When Event Technology Is the Problem Instead of the Solution — Meetings Innovation Report

The Future of Meetings & Events

Be careful what you wish for?

That might be the case when it comes to event technology. While advances in technology specifically designed for meetings and events continues to evolve, planners are, in some cases, struggling to keep up with the fast pace of that evolution.

Almost one out of two meeting planners today says that event technology is a primary pain point, according to a new study published by etouches. And another new report from Cvent revealed similar sentiments among planners. When it comes to cloud management platforms, the report said, “Planners cite poor transparency and accuracy over pricing, along with lack of clarity and poor response rates, as their main pain point with venue selection.”

That’s the topic of this week’s main Meetings Innovation Report feature, penned by SkiftX Editor Greg Oates. Read the full story here. While there are many pain points to be solved, Oates also examines some possible solutions designed to not only make it easier for organizers and suppliers to host meetings and events, but to make the actual attendee experience that much better, too.

And speaking of making a meeting experience better and more personalized for attendees, it looks like PCMA is doing just that for its upcoming PCMA Convening Leaders conference in January 2018. If you’re planning on attending, check out this great survey to let PCMA know exactly what you’d like to see in the program next year, from event experience design to responsible business practices.

— Deanna Ting, Hospitality Editor

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The Big Picture

Meeting Planners Are Struggling With the Fast Evolution of Event Technology: Innovation in event technology today relates as much to how planners use the platforms that already exist, as compared to new advancements in the technology itself. Read more at Skift

The NAACP’s Travel Advisory Is Having an Impact on Meetings in St. Louis:  As we’ve seen in other cities and states, local economies will suffer when the government doesn’t make the effort to ensure that all are not only welcome, but that they feel safe, and know they’ll be treated equally and fairly. This is especially the case when it comes to choosing a destination to hold a meeting or event. Read more at Skift

How the Meaning of Digital Transformation Has Evolved:  The human experience is vital to raising an organization’s Digital IQ, and businesses need to think critically about how their digital initiatives affect the experiences of their customers and employees. Read more at Harvard Business Review

Overtourism Issues Can No Longer Be Brushed Aside as Someone Else’s Problem:  After a couple of years bubbling below the surface, the overtourism concept has broken into mainstream public consciousness this summer. Tourist boards and travel companies can no longer deny its existence; there is an urgent need for these groups to work with destinations to ensure a better balance. Meetings and events play a big role, too. Read more at Skift

How the Travel Industry Has Changed in 5 Years:  When Skift launched five years ago the travel industry was in a much different place and it’s changed quite a bit. We run down a few of the biggest changes and shifts that have happened since. Read more at Skift

Next Generation Meetings UX

Call Of Duty Cofounder Is Using VR To Create The Meetings Of The Future: Glasco thinks that the VR meeting is one of those things that people don’t know that they want, until they put on a headset and try it on for size. Read more at Forbes

How to Fix the State of Event Sponsorship: For event organizers, recruiting effective sponsors has become very complicated. Cramming an event with hundreds of brands, each competing for the same audience, doesn’t work. Who wants to share their logo with 50 other brands jammed on a billboard? Sponsors expect more; so do participants. Read more at Eventbrite

Event Tech Competition Selects Concierge EventBot as Most Innovative: The Event Innovation Battlefield during SISO’s Leadership Conference highlights promising new products and services for the industry. Read more at BizBash

The Most Interactive Events that Used Slido in 2017: Slido, an event tech platform that helps meeting and event participants ask questions from any device without downloading a thing, gives us a rundown of some of the most interactive events that used its technology. Read more at Slido

Skift Global Forum 2017

Companies Attending the Skift Global Forum 2017: We don’t mean to brag, but we’ve got nearly 300 different companies planning to attend our upcoming annual forum. Check out the list, and join us in September if you can. Read more at Skift

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The Skift Meetings Innovation Report is curated by Skift Hospitality Editor Deanna Ting [[email protected]] and SkiftX Editor Greg Oates [[email protected]]. The newsletter is emailed every Wednesday.

Subscribe to the Skift Meetings Innovation Report