Hybrid Events: Future Report
This Future Report of Hybrid Events wants to question and to explain in what way current developments and trends influence and form the requirements of and demands on marketing events and how they will affect event design in the future.
The youth of today are the event participants of tomorrow. Already today companies have to gradually adjust their event concepts and strategies to this younger target group, the so-called digital natives, in order to facilitate the imminent generational change. Hybrid events, i.e. live-marketing plus MoSoLo (mobile applications, social media, location-based services) are not a short-lived trend, but will decisively shape live-communication in future. Event organizers thus should not shirk from introducing their participants early on to new functions and possibilities. They should also directly work towards the older target groups accepting these new options and awaken their interest for them.
This Future Report looks at some future event concepts in depth. It shows how modern game tactics can be applied to events and examines in detail how gamification influences the communication process and how alternate reality games – in which the participants actively delve into a staged story over a long period of time – shape the event design of the future.
How information and knowledge is passed on at events will also change massively in future. Infotainment – merging information and entertainment – will be even more strongly shaped by collaboration and teamwork. The concept of smart networks explains how participants and organizers alike are able to benefit from this change by building up intelligent information networks.
On a technological level this Future Report shows how virtual assistant systems and, possibly a little later, humanoid robots can contribute to turning an event into an individual, personalized occasion for each participant in future.
Also, the application of 3D technologies allows for several exciting options for live-communication. This Future Report introduces modern projection technologies and describes how a virtual scope is transformed into a realistic environment by using visual, haptic and acoustic elements.
Finally, we examine how the trend topic measuring effectiveness in events will be substantially changed in future by utilizing social media monitoring, smart networks, smartphones and tablet PCs. A forecast of the future rounds off and summarizes this whitepaper. Enjoy reading!