Event technology guru Corbin Ball provided today’s guest post.
His bimonthly newsletter Tech Talk is
read by more than 9,200 planners worldwide.
When he was still governor of New York, future President Martin
Van Buren wrote a letter to sitting President Andrew Jackson complaining about
a new form of “mobility.”
“The canal system of this country is being threatened
by a new form of transportation known as railroads,” Van Buren wrote. “Railroad
carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of fifteen miles per hour. The
Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck
speed."
How often, like Van Buren, do event planners swear that the
Almighty never planned for attendees to use their mobile phones?
All humans are naturally resistant to change, but planners are
even more so. That’s because event technology is often mission-critical. If it blows up your face, your job is on the
line.
That said, the sheer rate of technology-driven change is
unprecedented—and overwhelming. The number of options presented every year paralyzes
planners into inaction.
But planners shouldn’t resist new technology—particularly the technology
behind today’s “mobile movement.” Because to do so is to guarantee your event
will become noncompetitive. Digital Darwinism is the name of the game today. Don’t
adapt and you’ll perish.
If you want to blame someone for the situation, blame attendees,
not smartphone manufacturers.
Attendees are carrying around more computing power in their
pockets than fit in several rooms a generation ago. And they like the feeling.
In fact, attendees are ready participants in the mobile movement, and are on a path
to make ever-increasing demands on you to give them the same digital
conveniences others give them every day.
What should you do to prepare yourself for the future?
Stay aware of the technology that’s trending. Right
now, that’s mobile (and social) media. But more new technology is due on the
scene any day—and poised to usher in more change in the next five years than it
did in the past fifteen.
Do your research. Read newsletters and blogs
voraciously. Talk to peers. Pick consultants’ brains and ask vendors to provide
you background and best-practice information.
Evaluate and forge ahead. As a planner, no one is
better positioned than you to evaluate new event technology. You’re on the
front line. You know what matters to attendees. And you understand what’s at
stake.
Charles Darwin said it best: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor
the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to
change.”
