If you are planning your next event and you are considering using event technology you have probably already started to look at the problems as well as the benefits.
So what do you do?
Keep with the tried and tested formula for success that has served you well over the years or try to freshen it up by introducing different formats, innovative session design or encourage use of leading edge event technologies?
In a world driven by new creative technologies it’s easy for all of us to feel behind the curve when it comes to event technologies. But we all can’t be behind the curve can we?
At the Tech Fest earlier this year we asked our event planners to categorise themselves into one of 4 categories. We asked:
What kind of Event Technology user are you?
The Scardy Cats. If it ‘isn’t broke don’t fix it’. Their events have always been successful in the past so why change a winning formula?
The Dabblers. It’s always good to try new event technologies for different meetings. Maybe an event app, maybe voting keypads, sometimes a presentation related technology. Dabblers still keep safe and may use tried and tested off the shelf technologies, maybe one at a time but never multiple technologies in the same event.
The Bull in a China Shop. Bring it on! No one can question the way these event organisers adopt technologies. If you throw enough technologies into an event then there will always be ‘something for everyone’. Sure some of it might not work but enough will work well to demonstrate that their events will be technology based and talked about if nothing else!
The Top Dogs. Those at the top of the Event Technology food chain. Confident and competent in tracking down and using activity specific technologies. They might have been caught out in the past so they are still cautious but they will maximise the likelihood of success by pre-planning, taking the right level of risk and always rehearsing, anticipating and overcoming the most common barriers to success.
Top Dogs Chatting With DoubleDutch at Tech Fest
So what type of event organiser are you?
This is of course very tongue in cheek: we can’t split the entire event industry into only four categories! However it was a very useful way for planners to start to consider exactly how comfortable they felt when looking at event technology. So what type of event organiser are you?
We polled in excess of 100 of our event organiser attendees. We had a fairly event split of attendees across the four categories. Following that opening question we then asked the delegates:
“How much of a problem is ineffective use of events technology?”
20% of delegates confessed to “never really using event technology”. An additional 20% confirmed that they only used the event tech that they were comfortable with and was “simple to use”. So here were the Scardy Cats mentioned earlier!
The dabblers were represented by the 32% of participants who suggested that they faced issues across multiple events and audiences with event tech.
A further 28% of delegates admitted that they had faced issues during events caused by the ineffective use of event technologies; our have a go hero “Bulls” perhaps?
100% of participants responded that effective use of the right technologies is still some way off.
These two questions can prove very useful for every event planner
So digging a little deeper into the experiences of event organisers can help planners and technology companies to understand a little bit more about the hurdles to overcome. As we all know it is crucial that the event planner feels comfortable with the event technology in use at their events. Understanding what type of planner you are will help your technology provider tailor their product and service. And in the end will lead to a more effective use of event technology.
It really doesn’t matter which category you are in the point is to have a clear idea how you currently react to technology. Only then will you have any idea whether you are on, under, above or beyond the curve!
[iphorm id=”10″ name=”Events in 2015″]
