This
article explores ideas on how emerging computer and electronic technologies
will influence the meeting industry in the next ten years. It assesses how
innovations like architectural software, artificial intelligence, blue tooth
technology; videoconferencing and social media will influence meeting event
planning, revenue models and participant experience.
Technology continues to advance at an
exponential rate and this is having a ripple effect to all industries in
particular those in the field of events and meeting management where it has
triggered research and innovation. Through the incorporation of emerging trends
in technology the meeting industry has evolved over the years and continues to
do so from the traditional boardroom set up to a more exciting engagement of
meeting participants thus helping in the creation of better decisions as that
is the prime objective of meetings. This
article serves to highlight how trends in the meeting industry will change
within the next years that is in terms of evolution of live meetings setup to
strategic events were venue design, destinations and participant experience and
event marketing will create a conducive atmosphere for business leaders to make
better decisions in industry. The reason for this change will be driven by
addressing the meeting attendees needs, wants, and concerns, and connecting meeting participants physically, intellectually, and
emotionally thus fostering the creation of business networks that will last
beyond the meetings
Recent trends in meeting set ups are
abandoning the traditional set up and becoming technologically advanced
incorporating trends in the computer industry were the face to face board room
set up of meetings were people physically meet are being seen as rather costly and an inconvenient and thus
replacing these with Videoconferencing, Web based meetings and chat rooms as an
easy way that by passes the normal face to face meetings. Currently this is
being done through the use of laptops and computers but these are slow, boring
and lack reality that fosters the teamwork spirit found in real life meetings.
The advent off high speed internet access coupled with continued research in
the field of computer artificial intelligence will create three-dimensional
technologies that will make video conferencing real thus creating that much
needed atmosphere of comradeship. These new technologies will allow people to
experience 3-D worlds and highly realistic renderings in cyberspace that will
in turn create real time communication on almost any device like mobile phones
thus abandoning the laptops and computers making meetings much more exciting
and flexible. In most cases the video conferencing will mean less moneys spent
by organizations on traveling expenses and this will affect those in
destination marketing, as they will be a sharp decline in the use of their
venues. However video conferencing will remain disadvantageous as its
application is relevant when dealing with small groups of people, when applied
to a large audience they tend to be slow and boring.
Innovation in architectural design is
improving, incorporating new design software’s that are coming up. In the near
future this will influence the meeting industry allowing venue designers the
capacity maximize on venue space by the production of real life design models
that simulate the actual venue set up before actual construction hence giving
them flexibility in deciding on what they want for their venue in order to
create that much needed atmosphere of creativity and learning associated with
meetings. Event designers will also begin to tailor make venue designs for
their participants that is future meetings will be designed with the
participants in mind, not the products or services being offered and this will
help in generating a memorable experience for them. The introduction of
broadband wireless connectivity connections will also redefine meeting venues.
This is so because with the introduction of such high speed internet
technologies meetings will not have to be confined to specific locations thus
taking the meeting venue anywhere from cruise ships to a winery abandoning the
current trends were meetings are set up in buildings that have technological
requirements that support the meeting setup and this will in turn lead to a
stiff competition in meeting venues. Venues will be ranked and rated by meeting
planners thus giving them the capacity to select the best venues for their
meetings at much more affordable prizes thus giving event organizers the chance
to maximize on the profits obtained through meeting participation. Venue
ranking will also trigger destination innovation as venue hosts try to improve
on their facilities so as to attract business.
With the adoption of the use of social
media like facebook, blogger, twitter just to
mention a few in event marketing the event marketers will have the ability to
market inexpensively to the targeted audience through the use of these social
media. Marketing of meetings will be more creative and will not be driven
simply by what we have but it will be driven in part by what the target
audience expect. Instead of waiting for the actual meeting day to fill the
audience in on the meeting content, event content managers will give
participants a sneak preview of what they are to expect thus creating a certain
level of hype about the particular meeting before it is convened. Through the
use of twitter hush tags interactive blogs and
other social media event participants will be given a chance to asses the
content of the actual meeting presentations giving them the chance to comment
and ask questions to the speakers. Event participants will also use these
social media to rank events by their content and vote for their speaker of
choice, event activities and other event details This will in turn create
participant excitement foster participant involvement in meetings and in turn
shape the crafting of better solutions during meetings. Through the use of
interactive blogs event participants will get to know each other
before the actual meeting thus building a fertile ground for effective business
networking.
The meeting format will move away from a
lecture kind of system were the event speakers simply talk to the participants
to a more interactive one were meeting speakers will engage their audience thus
making the whole meeting climate interesting. Like the strategy used in
marketing meeting participation will begin from the time the event is marketed.
Event planners will use the social media discussed above to create a community
site were the event participants will engage in open dialogue about the meeting
before and during the meeting. Meeting managers will adopt the use of podcasts,
RSS feeds and twitter to get the meeting participants talking as
the meeting is in progress thus leading to a faster resolution of business
deals. These blogs and online mobile survey will allow meeting
participants’ feedback and voting during the event rather than waiting for
surveys after the meeting. As meeting participants are more mobile and rather
interactive the use of new blue tooth technologies that are being developed by
software vendors will allow the sharing of information much more easily thus
fostering social partnerships between meeting participants. Match making
programs like Intro Networks (www.intronetworks.com), mobile devices
and proprietary hand held products like spot me (www.spotme.com) popular in singles scene will
find their way in meeting event designs allowing meeting participants of the
same likes and interests to discover each other thus helping in the connection
of people which will in turn increase the value of meetings by fostering that
much needed “team spirit ” which makes meetings successful.
Technological advancement and innovation in
the holding of meetings will greatly affect the revenue models. As technology
makes marketing easy, technologies like
radio frequency identification will provide many events related applications
like verifying the number of meeting attendance, catering count verification
thus minimizing the costs incurred in the holding of very large meetings.
Innovation in meetings will also mean event managers will strive to give
participants a product that is unique and compelling and this is especially
important at functions were there are registration fees. Poorly planned
meetings will mean reduced attendance and subsequently less revenue and in a
case were the audiences are sponsoring the event it will mean less revenue to
payoff the debt incurred during the preparation of the event. In conclusion the
above mentioned technological developments are just a few of the breakthroughs
that will revolutionize the meeting industry and these will help in creating
faster, better and cheaper means of hosting meetings within the next ten years.
REFERENCES.
1.
Patty Keller “Five meeting design principles,
invitation, innovation and intellect”, Big Ideas Blog Online posting
June 10 2011 http://blog.omnipress.com/2011/03/five-meeting-design-principles-inviting-innovation-and-intellect/
accessed 3March 2012
2.Bernie
Mitchell “5 Ways to Break the Ice with Social Media”, Eventbrite
blog online posting February 10, 2012, http://blog.eventbrite.com/5-ways-to-break-the-ice-with-social-media
accessed 3 March 2012
3.Sara
Olbrantz , “3 Must-Have Tools for
Conferences”, Big Ideas Blog Online posting February 23, 2012 http://blog.omnipress.com/2011/03/five-meeting-design-principles-inviting-innovation-and-intellect/
accessed 4 March 2012
4.Sara
Olbrantz ,“Get Attendees to
Network Before Your Conference”, Big Ideas Blog Online posting February
23 ,2012 http://blog.omnipress.com/2011/03/five-meeting-design-principles-inviting-innovation-and-intellect/
accessed 4 March 2012
5.Doug Fox , “Predictions and Trends for
Meetings” Religious Conference Manager,Event web newsletter, June 1,
2001 http://meetingsnet.com/religiousconferencemanager/meetings_predictions_trends_meetings/
accessed 5 March 2012
