Giant iTab Founder CEO Mark Jones rounds up the technological event trends taking off this year.

 

Event technology is evolving all the time and just when you think you have a handle on the latest tech trends around, something new pops up to add a different dimension to your event.

It can be challenging working out which technology will benefit your event. Having supplied our Giant iTab technology to events for many years we are always interested in how technology is being used to enhance events in different ways. Sometimes it’s the simplest things that have the biggest impact.

From facial recognition to drones these are the top 4 event tech trends we expect see a lot more of in 2019 and beyond:

Facial recognition

Now standard on many smartphones, facial recognition software is set to change the registration and security procedures at events. Facial recognition checkin at events is 50% faster than traditional methods and eco-friendly as there is no need for printed tickets and confirmation letters. The powerful technology is also being used to make event ID checks much more secure and thorough and can be used to help implement better watchlists, blacklists and whitelists. Organisers of the Tokyo Olympics recently announced they will use facial recognition to improve security and to identify athletes, officials, staff and media at the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Drones

The Drone Safety Register predicts that 2019 will see more drones flown at events than ever before. Although drones have been around for a while, new technology has made them a lot more accessible in recent years. From aerial photography to security and data analysis, we expect to see a lot more drones at standard events in the future.

Mobile event apps  

Despite some negativity around the usage of event apps, we believe event apps will become more popular this year and beyond as event organisers become more environmentally conscious. The largest mobile event in the world, GSMA, which attracts over 109,000 visitors recently ditched its event guide inline with its sustainability initiatives and replaced it with anevent app where visitors could find out all the vital show information.

Video content

As simple as it may sound, video content is a powerful event tech trend right now. Video is the most observed content on the internet, for example YouTube has over 1bn users and over 8bn videos are watched on Facebook every day. We believe video use at events will continue to rise in popularity as it is relatively low cost and a form of evergreen content that can be used time and time again.