The Latest Event & Venue Management Trends

The venue and event industry has really captured and utilised the developments in technology to transform destinations with truly innovative new concepts. What guests want and expect from a venue is changing and growing constantly, pressuring venue management teams to constantly address and improve their strategy.

For the rest of 2018 and years to come, attendees are looking for more from events and venues. They want everything to be personalised and unique to them: this starts from the moment they purchase a ticket and continues throughout the event and the content they receive and are subject to after the event has commenced.

Technology is reaching new heights with opportunities such as VR, Holograms, AR and AI allowing venues to significantly transform the experience and expand their offering. Allowing attendees to interact with emerging technologies not only enhances the experience, but also broadens the reach through virtual attendees and speakers!

Facial Recognition technology has been developed which may be most familiar to us from the new iPhone – allowing us to unlock our phone using facial recognition software. Airports are utilising it to develop security procedures and event venues are now starting to utilise the technology to analyse attendees, measuring anything including their emotion, enjoyment, attention span and demographics.

There has been a lot of promotion regarding mindfulness and a healthy lifestyle which is leading to guests looking for outdoor experiences. It is anticipated that venues will start to (if they haven’t already) enhance their outdoor space; making Wi-Fi stretch further, displaying unique sculptures, design outdoor dining areas or kitchen gardens. On top of this, making the area aesthetically pleasing with something unique which makes the destination ‘shareable’, encouraging guests to take photos and post on their social media channels, promoting the venue within their network.

The unfortunate and devastating terrorist attacks have lead to tighter security becoming an increasingly important factor when choosing a venue. Destinations need to be transparent about their procedures to ensure guests remain safe and feel comfortable. This will ultimately affect the final decision when choosing a venue for an event so it is crucial security is vigilant and measures are improved and altered when needed and changes are communicated clearly.

There are numerous concepts being developed and strategies being implemented to really create personal and unique experiences. These new strategies are allowing venues to truly distinguish themselves from competitors. It’s an exciting time for the venue management sector; the developments that are being made are making the future of the industry a truly exciting prospect!