Choosing the right technology for your event
The effectiveness of events as a cut-through marketing tool, coupled with the instant response of customers to experiential marketing, has changed the way corporate marketers engage with their customers.
Events have become a major component of marketing budgets around the world and the tool of choice for marketers who understand that a well-executed strategic event will create an instant positive impact on customers – and the opportunity for ongoing engagement with their brand in a positive and effective way.
Events must clearly and creatively showcase products and services, retain brand integrity, and deliver a return on objectives. As part of the initial briefing process, we ask clients what they want to achieve and what they want delegates to take away from their event. Only when we have established their objectives do we start to think about the technology that we will deploy to achieve their vision.
Although there is no doubt that technology plays a big part in the execution of events, ultimately it is used to enhance and deliver a message. A total event experience is delivered by a variety of cohesive elements, including event design, entertainment, presentation, and selecting the right venue, which flows through to the use of technology.
Having the latest technology is great, but being unable to resist showing it off, no matter what, rarely works. In fact, often people notice the technology more when it doesn’t work properly. If you can’t hear well or the sightlines are poorly thought out, delegates will be less likely to have a great time and subsequently not be receptive to the key message being delivered.
You want to stage a memorable event and use the most appropriate technology to do it. If your event needs highly detailed graphics and high-definition video, make sure the vision system delivers the quality you require. If your presenters are remotely located, make sure the video conferencing provides the audience with a great experience of that presenter.
If you have material with surround sound, check the capability of the public address system. If you want your audience to feel like they are in a concert, then the lighting and sound must support that objective. If elegance and sophistication are required, then attendees must feel that from the first moment they enter your event space.
A good example of tying technology to the needs of clients is edge blending technology (see photo below). By blending the output of two, three or more high-end projectors, huge, wide-screen images are created, giving the audience a cinematic experience. This technology also allows for multiple layers of content to be displayed in custom-designed, picture-in-picture windows that can be manipulated and moved over the entire canvas. This delivers maximum impact and flexibility without the expense of building a custom-designed set.
Your event services company needs to advise you of all of the possibilities that technology provides to enable you to build your event ideas around a sound knowledge base. Good, early planning is the key to a successful event, particularly any audio-visual component. Plan what you want to do carefully and make sure you communicate this to your entire team.
ABOVE: An example of edge blending technology, which blends the output of two, three or more high-end projectors to create, huge, wide-screen images. |
