The technological reality show: what's around the corner

07/06/2010

An example of augmented reality
Fast Future

Augmented reality, holographic displays, mobile video, 3D conferences… These are various new or upcoming tools the meeting industry players will have to get to grips with in the next few years.

Last month at IMEX, Rohit Talwar, CEO of Fast Future, gave us some clues by revealing the first phase of the report of the global survey “Convention 2020, The Future of Exhibitions, Meetings and Events” conducted for IMEX and ICCA. Within 10 years, advances in science and technology along with global connectivity will make social media and augmented reality ('AR', a live, (in)direct view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual imagery) common tools. The challenge for meeting planners, PCOs, congress centers and all the actors of the industry is to think of how these new technologies can be involved in a long term strategy and find a way to make the most of them instead of considering them as enemies to live meetings, which can be said about videoconferencing for instance. Face to face business meetings will still matter –to quote the name of the academic paper conducted last year by Dr Richard Arvey, PhD for Hilton– but maybe through hybrid events containing both physical and virtual sessions. New technologies will also enable meeting professionals to analyse data (appointments, educational sessions, attendees…) in order to offer personalized experiences to meeting planners. The next phase of Talwar’s survey: the final report during ICCA congress in October. By then, everyone is more than welcome to share ideas in a very community spirit. To be continued…

www.convention-2020.com

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