IMEX America …the wealth of ideas that keeps on giving.
We recently reported on “10 Ideas to Increase Event Engagement” and “5 Food and Beverage Trends” after attending our first IMEX tradeshow. IMEX America is an annual exhibition for incentive travel, meetings, and events, where more than 6,000 event professionals gather to acquire the latest information about the U.S. meetings market with new contacts, new ideas and a passion for business.
IMEX America has 500,000 square feet of exhibit space and more than 3,000 suppliers from every sector of the global meetings industry. It is THE event of the year for people the event planning industry.
The latest batch of great ideas we’d like to share from the show floor is eight event technology trends. No matter how much of a tech geek you are – or aren’t – these high-tech activations are sure to wow your event participants.
Dundu (translation: “You and You”)
What’s a Dundu? “The Gentle Giant” (as it’s described on the company website) is an illuminated, large-scale puppet that offers your attendees a spellbinding spectacle when synced with music.
Watch the video below to get a better feel for how this creative technology can help your event, and visit Dundu’s website for additional information. Prepare to be amazed!
Cloud Touch
Navigating through a tradeshow or conference facility can be an overwhelming experience for attendees. So much to see and do and only so much time.
These rental kiosks are easy to use for guests, offering touchscreen access to all the information a person could need. In addition to showing directions, highlighting speakers and sponsors and browsing the agenda, attendees can use the kiosks to view event-related social media posts and participate in interactive surveys.
They’re also super-helpful for event organizers, who can make live changes to information via a laptop or the connected app. Need to change a detail? It’ll take you about 10 seconds to share that information with your event audience.
Remember when you had to do all this with printed signage? Yeah … not anymore.
For more details, visit www.cloudtouch.com
Sophia the Robot
Thought the Dundu’s were cool? Check out Sophia the Robot, who you might have seen recently on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. This “humanoid celebrity” has spoken before the United Nations General Assembly, appeared on the cover of Elle magazine, and been named as the first non-human citizen of Saudi Arabia. Now she takes the event industry by storm.
Sophia can read faces, empathize with emotions, understand the nuances of language and communicate by using her thousands of facial expressions. Ready to impress your event guests with a technological marvel? Sophia can help.
- Learn more about Sophia: https://www.hansonrobotics.com/sophia/
- Book Sophia as a speaker: https://www.apbspeakers.com/speaker/sophia/
- Visit Sophia’s Facebook page (which has more than 50,000 followers): https://www.facebook.com/realsophiarobot/
Custom Shape Photo Wall
How about some interactivity? With this feature, an event attendee takes a picture from his or her phone and uploads it to a dedicated website.
Shortly afterward, the photo appears on the “wall” in a custom shape – in this case, it peers through the words “Eventful.” Pretty cool, right?
This event tech trend brought to you by Czarnowski: https://www.czarnowski.com
The Brand Booth: LED light-up badge
We addressed the need to step up the event badge game in a previous post, and we had a chance to see one of our recommended choices front and center on the IMEX show floor. It did not disappoint.
In the Brand Booth, guests can take on the spot pictures, which are then inserted into a holder that is light activated and flashes.
The resulting badge also has space at the bottom to sign your name, offering a fun, personalized, attention-grabbing option for a sometimes mundane event feature.
To see how you can use these clever and helpful badges, visit www.thebrandbooth.com!
Brain Art
There’s an old saying that the brain is the most powerful muscle in your body. But did you know it can create art all by itself?
In this interactive exhibit, guests are hooked up to a state-of-the-art EEG headset that translates brain waves into shapes and colors. They choose an art style and a color palette, and their brains do the rest. Guests get to sign the finished artwork and bring it home as a keepsake.
More details can be found at http://ae-es.com, and in the video below.
Calligrams
The next technological entry from AE&ES builds a photo of a person that is composed of preset words and results in a powerful Calligram image, as seen in the photos below.
The image can be fully branded and customized using client generated word lists and custom color choices to match your event’s branding. The final photo can be printed on 5X7 professional lab quality photo media onsite, and/or shared via social media on the spot.
What words would you use to populate your Calligrams?
Again, for more info: http://ae-es.com
Veloxity Charging Stations
Abundant charging stations are a helpful and necessary resource for event guests. So why not brand them to your advantage?
Veloxity offers custom-branded stations that can showcase your event or your sponsors. They also have secure lockers and power packs for charging of phones and tablets. Over the course of a long event day, many of your guests will need this kind of help. We know we have.
Veloxity has additional information at www.veloxity.us
Thanks for reading. Please continue to follow this blog for tips, insights, case studies and more!
Eventfully,
Angela
Eventfully Angela is a premier independent event management partner specializing in Corporate Events and Event Branding. Based in Charlotte, NC, Eventfully Angela fills the resource gaps of businesses both large and small, with premium and customized services. Specialties include full-service planning, sourcing and venue selection, on-site day of support, consulting and contract audits, event marketing and branding, experiential event design, and fully customized event registration websites. 704-754-2627 angela@eventfullyangela.com
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