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Toby Lewis, Chief Executive of the Live Group
With UK mobile internet browsing shooting up 69% in 2014, we’re now more married to our smartphones and tablets than ever before. For the first time apps are seen as essential engagement tools at events. The industry cannot rest on its laurels, however, and audiences are increasingly demanding apps with greater functionality. Top of the list? Location services. An area in which the Live Group is leading the field and winning major awards.
This is the next big thing in the mobile space. Apple has invested heavily in indoor location systems leveraging Bluetooth beacons combined with intelligent mapping tech. Google isn’t far behind either, with these features being a critical component of the new lollipop operating system.
By placing beacons strategically and using the power of real-time proximity data, event organisers can now expect apps to deliver features like automatic check-in (negating the need for badging and scanning); session check-ins to help manage audience numbers and measure participation; delegate messaging according to where they are in the event environment (eliminating the need to broadcast); user locator in order to guide them to areas of interest; and delegate profiling so that exhibitors can see who may be interested in their product or service and have the ability to message them as they approach.
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Simon Clayton, Chief Ideas Officer at RefTech
Last year, stories about celebrities’ selfies being taken from their iCloud accounts and companies like Sony and others being hacked dominated our news feeds. In 2015, I’d like to see the events industry stay out of those headlines by highlighting the importance of data security.
We have a legal responsibility for the security of our data under our own control, but to protect it, we need to understand the fundamental issues surrounding data protection and password choice.
Poor password security is more often than not the be all and end all of a data breach and it affects all industries. Although it isn’t clear how the celebrity photo hack was engineered, Apple believed it was the result of guessing security questions or phishing – yet in order to gain a password reset, the hackers had to have access to the celebrities’ email accounts, making it all come back to password choice.
A recent example showed that nearly one third of people who used a high-profile website chose 123456 as their password, while the most used password choice according to security researchers was in fact, ‘password.’
Sadly, the most common top 50 passwords are used by nearly two thirds of users, leaving little to the imagination when it comes to cracking somebody’s password.
Even a more challenging 11-character dictionary password can be cracked using an ordinary computer and free online tools in under ten minutes. But what’s more worrying is that people don’t seem to think about keeping their material safe.
This year, if the events industry can concentrate on understanding the importance of password choice and digital security, we may be able to keep ourselves safe from data theft.
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Guy Vellacott Managing Director of XL Video
There are a huge amount of developments in the technology side of the live events industry at the moment. With the ever increasing computing power, some of the biggest developments have been the way we deliver various solutions.
Projection Mapping is still a firm favorite in the industry, but we can now do this faster and more accurately, with the likes of BlackTrax, Coolux and Photon all working on their tracking technologies. Projection Mapping is no longer reserved to a static building or object but can used on a performer, car or moving set parts.
Audio reactive content has been used more widely, providing much more interaction of the audience or performer to the mapped environment. The introduction of 3D printing will allow accurate models of shows to be mapped as part of presentations too.
There is also a drive to bring augmented reality back into the market. We all remember the early Nineties when we were told that we’d all be living in virtual worlds in five years from then. Now, it is starting to appear all around us with recognition apps on your mobile device giving you information about the world around you from the car you are looking at to products in your supermarket.
For the events world this gives a great user experience opportunity, particularly in the exhibition and experiential world. Oculus Rift has been the other big name in the area of augmented reality and these devices are showing that in the near future, shows and sets can be entirely pre-visualised, the travel industry will be able to showcase venues and training videos
will become a totally new experience.
Audience participation is changing and future events will be ever more immersive. iBeacon and NFC technologies will have a greater role to play and will drive the use of gesture control, facial recognition and motion sensors. It will mean that events can become not only more immersive but more individual. The long term future for the live events industry is once more exciting and diverse, with new technologies enabling individuality and creativity.
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Oculus Rift has been another big name in the area of augmented reality |
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Matt Margetson, Creative Director at Smyle
The Samsung Gear VR brings a new dimension to video, making it easy and affordable for everyone to experience Virtual Reality. It combines a headset shell and uses the Samsung Note 4 phone as the internal screen making it a far more affordable option with its price point forecast to be around £200, below any of its competitors. The result provides the opportunity for this to be a mass market product and therefore obtain a higher adoption rate. In turn this creates a commercially viable environment for developers to provide a diverse range of applications to fit.
The opportunity for the events industry is huge with virtual experiences being able to be more authentic, compelling and powerful. Imagine being in the comfort of your armchair at home and with the Gear VR, being able to see the journey of your favourite band, from dressing room to stage, all through the eyes of the lead singer. The experience is all in 3D and you can choose to look in whichever direction you like. Alternatively, for sports fans, getting a view of your favourite football team playing through the eyes of the referee. These are obvious solutions, but in the future there are far more alternatives for the events industry, both in personalised audience experiences and enhanced solutions to help with the pre event comms and delivery. Imagine a virtual walk around of a hotel where you can literally see every part of the venue or hotel, all this without catching the flight. Now include the client in this virtual meeting at the same hotel / venue, joining them for a walk around. The client could then see the creative solution applied in true VR across the venue.
Clearly there are huge possibilities for this technology both enhancing the client experience pre event and the live experience for the audience. However a word of warning, this technology should only be utilised where it enhances the key objectives of the client and the effectiveness of content delivery to the target audience.
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By placing beacons strategically and using the power of real-time proximity data, event organisers can now expect apps to deliver features like automatic check-in |
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Article by Mike Fletcher |
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