WHAT’S HOT?
WINTER | TECH
A monthly look at the newest products and
services for the live events industry
Bish, bash… bars Jewel in the town
Bash Bars is to be acquired by
event design company Arena
Group, effective 1 December.
Bash Bars provides
illuminated and custom
finish dry hire event bars,
temporary bars, party bars,
mobile bars, and more. Their
bars are modular and can
provide adjustable shelving,
ice wells and speed rails.
This is now Arena
Group’s eighth acquisition
of 2018, following a series of
deals throughout the year.
bashbars.co.uk Brothers James and Luke
Cottingham have developed
an event experience, which
allows people to design and
create jewellery using a kit.
Guided by the team from
CAST Experience, guests
design and make bespoke
jewellery pieces which are
crafted in jewellers’ wax.
CAST has linked up with
alcohol and confectionary
innovators Smith and Sinclair
for an evening of cocktails
and jewellery making.
experiencecast.com
Tech fit for Elton
PEEX has launched an
exclusive Elton John
partnership
The technology allows
concert goers to customise
their live music experience -
via augmented audio reality
The partnership launches
ahead of the music icon’s final global tour Farewell Yellow
Brick Road. Sir Elton John said: “Throughout my 50-year
career, playing live has always been so important to me. I am
passionate about giving my fans my best possible performance
and making sure they get the best possible experience. Over
the last three years I’ve been working with the talented team at
PEEX, who have developed an incredible new technology that
will revolutionise the way fans listen to live music.” Peex.live
46
Artificial Intelligence and the near future
By James Morgan
Our industry has witnessed the continued rise
of the use of artificial intelligence applications
throughout 2018.
AI is broken down into two areas. First there
is Symbolic Learning. This includes robotics and
image processing. This was the first generation of
AI. The next generation is Machine Learning and
applications based on statistical or deep learning
Statistical learning applications include speech
recognition and natural language processing. Alexa
and Google Assistant for example.
We have seen many AI applications used in
events. One application revolutionising event entry
is Zenus the facial recognition software. Meanwhile,
GRIP, the smart networking app, and Sciensio’s
concierge chatbot have been successful.
This year saw MIO Technologies and their cute
robots that serve snacks and other items at events.
Airfinity the AI based data analysis app provides
event planners insights into attendee behaviour, is
also part of advances in AI.
We are going to see a lot more AI used in the
future. For example, we will see more chatbot first
event management systems like SAVA. When an
event planner creates an event website, the chatbot
is auto-populated with all the content for attendees
to see through their favourite messaging app. Try it
by going to Facebook Messenger and searching for
@Savabot in the search window.
We will also see Voicebots such as Alexa being
used as information concierges. AI applications that
personalise learning by pinpointing each attendees’
educational needs based on social profiles and other
open source data and delivered at the attendees’
convenience will be developed soon. It’s a brave new
world out there with AI and there is no slowing
down of developments in this area for our industry.