Event Industry News Podcast

The merits of buying trackway

This week’s episode of the Event Industry News podcast saw two guests join host James Dickson to talk about trackway and temporary surfacing. It’s often the first thing onsite and the last thing offsite and plays a huge part in the planning and execution of outdoor events.

Respected industry journalist and now director of All Access Communications, Nic Howden joined John Davy, founder of Floor Box, a new company that offers trackway and temporary flooring solutions for sale rather than for hire.

During the podcast, John explained how he sees a gap in the market for venues to purchase small quantities of product to keep permanently onsite. He also highlighted the consultation process he plans to offer to clients to make neutral recommendations on which product is best suited to their needs.

In addition to discussing the new venture, John also reflected on his vast experience of working within the temporary surfacing sector, including referencing several examples of how the UK hire industry coped with the huge demands placed on it during the summer of 2012.

Cinematronica rolls into town with ANDRODES

This week’s episode of the Event Industry News podcast featured an engaging conversation with Helen Sartory, the creative artist behind a new live music experience called ANDRODES.

Under her stage name SARTORY, Helen has created what is billed as an immersive, cinematic musical journey that utilises 3D animated film synced to an electronic dance music soundtrack, which is performed live. The experience is dubbed ‘Cinematronica’ by Helen, who took time out from her busy schedule to talk to the podcast about the creative process behind the show and how interactive technology is helping shape her ideas for the show.

The ANDRODES show has led to Helen having her own Daft Punk style robot helmet created, as well as a custom-made crystal-like console that houses the various electronic instrument that she uses to perform the live soundtrack.

During the episode, Helen also spoke of her experience of being part of a Hackathon at the SXSW festival in Texas, during which engineers created an app that would allow Helen to send audio to the phones of audience members and utilise the device’s speakers to create additional soundscapes.

Sunfall Festival delivers unique event experience in London

This week’s episode of the Event Industry News podcast looked at the Sunfall Festival, an event set to take place in London this summer for the second time.

The festival is a unique event that combines an outdoor daytime element that is then followed by official after parties in nearby indoor venues. Andy Peyton and Noah Ball from the festival’s senior management team joined the podcast to look at the various elements of the event and how it’s put together.

During the podcast, they talk about the challenges of working in an urban park, and how they could split some of the major infrastructure elements with another event that takes place on the same site.

They also talk about the task of ticketing the event with so many daytime/night-time options available and the meticulous level of detail that they paid to the quality of the audio production.

In the next episode of the podcast, host James Dickson will speak with the creator of ANDRODES, an hour-long live show that consists of a projected 3D animated film synced to an electronic dance music soundtrack, performed live by emerging artist SARTORY.

 

Is the way we capture exhibition leads killing ou r ROI?

In the second of our live streamed Tuesday night podcasts, host James Dickson looked at the topic of ROI and whether traditional methods of data capture are killing exhibitors’ chances to analyse it successfully.

Joining the podcast was Captuvate co-founder Brian Anderson, a company that through its unique way of capturing exhibition leads has identified flaws in the way ROI can be measured. During the episode, Brian looks at the many different factors that affect how a company can measure ROI from an event, and how the process of lead capture and follow up is contributing negatively to the way it’s calculated.

In next week’s episode, the podcast will be joined by the founders of Sunfall, a brand-new festival coming to London this summer. Tune in to the live stream at 6pm BST via eventindustrynews.com

You can register for the live stream here.

Adverts the size of skyscrapers? Lightvert CEO discusses new ‘persistence of vision’ technology

This week’s episode of the Event Industry News podcast looks at the phenomenon of ‘persistence of vision’ and how it has been seized to help create an innovation in digital outdoor media technology.

The innovation in question has been created by Lightvert, a company that has developed a way to use persistence of vision to deliver branded messages. The company’s CEO Daniel Siden joined the podcast to explain more.

“Persistence of vision is a phenomenon that affects the human eye. It happens when you look at a bright light and look away from it. What happens is that you see a ghost of that light for just a moment. What we do is that we use that phenomenon to literally print an image in the human eye temporarily and safely.”

As Daniel explains during the podcast, the technology can be used to create images the size of skyscrapers that appear briefly to the viewer. Although the system has obvious applications in the world of advertising, Daniel also looks at ways that event organisers could use the technology once it becomes available commercially.

5 Habits of highly successful event managers

In the first Event Industry News podcast to be live streamed, host James Dickson was joined by Alex Lassiter from Gather to discuss five habits of successful event managers. For the first time, the podcast also welcomed a main sponsor, event registration supplier N200|GES.

Gather specialises in event management software for restaurants and venues, and in his role as co-founder and Vice President of Customer Experience, Alex offered his own take on the good habits he has observed when working with clients.

The live stream allowed viewers to engage directly with the podcast in real time, giving Alex the chance to respond to questions put to him by the audience as well as address the five main points of discussion.

Next week’s podcast will live stream at 6 pm UK time and will welcome Brian Anderson from Captuvate to discuss the topic ‘What’s killing your event’s ROI?’

You can register for free here

What are bots and what impact could they have on the events industry?

Lots of people will have heard the term ‘bots’ being used, but how much do we understand this type of technology and the capabilities it has?

In the latest episode of the Event Industry News podcast, CEO of Event2Mobile Siddharth Jhunjhunwala joined the show live from New York to look at the subject of bots and explain the basic principles behind them.

During the episode, he put the idea of bots into context by explaining how they have evolved steadily from other forms of technology that we are already very used to.

“Bots and artificial intelligence (AI) are very much the same thing. When a machine can take over a task performed by a human we enter the realm of bots and AI, the parameters of which are constantly changing. 30 years we would have looked upon spellcheck within a word processor as artificial intelligence, whereas now it is totally ubiquitous with the way we communicate.”

During the episode, Siddharth gives some examples of how the technology has already been used successfully at meetings and events, as well as pointing out the way that bot technology can integrate with an event’s existing technology infrastructure.

The Meetings Benchmark – A new way to calculate your delegate rates?

Jim Quintrell from the Meetings Benchmark joined the latest edition of the Event Industry News podcast.

Jim has worked in the meetings and events industry for over 20 years, and always on the agency side of the sector. Three years ago, he was one of the founders of Conference Doctor, working with organisations on commercial strategies and procurement. Whilst delivering that service, one of the things they wanted to do was to try and provide an impartial and independent source for benchmarking meeting rates, which is where the idea for The Meetings Benchmark was born.

Five years on and Jim talks to the podcast about how the service is now benefitting organisers when they are setting their rates and calculating margins. The ability they now have is to go online and look up pricing for any given city, accessing current and historic delegate rates in order to price their own event.

Expanding RFID technology within the events industry

The latest episode of the Event Industry News podcast looks at how RFID is helping to shape data-capture and engagement at meetings and events.

The technology has been widely adopted in the industry as a means of cashless payment at events like music festivals. However, the way the technology interacts with databases and CRM systems means that suppliers like Boomset are now using it to add greater depth to their own services.

CEO & Co-Founder of Boomset Kerem Baran joined the podcast to talk about the evolution of his company’s services from a simple guestlist check-in system to a sophisticated platform that integrates with many of the industry’s leading registration providers.

A Healthy Partnership: Ashfield Meetings & Events and SpotMe

Joining this week’s Event Industry News podcast was Client Partnership Director for Ashfield Meetings & Events Andrew Moore, along with the CEO of SpotMe Pierre Metrailler.

In their respective roles, the two guests form a key partnership as organiser and technology supplier, helping to improve the way in which Ashfield Meetings & Events deliver healthcare events to the sector.

SpotMe is an event app supplier that has been working with this specialist event organiser to improve the level of content that is delivered to attendees. Addressing the question of how the service is deployed within the context of an event, Andrew told the podcast that it can vary dramatically.

“In terms of service deliverables, you’re looking for those interactive features. Predominantly they have been around the audience engagement of Q&A and live polling, and we’ve also used a couple of examples of gamification to encourage people through to the app and to interact. The full tilt of their service offering is what we’re starting to adopt more and more.”