It seems events are pushing boundaries for experiences further and further. Guests expect more than ever to be truly immersed when coming to your event experience. Experiential events are here and they aren’t going anywhere. Discover ideas for creating a great experience with memorable VIP areas, spark new event ideas using Pinterest, and embed VR into your next video marketing strategy.
PS: Want to create a truly engaging event, app or no app? Watch our webinar to learn more.
Grab These VIP Lounge Ideas!
VIP lounges are meant to give attendees something to aspire to, something that will make them want to invest in and be part of your event. Because of that, this gilded place has to be really special. Check out how these brands and events pull of the idea by making their VIP lounge more than a pretty place to stay in. These lounges incorporated features and novelties that will make any VIPs stay memorable, such as bars, amazing views, plush couches, and entertainment areas.
American Express Gives “Panorama” a Real Meaning
Last year’s Panorama Music Experience was graced by the American Express two-story hospitality tent. This year’s celebration is no different, allowing the brand to carve a different experience for its card members. Aside from situating them in an elevated section that gives them a literal “panorama” of the entire venue and the stage, the brand also treated its card members to food and drinks. More freebies were given away to those among them who logged into the event app. This savvy piece of marketing and event management is illustrative of the value VIP places have in such a gathering.
The Tree of Ténéré Towers at Burning Man
The Burning Man festival is a yearly display of creativity and artistic impulse. The 4-story tall Tree of Ténéré, named after a real tree in the Sahara, blooms out of the desert ground and houses more than 138,000 LED lights. Each one of these lights respond individually to the sound, movement, and rhythms around it. The event’s more than 10,000 attendees also have a chance to influence its animations. This amazing marriage of interactivity and art is a testament to how even old concept can be breath-taking when applied in all new ways.
Pinterest is a great place to look for ideas when your creativity is running out. Click To Tweet
Pinterest’s Top 25 Event Pins
Pinterest is a great place to look for ideas when your creativity is running out. It’s also the perfect place to find inspiration for your next event. Based on gathered data, Pinterest users love helping out with events management and planning. Among the most frequently-pinned topics is lighting. There are also details on decor and catering for those concerned with promoting events like through social media and content marketing.
Calculate Your Event ROI Across All Fronts
Return on investment is always a tricky thing to calculate no matter what industry you’re in. In events, there are lots of variables that you need to take into account. It gets more complicated when you realize that it’s not your own ROI as the event professional that matters. The clients, attendees, and exhibitors all have their own ROI that you need to place ahead of your own if you want a successful event. While all this math might look complicated, this extensive guide will help you through the process of getting a handle on your ROI.
Event Apps Have Just Gotten Easier
Event apps are becoming more and more of a necessity. Apps are a great tool for running events smoothly and often make the attendees’ lives easier. These apps are also perfect for gathering data and analytics on your audience. While coding apps are hard, things have gotten much easier with the introduction of white-labeled event apps.
Apple Schools Us on Disruption
Last June, at the Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple announced a change that shook the events industry. In order to clear spam from the App Store, the tech giant said that all apps based on a commercialized template or the various app generation services available will be rejected. While it does affect the intended target, the proclamation also hits a lot of legit event apps that fit the same description. In the weeks that followed, Apple started throwing out white-labeled event apps. Thankfully, there are remedies, each with their pros and cons. Find out more about these in this article. As for now, white-labeling still remains viable, though its future is uncertain.
Event apps are becoming more and more of a necessity for #eventprofs Click To Tweet
HubSpot’s INBOUND — Part of Something Bigger
INBOUND remains to be one of the world’s biggest inbound marketing events. However, HubSpot says it’s just one cog in an even bigger machine. The company uses the live event as a way to accelerate their sales cycle. They do this by creating an experience with many times the impact of simple ebooks, blog posts, or webinars. Instead of outright selling, HubSpot uses the event as means to educate people to close the deal more easily. By embodying the same objective in your own live events, your investment pays off much faster.
Create a Virtual Reality Marketing Strategy
Virtual reality is currently at the height of interactivity. By virtual reality, one can create stronger connections with the viewer by placing them right in the middle of the action. This works very well for brands as it can be the linchpin of VR content marketing. Place VR content strategically in places where your consumers get your content. You can use it as a means for them to peek “behind the curtain”. For example, you can put them on site at your next event giving them a unique, personal, first-hand experience.
YouTube Gives Live Streaming A Hand
The search for a truly “live” streaming experience is still on, and YouTube is taking the lead. In an attempt to cut down on the seconds-long latency that still plague live streams, the video hosting giant has made improvements to their service that torch delays into just under 2 seconds. This near-real-time experience (called “ultra-low latency”) comes at the cost of higher buffering times to viewers, but live streamers who wish to really interact with their audience could use this to a definite advantage.
We’re curious: does Apple banning white-labeled apps affect your events business in any way? Or do you think it’s just a great nice-to-have that your events can do without?
