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.