New Tech for Events: A 2011 Shopping List
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011
Tools for mobile tech, social media, planning and registration were on the list of must-haves for planners suggested by Ruud Janssen and Samuel J. Smith last week at The Special Event. Their presentation, entitled “2011 Event Tech Tools Shopping List” was an excellent example as Janssen, of The New Objective Collective, presented his portion of the session in person while Smith, of Interactive Meeting Technology, presented via Skype without even a hiccup. Held under lowered lights with conversation-friendly seating at round tables, it was well attended by an interested and obviously techie crowd.
Mobile Apps
Number one on the list of event tech must-haves was mobile technology. People are using their mobile devices more and more in place of desk top computers, Janssen said. “At CES (Consumer Electronics Show) they announced a hundred new tablets,” he elaborated. “This will change people’s behavior, how they interact with content. ”
“Is your event website set up for mobile?” asked Smith. ” If not, people will start looking at your website through this tiny screen and they won’t see anything. They will have to scroll around to see things.”
Social Media Sharing
Making sure your website is set up so that visitors can easily share your content on social media is another must-do, according to Smith. “If you don’t, you’re missing a huge opportunity to have more visibility, ” he said.
Event Apps
EventMobi made the list as a simple app that provides a digital event guide with interactive features. It’s simple and affordable, Smith said.
EventBrite was also recommended as an online registration solution that is fast, simple and relatively inexpensive. The EventBrite service also offers pluses like built in social media sharing buttons, an easy to manage payment system and a mobile attendee check-in that makes it easy to pull up a list and manage it.
“If you have an iPhone to check people in, you can check a thousand people an hour,” added Janssen in reference to EventBrite. “This is the one by choice that we’ve used for EventCamp.”
For higher end event tech solutions, Smith recommended Quick Mobile, which he said offers apps for music festival trailers, speaker videos and post cards.
Hotel and attendee checkin apps are becoming more available, Smith said. “Instead of putting attendees in long lines, I’m hearing more stories of events arming people with iPhone apps and checking people in with mobile printers with which they can print everything on the spot.” Smith recommended Ootoweb, an iPad app for attendee management when you’re always on the go.
Planning Apps
The Superplanner iPhone app, developed by Howard Givner, was described as “like a calculator in your pocket.” The app helps planners calculate space, number of tables needed and more. It’s especially handy for use on site surveys, Smith said. It’s now available for the iPad and is being developed for other platforms.
Penultimate was another recommended app, that allows you to use a stylus to draw pictures, write and then email it with the touch of a button.
Janssen asked the audience to share apps they liked. Among those recommended were Evernote, for keeping track of notes, articles, websites & more; Expensify, for keeping track of business expenses and Keynote Remote, which turns your iPhone into a remote control for your Mac Keynote presentation.
Future Tech for Events
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is starting to be used in new and creative ways that could be useful to events professionals, according to Smith. In the past, event organizers had used RFID technology for attendance tracking. But it hasn’t been very popular as it is often seen as too “Big Brother,” Smith said. However, Coca Cola recently used the technology at an event it held. They put RFID chips in wristbands, Smith said. When people touched the wristbands to a touch box (in front of an event activity), it automatically would “like” the activity on Facebook.
(Photo courtesy TNOC.ch)
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3 Responses to this article
Great summary Jenise, I feel like I was there
and wonderful to hear we are being recommended by Sam Smith!
I wish you had been there Bob! You, no doubt,could have added to the list of tech tools recommended by the audience. Sam & Ruud definitely like EventMobi, for it’s simplicity and affordability. Congrats!
Great article Jenise. For event apps I came across the Grupio app while at Virtual Edge which I really liked. They offer native apps on all the major platforms.