passive attendee and make them a true participant. They’re invested in the cause — there’s a lot more word of mouth. You can get a lot of social sharing this way.”
6. Virtual audiences will be a basic component of events. “We have Periscope. We have Meerkat. How does that virtual audience impact events?” he asked. And further, how do events7. Live events for revenue. “Millennials are heavily experience-based, they love paying money for concerts and to be out,” Lynn said. Live experiences are revenue generators, and people — including entrepreneur Mark Cuban— are starting to invest in companies that are all about creating immersive experiences. “That sounds a lot like an events company,” Lynn said. “How do we as event planners start to look at that? How do we maybe start creating events that are 100-percent experience-based to accomplish our goals?”
8. Discovery. Most planners and event organizers recognize the struggle to get the attention of potential attendees. Eventually, Lynn predicted, technology companies are going to focus on helping people discover events. “Just the way Google solved finding information on the Internet, somebody will solve finding events online.”
9. Events will get better at data. “There’s a massive amount of data around events, and we don’t really understand it yet, because there’s just so much,” Lynn said. “You have social signals. You have online signals. You have information that you can infer from activities. You start looking at check-ins that happen during events. Where are your attendees going? What are they saying?” Given all those data points, how can you take that information and make connections so you can improve your event?
10. The number of event planners will continue to rise. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that there will be a 30-percent increase in event planning between now and 2020. “A 30-percent increase is 30,000 people,” Lynn said. “That’s pretty big. We have all sorts of weird things happening, right? We have technology that’s now automating some of the administrative work, but we have a lot more events being planned and now we have a lot more people coming into the ecosystem planning these events.”
11. Event logistics will be automated. “As you’re looking at your own company, maybe instead of, Hey, I can use this software to automate someone out of a job,” Lynn said, “what if we look it as, I’m going to use this software to automate what they do now and that’s going to elevate and let two more people come on board because I’m so efficient?” Look at automation as a way to grow.
12. Event planners will be more strategic. “At the end of the day, all of this just comes down to [meeting professionals] being able to do what they’re really great at — which is creating amazing experiences,” Lynn said. The future will hold fewer logistics and last-minute phone calls, less checking people at the door and making sure they’re there, less helping people load stuff in the back door. There will “be a lot more about how can I think about the attendee, how can I create the ideal attendee experience,” Lynn said, “because I don’t have to worry about paperwork.”
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