind of stunt.

After making a big first impression, organisers should lay on a full sensory experience for delegates. ‘Immersive events appeal to more than two of our senses,’ says Rob Davidson, MD of consultancy Mice Knowledge. ‘Instead of just sight and sound, companies might use smell or colour as well for greater effect.’ That’s because, in an age when so many of our interactions will be mediated by screens, real-world experiences will be more powerful than ever. >>

W H A T ’ S T H E D I F F E R E N C E ?Augmented reality (AR) is an add-on to the real world. You’re still looking at Big Ben, but your bionic contact lens is telling you on the side that it’s 96m tall and was completed in 1858.

At the other end of the sliding scale, virtual reality (VR) creates entirely new worlds. Stick on a headset and, although you’re still standing outside Big Ben, it’ll have you believe you’re in Sydney, looking up at the Opera House.

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Anyone in the business of hunting out a venue will don a headset and drop right into it

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WEAR & SHARENetworking is set to change too. Some of the tech sector’s finest minds are working all hours to crack indoor positioning systems (IPS, as opposed to GPS). When it’s possible to accurately geolocate individuals within a room – and those individuals have shared their data with the organiser – networking will become much more e¦cient.

There’ll be no more getting cornered at the coffee bar by salesmen peddling irrelevant products. A delegate will be able to follow augmented reality arrows all the way to the serious folks they really need to be chatting with.

That’s the software, but what about the hardware? It’ll probably be wearables introducing us to our new best friends. They’ll take various forms (from the contact-lens offspring of Google Glass to sleeker versions of the Apple Watch) but we’re betting against obstructive headsets.

‘Eye contact is fundamentally important to us as humans,’ says neuroscientist Beau Lotto. ‘The idea of us all wearing visors scares me – it’d be even worse than talking to

someone in sunglasses is today.’ Look out for subtler contact lenses, or even good old-fashioned smartphones.

Finally, Microsoft has just introduced real-time translation software for Skype. As language barriers come down, there will be one less excuse for not talking to the guy in the lederhosen. SALAD DAYSJamie Oliver’s now going meat-free three days a week, but there may come a time when even that seems a little indulgent. Industrial meat production has some serious side effects – deforestation and the methane emissions of cows among them – and Eden Caterers’ Nick Mead reckons we’ll soon be looking elsewhere for our protein.

Fish will still be on conference menus, so long as we haven’t exploited marine resources to exhaustion, but – brace yourselves – insects might be right alongside

them. ‘If we can make them a bit more appetising, you could well see caterpillars sprinkled on lettuce,’ says Mead. Yum.

It’s good news for vegetarians, though. Veggies will be our staple fare. Mead’s ingredient to watch is seaweed. Loaded with vitamins and minerals, it’s set to be one of the next big superfoods.

The way that caterers deliver the food is going to change too. ‘People make bad choices at buffets,’ says leading nutritionist Kate Cook. ‘They feel like they’re on a jolly, so they want to eat as much as possible.’ Wearables will soon be on hand to guide us towards what we really need: ‘Hey, feeling a bit low this morning? A shot of zinc will help so, here, go for the extra spinach.’

By taking such personalised pre-orders via conference apps, caterers will serve exactly what everyone wants and leftovers will become a thing of the past. >>

A delegate will be able to follow augmented reality arrows all the way to the serious folks

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T E C H N O LO G Y C O N F E R E N C I N G

DEAD MEN TALKINGWhat does the future hold for tomorrow’s speakers? As well as reacting to real-time feedback and learning to share the stage with their audience, they must face down a threat from yesterday.

Remember a slightly twitchy Tupac rapping from beyond the grave with Snoop Dogg at the Coachella festival a few years ago? Holographic imaging has improved considerably since then (a much more convincing Whitney Houston hologram is about to embark on a world tour) and the cost of the technology has come down too.

For conference organisers, being able to choose anyone from recent history to deliver a show-stopping oration certainly has some wow factor today. But will the novelty wear off? When delegates are listening to Churchill’s ‘fight them on the beaches’ address for the umpteenth time in their career, they might just start wondering ‘So what?’ or ‘I don’t suppose there’s any chance of a Q&A session here?’

If holograms have a long-term future, it may be because they can save us air miles: the image of present-day speakers could be beamed into the event live, while the living, breathing artiste delivers their star turn from wherever they happen to be based.

ENGAGE BRAINSIt’s a simple fact of human psychology: if we buy ourselves an experience and an object at the same price, we usually end up much more satisfied with the experience than the object.

‘It’s the difference between going to see a great band in a blues bar and watching them on a YouTube video,’ says Lotto. Live experiences make a bigger, longer impact, and that’s an important lesson for anyone with an audience to engage: if you really want to leave your mark, give them a memorable experience.

‘There should be less talking to people from a stage and more bringing people up onto that stage,’ says Lotto. ‘If someone helps to create your event, they take ownership of it. Instead of yet more information, they will gain something much more powerful – embodied knowledge.’

The latest tech will give organisers other ways to empower their audience. Apps will allow delegates to rate the elements of a conference at the touch of a button, forcing organisers to react in real time. This could result in a variety of different positive outcomes: affording the best speakers more time at the podium, moving the hottest breakout sessions to larger spaces – or even running them again later in the schedule.

In short, your delegates will be in charge, and that will be a good thing. ‘It’s often the introvert in the corner who has the best question,’ says Nick Lomax, unique venues business development manager at Kinetic Solutions. ‘Getting them involved is good for everyone.’ >>

If holograms have a long-term future, it may be because they can save us air miles: the image of speakers could be beamed into the event live

P L A Y T H E G A M ETo keep Generation Y delegates linked in and churning out useful data all day, Stéphane Doutriaux from digital event platform Poken predicts a ‘gami�cation’ of the conference experience. Using their apps, attendees will score virtual points for gathering contacts, going to sessions, and feeding back their thoughts. Those virtual points might even be exchangeable for real-world prizes.

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LIGHTING THE WAYGo for a show-round at 8 Northumberland Avenue today and you’ll soon spot what they’re most proud of. In close partnership with Philips, the Charing Cross venue is beta-testing a colour-changing LED lighting system that’s controlled from an iPad and which can even ‘dance’ along to music.

The next step is to get it responding to delegates’ individual needs. At a basic level, 8 Northumberland can do that now: if guests are fresh off the plane, they get a blue hue that tells their bodies it’s morning and they really ought to wake up a bit. Want to give a conference a happy ending? Psychological research says you should bathe it in yellow light.

According to futurologist Ian Pearson, AR might hold the key to an even more personal light show. ‘With the right technology, AR headsets could light and colour visual points of interest, according to taste.’

The same technology could lend itself to audio as easily as the visual realm, meaning no one would ever

miss the keynote’s pivotal point because they couldn’t hear him or her.

STAFF REAPPRAISALSAs registration processes move towards full automation, organisers will appreciate the labour cost savings, and delegates will be happy too: no one’s going to do check-ins more smoothly than the machines. Whatever a delegate’s weapon of choice – smartphone or wearable – it will be communicating with the ticket barriers as they approach. And, assuming the correct privacy box was ticked during the registration process, their entrance will be automatic and seamless.

‘But it’s important we don’t lose the human touch,’ says Maria Cena, commercial manager of Blackfriars venue The Mermaid. ‘That’s something we still very much believe in.’

Indeed. In just 10 years, Generation Y – those young ’uns also known as millennials – will make up 75% of the global workforce, according to Deloitte. They’ll be quite at home in the tech-driven world of tomorrow, but Davidson predicts they’ll also be less at ease in old-school social situations, where there’s no screen to hide behind. Like the meeters and greeters of today, the human staff of tomorrow will still be crucial in putting future delegates at ease. V&E

Organisers will like the labour cost savings and delegates will be happy too: no one’s going to do check-ins more smoothly than the machines

F L Y I N G H I G HDrones are about to give everyone a whole new perspective on events. Piloted from the ground by quali� ed droneographers, the unmanned aircraft can be loaded with video cameras and sent up high to capture stills and moving footage of all the action below.

If you need a unique venue with first class facilities to host your next event, then one of ODEON’s 120+ venues across the UK & Ireland could be just what you are looking for. We can cater for all types of events, including Conferences, AGM’s, Presentations, Roadshows, Product Launches, Satellite Conferencing, Workshops and Seminars.

Choose from a nationwide network of more than 120 ODEON cinema venues, catering for intimate gatherings for a small handful of guests, up to the major spectaculars for hundreds, even thousands of delegates. Whatever your event requirements, be it a small regional meeting or a national product launch or conference, the power is in your hands to make your brand more engaging and deliver a dramatically different experience.

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