Crowdshaping will be hotter than before and will gain much prominence in 2018. So what is it? The term crowdshaping refers to reliance on data for the purpose of doing event customization in real time. For example, based on the audience’s mood, the event management company can change the music, adjust the temperature or even modify the multimedia.

Crowdshaping is about immediate feedback that increases the relevance of everything offered to the attendees during the event and wearable technologies and smart devices will make it easier for event organiser to collect the data and maximise the data collected to add that additional oomph to their events. Check-in apps, social media, and real-time inquiries are all incorporated in successful crowdshaping.

AI or artificial intelligence as we know it, could personally enhance the level of personalisation during event planning and a simple example of AI is chatbot. This frees up the event organiser from processing inqueries yet at the same time, potential attendees are given adequate and relevant information.

Event -centred chatbots can event provide information that is event specific such as floor plans, speakers, exhibitors, directions, schedules, surveys, etc.

AI data processing engine can be used to analyse and process data and event organisers can use this information to know what worked or didn’t work and use that knowledge for future events. Potential attendees, on the other hand, will get relevant recommendations about events that they may be interested in.

In conclusion, technology has always helped for boosting relevance, engagement and ensuring a perfect experience. In the future, technology will take such efforts to the next level so exciting times lie ahead for event organisers in the field of IT for 2018 and beyond.

Whilst APPLE made headlines with its facial recognition technology, event management professsionals predict that this technology is going to have a big impact as well. The use of facial recognition may become one of the options that can be used to simplify access controls and increase venue security whilst reducing the costs of engaging a huge security team.

Facial recognition is still in development phases and will need more time to develop but with the eventual breakthrough, it is predicted that facial recognition which can detect the mood of attendees (this is already done in a school in China to check out the mood of the student in class so that the teacher can improve his classes) and thus make crowdshaping efforts even more relevant.

GPS or Global positioning system is already old news. As far as event management innovations are concerned, indoor positioning systems (IPS) will be the next hot thing.

Just imagine a real-world view being superimposed on the indoor map or diagram. It will simplify the use of indoor positioning efforts. Not only will attendees benefit from such technologies, event management companies will need to hire fewer individuals for the purpose of helping guests around the venue. Google Indoor maps are now in a BETA phase, imagine when that goes live! Augmented reality for event management will never be the same again.