The Best New Event Technology in 2024 

Technology has revolutionised many aspects of events for years, creating new ways to engage attendees, streamline the planning process and improve experiences to help boost event’s reputations. If you want to stay ahead of the game in the event industry, keeping up to date on the best technology in the events industry and the most recent developments is the best way to ensure you’re providing experiences for your attendees that will compete with and exceed those of your competitors.

In this article, we explore some of the best new event technology in 2024 and suggest some of the best ways to utilise this technology in your own events.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been one of the most significant event trends in recent years, with plenty of innovation when it comes to how this type of event technology can be applied. Here are some of the most interesting examples we expect to see in events in 2024.

It’s a well-known piece of marketing advice that personalisation is one of the best ways to improve engagement. But individually tailoring all of your event communication can be a mammoth task, which is where AI tools like ChatGPT come in handy.

Once you’ve got the core messaging of your content planned and written, it’s very easy to feed this into an AI text tool and get it to alter it slightly to suit different audiences, or even just include the name of each of your attendees. You’re not relying on the software to write your messages for you, but you are editing it to suit the recipient and hopefully improve the impact it has as a result. 

This can work for pre-event communication really well, but you could also use it during your event if you’re sending messages and recommendations to attendees.

Chatbots are a classic piece of technology in the events industry, utilising AI software to provide answers or support to basic questions for attendees. If you’re not already using Chatbots as part of your website or event app, it’s a great way to utilise this kind of event tech and improve the attendee experience.

We’re seeing more nuanced uses of chatbots for event brands in 2024, taking the technology and then tailoring it to use a branded tone of voice for example, or giving the chatbot a persona which aligns with the event brand. Whilst this kind of tech has come a long way, it does still have its limitations, but it can be a great way to save your team time by answering similar, simple questions and helping overcome basic attendee issues.

There’s a very interesting intersection between data collection software and AI analytics tools which can be a great way for organisers to tap into new insight. AI data analytics can often pick out trends that you might have skipped over, and this can be a fantastic way to identify methods of improving your events or highlight certain trends and patterns which can be zoned in on.

AI can also be a really useful tool to streamline event data analysis to make the process more efficient. Even if you are still drawing the conclusions yourself, AI software can help organise data in an instant, highlight trends or search for particular patterns, freeing up more time for reflection and ideation as to what you can do with this data.

Growing your attendee numbers is a goal for many events, and one barrier that can stand in the way of this is your events not being accessible to those who don’t speak your language. AI technology has been developed that can be a huge helpin overcoming this previous issue, providing real-time translation for talks and panels which means that everyone can attend and understand what’s being said, even if it’s not in their first language.  
 
This technology doesn’t just have to be applied to translation; AI can also be used to provide real-time captions which improve accessibility for those who might be hard of hearing or struggle with auditory processing. Whether you’re adding captions to a livestream of a talk or including them on a screen beside the speaker(s), this is a really beneficial use of AI technology that can help to significantly grow your attendee base.

Personalised apps for an event aren’t a particularly new innovation. But what we are continuing to see in 2024 is this technology being used to improve attendee experience in a range of ways, offering more information instantly and helping to improve the overall event.

Here are some examples of event innovation in 2024 using these apps.

A really useful feature on many event apps is giving attendees a way of looking at the schedule, sharing information about the location of talks or workshops and allowing them to have an overview of what’s happening at an event at their fingertips. One way that the best event technology is taking this further is allowing attendees to create their own personalised itineraries on the app, allowing them to select events that they want to attend and view this unique schedule and all the information they need.

This is a particularly useful feature for multi-day events or just events when multiple sessions are running at the same time which attendees can choose from. Allowing attendees to put together their own itineraries can not only help to improve engagement before the event takes place, but also contributes to a better experience that feels more personalised.

You could also take this idea a step further by creating a range of different sample itineraries based on different attendee personas and featuring them on your app, giving users a starting point for planning what events they want to go to. You could even make the most of new event technology and incorporate AI into this idea, creating personalised itineraries for each attendee based on their interests.

Engagement is a significant metric that every event organiser pays close attention to as part of measuring their success. A brilliant way that technology in the events industry has been used to help improve this is by creating opportunities for real-time interaction through an event app, allowing attendees to submit questions, answer polls and interact with discussions even when they are sitting in the audience.

Opportunities for real-time participation and interaction, whether that’s asking a speaker questions, sharing your opinion on a panel topic or answering a question, are a fantastic way to ensure that attendees are much more engaged with what’s happening at your event. Developing this feature on your app is a great way to be a part of popular event trends and help your attendees feel more connected and involved.

Utilising the necessary technology to do this through your event app can also provide you with more data to help measure engagement, which can be really valuable.

Not all events involve networking, but the ones that do can make the most of event engagement technology by giving attendees the option to message the people they meet through the event app. By setting up a chat feature that only event attendees can use, you can help to increase activity on your event app and help attendees to stay connected, creating a better sense of community at the event.

If your event is predominantly used for networking purposes then this is a use of event tech that you should definitely consider, but it can still be useful if attendees tend to network more casually at your event. You could even consider setting up a matchmaking feature where attendees are paired through the messaging section of your app based on common interests as a way to facilitate more connection. 

Virtual reality (VR) technology is being utilised in a wide range of industries, and the event industry is no different. This innovative technology is continuously being developed and refined to create all kinds of immersive experiences, as we’ll explore below.

Hybrid and virtual events aren’t new, but the kind of technology that can help run them smoothly is being improved all the time. One of the most interesting ways that VR is being used with technology in the events industry is to create fully immersive experiences for remote attendees that allow them to feel like they are there in the room at an event, improving engagement and creating a much more memorable experience.

This kind of VR innovation in events either requires the remote attendee to have their own VR technology or for the event to supply it, which can limit the applications of this idea. However, event planners now have the opportunity to create virtual versions of the event venue which remote attendees can move around in to experience the event, or just set up in-person events so that VR tech can be used to experience these as though you’re also in the room.

One of the main event technology trends that is still going strong after several years is the use of VR to create more interactive experiences for attendees at things like trade shows. In this MICE industry, we see a lot of this used by companies trying to showcase a destination or activity, using VR technology to bring a more immersive experience to the attendees.

There are a wide range of ways that you can utilise aspects of VR to better engage attendees as an exhibitor, but it’s also a brilliant event innovation for organisers who want to create unique experiences. Consider the goals of your event and how you could integrate virtual reality to give attendees the chance to experience something different and fully immersive, whether this is used to promote your brand image or as part of a workshop or activity.

Security is a key consideration for event planners, both at the event itself and concerning all of the digital information surrounding the attendees, vendors and speakers. Here’s how new event technology is being used in this area.

Facial recognition technology powered by AI is beginning to be used in a range of security areas, and in the events industry it can be a great way to increase attendee safety and make the process of arriving more simple. Event technologies using facial recognition will scan a person’s face, check that they are on a verified list of attendees, and then allow them into the event without the need for much, if any, human verification. 

When you have a lot of attendees arriving all at once, this can be a massive help. Not only is it an efficient way to verify entry, but it’s also more secure than almost every other kind of digital check-in.

Cyber security threats and personal data regulations mean that data protection is a priority for event organisers. There are all kinds of new event technology that can be used to ensure that attendee data is kept safe from attacks or leaks, with a popular example being blockchain databases. When it comes to developing event apps or deciding on the software that you’ll use, make sure that the cybersecurity credentials of what you’re using are excellent.

Whilst some examples of new event technology in this article have only recently entered the industry, others are examples of familiar technologies that are continuing to be used in innovative ways, such as AI, events apps and VR technology. When it comes to the best way to utilise new technology for events, remember that enhancing attendee experience and making processes more efficient should be your top priorities. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when there’s so much innovation in events, but embracing technology and being inspired by trends is the best way to stay ahead of the game.

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