Event Industry News Podcast

Bryan Cooney from Malo Events talks Kidtropolis

In this week’s episode of the Event Industry News podcast, James Dickson talks to the CEO of Malo Events Bryan Cooney.

At the start of January, the company announced that its Kidtropolis event would see an NEC edition added to its portfolio. The event is run during the school holidays and is centred around creating a large, vibrant play environment that caters for children up to the age of 12.

During the episode, Bryan talks with vigour about his attitude towards launching and building events and his constant search for new opportunities. He also discusses some of the other brands within the Malo Events portfolio, and how the changing way we consume media and develop personal interests provides him with a constant source of inspiration.

New VeDi system hopes to streamline venue diagnostics

The Event Industry News podcast returns for 2018, and in the first episode of the year, it welcomes Samme Allen, MD of Sequoia Partnership.

In this episode, host James Dickson talks to Samme about the new online venue diagnostics tool that her company has launched. The tool gives venues the chance to analyse their current event operations, and begin to generate some guidance on how they could improve.

With significant experience of working in this sector, Samme explains to the podcast that many venues now don’t have the time or the budget to spend several days going through their event operations with a venue consultant. Instead, the new VeDi system will generate an accurate ‘birds eye’ view of where a venue currently sits, allowing them to explore areas of development and create focused long-term strategies that are relevant to the type of venue they run.

New episodes of the EIN podcast will be published once a week. We are also pleased to announce that – starting from February -  EIN will broadcast a live episode of the Podcast via its Facebook page. Make sure you follow the EIN social media feeds for further details about times, topics and guests.

Multi-Hub Meetings and the efficiency of video conferencing

In this week’s Event Industry News podcast, host James Dickson welcomes Maarten Vaneste, founder of Multi-Hub Meetings.  

Created just two years ago, Multi-Hub Meetings has quickly developed a client portfolio that has seen the service deployed in places like Brazil, Hong Kong, South Korea and across continental Europe. 

The company has taken the idea of video conferencing and refined it, allowing multiple ‘hubs’ to talk and interact with each other in much the same way as they would in a face-to-face environment. 

During the podcast, Maarten explains how the platform works, the logistics involved, and shows how the company has refined the required hardware into bespoke backpacks that allow technicians to travel the world with everything needed to setup a hub.

Events must improve digital experience or risk losing out

Joining the Event Industry News podcast for the first time this week is Nick Watson from connectivity specialists Ruckus.

As Vice President for EMEA, Nick’s experience puts him in an excellent position to comment and discuss the ongoing issue of connectivity at events, something that he talks about in detail in this episode.

Having overseen major projects that have delivered Wi-Fi networks within significant event venues, Ruckus has stated that the events industry will lose out if it does not improve the digital experience it delivers to its customers. Having worked extensively with major sporting events, the company has seen digital engagement by audience members become a critical part of an event’s communication strategy.

If there is no way to connect, how does an audience engage with the digital content being pushed out by organisers?

Current trends in the event tech sector

This week, the Event Industry News podcast welcomes Digital Development Manager for Freeman, Tom Vamos.

Tom manages a team of developers to deliver technology solutions for exhibitions and events. In this podcast, Tom discusses the current trends within the event tech sector and identifies the services being deployed for both event organisers and for attendees.

With data use growing rapidly, and the often-vast movement of people with an event space, one of the key areas of discussion is how events can maintain a healthy stream of digital information that keeps everyone satisfied.

Event Tech Live co-founder talks new content and expanded show

With Event Tech Live only a few days away, the Event Industry News podcast invited co-founder Adam Parry on to talk about what we’ll see at this year’s event.

The show is Europe’s only dedicated show for event tech, during the podcast Adam speaks about how important it has been for the organisers to maintain the strong identity that the event has developed.

With a larger show floor and more exhibitors to satisfy, Adam also discusses the ways in which the organisers have developed vertical content streams that will allow #eventprofs to access content that is directly relevant to them.

Event Tech Live 2017 will take place on Thursday 9th November at the Old Truman Brewery. To register to attend, click here.

How do venues cope with three times as much data being used year-on-year?

Connectivity at events was the topic of discussion in the latest episode of the Event Industry News podcast.

Gareth Hay, Head of Event Networks at DB Systems, joined host James Dickson to look at the issues surrounding venue Wi-Fi and how the company is tackling them. During the episode, Gareth revealed that each year the amount of data used by consumers increases three-fold, which means networks are continually having to cope with increasing demand.

He also discusses how the types of venue being used for events alter the way in which temporary networks and access points can be deployed, with older style buildings proving surprisingly beneficial in this aspect.

AI hoping to deliver more profitable experiences for attendees

In another trans-Atlantic episode of the Event Industry News podcast, host James Dickson is joined from Minneapolis by Brandon Klein, CEO of Collaboration AI.

Having forged a successful career running events, Brandon saw an opportunity to utilise the data that was already available to organisers via the means of artificial intelligence systems.

During the podcast, he explains how the system can be deployed, but more importantly how it can affect the outcomes of events. By utilising AI to match attendees, organisers can shape their events to ensure people with the most common ground are given the opportunity to meet. By trying to reduce the ‘chance’ element of live events, Brandon hopes that organisers can deliver more profitable experiences for their attendees.

EIN Podcast: Linking the physical and digital worlds to improve event safety and security

This week’s Event Industry News podcast welcomed John Martinez, CEO of event technology supplier Shocklogic.

Joining the podcast live from a world congress event in Vienna, Austria, John analysed the methods being used to link event technology with security and safety. Having worked with organisations including the United Nations and the European Court of Justice, John’s experience in this sector has been gained from working with people who require the highest levels of security at their events.

During the episode, John explores the links between physical and digital security, referencing examples of how the technology his company delivers helps with access management and maintaining security and safety within the confines of an actual event space.

Preoday: transforming the way venues handle food and drink orders

We’ve all been to an event and queued for 20 minutes at the bar. Or visited a trade exhibition and waited in line for half an hour to buy a sandwich. 

Like many other areas of event operations, the pre-ordering of food and drink is now possible via a specially designed digital platform, which is the core subject of this week’s podcast.

Joining host James Dickson is Oliver White, Head of Customer Sucess at Preoday, and Ben Fowler, Bar Manager at The Brewery, one of London’s leading event venues. During the podcast we hear from Oilver how the Preoday system works, whilst Ben explains how the intricate operations of a busy venue bar – along with the development of new menu options – can be transformed by the platform.