©2014 Corbin Ball, Chair of the EIBTM Technology Watch Judging Committee

The EIBTM Technology Watch is the longest running and regarded by many as the most significant technology award for the meetings industry. The goals are to recognize technology innovation and to highlight significant trends impacting meeting planners, attendees and exhibitors at events.

The winner and three honorable mentions for were selected from 48 applications. Seven judges with experience in the meetings industry and technology but not currently selling any technology product scored the entries based on innovation, completeness of concept, and the value to the meetings industry.

The companies selected highlight several paths of technology innovation including: BLE/beacon technology, audience polling/feedback tools, course notes/abstract distribution tools, and sharing economy sourcing.

EIBTM Technology Watch 2014 Winner: 

Live Group’s use of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology includes a ‘Locator Function’ enabling delegates to orient themselves, locate others, and find areas on an interactive floor plan. The technology auto checks-in delegates, sends push notifications to specific delegate types, captures the flow of traffic and other opportunities for profile raising and marketing to sponsors and exhibitors. The specific range of BLE technology was deemed by the judging committee to be novel and worthy of the award.

Honorable Mentions:

EventPilot is a mobile event app specifically designed for large medical and scientific meetings. In addition to standard event app features, Event Pilot includes abstract and slide distribution capabilities with note-taking capabilities. Other novel features included augmented reality applications.

MeetingPlus is a simple, web-based mobile audience feedback tool for presenters. It also includes polling, a lottery-distribution gaming application and the ability to capture attendee contact information if desired. One of the novel features is the ability to record second-by-second audience engagement (agree, disagree, confused, bored) which is linked to an audio recording of the presentation – a perception analyzer that can be used for examining presentation effectiveness. The application requires a Wi-Fi connection, but is fast, light, easy to use and does not require an app download.

ShowSlice is a confidential B2B event matchmaking tool for owners/buyers of large meetings and events. Showslice facilitates private connections between event owners/buyers based on their similar event requirements. This empowers unique economic opportunities through the sharing of temporary technical production, infrastructure and/or set-up costs for planners using the same facility back-to-back or simultaneously. This sharing economy sourcing was deemed to be a novel feature and a significant trend.

Technology trends highlighted:

The following are some to the trends the 48 entries show:

20% Mobile event apps

14% Event Logistics

14% Attendee and lead management/registration

12% Sourcing and e-RFPs

   8% Supplier sourcing

   6% Gamification/virtual tours