Tech News: Bizzabo, Elevate, MeetingPlay Enhancements; IBTM World Online Event
December 3, 2021
New tech solutions for events of all types continue to rapidly take shape in the industry, from platform upgrades and additions to mobile apps and measurement tools. Check out some of the latest new developments.
Bizzabo
Bizzabo recently launched its Event Experience category and Event Experience Operating System (OS) to help companies “future-proof” events for a hybrid world.
The Experience OS, built from the ground up to lead the new category of Event experience was designed to give event organizers the tools they need to deliver personalized experiences, create magical moments that spark authentic connections and cultivate evergreen communities that live beyond event day.
“Over the last year and a half, we’ve seen companies struggle to bring people together with existing event management software,” said Eran Ben-Shushan, co-founder and CEO of Bizzabo. “This is why we’ve built the Event Experience Operating System—to empower the world’s Event Experience Leaders to close the Event Impact Gap™ while accelerating revenue, building their brands and activating lasting communities.”
The Bizzabo Event Experience OS is an open platform to produce immersive in-person, virtual, or hybrid experiences. Built for our hybrid world, the OS empowers Event Experience Leaders to manage events of any size and format from a single platform and to create VIP experiences for every attendee, speaker and sponsor.
Backed by enterprise infrastructure, Bizzabo’s Event Experience OS merges reliability, scalability and security with the openness of a modern operating system via five key features:
- Event Intelligence: Everything in the Event Experience OS is designed and built around customers’ need for real-time, connected data. Event intelligence is woven into every nook of the OS, allowing every attendee, sponsor or exhibitor engagement to elevate the intelligence of the entire system. There’s no closed loop; instead, the OS is a single platform for the entire event portfolio, providing comprehensive data and powerful insights that drive informed business decisions.
- Event Serendipity Engine™: With advanced AI and the Event Serendipity Engine™, the Event Experience OS makes it easy to deliver the exact content attendees need, the right sponsor they should see and the perfect person they should meet with—creating the authentic, meaningful connections that make attendance worthwhile and events unforgettable.
- Event Orchestration: These modules are designed to turn event operations into event superpowers. Every facet of operations for all event types and formats is streamlined, from promotion, to managing registration, to building beautiful and customized websites, to empowering sponsors and speakers.
- Moments Creation: These modules empower Event Experience Leaders to create exceptional and immersive experiences in any format, while also enabling attendees to customize their own event journeys before, during and after the experience.
- Open and Secure Platform: The Event Experience OS is an open platform with practically limitless capabilities. Event marketers have the freedom to bring their own tools and platforms of preference into the OS, and data flows freely in real-time while adhering to the highest levels of security standards and industry best practices, including SOCII, ISO27001, GDPR, and CCPA compliance. This commitment to security cascades through the system, empowering administrators to manage access control among team members and event leaders can define and manage attendee access to event content.
“The Event Experience OS is the result of thousands of conversations our team has had with event organizers, CMOs, and the customers we’ve been serving for over a decade,” Ben-Shushan said. “We’ve built an OS to power their events and a team to empower them.”
Elevate
Elevate, which provides global event staffing for brands, virtual experiences, event reporting and logistics, debuted Impact, a data-driven reporting tool that enables marketers to evaluate the effectiveness of event activation in real-time.
“Our new Impact tech platform enables events, both online and in-person, to be quantitatively measured through the power of live data, offering marketers access to new insights that are being captured for the first time,” said Ed Wood, CEO of Elevate. “Traditionally across the live events industry, data and reporting hasn't received the investment or focus it merits, so we are now changing the way data is collected at all levels of an event.”
He added, “Impact will allow brands to benchmark event performance and ROI very clearly against all other marketing activity.”
Carina Filek, COO of Elevate, said the company took advantage of the tech acceleration that happened last year to create the proprietary tech platform that uses data and insight to help event organizers.
“With Impact, marketers have real-time access to actionable and informative data about the events they are running, utilizing best-in-class technology to drive event effectiveness,” Filek said.
The Impact Reporting tech platform provides live insights into event audiences so marketers can analyze how event attendees connect to brands and their representatives on the ground. Underpinned by data insight, the Impact tool collects more than 250 individual data points pre-event, during event and post-event and tracks the success of a brand experience against 17 brand KPI measurements, including footfall, consumer engagement, net promoter score, purchase intent, brand satisfaction, social sentiment, click-through rate and total purchase value.
Impact’s reporting dashboards are updated over 500 times every day during a live event, empowering marketers to track on-site data instantly. The ability to offer live insights can drive up to 35% more effectiveness as a result of better brand engagement and conversion. It also gives marketers the ability to make changes in real-time during an event. The Impact reporting tool also provides benchmarking capabilities, allowing marketers to measure event performance against their other marketing activities.
MeetingPlay
MeetingPlay, specializing in innovative technology solutions for events, unveiled a live video technology solution for hybrid events. Go Live, a mobile app tool, is designed to allow presenters, exhibitors and sponsors to connect with virtual attendees and vice-versa in real-time, creating a more meaningful connection.
The product bridges the communication gap between the live and virtual environments, allowing presenters and exhibitors to host engaging, real-time video sessions with virtual attendees.
“The success of our simu-live virtual sessions, where virtual speakers can ‘go live’ and have an interactive Q&A with the virtual audience during or after a pre-recorded session, made us confident that this technology could create a more inclusive experience for virtual audiences at hybrid events,” said Joe Schwinger, founder and CEO of MeetingPlay. “We like to think of it as a backstage pass, where virtual attendees get a presenter’s full, undivided attention.”
He added, “From the viewpoint of virtual attendees, it makes the event engaging, and they feel special having dedicated time with that presenter.”
MeetingPlay Go Live’s key features and benefits include:
- Go Live for Presenters: Within MeetingPlay’s mobile app, presenters can leave the stage and begin a live Q&A session with the virtual audience with the click of a button. Virtual attendees are notified when a speaker goes live and then they can join the session, submit their questions and get immediate answers in real-time. Go Live prevents virtual fatigue and drop-off, bringing live speakers into the virtual space for a more intimate session.
- Go Live for Exhibitors and Sponsors: Onsite sponsors and exhibitors can leverage Go Live to boost their event ROI with virtual audience connections. Exhibitors and sponsors can host Go Live sessions from their onsite booth with virtual attendees and answer product questions, business inquiries and more. Go Live works in tandem with MeetingPlay’s Advanced Lead Retrieval tools to help exhibitors identify, qualify and follow up with high-potential leads, keeping everything organized from a central dashboard.
- Create Connective Hybrid Events: Go Live is an important technology advancement for creating cohesive hybrid events where everyone can feel like a part of the onsite experience.
IBTM World
IBTM World will host IBTM World Online Dec. 14-15 as an enhancement to its in-person event in Barcelona.
“We believe the best way to experience IBTM World is to be there in person to maximise the many opportunities available at the live event and to meet and connect with exhibitors and colleagues,” said David Thompson, event director of IBTM World. “However, we do understand that some people may be unable to travel, especially those from longer-haul destinations, so we have evolved our offering in line with the new business landscape to better meet the needs of all our customers.”
The interactive IBTM World Online platform, designed by Sector Global, will allow exhibitors, hosted buyers and visitors who aren’t able to attend IBTM World Barcelona the chance to network and do business with some of the world’s leading suppliers, buyers and destinations.
In addition to pre-event matchmaking, one-to-one video meetings between buyers and suppliers, enhanced exhibitor directories and an exhibitor zone, IBTM World Online will feature a full schedule of on-demand educational content. This will include the complete IBTM World Barcelona Knowledge Programme of over 65 sessions from leading industry experts.
“The team at Sector Global is delighted to be working with IBTM again this year to provide attendees who are not able to travel to Barcelona the opportunity to make quality connections at IBTM World Online,” said Paul Summers, CEO of Sector Global. “Our bespoke and intuitive event networking framework empowers exhibitors and attendees with the tools they need to quickly locate, connect and pre-book high-quality meetings. Our concierge team will also be assisting participants to find the right connections and ensuring their meetings take place.”
IBTM World, a leading global event for the meetings and events industry, draws thousands of buyers, suppliers and international trade media to Fira Barcelona every December, with over 74,000 business meetings taking place.
Partner Voices
Less than six months ago, Lisa Messina joined the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) as the first-ever chief sales officer after leading the sales team at Caesars Entertainment. A 12-year Las Vegas resident, Messina is a graduate of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and serves on MPI International’s board of directors.
TSNN had a chance to catch up with this dynamic leader and talk to her about her vision for the new role, current shifts in the trade show industry, creating more diversity and equity within the organization, and advice to future female leaders.
Lisa Messina, Chief Sales Officer, LVCVA
With Las Vegas becoming The Greatest Arena on EarthTM, what are some of the things you’re most excited about in your role?
Our team was at The Big Game’s handoff ceremony earlier this month, and I couldn’t help but think, “We’re going to crush it next year!”
These high-profile events and venues not only drive excitement, but also provide unmatched opportunities for event planners. Allegiant Stadium hosts events from 10 to 65,000 people and offers on-field experiences. Formula 1 Grand Prix will take place in Las Vegas in November, after the year-one F1 race, the four-story paddock building will be available for buyouts and will also offer daily ride-along experiences that will be available for groups. And, of course, the MSG Sphere officially announced that it will open in September, ahead of schedule, with a U2 residency. It’s going to be the most technologically advanced venue as far as lighting, sound, feel, and even scent, and it will be available for buyouts and next-level sponsorships inside and outside. There’s no ceiling to what you can do when you’re doing events in Las Vegas.
Allegiant Stadium
As the trade show and convention business returns to the pre-pandemic levels, what shifts are you noticing and how do you think they will impact the industry going forward?
Our trade show organizers are very focused on driving customer experience. Most of our organizers are reporting stronger exhibitor numbers and increased numbers of new exhibitors, with trade shows proving to be almost or above 2019 levels. Now our organizers are really doubling down on driving attendance and focusing on the data to provide that individualized, customized experience to help attendees meet their goals and get the best value. Some companies continue to be cautiously optimistic with their organizational spend when it comes to sending attendees, but I think it will continue to improve. As the U.S. Travel Association makes more progress on the U.S. visa situation, we also expect a growing influx of international attendees.
What are some innovative ways the LVCVA helps trade show and convention organizers deliver the most value for their events?
We focus on customer experience in the same way that trade show organizers are thinking about it. We got rave reviews with the West Hall Expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), so over the next two years, we will be renovating the North and the Central halls, which will include not just the same look and feel, but also the digital experiences that can be leveraged for branding and sponsorship opportunities.
Vegas Loop, the underground transportation system designed by The Boring Company, is also a way we have enhanced the customer experience. Vegas Loop at the LVCC has transported more than 900,000 convention attendees across the campus since its 2021 launch. Last summer, Resorts World and The Boring Company opened the first resort stop at the Resorts World Las Vegas , with plans to expand throughout the resort corridor, including downtown Las Vegas, Allegiant Stadium and Harry Reid International Airport. The LVCVA also purchased the Las Vegas Monorail in 2020, the 3.9-mile-long elevated transportation system that connects eight resorts directly to the convention center campus. This is the only rail system in the world that integrates fares directly into show badges and registration. For trade show organizers, these transportation options mean saving time, money and effort when it comes to moving groups from the hotels to LVCC and around the city.
Also, the more we can focus on building the infrastructure around the convention center, the more it supports the customer experience and ultimately supports our trade show organizers. Scheduled to debut in Q4, Fontainebleau Las Vegas will offer 3,700 hotel rooms and 550,000 square feet of meeting and convention space next to LVCC.
What are some of the plans for advancing DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) within your organization?
We’re currently partnering with instead of working with a leading consulting firm, to lay the foundation and create a solid DEI plan and be the leader when it comes to DEI initiatives. The heart of that journey with the consulting firm is also talking to our customers about their strategic approaches to DEI and driving innovation in this space.
What are your favorite ways to recharge?
My husband and I have an RV and we’re outdoorsy people. So, while we have over 150,000 world-class hotel rooms and renowned restaurants right outside our doorstep, one of my favorite things to do is get out to Red Rock Canyon, the Valley of Fire, and Lake Mead. Five of the top national parks are within a three-hour drive from Las Vegas, so there’s a lot you can do. We love balancing the energy of Las Vegas with nature, and we’re noticing that a lot of attendees add activities off the Strip when they come here.
Valley of Fire
What advice would you give to women following leadership paths in destination marketing?
I think it’s about being laser-focused on what you want to accomplish; building a team around you that lifts you and helps you achieve your goals; and being humble and realizing that you do it as a group. No one gets this done alone. Thankfully, there are a lot of women in leadership in this organization, in our customers’ organizations, and in this city that we can be really proud of. We’re a formidable force that is making things happen.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
This article is exclusively sponsored by the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. For more information, visit HERE.
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