EVENT TECH TRENDS 2018

Introduction

Artificial Intelligence

Facial recognition

Mixed reality

More insightful data and analytics

Data security

Growth of the Internet of Things

Automation

Robots

The ‘Smart City’ is here

The rise of online booking space

About Banks Sadler

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CONTENTS

Our definitive guide to the technology trends that will shape the events industry in the coming year….

2017 was a big year for technology. Whilst tech failures were rife including Facebook’s fake news controversy, the malware attack WannaCry which devastated the NHS IT systems and the Google Home privacy violations, 2017 also brought some great successes with it too. We saw the arrival of the greatly anticipated Nintendo Switch, DeepMind announced they were developing an A.I capable of imagination and Boston Dynamics released, to great excitement, a back-flipping robot.

INTRODUCTIONIn the events industry, new innovations continued to spring up, helping us to better communicate and connect with our audiences. From A.I. powered chatbots acting as concierge systems for hotel guests, to facial recognition technology keeping us safe at events, to the significant growth of The Internet of Things, we saw more and more emphasis being placed on how technology can support the attendee throughout the event cycle.

So here are our Top 10 Event Tech Trends and how we view they will disrupt the events industry in 2018…..

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Andrew Ng, Chief Scientist of Baidu, China’s internet search provider, says that Artificial Intelligence will be as transformative for us as electricity was for our ancestors. From the likes of robot table tennis tutors to the checkout-free Amazon Go store, through to Machine Learning systems able to predict heart attacks better than doctors, we’re seeing continual advancements in A.I. technology across a variety of industries with an almost limitless potential.

Through A.I, event professionals now have the ability to enhance the experience of their attendees, delivering more meaningful interactions and gaining invaluable insights on their behaviour and expectations, leading them to deliver a far better event experience and more importantly a possible further revenue channel.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

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BELOW: ‘Connie’ the first Watson-enabled robot concierge in the hospitality industry is currently being piloted in at the Hilton McLean, informing guests on tourist attractions, dining recommendations and hotel features.

We are now living in a world where delegates have increased expectations due to the advancements in technology. Every attendee has different personal and emotional requirements and we’re seeing a greater need to offer a more individual and personalised experience at our events. Content and delegate experiences have gone through various iterations, from simple online websites and portals to content driven mobile apps, to AR and VR experiences, and we’re now seeing A.I. mechanisms next on the agenda to delight our event goers.

The simplest and most primitive form of A.I. is that of the chatbot

Today chatbots are opening doors to the way we search for, and acquire information, with them increasingly being used to support in the customer service experience. Major hotel chains such as Marriott, Hilton and Starwood have been employing chatbots for some time now. Edwardian hotels have a virtual host, named Edward whilst Marriott’s Dazzle offers a hybrid of Artificial Intelligence and the human brain to deliver “seemingly impossible levels of guest service”. These concierge style services aren’t just limited to hotels either as we see a rise of personalised assistants now accompanying delegates at conferences to maximise their experience. From telling you where to park, or where to get your lunch through to your event scheduling, the app will anticipate your needs and use data gathered from you to power highly relevant suggestions and services.

Delivering informed decision making. Whilst the likes of YouTube, Spotify and Amazon have been delivering us curated content through Machine Learning for years now, there is still a slow adoption in the events world. With most events sites requiring the user to trawl through sessions to create their own agenda, Machine Learning could easily be used to provide the most relevant recommendations of sessions or workshops to attend to help you plan a more personalised and effective agenda.

Analysing sentiment to drive a better events experience

Sentiment analysis, another popular application of Machine Learning has been around for many years, particularly within the retail sector, but we are seeing a far slower adoption in the events industry. Sentiment analysis tells you how your audience feels through the analysis of social media posts and online conversations. Potentially, this represents a very effective way of finding out prior to an event the sort of content that will resonate with your audience and for those events over a longer time period to see how the audience are responding and where tweaks can be made in real-time to provide a better delegate experience.

But there’s still a big issue with trust, and people trusting their data to companies to allow progress to be made in Artificial Intelligence. Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have had no qualms about stating the threat intelligent machines will have to our existence. The importance here is that we have to take precautions and take better control; to be conscious that these things need to be well thought out so that they don’t cross over to the evil and the dystopian side.

As we start to fully leverage A.I. within the events industry, we are able to see the beginnings of a truly transformed events world. Experiences will be hyper-personalised for every individual, anticipating their needs and adapting in real time to help maximise the value attendees’ gain from being at an event. Whether it is customer service, tailored travel itineraries, networking technology or personalised assistants, the industry is slowly and surely beginning to tap into A.I. technology. If the industry can start to invest and innovate in this area as rapidly as other sectors are, then we are sure to see an incredibly exciting future for the events industry and the delegate experience.

RIGHT: Amazon Go launches in Seattle on 22 January 2018, the first checkout-free convenience store using ‘Just Walk Out Technology’, which tracks products from shelf to a virtual cart. Customers simply enter using the Amazon Go app which charges their account upon exit

PREVIOUS PAGE: Aloft’s ChatBotlr has joined Marriott Rewards’ chatbots, enabling guests to make simple requests with instant responses

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FACIAL RECOGNITION

Facial recognition has been one of the most hotly discussed and most widely debated tech trends of 2017.

Sparking fear in many about privacy, the application is already being used extensively across a variety of sectors from healthcare, to

advertising to access and security. 2017 saw huge advancements in this powerful technology in a short space of time; from the detection of bogus marriages, to the iPhone X face ID, to the software recognising certain illnesses in patients through the mapping of their facial features.

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China currently leads the world when it comes to facial recognition technology

As a country they are pouring huge sums into the technology and have embraced it in comparison to us privacy-conscious Westerners. As a nation they are more relaxed about questions of privacy, which is allowing them to develop these new technologies more quickly and create incredibly accurate facial recognition across cities to help city governments manage those cities. We’re also starting to see things that we would feel a bit uncomfortable about in the UK such as scoring people based on their behaviour and then denying them access to certain types of services because of that behaviour.

The events industry is seeing a slow and tentative adoption of facial recognition technology

Whilst the application is yet to still fully take off within the industry, we are seeing it being trialled for more efficient check in processes, improved on-site security and measurement of the attendee experience. NEC Corp recently announced they will be implementing facial recognition at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to streamline the entry of athletes, officials and journalists to the games venues. Their technology ‘NeoFace’ is already in use in multiple locations around the world such as sports venues and airports and last summer before the UEFA Champions League final, NeoFace spotted a suspicious individual which

led to his arrest by the police; it was the first arrest made in the UK using facial recognition technology. Houston based start-up Zenus also trialled their version of facial recognition software at the International Corporate Event Awards in 2017, resulting in a process that was five times quicker than previous years. More recently, Sydney Cricket Ground’s security team trialled the use of 820 facial recognition cameras at The Ashes test; they were able to provide ‘airport-levels of security’ for the 45,000 spectator event.

Advancements are being made in the software in relation to emotion analysis, gathering data on how delegates are feeling in association with the event. The software can read individual or group emotions, understanding how each attendee feels by measuring their facial expressions, whilst also capturing their demographic, gender and attention span. This creates a whole new level of real-time event data gathering, where the patterns of emotional behaviour combined with data such as age and gender supply the organiser with powerful measurements for ROI, all pinpointed to specific moments within the event.

It really is only the beginning for this technology; with such advancements as ‘the car of the future’ able to be unlocked with your face, to self-driving suitcases able to follow their owner through facial recognition there’s an exciting future for this technology, albeit slightly daunting future for the consumer.

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MIXED REALITY6

the product, zooming in on the intricate details and becoming fully immersed in a fly-through experience. This could have great potential for the aerospace, engineering and automotive industries for example.

In the sporting events world, companies like the digital production company Rewind have worked with Microsoft HoloLens and the Red Bull Air Race to provide a track-like experience with extra layers of information that you would get from a broadcast. When this is all delivered through a HoloLens, spectators get a far better insight into the race (including factors like speed, winner stats, historical information etc) which provides far better overall engagement.

For concert goers, bad seats could be a thing of the past. Fans could create the experience that best suits them, from altered stage sets, better view points to onstage holograms. Similarly in presentations, speakers can alter their surroundings for their delegates by adapting their environment to better fit their content. Whether they’re presenting on 1920’s England, or launching a new clothing design, presenters can completely manipulate their immediate setting, creating far greater learning opportunities and more captivating experiences. Training events will be more interactive, with ‘on-the-job’ training able to be undertaken in a virtual environment. Where training may have previously been limited to books or video content, especially where there are safety risks or implications in cost, Mixed Reality can help the student get the benefit of the physical training, creating a far more compelling and collaborative programme.

The applications of Mixed Reality within the event sphere are incredibly exciting. Individually, AR, VR and IoT each represent distinct solutions but if companies pursue these technologies as separate functions, they’ll never realise their full potential. The goal should be building more intuitive, immersive and empowering experiences and if done correctly, Mixed Reality could revolutionise engagement across the event space.

The terms Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality have been bounded around for years now, but in 2018 we’re likely to see more of a focus towards ‘Mixed Reality’ which is emerging as the immersive experience of choice. Sometimes referred to as hybrid reality, Mixed Reality is the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time. Combined with data made possible by the Internet of Things, a more integrated digital landscape can be built. It’s this data that becomes the differentiator for leveraging the power of VR and AR

And it’s not just used in gaming scenarios, we’re now seeing multiple uses in the workplace from more recently Renault creating a Mixed Reality application which takes employees over the process of designing a car, to oil technicians working on a drilling rig in the middle of the ocean sending video feeds so the experts can annotate to direct the task ahead.

The biggest player in this area is Microsoft, but they’re not the only company making waves in the Mixed Reality world. At the back end of 2017, the Google backed and highly secretive company Magic Leap revealed their highly anticipated flagship product, the Leap One; a pair of goggles that tricks users into perceiving virtual objects as part of their real-life environment.

But how is it being applied to events?

With the increased use of virtual meeting technology, Mixed Reality will be able to provide a far superior immersive experience for those not able to attend the event in person. Many companies struggle with connecting remote and physically present individuals, but Mixed Reality can help bridge that gap and give remote attendees a more visible presence.

The event design process as a whole could also be far more immersive, as planners start having the ability to design the event space, visualising room set up and production treatments within the physical space. Having the ability to see how the room could be used, and annotate notes for future event planning would be a very valuable and time saving process.

Onsite, it would also be possible to build more sophisticated interactive product displays, allowing the delegate to truly become part of PREVIOUS PAGE: Launching in 2018, the Magic Leap One produces

lifelike digital objects that coexist in the real world

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MORE INSIGHTFUL DATA AND ANALYTICSI’m sure it’s not news to anyone how vital it is to collect and analyse data when it comes to events, but yet it is still deemed one of the greatest challenges the events industry faces today. As

the Internet of Things brings us infinitely more connected devices there are now even more opportunities for event organisers to harness and leverage this data.

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future events. Hashtag analytics are also a great way to monitor attendee behaviours throughout the event cycle. Social media tools can easily assess what is resonating with your followers, whilst also being able to assess conversions such as registrations, downloads or newsletter subscriptions. Finally we are also seeing event technology companies catching up when it comes to the importance of data. Cloud-based event tech tools are able to work more efficiently together, collecting data from multiple sources to create a far clearer attendee profile.

Attendees are also now expecting greater personalisation when they attend events; both in the marketing communication and the live experience. Delegates are aware that they are giving away valuable information, and as a result there is an increased expectation in how they believe that data to be used. Therefore it’s essential to have a clear data strategy that outlines exactly what data is being collected and how it is being used.

This trend will only continue to grow as event planners start to automate their processes and make better use of their event data.

Whilst there are clearly changes to regulation that ensures the protection of the recipient, under the GDPR right to data portability, should the user give permission, then an exciting world of further possibilities open up, allowing their different digital profiles (professional and personal) to build even richer individual experiences. For example, knowing their prefer travel provider, clothing brand, or cuisine style could ensure that have a far more useful and meaningful digital exchange of data at events.

There hasn’t been a more important time than now for companies to take a data-driven approach. Event budgets are being squeezed, and clients are more frequently expecting a quantifiable return on their investment. We also now have access to a multitude of technology systems that are able to support us in better data planning.

We’ve all fallen culprit to it; tough deadlines and challenging clients leads us to take less time to use the data we have to effectively run better and more personalised events. Yet with a more focused data strategy we can immediately make improvements from more tailored marketing campaigns, to increased registrations to real-time event reporting.

As a starting point, registration systems are a simple way to collect basic data on your attendees from name, address, age and gender. When overlaid with information taken from systems such as an event app you can start to paint a much clearer picture of each individual attendee. What sessions did they attend? Who are they meeting with? What were their answers to poll questions? Immediately you have a far clearer picture of their preferences which can help guide your entire content development strategy for future events.

With almost every event now having a social media presence, we have access to real-time information and a wealth of data points to help us grow relationships with our audience.

Social media listening tools can help us gather real-time information on how our events are performing, helping us inform the decision-making process both whilst on-site and for

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DATA SECURITY

as an industry, we need to start developing best practice, and meeting compliance, but how do we do this?

In many cases, it is possible to simply address the consent issue by delivering ‘gated content’. By asking the recipient to agree to being included into a database to track readership, one can effectively gain their permission based on a transaction of information.

In the event delivery side and delegate registration websites in particular, we also need to be very mindful of not only having the necessary consent permissions to be included for logistical and communication considerations, but also to cleanse the database of information after the event. Prepopulating the website as has traditionally been done to save time, now represents a breach of regulations unless the delegate has shared his consent with transferring it from any previous system. To that extent, agencies would have to be more familiar with moving any necessary data from one proprietary system to the other, and releasing this information in a useable format.

Finally, it will be a requirement to appoint professionally qualified Data Protection Officers in organisations that engage in large scale (>250 users) systematic monitoring or processing of sensitive personal data. For many, this will involve a level of compliance and cost that may not have previously been considered.

Whilst much of this seems to be slightly restrictive, once the industry has developed best practice and working solutions that can protect the audience, then we can begin the exciting journey of how we can use this agreed data, to deliver truly engaging, meaningful and secure experiences for our clients.

As we highlighted in our section around useful data and analytics, data is playing an increasingly important role in helping to build richer delegate experiences at events. Equally, the subject of data security has never been so prevalent, with both regulation and society demanding that agencies take evermore responsibility.

With so much activity now driven through digital channels, there is a growing wealth of user data which, if left unsecured, can lead to a real risk to both individuals and organisations. Consequently, to address how data should be correctly used and protected, the European Parliament adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in April 2016, which will become enforceable on the 25th May 2018. It will apply to everyone involved in the processing of data about individuals in the context of selling goods and services to citizens in the EU, regardless of whether the organisation is located within the EU. So what does it all mean?

At its essence lays the principle of consent. Marketing and event agencies for example need to be able to demonstrate that consent has been given by the recipient to be communicated with. This can take the form of ‘opt in only’ where consent is given directly, or ‘soft opt in’ where consent is clearly implied. Equally, it must be as easy to withdraw consent as it is to give it.

Beyond consent, users now also have the right to be forgotten. When data is no longer relevant to its original purpose, data subjects can have the data controller erase their personal data and cease it dissemination. Furthermore, the user also has the right to data portability, meaning they have the right to obtain and reuse their personal data for their own purpose by transferring it across different IT environments. Without any such protocols in place, the agency will be in breach and could be liable for penaltiesof up to €20m or 4% of global turnover and so

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Growth of the Internet of ThingsIoT is one of the most exciting phenomena of the past few years. With an expected 100 trillion devices to be connected by 2050, the Internet of Things has the potential to revolutionise almost every aspect of the way we live. IoT devices dominated CES 2018; from connected bicycle handlebars, to home sleep solutions and smart locks; it was evident that IoT is here to stay. Tech giant Samsung also cemented their commitment to IoT with an announcement that all their devices will be internet enabled by 2020 from their smart TVs to their refrigerators.

ABOVE AND RIGHT: Hilton Worldwide’s ability to select a room from a floorplan is available on the Hilton Honors program across all U.S. properties and ables guests to upgrade and request amenities ready for their arrival. Guests can also now use the Digital Key, a feature on the Hilton Honors app that allows guests to skip check in and head straight to their room

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RIGHT: Marriott has teamed up with Samsung and Legrand to launch the IoT Guestroom Lab; a ‘smart’ hotel room that allows multiple responsive IoT devices to connect, for example, a virtual assistant can be asked for a wake-up call or yoga routines can be practiced in the mirror

Now with this more widespread adoption of intelligent lighting and heating, room environments in event spaces can easily be controlled through event organisers mobile phones. Doors can be controlled to either welcome guests or smart locks can keep out unwanted guests. This means you can also measure and improve energy usage at your venue, which could potentially lower the cost of powering your event.

But as the number of IoT devices grow, so does the risk! Connectivity comes at a price, and due to the valuable data that IoT devices collect about their users, they’ve become attractive targets for hackers. The consultancy firm Capgemini’s research found only 33% of organisations believe their IoT products are “highly resilient” against future cyber security threats, and 48% of companies focus on securing their IoT products from the beginning of the product development phase. That’s a worrying set of figures.

IoT has driven some of the greatest tech advancements of the last twenty years, and as we see this trend taken further with the inclusion of a greater number of external data sets, 2018 will continue to see it as a hot topic.

Whilst the events industry has been slow to adopt, there is still plenty of potential for event organisers to gather valuable data about their delegates, and deliver more personalised moments through IoT. In particular, the use of wearable technology at events allows organisers to track metrics such as emotion, activity levels or location. Using a wristband/sensor combination can aid event entry, cashless payments, onsite navigation and give real-time crowd heatmaps. This technology not only has the capability to hugely improve the attendee experience, but at the same time is providing the operators with invaluable real-time data on visitors’ movements at an event and their preferences.

Hilton and Marriott have already turned to the Internet of Things to transform the hotel room experience. Both hotel brands are experimenting with technology that anticipates their guest’s needs and creates a more personalised experience for them. Some of these hotel chains’ planned integrations include smart mirrors, pictures, and showers. Guests using their voices can adjust anything from lighting, to temperature, style of music to choice of artwork. The more high tech additions include a smart mirror which monitors your heart rate, specialised lighting personalised to each guest and the ability to order a Starbucks from the comfort of your room and have it waiting for you in the lobby.

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BELOW: Samsung announce their plans to make seamlessly connected consumer experiences across Samsung devices at home, at the office and on-the-go

AUTOMATION

Whilst on many of the 2017 tech trends lists, 2018 will be the year that forces many event marketers to sit up and realise that automation needs to be a fully-fledged part of their growth strategy.

We live in an era where we have an abundance of data at our fingertips, but businesses are still struggling with the amount of work that needs to be done internally to get their data to a point where it can be beneficial to them. Marketing automation relies on having the correct data, but unfortunately in many cases this data is kept on legacy systems and the systems do not support real-time integration. Changing this, for many companies is both a significant investment and also a substantial risk.

The more intelligent machines become the more that processes and decisions can be automated and carried out by algorithms or robots.

It’s been reported that over the next thirty years, intelligent automation is set to cause the most radical restructuring of the workforce since the Industrial Revolution. Powered by Artificial Intelligence; systems, data, and people will be woven together to create solutions that fundamentally will change organisations, how they’re structured, and what they deliver. Skillssuch as, communication, empathy, persuasion and strategic decision making are now more valuable than ever. Whilst the negative effects are currently being widely dramatised,

automation has the potential to open up new opportunities, boost productivity in the workforce and allow a greater focus on the more human aspects of roles.

It’s reported by Kissmetrics that an incredible 82% of marketers aren’t able to quantify attendee interactions at their corporate events. But if we shift our focus to using data to its full potential and use event and marketing automation together, we will significantly be able to increase event revenue.

The biggest advantage of event automation is the simplification of various procedures related to event management. Everything from registrations, tickets, reminders to post-event comms can be automated, with the software doing the heavy lifting, leaving you spare time for other important details. The focus of the event planners/marketers can then be around optimising these processes using the time and budget saved through automation. Simple events can be transformed into multi-channel nurture programmes with the use of marketing automation technology.

Fear not, robots will not take our jobs; instead automation will compel us to discover new roles, re-skilling and a mind-set change. It frees up the time of the employee to be more strategic and optimise processes, and in 2018 we are likely to start to have a far clearer idea on the future impact of automation on the workforce.

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ROBOTSThose who’ve watched Charlie Brooker’s Metalhead episode of the Black Mirror series might easily be led to believe that the introduction of robots is going to bring about a future devoid of all human life. As robots become more and more life-like and are able to conduct an array of anthropomorphic tasks, we ask are they just a gimmick or are they here to stay?

Currently four of the industries most disrupted by robots are healthcare, manufacturing, the military and mining. When we see how robotics is being applied to these industries it’s far easier to see the benefit of this technology. In healthcare, robots are able to perform tasks such as minor surgeries, with innovations such as Xenex the germ-zapping robot that attributed to a 70% decrease in infections at Westchester Medical Centre. There is huge development in remote

NEXT PAGE: Boston Dynamics’ Atlas, known as the backflipping robot, achieves whole-body balance with a high strength-to-weight ratio, 28 joints and stereo vision

ABOVE: A decade after the first release, Sony’s AIBO was released at the start of 2018

controlled drones that are able to provide real-time analysis and monitor dangerous situations, and in mining robots can conduct reconnaissance and compile important information about the interior of a mine before the miners step into a potentially fatal situation. From Sophia the ultra-lifelike robot, to the Boston Dynamics Atlas able to backflip, we are seeing rapid advancements in the area of robotics.

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But we’re now seeing a rise in the use of robots in the hospitality industry. The hotel Aloft Cupertino in California has ‘botlrs’ designed to perform simple tasks around the hotel that free up their existing staff to deliver a more personalised experience for their guests. The robots can deliver amenities to guest rooms, towels by the poolside, working around the clock all from a guest’s smartphone. Henn-na in Japan was the first hotel to be staffed by robots. Opening in 2015, it was designed to be the world’s most efficient hotel, powered by 90% robots and therefore alleviating manpower. Connie, the robot launched by Hilton Hotels is an A.I. powered concierge robot driven through a partnership with IBM’s Watson programme. Guests can ask it questions about nearby restaurants, tourist attractions, and general hotel information.

But how will robotics disrupt the events industry?

Event organisers are time poor. With lots of laborious and repetitive tasks involved in the events cycle, the use of robots can alleviate these tasks efficiently and accurately. With menial tasks handled by robots, event staff can then focus on the tasks that require the more human touch.

One of the greatest benefits of robots is that whilst they perform tasks and interact with attendees, they are also able to collect a vast amount of data throughout the process. This leads to the ability to far better personalise the guest’s experience. As the new wave of robots are now being built with facial recognition, the future holds a smoother check-in process for repeat business, overlaid with the ability to crucially remember guest preferences. Regular visitors can expect the robots to recognise what music they would like playing in their room on arrival, whether they usually have a pre-dinner G&T, or any dietary preferences. And this vital data can also be used post visit, with hotels and event organisers able to provide greater personalisation for their subsequent marketing communications. As robots help to provide the hotel industry with smoother check-ins, real-time location information and efficient delivery of amenities, this all leads to more positive reviews, recommendations and overall increase revenue. It’s a win-winscenario for the hotel industry.

As we move in to an era where its commonplace for people to use smart speaker devices, whether it’s setting an alarm through Siri or asking Alexa to re-order Dominos, it’s becoming more of a normality to conduct simple everyday tasks through these voice activated devices. This puts robotics companies in a great position to experiment with this technology as the average human becomes far more accustomed to this interaction with non-human devices.

But there are still underlying safety issues in robotics. If we look at how algorithms are created from the data that they’re given, the goals that they’re set, and by the people that make them, bias can creep in at all three of those stages. Recent reports are showing that robots are picking up racist and sexist ideas in their language patterns, and we have to ensure that we don’t increase the existing bias and end up with more misogynistic and racist systems and therefore society.

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THE ‘SMART CITY’ IS HERENow on the agenda of many of the world’s top capitals, smart cities are continuing to spring up all over the world with Singapore, Stockholm, Boston and Copenhagen currently leading the pack; all with the ambition to build safer, healthier and more efficient environments. So what is a Smart City? Smart cities use data and technology to create efficiencies, improve sustainability, create economic development, and enhance quality of life factors for people living, visiting and working in the city. This could come in various iterations, from driverless vehicle technology, to automated parking structures currently found in LA, to Ericsson powering Dallas’s smart city traffic solution.

Google’s holding company Alphabet recently announced their plans to turn a disused area

of Toronto into a smart city district. Their plans involve monitoring everything from rubbish bins, to traffic lights, and habitants could expect almost every part of their new environment to be connected. The area will be home to Google’s Canadian headquarters, and they hope, when completed, will offer a more efficient and heavily automated urban environment. Hello Big Brother!

ABOVE: One of the world’s most sustainable buildings, The Crystal, was built by Siemens in 2012 as a permanent exhibition on the future of cities and eco-friendly living. The structure set a benchmark for sustainable design and uses much of Siemen’s innovative technologies to run with 70% less CO2 emissions than similar UK offices

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For event organisers, especially of the large scale congresses/expos, the Smart City will soon become a decision-making factor. If a city can offer a smoother transport infrastructure, intelligent hotels for a more personalised delegate experience, or smarter parking solutions, then this will always give an edge over other cities in the mix. We’re now seeing a significant rise in clients asking for sustainable solutions and with more hotels and event spaces adopting an intelligent approach, it is making it easier for organisers to fulfil these requests. Furthermore, the Smart City can also support on many other social and economic factors such as refuse management, intelligent housing, and crime reduction; all leading to a more harmonious, safer and efficient place to live and work.

Smart spaces aren’t just about having high-end technology; take, for example The Crystal, The Sustainable Cities initiative by Siemens which houses 14 event spaces and uses solar power and ground source heat pumps to generate its own energy. This building was the first of its kind in London, but since there has been a significant rise in smarter spaces, from hotels using chatbot concierge systems, to connected spaces able to optimise heating, music and lighting to give a far better guest experience. For events, when using smart venues, the ability to use large spaces design to be configured to the needs of the audience, a more robust approach to catering and food management, as well as contactless payment and safer travel will always be of great appeal to the organiser; driving savings and an enhanced delegate experience.

For events, when using smart venues, the ability to use large spaces design to be configured to the needs of the audience, a more robust approach to catering and food management,

as well as contactless payment and safer travel will always be of great appeal to the organiser; driving savings and an enhanced delegate experience.

Smart hotels are becoming more every day, as companies realise the potential to not only give the guest a more tailored experience but also tap into the wealth of data that comes with a connected hotel. Marriott recently announced its partnership with Samsung to develop the industry’s first Internet of Things hotel room; a smart hotel room designed to show ‘the hotel experience of the future’. This new style of room will allow guests to use a mobile app or their voice to control the temperature, request additional housekeeping services, start the shower at a desired temperature or ask a virtual assistant for a wake-up call.

A city’s transport system can be the make or break of an event. Especially for large-scale events such as the Olympics, this sudden increase in footfall can cause chaos for a city’s transport infrastructure and become a frustration for delegates for the duration of an event. Intelligent transportation networks can significantly ease congestion, whether through electronic payments, advanced traffic light systems, driverless vehicles routed to avoid congestion or tube sensors that can identify which carriages are the least busy and relay this to the next station. Smart parking technology is already being rolled out across many cities, allowing drivers to view vacant on-street spaces and pay through their app; a huge benefit to those travelling by car to an event. The impending arrival of 5G will also fully enable the Smart City. With the huge amounts of data required to operate an intelligent city, 5G will be the next step needed for this massive increase in data load to be handled.

ABOVE: Dallas has adopted Ericsson’s Connected Urban Transport solution, which will ease traffic congestion and make roads safer for commuters by 2020

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THE RISE OF ONLINE BOOKING SPACETechnological innovations, new meeting demands and increasing cost-consciousness are driving continued efforts around electronic sourcing for all meeting types. Today, many clients are looking to the market for an online booking tool that can help drive down costs, particularly in the small meetings sector, but how close are we to a complete, working solution?

There have always been tools aimed at helping the user to search for properties in a starting to include date search functionality, but the booking / enquiry process often still relies on manual intervention. With the growth of AirBnB and similar sites, these platforms are becoming more sophisticated; giving the booker more resources to their fingertips, but can they really replace the traditional agency service? Through our research, those current leading in this field include:

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Ivvy, a robust event and venue management software company, serves this market by creating a new online booking sector, catering for many types and sizes of meetings with venues including hotels, restaurants, function centres and even boats. Headquartered in Australia, they have offices in the U.S., the UK and New Zealand. Currently, most of the properties listed in the direct booking site are Australian-based, but we expect to see this grow elsewhere rapidly.

Peerspace provides non-traditional meeting space for corporate events, meetings, film shoots, parties and workshop in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, L.A., New York, Seattle, Austin, Chicago, Berlin, London and Paris (with more cities to come). Notice the almost identical layout from AirBNB, with the map view, meeting space thumbnails, user ratings, and the ability to list your own space.

Meetingsbooker provides direct small group meetings space booking (up to 40 people) with listings in 70,000 venues on a global basis. Some of the destinations highlighted are London, New York, Dublin, and Sydney.

Interestingly, Expedia first put its foot into the MICE waters when a Germany-based product engineer Felix Undeutsch had to organise an offsite meeting in Amsterdam a couple of years ago.

Booking the ground transportation, flights and hotel rooms was easy but booking the meeting room was a hassle. “Everything was manual, very ‘80s,” he said during a media briefing at the Expedia Partner Conference in Las Vegas in December 2017.

And so Undeutsch, who is now Head of MICE and Groups for Expedia, took it upon himself to see if he could automate the manual process. “Hotels are overwhelmed by low converting RFPs. With one sale, there are 10-20 follow-ups. The process is not efficient.” With an eye on the market that’s primarily driven by small meetings of under 30 people, Undeutsch realised that any small incremental improvement could lead to great dividends. According to him, this market is estimated at 60 million meetings a year, is worth US$400b annually and accounts for a third of hotel room nights.

Whilst many of these sites are able to support ad hoc requirements, many clients these days are looking for a more strategic meetings management programme solution driven

by compliance and controlling total spend. Electronic sourcing and the direct access to supply that it can provide, ultimately present challenges to ensuring policy compliance, but many see electronic sourcing as a path toward more efficient and timely meeting planning. As Linda McNairy, Vice President, Global Operations and Shared Services, at American Express Meetings & Events points out, “Customer demand is there, and technology can accommodate it. The challenge continues to be the ability and willingness of hotels to offer space and rates to allow for instant bookings for meetings”.

In discussions with our own clients, one planner adds, “In 5-10 years, sourcing will likely be done completely differently with a smart solution to book small meetings on the fly, and we won’t be using as many sourcing agents. Sophisticated sourcing tools will facilitate online booking that will have the capacity to take into account a large company’s travel policy and their preferred suppliers. This will change sourcing”. He explains that digital sales servicing solutions are already available in some areas to facilitate quick proposal responses, manage reservations, provide feedback, and monitor rates. “From a commercial perspective, this is driving and changing meetings and events”.

While it is clear that the demand for an online strategic sourcing solution is very apparent, there is still some way to go. However, to be a truly valuable tool, it will require the buy-in and participation of all major hotel chains, supported by a robust internal process designed to meet the procurement agenda of organisations. The central availability of a meetings inventory will accelerate the industry, automating a lot of the things agencies are doing that are tactical. Once the inventory comes available we believe there will be another industry leap forward.

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BANKS SADLERBanks Sadler is an award winning event management and venue sourcing agency. With six offices across the globe, we operate as a part of American Express Meetings & Events, offering an exclusive range of in-house services including consulting and advisory services for creative event production and design, venue sourcing, event management, travel management and event technology. We have been delivering meetings management and creative event consulting services to the world’s leading brands for 35 years, and each year deliver a wide range of solutions ranging from conferences, incentive programmes, gala dinners and investigator meetings through to strategic meetings management programmes, experiential activations and product launches.

Banks Sadler was recently awarded C&IT Global Agency of the Year 2017.

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