Access All Areas June 2019 | Page 15

JUNE | TRENDING Technology to look out for in 2019: RFID Wristbands – RFID technology is empowering attendees and event organisers. By removing cash and uploading it onto a wristband, event organisers can reduce queuing times, increase staff efficiency, understand attendee behaviour and increase revenues. For the attendee, they can feel safer without carrying cash and be in control of how much they spend. 5G – EE has paired with Glastonbury Festival to bring a 5G network to those attending. How festivals will capitalise on this remains to be seen but you can expect to see more reliable streaming technologies as a result of this. Chatbots – Although chatbots have been around for some time now, they are getting smarter and becoming more integrated into our day-to-day lives. They are removing the need for human interaction that can cause long waiting times for a response, and we can expect them to be used to answer festival goers’ questions both before and during the festivals themselves. Multi-Use Apps – Apps have become an integral part of the festival experience for many years, but we are now seeing multiple apps joining forces to create the ‘ultimate’ app for each festival experience. This is a technology that is going to grow as more brands and artists get involved to truly enhance the attendees experience. and wide on social media, ensuring the already infamous event could increase its reach even further and create even more unforgettable moments. AR will continue to become more prevalent in the festival and events industry as a result of the accessibility and ease of using a smart phone. Event sponsors Postmates and Amazon also embraced technology at the festival. Attendees could access new incentives, such as pre-ordering food for delivery or collection via Postmates to reduce queueing times and spend more time watching performances. While this wasn’t available everywhere at the festival, it would be no surprise to see this and similar technologies streamlining queues more and more in future given its benefits for festivals and event-goers alike. It’s not just quick food deliveries that festival-goers benefitted from this year either; Amazon also placed Amazon Lockers in the festival grounds, where people could get same day delivery to the festival itself if ordered before noon. It’s easy to see how this brings a new level of accessibility and convenience to the festival experience, given so many people visit from all over the world to attend Coachella and may forget an item or two! Performing artists also took advantage of new technologies to improve the fan experience. Musician Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino, combined clever marketing tactics with his performance at Coachella, using Airdrop to give selected fans a token for a free pair of his unreleased Adidas collaboration shoes. Fans, if they accepted, had one hour to collect the shoes on the festival grounds. Naturally, this received a huge amount of social media coverage and is arguably this year’s ‘break the internet’ moment. He also used his performance as an opportunity to premiere his new film Guava Island, making it free on Amazon Prime for 18 hours afterwards to drive engagement and viewership. As far as festivals go, Coachella is certainly continuing to set a benchmark for how to use technology creatively to ensure a seamless event experience. Not only does it help increase social media presence and press about the event exponentially, it gives fans more convenience and ease during the festival too. With the UK festival season fast approaching, it remains to be seen how technology will influence many other events this summer. 15