On to the present

Hope you all enjoyed taking a look at some older photos of events from back when tech wasn't such an important part of life (Throwback Thursday). But what about now? How has technology woven its way into the business events industry?

• Event website - every bigger and most smaller events have discovered the power of having a good online presence in promoting itself.
• Online registration - whether through the event's website itself or popular sites such as Eventbrite, online registration is the easiest and most popular way of keeping track of potential attendee numbers.
• Email communications - emails are one of the quickest and most popular forms of communicating in today's world. The additional features such as voting buttons, read receipts or reminders help a busy event manager in organising their workload and making sure that the business critical tasks don't fall off the to do list.
• Document sharing - having platforms such as Dropbox, Cloud etc. make sharing and storing documents much easier. If done well, it can also reduce issues of version control which sometimes occurs in larger teams.
• Social media presence - it's almost essential to have a social media presence to promote and ensure audience engagement at the event. Social media is used by people of all ages and backgrounds now and makes an effective tool in reaching them.
• Webcasts - Essentially the broadcasting of the internet. Platforms such as Showcaster allow the user to either live stream or send on demand to a particular content source to many simultaneous consumers. 
• Digital networking - More and more people recognise the importance of professional networks and their relevance to business. Within the events industry, it is particularly important as many job offers are dependant upon personal references and word of mouth. Sites such as LinkedIn help to achieve this, allowing networking to continue past the initial meeting.

To find out an easier way of keeping on top of all these technology developments, check out this post about having a technology partner: http://www.eventmanagerblog.com/technology-partner

Also here we have a short clip of an interview with Jessie States - Education Content Designer, talking about the future of Meeting in Events. All credit goes to the YouTube Channel IMEXexhibitions, see the full video here: http://youtu.be/OQd7zxy_pwA?t=1m43s



So what are your thoughts on current technological marvels that allow this event industry to grind on? Have we missed anything vital? Share, comment, argue - Alls fair in love and war..