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ABCey’s Top 5 Emerging Conference Trends

Here at ABCey, we’re always trying to stay on top of emerging conference and tech trends that continue to shape the industry. These days it’s less about going to a conference, and more about the experience!

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1. Meetings are Experiences: Planners today are seeking more experiential programs that maximize attendees’ time, create an emotional connection between attendees and the company, and align with business objectives of the meeting. Last year, ABCey events produced an event for San Francisco’s biggest Security Conference, RSA and  SpiderOak, a ‘zero-knowledge’ privacy cloud tech company for Penetralia: Privacy Matters. We  incorporated live video mapping walls depicting the history and evolution of internet privacy, and created a experiential display with two boxes entitled “Privacy” and “Security” to show the difference between these two terms!

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2. Mobile Technology: Like every other aspect in our lives, we rely on our phones or tablets to get us through the conference! With the emergence of all these conference apps, such as eventmobi, foursquare, DoubleDutch and various social media platforms, the audience member can always stay connected, coordinate meet-ups and know what is going on at the event.

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3. Interactive Technology: Some of the newest technology trends this year are audience focused. From responsive imaging to 3D lighting, these new technologies are paving the way for bigger and better technologies to take center stage of conferences in the future. In February, we hosted FireEyes’ Guardian of the Galaxy themed party where guests were able to stand in as superhero cyborgs using 3D mapping and those images were projected onto mannequins posed and ready to save the world.

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4. Geofencing and Location Awareness TechnologiesThis allows conference planners the opportunity to instantaneously send information out to attendees once they enter the geofencing proximity, making it significantly easier. With location awareness technologies, guests can check in to a conference just by walking into the geofence zone!

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5. Bringing In The Local Culture: Large conference halls are out and cultural city locations are in this year! Attendees want a more local experience so planners are bringing in regional cuisines and farm to table-esque foods and topping it off with local craft breweries and wineries unavailable to people at home!

What other trends have you noticed?  Leave us your thoughts in the comments below or on Facebook & Twitter!