Top Technology Advances for Trade Shows
Posted by Jessica Davis on Fri, Apr 29, 2011
Advances in innovative technology are constant and keeping up with the latest in whiz-bang gadgets and technology tools is not always an easy endeavor. Event planning and tradeshow technology continues to advance, with products becoming cheaper and easier to use. Having these tools in your business arsenal can provide your company with a competitive advantage and can go a long way towards helping it achieve its trade show objectives.
Let’s take a look at some of the technology advances that are playing a significant role in today’s trade show world.
Go mobile. One of the difficulties of attending or exhibiting at trade shows is the fact that taking the show on the road means being away from your office and the resources you’d typically have at your fingertips. With the virtual explosion of mobile apps hitting the market, being away from the office no longer means going without. Hundreds of apps designed for both attendees and exhibitors at trade shows are now available for smart phones. These apps are used for networking, lead exchange, electronic ticketing, audience polling, surveys, pocket programs, pocket exhibit guides, course notes/literature collection and much more. There is a new website: www.meetingapps.com, that can help you find them. Many more apps are in the technology pipeline, so stay educated.
iPad and other tablet-based PCs. Apple Computer has released several game changers in the past few years. Its iPhone sold like hotcakes and spawned a crop of look-alike smart phones from competing vendors clamoring for their share of the “Apple” pie. The company has done it yet again with its innovative iPad, which has now led to a barrage of competing touch-sensitive, tablet-like PCs. All these highly portable devices are ideal for trade shows, where they can be used to give demos; view streaming event video; input data for surveys or lead generation systems; distribute handouts for attendees; or run bigger versions of the mobile apps described above.
High-definition video conferencing. Skype’s newest 5.0 beta version provides 760p high-definition video conferencing—with the ability to conference in four simultaneous callers—for free. This capability will prove ideal for speakers presenting remotely at events or for conferencing customers or partners in to on-site meetings or press events. The price of video conferencing technology has plummeted, and along with increasingly more dependable Internet connections, the video reliability is excellent.
Online collaboration. While email is an efficient way to quickly communicate ideas and thoughts to others, when you need to iterate on a topic with another person, it’s often inadequate. Wikis (collaborative websites) have emerged as a much more efficient manner with which to communicate on topics and collaborate on projects that require discussion and the effective management of information and documents. These websites provide an easy way to track conference or exhibition logistics and other details with geographically dispersed team members. Free tools, such as Google Docs, help manage the data side of things, making sure that everyone is working from the most current version of a document.