There is no riskier strategy than to stick to what we always do

audience with personal devices

In his blog of 10 event trends for 2014, Julius Solaris, concludes with the above title. Perhaps this is a practical mantra for most businesses. The business machine giant, Hewlett Packard, has a well-known design strategy. It strives to make its latest products obsolete as soon as possible. If it doesn’t, Hewlett Packard argues, a competitor will.

Live events, which fuse together talented communications professionals and the latest available technology, produce compelling environments that create the perfect platform for message delivery. Technology use is advancing at an astonishing pace; more people have personal devices than have access to safe drinking water. Smart device connectivity challenges the way we look at and do everything. ‘Same old, same old’ just doesn’t cut the mustard any more. Perhaps it never did.

Today’s event delegate is a time-poor, information-rich, tech-savvy, motivated and connected professional. She is capable of multi-tasking at events, able to sift and use the relevant information being disseminated by the speaker without losing contact with her day job. She has to remain ultra-available to her colleagues, answering emails, delegating roles and devising strategy. Once upon a time, being at an event would place her on the dark side of the moon, unavailable, uncontactable, out of the picture. Not these days.

To accommodate the ‘iGeneration’, today’s events harness the latest technology. In particular, social media has a huge part to play. In addition to adding to the buzz or shared chatter, live slide-sharing apps allow delegates to view presentations directly on their personal devices. This opens up a possibility for screen-less presentations. Split screen technology allows us to view presentation slides, listen to a presentation and perform myriad tasks all at the same time. This is not just a desirable ‘like-to-have’; for some busy delegates it’s utterly essential.

For a creative agency like Pumphouse, the opportunities to engage delegates with bespoke environments will always be there, but today we also have to take into account the fact that ‘distraction’ is part-and-parcel of everyday life.

Opinion is certainly divided on the desirability of mobile technology at events. Many organisers believe that phones are a nuisance and their badly-timed usage at events undermines engagement. (Answer the survey to add your vote)

Others believe the opposite, convinced that they help to ‘connect’ a disparate audience, better than a single presenter ever could, and drive a more purposeful conversation.

Has the day of presenters telling the audience what management wants the audience to hear, gone? Have we moved into a different era, pioneered by the likes of Google, where employees collaborate to set a more relevant agenda? The argument will rage on, rather like the usefulness of social media to business. Those who have found a way to leverage the technology to their benefit are staunch advocates; others, who cannot see its relevance, aren’t.

In the pro-social/mobile camp, a peer to peer event, with no hierarchy at all, could be the future. Morning collaboration could determine the nature of the business conversation to be had in the afternoon. The presenter becomes a facilitator, simply adding a little structure and guidance here and there. If the essence of engagement is contribution and participation, then devices could be looked at as the necessary conduits of that engagement.