8 Trends Taking Over Event Technology In 2019
Technology innovations have taken the event industry by storm and it’s moving into the future in leaps and bounds; more and more events becoming tech-driven. Some trends that we’re seeing now are
undoubtedly here to stay while others will probably go through major overhauls. Here we’ll see which
top trends of emerging event technology will dominate 2019.
1. Facial Recognition
Facial recognition is up and coming in event technology and has made its mark on the industry in many events like music festivals, concerts, and even major sporting events.
Facial recognition technology is a wonderful tool for attendance management, mapping behavior, engagement from participants, and most importantly event security. For high profile events particularly, event security is a hot topic and high profile events looking to use a combination of facial recognition and artificial intelligence to enhance the customer experience.
2. Virtual Reality
Virtual reality is a trend that we know is here for the long run. It’s a big bonus for attendance
engagement because event planners can use virtual reality technology for interactive displays, various
experiences on site, and using virtual reality in their event promotion. This has already been used at
events to great success so it stands to reason that it will continue to play a large part in event tech
moving forward.
3. Augmented Reality
According to Hugh Franks, an event manager at Paper Fellows ,
“augmented reality has many different uses in events from hosting scavenger hunts to exhibitions, lead management, and more, it has the potential to transport attendees without disconnecting them from the event. It’s also quite simple and easy to use via game apps, so there’s a lot of space here for event planners to use Augmented Reality for their events.”
4. Event Data
We all know that big data is the future of technology, and this goes for event tech as well. Leading experts in the field have told us many time that data and data security is key in events.
More and more, we will see increased reliance on event data and data security plans and policies. This will continue to be a main priority for event planners in the future.
5. Drones
Drones can do a lot for events, and they have already been used very successfully at major events like
the Superbowl, the Olympics and more. They have been used for drone shows to impress attendees,
but they can also be used successfully for security and surveillance during events. With drones
becoming better and more streamlined every day, we will see them taking on a bigger role in events
in the next years. For this point, it’s also important to keep an eye on new policies and laws that are
being developed to manage the use of drones.
6. RFID
RFID is a new trend of wearable technology that has emerged in the market recently, especially
around events like concerts and music festivals. Radio Frequency Identification’s impact on events will continue and grow from things like ticketing and audience mapping to gadgets like Beacon technology and similar tech.
7. Mobile Apps
This may seem straightforward, because mobile apps are already mainstream, but they will only get
smarter and smarter. Events are creating mobile apps to give attendees everything on the go from the
information about the event, to the schedule, to information about guests, and exclusive content. The
future of mobile apps for event management is to integrate new features like AR and AI inside the app.
8. Voice Search
Voice search is also very important for SEO and event promotion as it generates organic traffic. More
and more searches now are voice searches so optimization for event websites and listings should be
high on the list of priorities in a marketing strategy. Not only should planners write SEO content for
the event, but it also needs to be optimized for voice searches.
Event planners and professionals need to be able to use these technologies in creative ways to boost
the user experience at the event. Although event tech comes and goes, these are the top trends for
2019 that we expect will be here to stay in the future.
Author: Nora Mork
Nora Mork is a marketing journalist. She shares her experience by attending thematic events and writing posts for magazines and blogs.
